In the 22nd episode of the ECM Podcast, trumpeter Ralph Alessi talks about his new quartet recording "It's Always Now", on which he is joined by pianist Florian Weber, bassist Bänz Oester and Gerry Hemingway on drums. The album was produced by Manfred Eicher. Ralph gets into the differences of being a musician in the US and Europe, talks about education in music and about the art of naming songs.

In the 21st episode of the ECM Podcast, Zsófia Boros joins us to talk about her new album "El último aliento". The Vienna-based, Hungarian guitarist recorded the album at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano, with Manfred Eicher producing. On the record Zsófia interprets contemporary Argentinian compositions from Carlos Moscardini, Joaquín Alem, Quique Sinesi and Alberto Ginastera as well as expressive pieces by French composer Matthias Duplessy. In our conversation Zsófia talks about the recording session in Lugano, about how she lets instinct guide her choices of repertory, and she outlines her relationtionship to the songs she interprets and how they become her "good friends".

In the 20th episode of the ECM podcast, we are joined by acclaimed American guitarist Ralph Towner, who has been with ECM since back in 1973, when his debut for the label was released. On his new solo album, “At First Light”, recorded in Lugano in 2022, the guitarist presents new and familiar original compositions as well as a couple of songs from the Great American Songbook, performed on classical guitar. In our conversation, Ralph goes all the way back to the beginnings of his collaboration with Manfred Eicher and talks about his days as a piano player, or studying guitar in Vienna and then founding the band Oregon. Of course, we also speak about his new record.

In this 19th episode of the podcast, we are joined by British drummer and composer Sebastian Rochford, whose leader-debut for ECM, “A Short Diary”, was just released and finds him in intimate performances of deep feeling and hymn-like clarity, together with pianist Kit Downes. The album is dedicated to Rochford’s father, Aberdeen poet Gerard Rochford (1932-2019) and to his family. Seb talks about loss, grief and how the music of this special album came to him.

In this 18th episode of the podcast, we are joined by the Norwegian saxophonist-composer Mette Henriette, whose sophomore recording for the label, “Drifting”, was just released and finds her in an intimate trio setting with Johann Lindvall on piano and Judith Hamann on violoncello. Mette talks about the relationship between improvisation and composition, how important it is to give ideas time to let them mature, as well as about the recording, mixing and mastering of her new album in Oslo, France and Munich.