January 2026 ECM Releases by Craig Taborn, Björn Meyer and Julia Hülsmann Octet

Craig Taborn, Tomeka Reid, Ches Smith

Dream Archives

January 16, 2026

The trio-debut of pianist, composer and 2025 MacArthur Fellow Craig Taborn with Tomeka Reid and Ches Smith has been eagerly awaited. In its review of the group’s live show from Fall 2025 the German daily Hamburger Abendblatt raved how they “belong to the forefront of the American Jazz Avant-garde”, and distinguished their performance from a strict jazz context, noting, “this is rather ‘New Music’ – unpredictable, exhilarating and not in the slightest bit simple.” And the trio’s approach on Dream Archives is indeed cerebral, yet as the title suggests, a wide musical spectrum is covered as multitudes of idioms seem to be pulled from history and reconfigured to form a previously unheard sound world full of reveries. Dancing grooves and powerful lyrical accounts also arise in otherwise densely orchestrated trio interchanges – four extensive Taborn-originals making up the foundation. Sometimes Craig wears his influences on his sleeve, and with the trio’s passes at Paul Motian’s “Mumbo Jumbo” and Geri Allen’s “When Kabuya Dances” two of his most important ones are paid homage to in masterful fashion. Tomeka on cello juggles with melodic lead on the one handand a pizzicato bass bedrock on the other, coalescing – with tension – with Ches Smith’s versatile sound array and Craig’s comprehensive grasp of the keyboard. In this music the three instrumentalists are equals, operating on a higher level. Dream Archives, recorded in New Naven in 2024 and then mixed in Munich 2025, was produced by Manfred Eicher.

Julia Hülsmann Octet

While I Was Away

January 30, 2026

“Hülsmann’s compositions always have great respect for melody that lends depth and an enduring quality to her finest work, which with every addition to her ECM discography, keeps growing.”  — Jazzwise

After the highly acclaimed run of quartet recordings from Not Far From Here (2019), The Next Door (2022) to Under The Surface (2025), German pianist Julia Hülsmann has decided to alter the narrative and up the ante with a newly formed octet of award-winning instrumentalists and vocalists. On While I Was Away Julia combines the line-up of a classical trio (violin, cello, piano) with a common jazz piano trio and invites three singers to join in for a programme of adventurous originals, an individual take on Ani DiFranco’s 1999 hit “Up Up…” and a breezy Brazilian tune by songwriter Zélia Fonsesca. The music is often combined with lyrics of renown writes, for instance Emily Dickinson, Margaret Artwood and E.E. Cummings. A wide pallet of musical connotations unfolds, as Brazilian dance, musical-like storytelling, chamber music dynamics and passages of dense, free improvisation colour a flourescent picture of a fierce ensemble. The musicians of Julia’s octet are: Eva Klesse, Eva Kruse, Susanne Paul, Héloïse Lefebvre, Michael Schiefel, Aline Frazão and Live Maria Roggen.