Ecotopia is an album by American world music/jazz group featuring Ralph Towner

Ralph Towner

Ralph Towner is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and bandleader. He plays the twelve-string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion and trumpet.-Biography:...

, Paul McCandless

Paul McCandless

Paul McCandless, Jr. is an American jazz woodwind player and composer. He is one of few expert jazz oboists, and also plays English horn, soprano saxophone, sopranino saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet, and pennywhistle, among other instruments.He has performed with the Paul Winter Consort and is...

, Glen Moore

Glen Moore

Glen Moore is a jazz bassist who occasionally performs on piano, flute and violin.His performing career began at age 14 with the Young Oregonians in Portland, Oregon where he met and played with Native American saxophonist, Jim Pepper. He graduated with a degree in History and Literature from the...

, and Trilok Gurtu, who replaced Collin Walcott

Collin Walcott

Collin Walcott was a North American musician. He was a student of Ravi Shankar and Vasant Rai. Collin expanded the role of the sitar in western music. Walcott studied music and ethnomusicology at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and at The University of California at Los Angeles...

 following his accidental death, recorded in 1987 and released on the ECM label.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 1½ stars stating "there is no excuse for this waste of studio time and Manfred Eicher's energy. It is no wonder that he began the ECM New Series a few years before, given the junk churned out by some of label's stable between 1983 and 1988, and this record is a stellar example. Simply put, this is a trite, new age piece of dreck slopped out by a group of musicians whose combined creativity should always take them to stellar heights. There are no redeeming tracks on this disc, and few redeeming moments ".

Track listing

All compositions by Ralph Towner except as indicated

1. "Twice Around the Sun" - 10:31
2. "Innocente" - 6:24
3. "Wbai" (Trilok Gurtu, Paul McCandless, Glen Moore, Ralph Towner) - 2:02
4. "Zephyr" - 5:55
5. "Ecotopia" - 5:06
6. "Leather Cats" (Glen Moore, Samantha Moore) - 7:39
7. "Redial" - 5:59
8. "Song of the Morrow" (Collin Walcott) - 5:16
   • Recorded at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, West Germany in March 1987

Personnel

• Paul McCandless
  Paul McCandless
  Paul McCandless, Jr. is an American jazz woodwind player and composer. He is one of few expert jazz oboists, and also plays English horn, soprano saxophone, sopranino saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet, and pennywhistle, among other instruments.He has performed with the Paul Winter Consort and is...
  
   - soprano saxophone
  Soprano saxophone
  The soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...
  
  , oboe
  Oboe
  The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
  
  , English horn, wind driven synthesizers
  Synthesizer
  A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
  
  
• Glen Moore
  Glen Moore
  Glen Moore is a jazz bassist who occasionally performs on piano, flute and violin.His performing career began at age 14 with the Young Oregonians in Portland, Oregon where he met and played with Native American saxophonist, Jim Pepper. He graduated with a degree in History and Literature from the...
  
   - bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• Ralph Towner
  Ralph Towner
  Ralph Towner is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and bandleader. He plays the twelve-string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion and trumpet.-Biography:...
  
   - classical guitar
  Classical guitar
  The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
  
  , 12 string guitar, piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  , synthesizer
  Synthesizer
  A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
  
  , drum machine
  Drum machine
  A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
  
  
• Trilok Gurtu - tabla
  Tabla
  The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
  
  , percussion