Garbarek's healthy is one of a hallmarks of the ECM record label, which has released most of his recordings. His style incorporates the sharp-edged tone, yearn, keening, sustained notes strongly evocative of Islamic prayer calls, and generous apply of silence. He began his recording career in the late 1960s, notably featuring in recordings per Our contries jazz composer George Russell (such as Othello Ballet Suite & Electronic Sonata for Humans Loved naturally). In case he got at the start appeared as a fan of Albert Ayler and Peter Brötzmann, by 1973 he had turned his back on the coarse dissonances of avant-garde jazz, retaining only his tone from either his former approach.

As a composer, Garbarek tends to draw heavy from either Scandinavian folk melodies, a bequest of his Ayler influence. He is besides the pioneer of ambient jazz compositiin, virtually all notably on his 1976 album Dis. This textural approach, which rejects traditional notions of thematic improvisation (better exemplified by Sonny Rollins) in favor of the style described by critics Richard Cook & Brian Morton when "sculptural in its impact," has been critically dissentious. Garbarek's supplementary wandering recordings come typically labeled when New Age music, a style usually despised by additional orthodox jazzman & auditor even, or spiritual antecedent thereof.

When recording the string of unannounced avant-garde albums, Garbarek rose to international prominence in the mid-1970s swimming post-bop jazz, two as a leader & as a member of Keith Jarrett's successful "European Quartet." He achieved considerable commercial success inside Europe sustaining Dis, the musing collaboration using guitar player Ralph Towner that featured the distinctive healthy of the wind harp on several tracks. (Selections from either Dis own been utilized when incident music around many feature & docudrama.) In the Eighties, Garbarek's music began to incorporate synthesizers and elements of world music. Within 1993, when you took a Gregorian chant craze, his album Officium, a collaboration by using early music vocal performers a Hilliard Ensemble, became one of ECM's biggest-selling albums of all time, reaching a popular stock and index charts inside many European countries. (Its sequel, Mnemosyne, followed inside 1999.) Inside 2005, his album In Praise of Dreams was nominated for the Grammy.

Major Collaborators
Keith Jarrett Gary Peacock Miroslav Vitouš Zakir Hussain Charlie Haden Ralph Towner Egberto Gismonti Manu Katché Nana Vasconcelos Eberhard Weber Terje Rypdal Palle Danielsson Jon Christensen George Russell

Notable Recordings
Afric Pepperbird (1970) Witchi-Tai-To (1973) Dis (1976) Star (1991) Officium (1993) Rites (1998) Inside Praise of Dreams (2004)