John Coltrane Quartet: Impressions Graz 1962 (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Taking his quartet on a European tour in the fall of 1962, his band with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on double bass, and Elvin Jones on drums performed in Graz, Austria at Stefaniensaal, the concert beautifully recorded by ORF Steiermark and here released as the first of two volumes, showing both Coltrane's lyrical origins and expanding free inclinations. ... Click to View
Louis Moholo Octet: Spirits Rejoice! [VINYL] (Otoroku)
Featuring an incredible lineup of masterful players from 1970's London creative jazz scene--Harry Miller & Johnny Dyani (bass), Keith Tippett (piano), Evan Parker (sax), Nick Evans & Radu Malfatti (trombone), and Kenny Wheeler (trumpet)--South African drummer Louis Moholo's debut album under brings both joy and spirituality to freedom and lyricism, a joyful achievement. ... Click to View
Tatsuya Nakatani : Rock Garden (Nakatani-Kobo)
Twelve percussion solos from incomparable Japanese percussionist living in Consequence, New Mexico, Tatsuya Nakatani, a dramatic presentation starting with bowed and resonant cymbals and developing into active sections of intense drumming using bowls and found objects to create complex and unique percussive environments filled with detail, mystery and excitement. ... Click to View
Tatsuya Nakatani : Rock Garden Extended [CASSETTE] (Nakatani-Kobo)
Twelve percussion solos from incomparable Japanese percussionist living in Consequence, New Mexico, Tatsuya Nakatani, a dramatic presentation starting with bowed and resonant cymbals and developing into active sections of intense drumming using bowls and found objects to create complex and unique percussive environments filled with detail, mystery and excitement. ... Click to View
Ryoko Akama / Apartment House: Dial 45-21-95 (Another Timbre)
Nine compositions from Ryoko Akama commissioned by Another Timbre while she was doing research at the Krzysztof Kieslowski archive in Poland, the scores based on fragments of notes and objects from that archive, realized here by the Apartment House ensemble as a beautiful set of floating works invoking "clouds, as shape, as light, as colour, as body, as element". ... Click to View
Jon Heilbron: Puma Court (Another Timbre)
Two compositions from Berlin-based Australian composer-instrumentalist Jon Heilbron scored for two double basses and two hardanger fiddles--violins with extra sympahetic strings-- in his two part "Puma Court", a slowly-evolving work that develops uniquely rich acoustic environments of interacting harmonies & timbres, punctuated with subtle percussive elements. ... Click to View
Frank Denyer: The Boundaries of Intimacy (Another Timbre)
A set of varied compositions from Frank Denyer, most of them of a delicate acoustic intimacy, with works for female singers & flute, two works for koto, a string quartet, one for flute and electronics and the two-part "Frog" for a bowed stringed instrument of Denyer design, the "sneh"; uncategorizable music of sublime imagination and unusual approaches. ... Click to View
Frank Denyer: The Fish That Became The Sun (Songs Of The Dispossessed) (Another Timbre)
A uniquely epic work in 14 parts by composer Frank Denyer, with a large ensemble of 40 musicians, many playing specially built instruments made from discarded materials, with other instrumentation including sitar, mandolin and hammered dulcimer, 4 male vocalists, 4 female vocalists, 4 players of adapted organ pipes, crumhorns, bowed wine glasses, 3 double basses, a contrabassoon, &c. &c. ... Click to View
Adrian Democ / Apartment House: Ziadba (Another Timbre)
London's Apartment House in a quintet configuration performs four chamber works by Slovakian composer Adrian Democ, the Czech ensemble Ostravska Band / Fama Q performs one composition, gentle music of deceptive simplicity, using color, shade and hue through unique orchestration, his works built upon creative foundations steeped in historic reference. ... Click to View
Octopus: Cyanea (Creative Sources)
A concise and essential concert from the Octopus octet, recorded in performances at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, Portugal during the Creativefest XII, the ensemble of mostly acoustic instrumention (ello, viola, flute, clarinet, classical guitar, piano, percussion and synthesizer, carefully evolving a shade of blue in subtle details of tense restraint. ... Click to View
Toh-Kichi (Satoko Fujii / Tatsuya Yoshida): Baikamo (Libra)
The duo of Japanese improvisers, pianist Satoko Fujii and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, continue their collaborations which includes many albums with the Satoko Fujii Quartet, their duo "Erans" record on Tzadik, and the original "Toh-Kichi" album on Victo, here in a new studio album of intricate, energetic and ebullient improvised dialogs, named for the aquatic flower "Baikamo". ... Click to View
exclusiveOr (Peter Evans / Wooley / Muncy / Olencki / Karre / Cimini / Young / Snyder / Pluta): Modules (Carrier Records)
The NY electronics duo exclusiveOr (Sam Pluta and Jeff Synder) join forces with the International Contemporary Ensemble and Architeuthis Walks on Land (Katherine Young and Amy Cimini) for this tour-de-force ensemble work, combining composed forms, electro-acoustic improvisation, noise, and lush harmonies, in a fascinatingly detailed album of creative musicianship. ... Click to View
exclusiveOr (Peter Evans / Wooley / Muncy / Olencki / Karre / Cimini / Young / Snyder / Pluta): Modules [VINYL] (Carrier Records)
The NY electronics duo exclusiveOr (Sam Pluta and Jeff Synder) join forces with the International Contemporary Ensemble and Architeuthis Walks on Land (Katherine Young and Amy Cimini) for this tour-de-force ensemble work, combining composed forms, electro-acoustic improvisation, noise, and lush harmonies, in a fascinatingly detailed album of creative musicianship. ... Click to View
Henry Cow: The Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow [17 CDs, 1 DVD, 250pg Book] (Recommended Records)
The ultimate Henry Cow collection bringing together all of the 40th anniversary releases of this influential and innovative band, with all the remastered studio CDs, live CDs, Bonus CD, DVDs and booklets from each prior box, plus an additional 60 page booklet of band commentaries, pictures and other documents prepared specifically for this release, all in a sturdy & handsome box. ... Click to View
Krokofant w/ Stale Storlokken / Ingebrigt Haker Flaten: Q (Rune Grammofon)
Bassist Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten (The Thing) and Stale Storlokken (Elephant9, Supersilent, Terje Rypdal) join the Nordic Krokofant trio of Axel Skalstad on drums, vibraphone, Tom Hasslan on guitar, and Jorgen Mathisen on saxophone for the band's 3rd album, performing the 4-part work "Q", an intense and sophisticated album of complex and passionate instrumental rock. ... Click to View
Fay Victor: Barn Songs (Northern Spy)
With cellist Marika Hughes (2 Foot Yard, Anthony Braxton's Trillum) and saxophonist Darius Jones (Little Women, Darius Jones Trio), vocalist Fay Victor introduces her Fay Victor Chamber Trio, the open instrumental foundation highlighting Victor's expressive songs and insightful lyric content, developed with Victor and Jochem van Dijk; a great example of creative contemporary jazz song. ... Click to View
Brian Osborne: Decorous Novelties (Heat Retention Records)
Using metal, glass, wood, and plastic, percussionist Brian Osborne (The Gate, Hatchers) offers twelve tracks of interweaving layers of simplicity and complexity, clarity and haze, many pieces initiating with deceptive simplicity and insinuating themselves in unique ways, all performed live in the studio and presented with no overdubs or affects. ... Click to View
Radical Empathy Trio: Reality and Other Imaginary Places (ESP-Disk)
Recorded during Thollem's 2017 residency at Brooklyn's multi-discipline center Pioneer Works, the trio of Nels Cline on electric guitar and Michael Wimberly on drums apply treatments, alterations and processes to acoustic-electro improv, their unusual approach often inviting the listener to discover organization under a wonderful commotion of sound. ... Click to View
Hands To (Jeph Jerman): Scrine (Notice Recordings)
Sound explorer and composer Jeph Jerman created the 11 pieces on this release while living in the Knob Hill neighborhood of Colorado Springs, using unusual recording techniques he refers to as "guerrilla recordings" like tossing tape decks off buildings or putting them inside running clothes dryers, inching tape manually over the heads, exploiting creative field recordings, &c. &c. ... Click to View
Chik White / Xuan Ye: Breath Fractals (Notice Recordings)
Chik White (Darcy Spidle of rural Nova Scotia) uses a jaw harp, and Xuan Ye (Toronto) uses voice, percussion and field recordings, in this series of rich, peculiar, startling and altogether satisfying recordings that investigate a variety of approaches to their instruments, taking them to the fringes but bringing the listener along with them; oddly entertaining. ... Click to View
Kimmig-Studer-Zimmerlin and George Lewis: (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
The innovative string trio of Daniel Studer on double bass, Harald Kimmig on violin, and Alfred Zimmerlin on cello, develop focused environments of timbre, texture, dynamic and space, seemingly abstract yet incredibly concentrative and virtuosic interaction, here joined by Chicago trombonist and electronics artist George Lewis adding a 4th profound layer to their incredible conversation. ... Click to View
Satoko Inoue: Presents Jo Kondo's New Works For Piano (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
The second album of piano works from Japanese composer Jo Kondo performed by pianist Satoko Inoue--a noted interpreter of solo works by Feldman, Ferrari, and Cage--here presenting all of Kondo's works for solo piano written from 2001 to 2012, alongside two early works from 1975, exploring a wealth of harmonic, rhythmic, and conceptual ideas from a diversity of projects. ... Click to View
Ivo Perelman / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Bobby Kapp: Ineffable Joy (ESP)
Brazilian saxophonist Ivo Perelman's goal to release on the historical ESP label originated from the impression Gato Barbieri's 1967 ESP album left on him, here assembling ESP alumni, drummer Bobby Kapp, pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker (who made his recorded debut on ESP in 1973), in a lyrical album of advanced and impressive collective free jazz. ... Click to View
Peter Lemer: Son of Local Colour: Live at the Pizza Express, Soho (ESP-Disk)
On the 50th anniversary of the recording of UK pianist Peter Lemer's '67 ESP album "Local Colour" he re-assembled the quintet for a reprisal at the London jazz club Pizza Express, replacing Nisar Khan with Alan Skidmore due to illness but retaining John Surman (sax), Tony Reeves (bass) and Jon Hiseman (drums), as they stretch out on the original recordings with a life's experience and insight. ... Click to View
Company (Bailey / Honsinger / Kondon / Toop/ Cooper / Lacy / &c): 1981 [VINYL 2 LPs] (Honest Jons Records)
Derek Bailey's Company exploring free improvisation through a shifting and impressive lineup of performers, here in previously unreleased recordings with musicians including Derek Bailey, Tristan Honsinger, Christine Jeffrey, Toshinori Kondo, Charlie Morrow, David Toop, Maarten Altena, Georgie Born, Lindsay Cooper, Steve Lacy, Radu Malfatti and Jamie Muir. ... Click to View
David Myers Lee: Prototype Of The Veil (pulsewidth)
David Lee Myers began creating feedback music in 1989, originally under the name Arcane Device, developing unique approaches to harnessing feedback between audio devices in ways their manufactures did not intend; since 2014 he has used a set of new devices that allow intense control and beauty through vibrational interactions, as heard in this, his 18th solo album of feedback music. ... Click to View
Torba (Mauro Diciocia): Musique Inconcrete [VINYL] (Fragment Factory)
Italian sound artist Mauro Diciocia presents the second installment in a trilogy of related recordings, informally named "Le Musiche", using field recordings from a variety of settings mostly around Salento in southern Italy, organizing his recordings to create auditory sketches in sound, telling abstract yet compelling stories that envelop the listener. ... Click to View
Made to Break: F4 Fake (Trost Records)
This active quartet project brings together two Chicago players--drummer Tim Daisy and reedist Vandermark--with two European players--Christof Kurzmann on pooll & electronics, and Jasper Stadhouders on bass--in their 9th album, recording in the studio in Austria for an innovative album blurring the lines between fierce free jazz and inventive experimental ea-improv. ... Click to View
Ernesto Rodrigues / Luis Senra / Gianna De Toni / Luis Couto / Biagio Verdolini: Prima Pratica (Creative Sources)
A very open free improvisation of Portuguese musicians recording in Azores, PT from the quintet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Luis Senra on tenor saxophone, Gianna de Toni on double bass, Luis Couto on electric guitar, and Biagio Verdolini on homemade instruments, using space amid patiently evolving conversation with an overall acoustic feeling in three movements of "Dissonanze". ... Click to View
Joe McPhee / Graham Lambkin / Charlie Mcphee / Oliver Lambkin: Live in the Batcave [VINYL] (Black Truffle)
A fly-on-the-wall hang out with virtual drinking buddies--saxophonist and pocket trumpeter Joe McPhee and his brother Charlie, and sound artist Graham Lambkin, who brought along his son Oliver--hanging at Charlie's in Poughkeepsie, NY, captured by an open mic as they tip back a few, play records, instruments, discussing life and music, and end in a singalong. ... Click to View
