RE: ECM

Minimal techno producer/DJ Ricardo Villalobos has been known to integrate ECM albums into his legendary club sets. It should be no surprise: Villalobos has a keen ear for timbre, and the German jazz label’s releases have exquisitely nuanced sound. On 2011’s *Re: ECM*, Villalobos and collaborator Max Loderbauer mine ECM’s vaults for source material, and they\'ve created atmospheric pieces that aren\'t simple remixes. Christian Wallumrød, John Abercrombie, Miroslav Vitous, Arvo Pärt, and Bennie Maupin are just some of artists whose work is transformed here. The original tracks can serve as interesting comparison points if you\'re familiar with them, but you can also just dive in and enjoy this album on its own merits. Delicate piano plinks, the soft scratch of brushes on a snare drum, sustained vocal tones, and a million other elements create pieces with characteristics of both ambient and modern composition. (The pounding thud of the dance floor is nowhere in earshot.) It’s the sort of music you can study for its rich detail or use as particularly refined background music.

Techno producer Ricardo Villalobos and longtime experimentalist Max Loderbauer were given full access to Munich jazz/out label ECM's vast catalog. The resulting two-disc, two-hour offering is not a remix collection, but rather a rich, complex suite of compositions that converse with ECM's history.

<strong>Alex Macpherson</strong> hears a hedonist technohead's take on a modern jazz and classical label's catalogue