"Il Pergolese" pays tribute to 18th century composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 – 1736), and considers his relationship to the art music and the popular music of Naples, from a highly contemporary perspective. The text of the Stabat Mater – translated into Neapolitan by Maria Pia De Vito – and the opera arias, are transformed into songs and vivid narrative, open frames providing the key to reinterpreting Pergolesi. François Couturier's arrangements widen Pergolesi's structures, offering space for improvisational interaction. But this is a real group project, a discourse among acoustic sounds, with rhythms of drums and metals, and sampled and real-time electronics. Sound textures grow dense with the richness of instrumental counterpoint or are set free in electronic soundscapes and along coloristic, percussive lines, as cello becomes voice or voice becomes an instrument. The project was commissioned by the Festival Pergolesi-Spontini of Jesi in 2011. The present version was recorded in Lugano in December 2012, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

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 François Couturier unveil their new duo. ECM New Series.

Few artists have as rich and varied a history with ECM as Dino Saluzzi. The Argentine bandoneon master has recorded 10 albums, and each one tells it's own endlessly inventive musical story. The spirit of Dino Saluzzi's work is derived from the oral tradition of Argentina's music and its value on melody and simplicity. A 1996 collaboration with the Munichbased Rosamunde Quartett became the starting point for Saluzzi's work with cellist Anja Lechner. Lechner has had her own success on ECM, most notably with her album, the hit Chants, Hymns and Dances. For the past six years, Saluzzi and Lechner have performed in concert all over Europe. "Ojos Negros" is the first recording from this magical duo, and creates a richly lyrical dialogue that blurs the lines between folk music, jazz and tango. This is chamber music with Argentine traditions, presented through Saluzzi compositions and the beautiful old tango tune "Ojos negros (Black Eyes)".