photo: Enrico Rolandi

Michael Mantler is a composer and musician in new jazz and contemporary music. This official home page presents current news, biography, recordings, audio excerpts, scores, performances, collaborating artists, press, and contact information. For details see biographies. Audio excerpts (mp3) and related score examples (pdf) from most of Michael Mantler's recordings can be downloaded at the Listen section. 

With the exception of two early releases (and one recent live documentation as a last "afterthought"), my complete life's work (22 record albums and 5 books of selected scores) has been made available by ECM Records over a period of some 50 years. That, however, does not necessarily mean that it is still readily obtainable in its originally intended physical manifestation, such as LP or CD formats that for me were crucial in the creation of works that have a meaningful and carefully crafted sequence of musical elements. With the event of random indiscriminate streaming of fragmented music, that concept has become pointless. The continuously eroding attention span of today's average listeners (perhaps excepting true music lovers), has elevated streaming to the norm of experiencing music today. In addition, as a direct result of digital distribution, music has come to be almost universally expected as some sort of gratis entertainment, which obviously results in a serious degradation of the viability of producing and selling albums for artists who do not have an enormous audience.

Although apparently all my music is available on the internet (albeit at absurd remuneration levels, and much of it even illegally), the remaining stock of physical releases is slowly being sold and will eventually become depleted, since, except for very popular artists, re-releases are no longer commercially interesting for record companies. With the disappearance of physical albums in favor of digital releases, album "design" as such has also sadly almost totally been lost. Streaming platforms rarely provide even the most basic information regarding personnel, recording dates, photos, or background essays, making a deeper understanding of the artist's intentions nearly impossible.

One can only hope that digital distribution of serious music will nevertheless find innovative ways of continuing to serve both artists and audience in a significant way. In addition to constantly producing new material that faces a difficult market, increased attention should be paid to exploiting back catalog items, which represent an enormous musical wealth of artists and their music that current young audiences may not even be aware of.

These problems, combined with the fact that live performances, now often almost the only, yet impractical, way to sell at least some records, are equally difficult to attain, make it difficult for me to maintain enough enthusiasm to continue producing new music, as indicated by my answers to a series of questions related to my last ECM release (aptly titled CODA - "a concluding statement serving as a summation, based on elaborations of thematic material from selected past work"), i.e., "Any plans for further updates? Absolutely not. I think I have exploited my own universe as much as I feel is desirable or necessary. New compositions then? No. I think I've said what I have to say. Which doesn't mean it shouldn't be said more often than in the past. There exists plenty of material that has been presented publicly only once. More performances would certainly be possible and interesting." Indeed, there have been some isolated performances of my work during the last few years, most notably through the efforts of Christoph Huber of Vienna's Porgy & Bess music venue, who quite often refers to me as "the most famous unknown Austrian composer", a rather surprising and thought-provoking statement, considering my long creative history and the various honors bestowed on me (among them the Austrian State Prize for Music, the Music Prize of the City of Vienna, and the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class). But such is the state of things.

What's left to say …?

                                    Michael Mantler, January 2026

The ORCHESTRA SUITES project was premiered September 2019 at Porgy & Bess, Vienna, Austria. Since the Jazz Composer's Orchestra Update and Comment c'est projects (both presented as well as recorded at Porgy & Bess in 2013 and 2016 respectively) Michael Mantler continued working on orchestral reinterpretations and further re-processing of older works. The result was this series of suites. As with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra Update, these new pieces again present an entirely new view of some of his life's work. The recording, entitled CODA, is available from ECM Records. Scores of all compositions are available here and preview audio excerpts can be listened to here.

SEMPRE NOTTE is available now from Dark Companion, distributed by MaRaCash Records. The album was recorded live September 2023 at Porgy & Bess in Vienna, Austria, with Mantler's NEW SONGS ENSEMBLE featuring Annie Barbazza and John Greaves (voices), Gareth Davis (bass clarinet), Bjarne Roupé (guitar), David Helbock (piano) and the radio.string.quartet - Bernie Mallinger (violin), Igmar Jenner (violin), Cynthia Liao (viola), Sophie Abraham (cello) - performing songs with texts by Samuel Beckett, Ernst Meister, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Harold Pinter and Michael Mantler.
More Info here.

Mantler Music Editions has published printed volumes of scores from selected recordings by Michael Mantler, constituting a body of work which had been released over a 50-year period on JCOA, WATT and ECM Records.

They are exclusively distributed by ECM Records, at a price of 25 € each (except Volume Four at 17€).

All EDITIONS are produced as hardcover books, A4 landscape format, printed on 135g high-quality paper, with illuminating introductions by Richard Williams.

Volume One - THE JAZZ COMPOSER'S ORCHESTRA AND ITS UPDATES
Volume Two - VOICES AND WORDS
Volume Three - CONCERTOS AND SUITES
Volume Four - LARGE AND SMALL
Volume Five - COMMENTARY

For more information go to  EDITIONS