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With DIANA, Dominic Miller makes a particularly compelling return to ECM. His fourth album for the label sees the return of familiar colleagues in bandoneonist Santiago Arias, whose gracefully textured playing could already be heard on Absinthe (2019), as well as the guitarist’s rhythm section from Vagabond (2023) in bassist Nicolas Fiszman and drummer Ziv Ravitz. Here collectively formed experience and trust give the music an uncommon sense of freedom. Dedicated to Miller’s mother, who died in 2026, DIANA is a deeply personal album, though its character is defined less by sentiment than by the clarity and openness of the playing. Miller’s guitar moves through a series of finely drawn melodies, with Arias adding subtle colour and Fiszman and Ravitz responding with characteristic instinct and precision. From the gentle lyricism of “Alta Loma” or “Al Dente” and the melodic immediacy of songs like “Millionaire” to the darker atmosphere of “Iguazu”, the album finds a natural balance between composition and improvisation. “They’re all fantastic musicians – I feel very privileged to have arrived at this point with these guys,” Miller says. Recorded at Studios La Buissonne and produced by Manfred Eicher, DIANA captures a quartet at an especially fruitful point in their musical relationship.