A few minutes ago I finished listening to «Magico,» a 1980 recording of Gismonti, Haden and Garbarek recently reissued by the exquisite ECM. This is music for the gods of higher musicianship, and as a listener one can only be at their level. I have a suggestion for the Swedish Academy: it’s a good thing that the Nobel committee has no awards on music (otherwise the idiots will crying for one), but it is necessary to give a Nobel prize to Manfred Eicher, the only aesthetician the music business has right now.

Last night I re-read the wonderful «Horizons Touched: The Music of ECM.» It is a beautiful account on the work and thoughts of the German producer and bassist. It is especially a tribute to his magnificent opus, Edition of Contemporary Music, the recording label that continues to redefine jazz, treating the music as high art. No less. (Actually, the label is home to many great sounds, from free improvisation to avant-guard classics.)

What comes across after reading the stories, anecdotes and reflections of many musicians and people who have been involved in creating albums covers and recording the music is that Eicher isn’t someone who’s willing to live for beauty —he’s willing to die for it. This, of course, is a grand, bold statement. And yet nothing in Eicher’s work is less than perfect. Music is an aesthetic experience.

This explains why every single album that make up for the catalog is a gem, from the cover to the liner-notes. Indeed, Eicher may be one of the last men to believe in the album as a work of art. I know this may sound like a quaint notion. But we music lovers are not without a romantic heart. Ask Keith Jarrett, who has turned his back on juicy offers just to stay where his music is treated as gold.

Sometime ago I wrote a blog piece about Eicher’s relationship with Jarrett. I still believe that without Eicher, Jarrett’s work would be something else, certainly lesser in recording quality, in artistic freedom, in vision. And so the book is also a tribute to that bond between two artists with a passion for sounds as perfect as silence.