Self-referential and remarkably consistent, the ECM label has come to represent a state of mind: a place where melancholy and romance intertwine, seductively rendered in gorgeous sound. The Swiss-born singer, Susanne Abbuehl, making her ECM debut, clearly knows the territory, paying homage to the ECM artists who helped explore it. Backed by piano, clarinet, and drums, all played with a spare angularity (suggesting the early ECM recordings of Paul Bley), Abbuehl"s clear diction and wistful delivery align her with fellow ECM stalwarts Annette Peacock and Carla Bley. Indeed, she covers several of Carla"s tunes, including "Ida Lupino" and "Closer" (vehicles for the aforementioned Paul) as well as "A.I.R" (from Escalator over the Hill), in which she uses her voice as an instrument, reminiscent of Jan Garbarek"s version of the same tune (from ECM"s Witchi-Tai-To). Treatments of poet e.e. cummings"s elliptical words, and a doleful version of Monk"s "Round Midnight" round out the album, with Abbuehl"s lovely voice providing bittersweet balm for late-night introspection. --Wally Shoup