Founded by producer Manfred Eicher in 1969, ECM has issued over a thousand albums spanning many idioms. After establishing an early reputation with standard-setting jazz recordings by Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, Jan Garbarek, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and others, ECM began to include contemporary composition into its programme in the late 1970's. Eicher’s own background, as a musician active in both jazz and classical music, provided an unusually broad vantage point from which to survey the genres, and the producer has been credited with helping to bring form to improvised music and a sense of ‘improvisational’ flexibility to recordings of contemporary composition.

The label has documented jazz and improvised music from both sides of the Atlantic and brought together many musicians in new and influential combinations. An account of ECM’s activities through four decades is encompassed in the book “Horizons Touched”, edited by Steve Lake and Paul Griffiths.

In ECM’s 40th year diverse concerts and festivals saluted the label’s achievement with special events in Mannheim, London, Munich, Berlin, Athens, Milan, Barcelona and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the work goes on, and ECM’s 2011 season has been as busy as ever!