The 3rd stellar album of modern jazz recorded in the studio after a five-city tour from the quartet of Tomas Fujiwara on drums, Taylor Ho Bynum on cornet & flugelhorn, Mary Halvorson on guitar and Benoit Delbecq on piano, performing three compositions each from Halvorson, Fujiwara and Delbeq, illustrating their distinctive approach to creative improvisation.

Referring to the music on this album from New York feedback and electronic pioneer David Lee Myers as "firmly rooted in the electronic music of the 1950s-1960s", over nine tracks we are taken on an otherworldly journey of detailed particulate electronic adventures, sometimes swooping, vertiginous, monstrous and unpredictable, each track captured live in Myer's Pulsewidth studio.

Recorded inside and using the resonance of a large grain silo at the Tablelands Center for Bio-Regional Art in Texas, the trio of vocalist Christina Carter (Charalambides), guitarist Andrew Weathers and bassist David Menestres recorded this haunting, swirling, long-form improvisation, a complement to their Waveform Alphabet release Plays a Word for Sun.

Following an exploration of the double bass in his 2018 Confront release Basse Seul, Swiss-French composer and saxophonist Bertrand Denzler again jumps into the deep end again with a quartet of accomplished double basssists--Sebastien Beliah, Jon Heilbron, Mike Majkowski, Derek Shirley--for two extended works of encompassing low-register tones.

During an artistic residency at the GMEA in Albi, France, composer & pianist Giovanni Di Domenico recorded with the trio of violinist Silvia Tarozzi and percussionist Emmannuel Holterbach performing on a large frame drum, completing the piece into this mysteriously insinuating and lovely triptych where sparse melodies emerge & submerge into a multidimensional expanse.

Wandelweiser founder and composer Antoine Beuguer and French composer Anastassis Philippakopoulos in a work for voice (Philippakopoulos) and breath (Beuguer), employing spaces of silence against utterance and sibilant expression, a patiently developing work that floats by in deceptively simple ways, captivating through each articulation that seems perfectly placed.

Having presented a solo version of Stravinksy's The Rite of Spring at Opera Bastille in Paris with avant-flamenco dancer Israel Galván, Courvoisier developed a new work for two pianos performed with Cory Smythe, merging composition & improvisation as they invoke impressions of The Rite in tandem with Stravinksy-like reharmonizations of previous Courvoisier works.

A foundational member of the early Downtown NY scene, now West Coast-based double bassist Mark Dresser expands the sonic properties of his instrument in 12 succinct and forceful improvisations, expanding 4- & 5-string basses through metal tines, bowed and plucked, along with magnetic pickups amplifying nearly inaudible sounds from the strings and the instrument; awe inspiring!

Looking to create a sound realm that would reflect more life and less process, NY guitarist/banjo player Brandon Seabrook takes his 8-piece ensemble Epic Proportions on a truly epic journey through "lyrical melodies, dynamic improvisations and manic counterpoint", showing great evolution and development as a contemporary composer and player; "Brutal is beautiful".

Giving homage to creative musicians before them, the Berlin quintet of Koen Nutters (upright bas), Heather Frasch (flute), Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet), Han-earl Park (electric guitar) and Quentin Tolimieri (bass & soprano melodica)--explore the notion of integrating open improvisations around melody and modal harmonies into a post-musical, conceptual, and social framework.

A new trio from NY bassist & composer Nick Dunston, featuring Kalia Vandever on trombone & effects, and Do Yeon Kim on gayageum (a traditional Korean plucked zither), a uniquely orchestrated band performing Dunston's original (and humorously titled) compositions, on some of which each performer uses effects to create sonic environments; a creatively inventive configuration.

Continuity, Fragility, Resonance is an extended compositions by Jürg Frey orchestrated for an octet of a string quartet and a saxophone quartet, here recorded after the 2021 premier of the work in a 2022 3-day recording session in Bern, Switzlerland in the presence of the composer at the Auditorium of Zentrum Paul Klee; gorgeous and delicate.

Expanding on pianist/composer Matt Mitchell's 2013 duo album Fiction with Ches Smith is this double-duo release over 2 CDs, one CD with Smith performing on drums, gongs, percussion, vibraphone, glockenspiel, tam-tam & timpani, and one CD with drummer/percussionist Kate Gentile, performing Mitchell's fascinatingly convoluted works that integrate composition with improvisation.

Adapting Roscoe Mitchell's large work "Distant Radio Transmission" for the 2022 Fault Zone Festival in a large ensemble conducted by Steed Cowart, along with four other compositions performed in varying configurations from very large ensemble, two pieces from the Space Trio of Mitchell, Thomas Buckner & Scott Robinson, and a duo with pianist Sarah Cahill and violinist Kate Stenberg.

Composer & clarinetist based in Heerlen, Netherlands, Germaine Sijstermans, in a collaborative work with fellow Dutch composers and performers, Reinier van Houdt performing primarily on Indian harmonium and Koen Nutters on harmona organ, both employing field recordings, tapes, objects and sine waves in this peacefully meditative 2022 concert at Savelberg Chapel.

A compelling and lyrical debut from the London-based trio Aspyrian of Robin Porter on tenor & soprano saxophones, Jack Gillen on guitar and Matt Parkinson on drums, the band name from Old English translating to "To search, explore, trace, discover, explain", which the band does with ebullient dexterity through seven original compositions from Porter and Parkinson.

An investigation into the depths of the body's neurological frontier from Swedish electronic artist Joakim Forsgren, presenting a series of intuitive compositions drawing from the latest medical research on how light and sound at specific frequencies has a potential to affect bodily functions, using analog synthesizers to create retro-rhythmic environments of flowing sound.

The third in Ilia Belorukov's series of electroacoustic compositions on Spina!Rec and Moving Furniture, here in a set of four compositions, each presenting detailed layers of acoustic and electronic instrumentation and field recordings captured throughout Europe and Russia, carefully placed over heavily laden synthetic drones that guide the motion of each piece.

Four unusual studio recordings of voice, electronics, double bass, drums & percussion from the trio of Netherland vocal improviser Jaap Blonk with bassist Damon Smith and drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Moses and Blonk collaborating on the concrete poem that makes up "liner notes" for this wonderfully odd and sophisticated album of avant free improv.

The collaboration between Swiss drummer Christian Bucher, Filipino bassist Simon Tan and American ex-patriate living in the Phillipines, saxophonist Rick Countryman, continues with this exceptional collective free jazz album, their fourth on FMR, captured in the studio in Quezon City, Philippines in 2022 for nine exuberant and astute improvisations.

Understated and enigmatic, the work of Northern Italian sound artist Edoardo Cammisa, aka Banished Pills, presents a very short work on decay, and then two expanded sound works composed from synthesisers, spring reverb, microphones, field recordings, no-input mixing, organ & sampler; the environments are murky but with movement, and engaging in their dark evening ambiance.

Bringing together two aberrant sound artist--Chefkirk, aka Roger Smith, based in Oregon; and Crank Sturgeon, aka Matt Anderson currently based in Massachusetts--for two CDs of rhythmic mayhem layered and punctuated with electronics and mutilated sounds from objects & voice, with beats that feign steadiness but derail in amusing and embraceable ways; weird fun! Mastered by Squidco's own Carl Kruger.

A study of language through the repetition of fragmented sound, demonstrating how repetition brings alienation of meaning, Cole creating a synthetic alphabet within an unsignified musical context of electronic responses, repeated until the listener loses contact or reference to the original word; a challenging series of transformations rewarding to the engaged listener.

Referencing the traditional dance of Salento named for the tarantula, this Italian 9-piece improvising ensemble spent several days developing the unique orchestration, melodies and themes of these eight pieces, recorded after the OSIMU festival held in Taviano, using an acousmatic recording device to optimize the details of their insightful and often biting conversations.

Powerfully rich sounds from two NY-based instrumentalists — John McCowen on contrabass clarinet & Carlo Costa on bass drum & percussion — in a three-part work of acoustic improvisations, McCowen sounding deceptively electronic through overtones and masterful harmonic technique, while Costa's bass drum provides deep foundations as he mysteriously layers percussive distractions; phenomenal!

The mysterious French audio collective The Dead Mauriacs led by Olivier Prieur in a 3-part work of electroacoustic compositions sourced from field recordings made during time spent in Brussels, developing these works based on daily recordings of audio observations at cafes, parks, churches, plus manipulated objects and some parakeets in a park; truly inspired collage work.

The title an excellent reflection of the work, Seattle-based, Turkish-born Deli Kuvveti developed these two works that flow into each other to create an absorbing impression of a serene summer evening with dark undertones, using a granular synthesis configuration that creates movement through textured sounds, creating two complex and highly detailed narratives.

Known best for his extraordinary saxophone playing, UK reedist and wind player Paul Dunmall also is a first-rate clarinetist, one of the most challenging of the single reed instruments, heard here in four extended improvisations captured in the studio, performing with contemplative thoughtfulness and prodigious technique on four members of the clarinet family: C, A, Eb and Bb.

Two encompassing and tranquil works of sound from French composer Bruno Duplant, the album title translating to Ageless Landscapes as Duplant envisions two terrains through slow motion tones, piano and synthetics, evocatively described in an accompanying poem that conjures expansive fog, blurred trees, hawks slowly spiraling, a history in a hillside.

Translating to League of Shadows, Swiss composer Jürg Frey's sublime twilight compositions for solo piano are performed by Dutch pianist Reinier van Houdt, presenting seven of Frey's works written from 1984-2018, including one previously unreleased composition, in all 20 movements spread over 3 CDs ranging in time from 1:47 to 40:34, a significant addition to both musician's oeuvres.

The core duo of Danish trance/noise artists, guitarist Lars Bech Pilgaard also on organelle & driftbox, and drummer Anders Bach, also on plumbutter (a drum and drama machine) join with Acid Mother's Temple modular synth wizard Ichiraku Yoshimitsu, aka Dora Video, for eight impressive works of free-form rhythm and sound, sonic collage with far-ranging influences.

The second Interstellar Nao album recorded at No Somos Nada Distro Cafe in Mexico City presents the previous day's concerts from their first FMR album Live at No Somos Nada, expanding the trio of Philippine-based saxophonist Rick Countryman, Swiss drummer living in Mexico City Gabriel Lauber and Lauber's collaborator in the group Zero Point, Mexico City native double bass player Itzam Canois, with guitarist Juan Castañón, founder of Impromuzak Collective.

A remarkable concert as part of reedist Udo Schindler's LowToneStudies, referred to as "acoustronic" for the transformational aspects of each instrumentalist's playing, deceivingly electronic sounding despite being fully acoustic, captured live at Kulturschranne Dachau from the trio of Schindler, Gunnar Geisse on laptop guitar and Sebastian Gramss on double bass.

On the last day of the 2021 Spontaneous Music Festival at the Dragon Club in Poznań, Poland, the trio of Berlin trombonist Matthias Muller was joined by younger generation Polish guitarist Pawel Doskocz on prepared electric guitar and fellow Berlin drummer and electroacoustic improviser Emilio Gordoa for these two extended sonic adventures recorded in near-darkness.

Referencing the unusual 1896 feat of catching a turnip dropped 270 feet from a bridge by a member of the troupe The Royal Zanettos, the duo of London pianist Liam Noble and Geoff Simkins perform the slightly less daring but equally fascinating feat of performing a lyrical jazz concert at The Vortex in Dalston in 2022, for a mix of originals, standards and traditional tunes.

The first album from 1982 by drummer Geoff Serle's band Research, combining free improvisation with rock forms, electric and acoustic, or as he described it: "an electro-funk industrial jazz unit", configured as the quartet of trumpeter Jim Dvorak, a member of Mujician & Brotherhood of Breath, bassist Dan Brown from The Fixx, and legendary pianist Veryan Weston.

Experimental chamber music from the German trio of Udo Schindler on tenor saxophone, bass saxophone & cornet, Eric Zwang Eriksson on percussion and Sebastiano Tramontana on trombone & voice, performing at BASIS_Klangraum in MUCCA, Munich, the title translating to "singing without words" from the poetry cycle "Il taccuino del vecchio" by Guiseppe Ungaretti.

Reedist Udo Schindler continues his exploration into the double bass and low-tone reed instruments, here on bass & contrabass clarinets contrasted only with his soprano saxophone, in a 2022 live recording from MUCCA_Kommandozentrate in Munich of the five-part improvisation "Hybride Synergetic" in a trio with double bassists Peter Jacquemyn and Georg Karger.

The solo debut album from Dutch composer & clarinetist Germaine Sijstermans: seven recent contemplative works in a Wandelweiser vein, composed between 2017-2019 and performed with six exemplary and complementary performers: Antoine Beuger (concert flute), Rishin Singh (trombone), Johnny Chang (viola), Fredrik Rasten (guitar, ebow), and Leo Svirsky (accordion).

Twenty two vignettes of improvised conversations named for desert fauna between alto saxophonist & flutist Biggi Vinkeloe, tuba & trombonist Mark Weaver, and double bassist Damon Smith, using a unique tuning choice for the band suggested by Vinkeloe, and applying a quality to the studio to create a uniquely orchestrated and resonant album of masterful playing.

A tribute to jazz trumpeter & composer Don Cherry--a spiritual world traveler and influential free jazz trumpeter--performed by Chicago's equally spiritual Ethnic Heritage Ensemble led by percussionist Kahil El'Zabar with Corey Wilkes, Alex Harding, Dwight Trible, and the son of Don Cherry, David Ornette Cherry; sadly also an unexpected tribute to David Ornette's sudden passing in 2022.

Following up "Nove Cantici Per Francesco D'Assisi" with the three acoustic guitars of Bill Frisell, Gyan Riley and Julian Lage, "Virtue" is inspired by Julian of Norwich, one of the founders of Christian mysticism, portrayed through twelve succinct Zorn compositions of beautifully lyrical contrapuntal interplay and transcendental reflection.

A collection of twenty musical aphorisms inspired by the writings and thought of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995), following Zorn's first Multiplicities volume performed by his electric jazz ensemble Chaos Magick, here in Volume 2 energetically performed by his acoustic Incerto ensemble of Brian Marsella on piano, Ches Smith on drums, Julian Lage on guitar & Jorge Roeder on bass.

Delicately caustic interactions of reeds, piano and percussion using the natural resonance of the Borlunda Church in Eslöv, Sweden, from the freely improvising duo of Martin Küchen and Sophie Agnel, Küchen adding electronics and Agnel performing inside and out of the piano while supplementing her palette with objects, both using space and patience as their allies.

A collection of six duo recordings from musician, composer, and improviser Peter Soderberg, investigating different tuning systems and the idea of hybrid instruments, recording with Katt Hernandez (violin), Stina Hellberg Agback (harp), Mats Persson (clavichord), Sten Sandell (piano), My Hellgren (cello) and Vilhelm Bromander (contrabass).

Continuing his imaginative approach to percussion, Barcelona improviser Vasco Trilla's sixth solo album sees him expanding his rhythmic and tonal range through a fascinating collection of instruments, including bowed Russian flat bells, electrified music boxes, a zither processed through snare drums as resonators, Iranian round bells mixed with gamelan strips, &c.

A perfectly complementary pair of improvisers from the ever-inventive guitarist Fred Frith and instrument inventor Sudhu Tewari, Frith performing on home-made instruments as well-- string instruments he's developed since the 80s described as "planks of wood with strings"--as the two draw unexpected sonic environments and propulsive rhythmic passages through eight compelling dialogs.

The second of two volumes from the quartet of John Dikeman on tenor saxophone, Pat Thomas on piano, John Edwards on bass and Steve Noble on drums, bringing the American saxophonist working throughout Europe together with this nearly telepathic collaborative grouping of UK frequent collaborators, captured in concert at Cafe OTO in 2019 for two absorbing improvisations.

Three essential concerts remastered, from the legacy of be-bop trailblazers, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, with Don Byas, Al Haig piano, Curley Russell, Max Roach & Sidney Catlett at Town Hall 1945; with John Lewis, Al McKibbon & Joe Harris at Carnegie Hall 1947; and with Bud Powell, Tommy Potter & Roy Haynes at Birdland 1951.

A remarkable feat of remastering, sound restoration and pitch correction from the tapes of this June 1950 radio broadcast at Birdland in NYC, finding the exceptional quintet of jazz pioneers led by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker in superb form, with Fats Navarro on trumpet, Bud Powell on piano, Curley Russell on double bass and Art Blakey on drums.

Digitally restoring and expanding on Sun Ra's 1972 soundtrack for the film of the same name, in a solid box set with two audio CDs, a DVD and BluRay + bonus featuures of the original film, along with a previously unreleased album recorded at the same soundtrack sessions, The Mathematics Of The Altered Destiny, and a booklet with notes from multiple Afrofuturism scholars.

A split LP from two electroacoustic composers: from France, Eve Aboulkheir presents a work inspired by an experience of perceptive disorientation, using modified, mutated and layered field recordings; and Norwegian sound composer Lasse Marhaug presents a work for modified tabletop guitar, field recordings, electronics & objects evoking a path through a forest avoiding large anthills.

A monumental release from Fire! Orchestra led by Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling & Andreas Werliin, in an expanded ensemble of 43 international musicians, with new members including Joe McPhee, for a massive work organized into seven parts, presented in a solid box set spread across 3 vinyl LPs of music with titles inspired by Swedish author & poet Erik Lindegren; magnificent!

The second album from drummer Rudy Royston's chamber-like ensemble Flatbed Buggy, featuring John Ellis on woodwinds, Gary Versace on accordion, Hank Roberts on cello, and Joe Martin on bass, in a concept album of the typical ups and downs, joys and sadness, gratitude and dreads a typical day would bring, ultimately culminating in a celebration of life and healing.

Reissuing saxophonist, flutist, bandleader & composer Henry Threadgill's 1991 Black Saint album, introducing his then-new band Very Very Circus, uniquely configured with two tubas (Marcus Rojas, Edwin Rodriguez), two guitars (Brandon Ross, Masujaa, aka Hugh Riley), trombone (Curtis Fowlkes), and drums (Gene Lake), with Threadgill himself leading his fascinatingly layered compositions.

A split LP from two sound and electroacoustic artists: Paris bassoonist Dafne Vicente-Sandoval deconstructs the instrument itself using an electro-acoustic device that generates feedback, developing compositions from those explorations; and Norwegian Lars Petter Hagen revisits Richard Strauss's Metamorfosen through decay and fragmentation of its musical lines.

The second volume from the trio of Tennessee-to-NYC transplant Zoe Amba on tenor saxophone & flute, legendary double bassist William Parker and Francisco Mela on drums, performing three compositions by Amba recorded in the studio in NYC; emphatic free jazz with a powerful rhythm section elucidating Amba's spiritually fueled approach to compelling, lyrical improvisation.

Continuing the reissue series of Swedish drummer & accordionist based in Berlin, Sven-Ake Johansson, with this 1971 recording of an otherwise unrecorded quintet with Jeanne Lee on vocal, Gunter Hampel on vibes, flute & bass clarinet, Michael Waisvisz on synthesizer and Freddy Gosseye on electric bass, captured live in a then-radical concert at Berlin Jazztage.

The Rempis Percussion Quartet in their French debut after 15 years of touring elsewhere through Europe, with Dave Rempis on sax, both Tim Daisy & Frank Rosaly on drums and Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass, performing an exuberant concert recorded at Le Petit Faucheux in Tours, with trumpeter Jean-Luc Cappozzo joining for one extended improv, plus a live workshop for young immigrants and a rare studio session.

Focused on the music of Don Cherry and recorded at Corbett vs. Dempsey's gallery space on the closing day of an exhibit of art by Cherry's partner Moki Cherry (whose tapestry "Spirit" is the LP's cover) this concert finds drummer Hamid Drake, who lived with the Cherry family in Sweden, and Ken Vandermark on tenor sax, reworking medleys of Cherry's tunes from across his discography.