Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra is the debut album by the eponymous ensemble—conducted by founder Alexander von Schlippenbach—recorded in May 1989 and released on ECM the following year.

[1][2][3][4] In a review for AllMusic, Brian Olewnick wrote: "This album ... is a good deal less raucous than one might otherwise expect.

All three compositions ... are only a step or three away from fairly mainstream big band jazz.... [The] release is solid and reasonably enjoyable, but much less 'contemporary' than one might have hoped.

"[5] The authors of the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings awarded the album 4 stars, calling it a "superb set," and stated: "Wheeler's 'Ana' is a long, almost hymnic, piece whose mournful aspect nevertheless doesn't soften some powerful soloing... Mengelberg's 'Reef Und Kneebus' and 'Salz' are very much in the line of a post-war Dutch style in which jazz is almost as dominant an element as serial procedures...

"[6] Writing for ECM blog Between Sound and Space, Tyran Grillo commented: "This is a full recording, one that accentuates the breezy rhythm section and keeps the brass well separated.