It is rare that ECM enhance their roster by adding a musician more usually to be found performing with rock stars. But that is what they have again done recently: could it be the latest in a trend that started with Manu Katché more than a decade ago? The label is certainly highly commercially minded despite appearances. Dominic Miller, the guitarist on Phil Collins’ ‘Another Day in Paradise’ huge 1989 hit and many albums by Sting, co-writing ‘Shape of My Heart’ with him, is the rocker in question. Long a blip on more tolerant jazz fans’ radar, his softly meditative acoustic style fits in a way uncannily to the label’s less is more chamber and occasionally New Agey instincts. If you are an appreciator say of the music of Antonio Forcione the “Mediterranean” sound Miller achieves certainly is a match. Touring at the moment he plays London’s 606 on 18 April, and the Chelsea-located club say he is to appear with bassist Nicolas Fiszman and drummer Miles Bould. Link for tickets.
The beautifully gentle ‘Water’ from Silent Light, the new Miller album, is above. Bould, the producer of Robert Mitchell's forthcoming album A Vigil For Justice, A Vigil For Peace is on Silent Light and provides percussion and drums while Miller opts for the use of guitar and alternately bass guitar on the album, tracks of which also include a cover of Sting’s ‘Fields of Gold.’