These two facsimile releases of original ECM vinyl, recorded in 1975 and 1979, announce the launch of Luminessence, ECM’s prestigious new audiophile vinyl-reissue series, featuring long- unavailable titles that have changed perceptions of creative music making. Consider that latter statement, ‘changed perceptions of creative music making’, taken from the publicity notes associated with the Luminessence launch. There are not many record companies that could make such an assertion, confident their releases can fulfill such claims at an aesthetic, philosophical or factual level.

We are not talking about perceptions of music in commercial terms, million-selling records responsible for the Damascene conversions of unbelievers to the likes of a Jay-Z, a Leonard Cohen, or a Bob Dylan, but the aesthetic value we derive from an artistic creation and its influence in illuminating paths less travelled. Indeed, other recording companies would be hard pressed to come up with one or two such releases, never mind curating an entire series of such albums.

Such are the wonders of the ECM vaults, and the company is setting the bar high with this reissue series – some will be straightforward facsimile editions, others will be in high-grade facsimile gatefolds with new liner notes, like Gnu High and Saudades, and some will be selected titles that have been long out of print or never before released on vinyl.

From a purely jazz perspective, Kenny Wheeler’s Gnu High, made with a group of undisputed masters of their craft (this was the last time Keith Jarrett worked as a sideman) is an album that today, almost 50 years after it was originally recorded, still yields lessons being learned by serious students of the music. Depending on how deeply you delve into jazz, either as a listener or as a practitioner, the music of Kenny Wheeler looms large. His advanced conception – on trumpet and flugelhorn and in composition – is both accessible yet complex, a powerful duality challenges the improvisor to find a freedom within form. It may come as a surprise for many in UK to learn the extent to which Wheeler’s music, both compositions and solos, are analysed, dissected and otherwise put under the microscope in jazz departments of conservatories and universities across Europe, where he, and his friend and frequent collaborator pianist John Taylor, are regarded with a reverence not echoed here. Gnu High was Wheeler’s ECM debut, and a memorable one at that, three original compositions that reveal jazz at its highest level of creation, with both Wheeler and Jarrett a source of inspiration to each others playing, the latter’s work especially seems to exude joy.

Saudades, by Naná Vasconcelos, was his only ECM recording; but even if he had recorded 50 more albums for the label, he surely would have been hard pressed to exceed this extraordinary statement. It is not an album that yields instant gratification – indeed, it takes time for sounds, however minimal or complex, to coalesce and yield greater meaning within the overall compositional framework. As they do, Saudades becomes less ‘World Music’, more a portrait of the creative human spirit, profound and nuanced and rich with internal detail. ’Ondas (Na Ohios de Petronila),’ for example, unexpectedly sees the Brazilian percussionist demonstrating a mastery of konnakol, the key to unlocking the complexities of Indian rhythms on tablas. Then there is a masterful collaboration with Egberto Gismonti on guitar on his composition ‘Cego Alderado,’ with strings offering a watercolour wash to greater illuminate Gismonti’s eloquent playing. It is a passionate performance that offers an accessible entry point into an album that grows on the listener with every listening, a sure indication of its depth.