Anja Lechner/ François Couturier - 'Alfonsina y el mar' from the album 'Lontano' which is available on CD, LP, download and streaming: https://ECM.lnk.to/LontanoID Anja Lechner: violoncello François Couturier: piano ECM 2682 Anja Lechner and François Couturier widen the scope of music. The duo sings in a voice of its own, be it with original compositions, improvisations or interpretations of works by Henri Dutilleux, Giya Kancheli or Anouar Brahem, drawing upon a Bach cantata or an Argentine folk lament. Having internalized influences and repertoire the German cellist and the French pianist not only locate atmospheric and expressive connections among far-flung sources, but also create new music that reflects and refracts its inspirations. Lontano was recorded at Sendesaal Bremen in November 2019 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Anja Lechner/ François Couturier - 'Flow' from the album 'Lontano which will be available on CD, LP, download and streaming: https://ECM.lnk.to/LontanoID Anja Lechner: violoncello François Couturier: piano ECM 2682 Release: October 16, 2020 Anja Lechner and François Couturier widen the scope of music. The duo sings in a voice of its own, be it with original compositions, improvisations or interpretations of works by Henri Dutilleux, Giya Kancheli or Anouar Brahem, drawing upon a Bach cantata or an Argentine folk lament. Having internalized influences and repertoire the German cellist and the French pianist not only locate atmospheric and expressive connections among far-flung sources, but also create new music that reflects and refracts its inspirations. Lontano was recorded at Sendesaal Bremen in November 2019 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

François Couturier Tarkovsky Quartet Nuit blanche François Couturier: piano Anja Lechner: violoncello Jean-Marc Larché: soprano saxophone Jean-Louis Matinier: accordion +++++ CD / Download / Streaming: https://ecm.lnk.to/4o-pY Ingmar Bergman once said of Andrey Tarkovsky, “He moves with such naturalness in the room of dreams,” and the French-German quartet named after the great Russian filmmaker has developed an associative dream-language of its own. For leader and pianist François Couturier the “silence and slowness of Tarkovsky” are closely related to an “ECM aesthetic” further developed on the group’s third album Nuit blanche, produced by Manfred Eicher in Lugano in April 2016. Here pieces variously composed by François Couturier, or created in the moment by Couturier, cellist Anja Lecher, saxophonist Jean-Marc Larché and accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier, explore the texture of dreams and memory and continue to make oblique reference to Tarkovsky. Couturier’s Dakus, for instance, acknowledges a debt to Toru Takemitsu’s 1987 composition Nostalghia, written in memory of the director. The quartet also incorporates a crepuscular interpretation of Vivaldi’s “Cum dederit delectis suis somnum” from the Nisi Dominus, alluding to a composer Tarkovsky was listening to at the time of Stalker. Whether playing improvised chamber music, modern composition or baroque music, the creative originality of the Tarkovsky Quartet shines through. ECM 2524 Video by Laura Pleifer. Website: https://www.ecmrecords.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecmrecords Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecm_records

Anja Lechner / Franҫois Couturier "Moderato cantabile" Anja Lechner: violoncello Franҫois Couturier: piano Release: September 2014 After a decade of shared work in the Tarkovsky Quartet and an ongoing alliance in the Pergolesi Project (with singer Maria Pia De Vito), German cellist Anja Lechner and French pianist Franҫois Couturier unveil their new duo. The players approach the music from different vantage points: Lechner is a classical soloist with an uncommon interest in improvisation, Couturier a jazz musician travelling ever further from jazz. On “Moderato cantabile” they present their own arrangements of works by three fascinating outsiders from the margins of music history – G.I. Gurdjieff, Komitas, and Federico Mompou. To differing degree their music reveals influences from the east, both in terms of relationship to folk traditions and religious music, and philosophically. A contemplative air pervades the session. The programme has connections to Anja Lechner’s acclaimed account of Gurdjieff’s music on the earlier “Chants, Hymns and Dances” (with Vassilis Tsabropoulos), but the new duo has its own identity, and time spent in Armenia has deepened Lechner’s understanding of the contexts from which the music emerged: her cello assumes almost a singer’s role in these pieces, exploring the strong melodies. Franҫois Couturier’s compositions function as both contrasting and complementary elements. As a player, Franҫois has a long history of working with Mompou’s music. He has been influenced, furthermore, by his association with Anouar Brahem, and the sonorities of the Middle East are part of his palette. “Moderato cantabile”, a striking and unusual album, was recorded in the rich acoustics of the Lugano studio in November 2013 and produced by Manfred Eicher. http://player.ecmrecords.com/lechner-couturier-2367 ECM 2367 - CD 481 0992 http://www.ecmrecords.com http://www.jazzecho.de