This fascinating film, which has already won the 2009 Berner Film Prize, is the result of Peter Guyer and Norbert Wiedmer having followed Manfred Eicher, founder and presiding genius of ECM, round the world for five years, filming him and ECM recording artists in a variety of situations. If it seems somewhat hagiographical, that’s because it is – why would you follow anybody with a camera for five years unless there were a very good reason to do so?

We see Eicher essentially in the role of guru. He is seen slumped in a chair in a bare room, absorbed in what he is listening to, before the sequence switches rapidly to car headlights on the autobahn near the ECM office – a refrain during the course of the film – and in recording sessions, nodding, whispering to composers and performers. It all sounds tremendously pretentious but the recordings have spoken for themselves, so it is obvious that filming a visionary capable of bringing Keith Jarrett, Charles Lloyd and Thomas Zehetmair to the same label might conceivably be interesting, or possibly revelatory. What we are given is a series of glimpses into recording sessions in which Eicher has played a vital role, on site and, subsequently, determining balances and phrasing, as well as more prosaic moments in the ECM offices during which cover photographs are discussed.

We see him in Estonia, recording (and waltzing!) Pärt with Tõnu Kaljuste, speaking of the luminosity of the sound he seeks, in Greece with Karaindrou (who says ‘he is also a poet’), and then also with Jan Garbarek and Kim Kashkashian, in discussion with Dino Saluzzi and Anja Lechner about entering into a particular piece. We also see Anouar Brahem recording, and discussing the war in Lebanon and the building and the losing of ouds, Gianluigi Trovesi recording and talking about his Profumo di Violetta and in an amusing set-up train journey with accordionist Gianni Coscia, Marilyn Mazur making a recording in Copenhagen, and a lovely sequence of Lechner’s visit to Argentina to work with Saluzzi.

The English subtitles are extremely good (with the exception of a spectacular gaffe during an interview with Saluzzi: ‘With which soldiers do you wish to purchase the crowing of a cock?’), and the film is visually very beautiful indeed.