Guitar legend Pat Metheny forged a unique, signature sound in his nearly decade-long run with the ECM record label.
Now, those recordings are finally available to stream or download in high-quality digital formats for the first time.
Metheny’s complete catalogue of 11 albums he released with ECM between 1976 and 1984 have just been uploaded to several music streaming platforms in high-res audio.
That nearly decade-long run began with Metheny’s remarkable debut Bright Size Life, featuring Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses. Among the discography are five albums by the Pat Metheny Group, featuring Lyle Mays on keyboards, Mark Egan on bass and Danny Gottlieb on drums.
“The main premise in digitizing the Pat Metheny tapes was not to change the sound of the recordings, but to realize them in the original form, in the best possible quality,” explains ECM’s mastering engineer Christoph Stickel. “The work was based on the original, analog stereo master tapes. The masters are in very good condition and can be played without problems.”
For the serious audiophiles, Stickel continued in more detail:
“All tapes were played by a Studer A820, which was meticulously calibrated to the respective tape. The analog signal was digitized in 96kHz/24-bit, which covers the complete spectrum of the original bands. In each case, a decision was made between a PrismSound ADA-8XR, an Antelope Eclipse Mastering AD and a Mythek Brooklyn ADC, depending on which one suited the respective recording best. No denoising and no other restoration affecting the sound was carried out.”
The albums are available on Acoustic Sounds, Amazon, Apple Music, HDtracks, Prostudiomaster, Qobuz and Tidal.
Here’s a list of the newly remastered albums:
- Bright Size Life (1976)
- Watercolors (1977)
- Pat Metheny Group (1978)
- New Chautauqua (1979)
- American Garage (1979)
- 80/81 (1980)
- As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls (1981)
- Offramp (1982)
- Travels (1983)
- Rejoicing (1984)
- First Circle (1984)