Far from being some sort of 'remix album', Villalobos & Loderbauer worked with a live mixing board setup and a modular synth to improvise around the spatial structures of the original recordings. Taking full advantage of ECM's famously audiophile frequency range and sense of space, they sampled not just instrumental/vocal elements but "also used pauses, gaps and the microphonic impressions of the rooms as source material", to compose the 17 new tracks that make up Re: ECM.
The resulting two-hour listening experience is a deep, subterranean dive into pure sound that continues to pay fresh rewards with every listen. I've been living with this album on and off for about five years, and dug it out this month to enjoy during a major Villalobos kick that I've been going through. There's enough here that's recognsiable to please fans of Ricardo & Max, in the minimal, jazz-inflected drum tracks when they appear - a far more reductive, ultraminimalist version of this approach would lead to Safe In Harbor.
There's also more than enough that's classically ECM, even when heavily manipulated, such as a faraway snatch of piano, bass (although nine minutes of Miroslav Vitous' bass buzzing midway through disc 1 may be the album's weakest point) or, in its most sublime moments, a haunting vocal from one of Arvo Pärt or Alexander Knaifel's ECM New Series releases. Listen and enjoy, many many times, and let this singular project, a fully respectful homage to the ECM sound, wash over you.
Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
pw: sgtg
