Judith Berkson, Elina Duni & Rob Luft | "TheeTheyThy", "Reaching for the Moon"

Mezzo-Soprano, Pianist and Composer Judith Berkson Returns on ECM With the Compelling New Album, Thee They Thy, Featuring Drummer Gerald Cleaver and Bassist Trevor Dunn

Available April 10, 2026 via ECM

Vocalist Elina Duni and Guitarist Rob Luft Continue Their Musical Journey with Reaching for the Moon, a Duo Recording That Follows up Their Previous ECM Quartet Albums, 2020’s Lost Ships and 2023’s A Time To Remember

Available April 24, 2026 via ECM

Judith Berkson, Trevor Dunn, Gerald Cleaver

Thee They Thy

April 10, 2026

After Oylam (2010), Judith Berkson, mezzo-soprano, pianist, composer and improviser, returns with another unclassifiable, and strangely compelling, artistic statement. On Thee They Thy, she leads a trio with Trevor Dunn and Gerald Cleaver through a radically changing program addressing new settings for prayer (Berkson is also a cantor), original songs, vocal experimentation, improvised piano and more. “I view the pieces on this recording as a natural extension of my solo work,” Berkson says. “This idea of songs that are quite intimate and personal, informed by jazz with pockets of improvisation but also drawing from song and avant-garde traditions in their harmonic and melodic material, embracing elements of minimalism and even conceptual art.” Thee They Thy was recorded at Oktavaen Audio Studio, Mt Vernon, New York. The album was produced by Manfred Eicher.

Elina Duni, Rob Luft

Reaching for the Moon

April 24, 2026

“Few contemporary jazz-influenced singers manage to sound so intensely like themselves while drawing on such a variety of genres, languages, and cultural backstories as the Albania-born vocalist Elina Duni,” The Guardian has noted, and Reaching for the Moon once again casts a wide net. It’s Duni’s third recording with UK guitarist Rob Luft, and where Lost Ships and A Time To Remember featured their co-led quartet, the core duo come to the fore here, in a program that begins with Irving Berlin’s title song and ends with Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman.” Along the way we hear Duni and Luft originals, traditional music from Kosovo, a lullaby penned by Persian singer Mahsa Vahdat, a ballad from Italian singer-songwriter Pino Daniele, French composer Gabriel Fauré’s art song “Les Berceaux,” themes for film written by Japan’s Shigeru Umebayashi and Poland’s Krzysztof Komeda, and more. “Our duo, our project, is a musical journey,” Duni says. “Different styles and different languages to bridge the gap between people.” Duni’s resourcefulness as singer is well-matched by Luft’s instrumental skills, the guitarist drifting mellifluously between idioms, gently enveloping melodies, underlining emotional expression in the song texts, and enhancing atmospheres. Reaching for the Moon was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in June 2025. The album, produced by Manfred Eicher, is released as Elina Duni and Rob Luft embark on a European tour with concerts in Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Albania.

Judith Berkson, Trevor Dunn, Gerald Cleaver · Thee They Thy

ECM · Release Date: April 10, 2026

Elina Duni, Rob Luft · Reaching for the Moon

ECM · Release Date: April 24, 2026

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