Albert Ayler:
La Cave Live, Cleveland 1966 Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Never-before released recordings of tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler's 1966 band recording in his home town of Cleveland at club La Cave, recorded over two nights in a superb sextet with brother Donald on trumpet, Frank Wright on tenor sax, Michel Samson on violin, Clyde Shy on double bass and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums, performing Aylers compositions and Don Cherry's "D.C.". ... Click to View

Judith Wegmann / Marlies Debacker / Lukas Biner / Nicolas Wolf:
Things In Between (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Featuring two pianists--Judith Wegmann and Marlies Debacker--and two percussionists--Lukas Briner and Nicolas Wolf (a duo who play concerts in the dark under the name of Night Shadow Noise)--in collective improvisations of two pianists or as a quartet of duel pianists and drummers, for seven exciting and sophisticated recordings of instant composition. ... Click to View

Irene Schweizer / Hamid Drake:
Celebration (Intakt)

Having performed together a number of times in festivals both in Europe and Chicago, the duo of drummer Hamid Drake and pianist Irene Schweizer reveals the familiarity and confidence their history brings to their improvisations, both in intense exchanges and playful melodic passages, as heard in this exemplary 2019 concert at Jazzgallery, in Nickelsdorf, Austria. ... Click to View

Tom Rainey Obbligato:
Untucked in Hannover (Intakt)

A collection of jazz standards performed with a modern approach to free playing, updating these essential melodies for the 21st century while adhering to their original warmth, from drummer Tom Rainey's exceptional New York Obligatto band of Ingrid Laubrock on saxophones, Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Drew Gress on bass, and Jacob Sacks on piano. ... Click to View

Punkt.Vrt.Plastik (Kaja Draksler / Petter Eldh / Christian Lillinger):
Somit (Intakt)

Perhaps one of the most complex piano trios active, Punkt.vrt.Plastik--Kaja Draksler on two different upright pianos, Petter Eldh on bass and Christian Lillinger on drums--explore unusual rhythmic approaches to jazz in exciting exchanges that fracture melody with rapidly veering impulse, always pulling back to reveal the mastery of their inventive playing. ... Click to View

Michael Formanek :
Imperfect Measures (Intakt)

Two decades after his last solo album, Michael Formanek returned to the studio to record these nine solo bass improvisations, each a profound spontaneous composition realizing structures and melodic development that incorporate journeys from abstraction into logical narrative territory as we follow the muse of a one of modern jazz' greatest bassists. ... Click to View

Ohad Talmor Trio (w/ Dan Weiss / Miles Okazaki):
Mise en place (Intakt)

Informed by the traditions of creative jazz; an interest in unusual time signatures; the music of Hinudstani and Brazil; through drummer Dan Weiss the influence of Indian Classical music; through Steve Coleman and Five Element compatriot, guitarist Miles Ozaki, an urban electric edge; making for an album both technically interesting and musically absolutely rewarding. ... Click to View

Brussel / Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Kurvers:
Fantasy Eight (Creative Sources)

A set of succinct string improvisations using extraordinary technique and concentration with a chamber improvisation feeling, recorded at Vivaldisaal in Berlin from the quartet of Portuguese father & son improvisers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, and Berlin performers Julia Brussel on violin and Klaus Kurvers on double bass. ... Click to View

Sara Schoenbeck :
Sara Schoenbeck (Pyroclastic Records)

A document of bassoonist Sara Shoenbeck's collaborations recorded between 2019-2021 in recording studios across North America, showing the inspired curiosity she brings to improvisation through a diverse set of duos performed with Harris Eisenstadt, Nicole Mitchell, Nels Cline, Roscoe Mitchell, Matt Mitchell, Mark Dresser, Wayne Horvitz, Peggy Lee and Robin Holcomb. ... Click to View

Courvoisier / Halvorson:
Searching For The Disappeared Hour (Pyroclastic Records)

The second collaboration between pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson, six years after Crop Circles and a product of their tours together and the result of their both writing compositions specifically for their duo project, showing a level of communication that allows incredible inventiveness and moments of poignant exchange; exceptional. ... Click to View

William Parker (Parker / Carter / Drake):
Painters Winter (Aum Fidelity)

A 2nd season from composer, improviser & bassist William Parker, after his 2000 Thirsty Ear release Painter's Spring, this new trio album with drummer Hamid Drake, wind player Daniel Carter performing on trumpet, flute and reeds, and Parker himself on bass, trombonium & shakuhachi, paint the season with sound as they celebrate the winter through visionary jazz music. ... Click to View

Friedrichsschwerdt:
Gay - Wir Saunawirt (Euphorium)

The curious album of Friedrich Kettlitz, co-founder of Euphorium_Freakestra, reciting his poems (in German) set in 25 miniature recordings, also performing on english worker's flute, pling, metal kettle, felt head mallet, temple bell, in a duo with Oliver Schwerdt on piano, as well as small percussive devices, voice, slide whistles, a zither, and little cubic cardbox. ... Click to View

Rodrigues / Parrinha / Hencleeday / Valinho:
Flat Music (Creative Sources)

Two extended acoustic improvisations of reductionist approaches recorded in the studio in Parede, Portugal in 2021 from the quartet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Bruno Parrinha on bass clarinet, Andre Hencleeday on piano and Joao Valinho on percussion, guided by a poem from Rodrigues as they slowly and exquisitly explore a "Closed Window" and an "Open Window". ... Click to View

Florian Wittenburg :
Kranenburg Tree (Edition Wandelweiser Records)

Using a metasynth, a software instrument that allows the user to draw or paint music, and a photograph of a small tree observed at a former train station in the German town of Kranenbur, composer Florian Wittenburg generates complex sound structures from the simple structures of the tree's branches used as a template for four rich sonic sketches. ... Click to View

Eva-Maria Houben :
3 Trios (Edition Wandelweiser Records)

"Trios" refers to the relationship of two keyboards and the pedals of an organ, as performed by accomplished American composer Carson Cooman as he patiently unfolds Eva-Maria Houben's three minimal compositions exploring the relationships between three melodic lines or three-tone chords, presented on the Organ Probsteikirche St. Ludgerus, in Billerbeck, Germany. ... Click to View

Aaron Breylin Foster / Luke Martin:
Recursive Retent (Edition Wandelweiser Records)

Excerpting part of an eight-hour performance recorded over an amplified live environment of a text score for two pianists using one piano, each positioned at the opposite registers of the piano, one player creating a block of note phrases using intervals of a 2nd or 3rd with each note allowed to decay before the next, repeated by the other player following a set of rules. ... Click to View

Leo Genovese:
Ritual (577 Records)

Essentially a piano trio, Portuguese pianist and composer Leo Genovese leads his trio with Demian Cabaud on bass and renowned drummer Jeff Williams (Lookout Farm, Dave Liebman), also joined by Argentinian vocalist Nadia Larcheron for four pieces, Genovese's compositions using interesting structures that balance warmly lyrical and experimental approaches to modern jazz. ... Click to View

Ming Bau Set (feat Gerry Hemingway / Vera Baumann / Florestan Berset):
Yakut's Gallop (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

Meeting regularly since 2018, these three Luzern, Switzerland improvisers have developed a shared language of collective creative improv, the best known of the three being drummer & percussionist Gerry Hemingway working with two younger generation musicians, acoustic & electric guitarist Florestan Berset and vocalist Vera Baumann, here in their first wonderfully paced album. ... Click to View

Whit Dickey / William Parker / Matthew Shipp:
Village Mothership [VINYL] (Tao Forms)

An exemplary piano trio of compatriots who have collaborated in configurations since the 1980s--drummer Whit Dickey, bassist William Parker and pianist Matthew Shipp--three New York legendary free players in their first record as a trio since 1992's Circular Temple, here in six studio group improvisations demonstrating their easy confidence in profound collective conversation. ... Click to View

Matthew Shipp:
Codebreaker [VINYL] (Tao Forms)

A fascinating solo piano record from New York free improvising luminary Matthew Shipp, a contemplative album that surprised even the pianist himself as he thoughtfully dissected harmonics to wring melodic fragments that bring sense to discursive streams of thought, his playing both investigational and charming, drawing an unlikely comparison to Bill Evans. ... Click to View

Andrea Parkins:
Two Rooms From The Memory Palace (Infrequent Seams Records)

Using piano, synthesizer, electronic feedback, field recordings and amplified objects, sound artist Andrea Parkins' long-cycle installation composition explores time and space in an 8-channel, multi-room work designed so that adjacent acoustical spaces respond to each other, creating shifting and unexpected sonic juxtapositions; CD package include a link to "The Third Room". ... Click to View

New Old Luten Trio:
Short Night [3'' CD] (Euphorium)

A 3" CD-EP of the New Old Luten Trio, expanded into a quintet by the addition of two double bassists--John Edwards and Robert Landfermann--to the lineup of Euro Free Jazz reedist Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, pianist Elan Pauer (aka Oliver Schwerdt) and drummer/percussionist Christian Lillinger, in the warm-up set before the concert yielding the album Tumult!. ... Click to View

Konstrukt feat. Thurston Moore:
Turkish Belly [VINYL] (KARLRECORDS)

A blistering set of improvisations featuring two electric guitarists--Konkstrukt's own Umut Caglar and NY Sonic improviser Thurston Moore--performing live at SalonIKSV in Istanbul, Turkey, blurring acoustics and electronics as the quintet creates intrepid environments for an intense journey in free improvisation, howling and biting along the way. ... Click to View

Vanessa Rossetto / Lionel Marchetti:
The Tower (The City) (erstwhile)

Three distinct compositions from the collaborative work of sound artists Vanessa Rossetto and Lionel Marchetti, the first a wonderfully complex work of musique concrète and acousmatic sources guided by the composers' instincts; "The Tower" expands their concepts through the addition of 18 voices, while the final track features the violin of Anouck Genthon. ... Click to View

Michael Pisaro-Liu :
Revolution Shuffle [2 CDs] (erstwhile)

Alarmed by the warning signs of social deterioration, political overreach and planetary damage warning of an imminent need for revolutionary change, composer and sound artist Michael Pisaro-Liu sought and plundered references in sound from historic and current sources, producing 53 tracks that are arranged to tell a story in a mosaic form; an incredible achievement. ... Click to View

Simulacrum:
Hyperreality (Evil Clown)

An offshoot of the Boston-area collective Metal Chaos Ensemble featuring multi-reedist PEK, also on percussion & electronics, Eric Woods on analog synth and Bob Moores on space trumpet, guitar and electronics, with guests Grant Beale on guitar & electronics and William Middlemiss Jr on guitar and electronics, in an electronic and clamorous extended improvisation. ... Click to View

Arcane Device:
n28 [2 CDS] (pulsewidth)

The darker side of David Lee Myer's Arcane Device project, six lettered works from his Noisewall Sessions 2020-2021, using feedback and controlled glitch, delicate noise and drone in long-form extended improvisations; six incredible sonic journeys, each copy of the 2-CD album a in an individual and numbered monoprint package, each copy unique from the other. ... Click to View

Arcane Device:
Ruins (No Rent)

Four mysteriously untitled and extended works of electronics subtitled Impressions From the Next Era, using feedback, aberrant sound, glitch, rich synthetics, bi-directional sound and indescribable sonic sources to fuel David Lee Myer's latest in his long-running and essential listening project Arcane Device; shimmering, inscrutable, and awe-inspiring. ... Click to View

Big Bad Brotzmann Quintet:
Bambule! (Euphorium)

An intense concert of collective European Free Jazz in two extended improvisations recorded at naTo in Leipzig, German in 2019 from the quintet of Peter Brotzmann on tenor saxophone, clarinet & tarogato, Oliver Schwerdt on grand piano, percussion & little instruments, John Edwards and John Eckhardt on double bass, and Christian Lillinger on drums & percussion. ... Click to View

Ornette Coleman :
New York Is Now & Love Call, Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

An overlooked chapter in Ornette Coleman's recording career, these two Blue Note albums recorded in NY in 1968 and issued in '68 & '71 feature the innovative alto saxophonist joined by West Coast tenor saxophonist recently moved to NYC, Dewey Redman, and Coltrane sidemen, drummer Elvin Jones & bassist Jimmy Garrison, for two sessions of inventive and accomplished free jazz. ... Click to View