The album turned out to be a great success – it was nominated for two Grammys and received a German Jazz Award, and a further collaboration between ACT and Vince Mendoza, 2008’s Blauklang, proved yet again to be a winning formula with another Grammy nomination.ĭuring the live recordings for “Jazzpaña” Siggi Loch met guitarist Nguyên Lê, who became the first artist signed exclusively to ACT. “Jazzpaña” was arranged by Vince Mendoza, and resulted in a wonderfully multicultural musical statement flamenco meets jazz, blues from old Europe combined with blue notes from the new world. In 1992 in Cologne’s WDR studio, Siggi Loch and Wolfgang Hirschmann brought together some of the best Spanish flamenco players with jazz greats such as Michael Brecker and Al Di Meola. A good example of this is the very first ACT recording “Jazzpaña” (ACT 9212-2). Yet in order to unearth the depth and breadth of its potential the casual listener might need a navigational aid, and ACT has proved itself to be a reliable compass for audiences who are searching for new jazz, as well as those with an ear for exciting music influenced by European folk music, classical music or other cultures. Jazz is equally at home in Europe as it is the USA, and European jazz is certainly no less rich in musical talent. And twenty years in which ACT also became one of the most popular European jazz labels, which the people's choice award for Jazz Label Of The Year at the German ECHO Award in 2010, 2011, 20 proves. Twenty years in which European jazz became a major force in the world of music, with the ACT label playing a major part in this process. Twenty years of magic musical moments across more than 350 releases.
But it is only when artists and listeners are open to new sounds that ‘magic moments’ are born, of which there are many in the twenty years of ACT history with artists like Nguyên Lê, Esbjörn Svensson, Nils Landgren, Michael Wollny, Viktoria Tolstoy, Lars Danielsson, Wolfgang Haffner and Youn Sun Nah inspiring and changing the music world. The beginning was a truly an adventure, as working with innovative and unconventional music is always a challenge and of course a big financial risk. More than twenty years later, the project that started in 1992 is a huge success story: “Music for people with open ears and an open mind,” says Siggi Loch and with this guiding principle in place, he set off on his chosen path.
In contrast to this trend, ACT has become one the most ”most critically acclaimed and internationally respected independents of the current era“ (Jazzwise). In the subsequent decades the international music business would be eroded by CD burning and later illegal downloading, and the market would shrink by half. The establishment of ACT took place at a time when the internet was beginning to take-off. At the age of fifty it was a major mid-life career change, but with the launch of the ACT label it was the realisation of a dream that had taken him into the music business in the first place.
“After nearly twenty years as a top executive for Warner International, I finally decided to realise my biggest ambition of all - to form my own record company recording the kind of music I loved – jazz!” With this statement, Siggi Loch ended his high-flying career as an executive within the international music business, and started again as boss of an independent record label.
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