Peter Evans / Mike Pride :
A Window, Basically [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
Concentrating their work from the Pulverize the Sound trio, trumpeter Peter Evans and drummer Mike Pride reveal a ferocity that pushes free improvisation to its extremes, balancing explosive virtuosity with kaleidoscopic percussive interaction through dense sound clusters, fractured grooves, unexpected silences, and wild exploration, in seven high-risk dialogs tempered by moments of striking clarity. ... Click to View
Camila Nebbia (feat/ Marilyn Crispell / Lesley Mok):
A Reflection Distorts Over Water [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
Recorded at Nevessa Studio in New York, Camila Nebbia joins Marilyn Crispell and Lesley Mok in a fiercely intuitive trio session blending open scores and full improvisation, where elastic group interplay, textural sensitivity, and eruptive momentum allow the music to breathe as a single organism while leaving space for sharply defined individual voices to emerge. ... Click to View
Zeena Parkins:
Lament For The Maker [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
Marking the closing of Mills College and the end of Zeena Parkins' long association with its experimental community, this solo release presents three commissioned works alongside the ongoing acoustic piece berlin bedroom, unfolding a deeply reflective exploration of harp and electronics that honors artistic lineage, collective devotion, and the Bay Area's enduring spirit of experimental music-making. ... Click to View
HobbyHouse (Mia Dyberg / Axel Filip):
HobbyHouse [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
This self-titled debut from the Berlin-based duo of Danish alto saxophonist Mia Dyberg and Argentine drummer Axel Filip explores freely improvised jazz through spontaneous structures and shifting sonic playgrounds, with a sharp focus on timbral nuance, textural interplay, and an upbeat creative immediacy that unfolds into vivid, evolving sound narratives rooted in exploratory expression. ... Click to View
Kelsey Mines / Erin Rogers:
Scratching At The Surface [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
This duo release pairs bassist Kelsey Mines and saxophonist Erin Rogers in a deeply interactive exploration of free improvisation, where resonant low-end textures and expressive reeds weave concise, atmospheric vignettes shaped by bold contrasts, emotional clarity, and an immersive sense of motion that balances raw energy with carefully sculpted space. ... Click to View
Kelsey Mines / Vinny Golia:
Collusion and Collaboration [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
Distilling their work from the Chamber Quintet, this intimate duo recording pairs Vinny Golia's varied woodwinds with Kelsey Mines' resonant bass and subtle vocalizations, unfolding a carefully balanced exchange of gentle and sharp gestures shaped by classical-leaning abstractions, where attentive interplay allows fluid musical forms to emerge with clarity inside open improvisational space. ... Click to View
Adia Vanheerentals :
Taking Place [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
Asked to rethink the solo sax format, Adia Vanheerentals transforms this release into a series of site-responsive improvisations, engaging the soprano sax in active dialogue with surrounding environments — echoing spaces, incidental sounds, and ambient noise — using extended techniques, breath & texture to shape concise statements where location is a partner in an open improvisational framework. ... Click to View
Uneven Eleven (Segers / Hawyard / Kawabata):
Live In Brighton (Discus)
A ferocious meeting of three seasoned innovators, this live set from Charles Hayward (drums, vocals), Guy Segers (bass), and Kawabata Makoto (guitar) channels decades of rock, punk, psychedelia, and free improvisation into an explosive power trio performance, where raw energy, shifting polyrhythms, and searing intensity collide in a fiercely immediate and unfiltered sonic assault captured on stage in Brighton in 2013. ... Click to View
Don Malfon / Vasco Trilla:
Towers of Silence (Confront)
A deeply immersive duo performance from saxophonist Don Malfon and percussionist Vasco Trilla, this exploratory session unfolds as a richly textured dialogue of breath, resonance, and rhythm, where haunting tones, shifting densities, and subtle dynamics blur the lines between experimental jazz, ambient improvisation, and abstract sound sculpture, revealing a finely balanced interplay of intensity and restraint. ... Click to View
Tom Jackson / Daniel Thompson:
Dark Kitchen (Confront)
An intimate, immersive duo recording in which Tom Jackson's finely articulated clarinet and Daniel Thompson's responsive, highly attuned guitar create a richly expressive terrain of spontaneous sound, channeling the spirit of free improvisation's pioneers in a deeply communicative exchange of timbre, space, and dynamic nuance. ... Click to View
Jurg Frey :
Composer, Alone [3 CDs] (elsewhere)
Recording at the historic Muziekcentrum van de Omroep in Hilversum, Dutch pianist Reinier van Houdt performs twelve solo piano works spanning more than three decades of Swiss composer Jürg Frey's output, revealing an evolving yet remarkably consistent compositional voice through performances of great restraint, sensitivity, and quiet intensity, balancing fragility, warmth, and crystalline clarity. ... Click to View
Eliane Radigue:
Asymptote Versatile (1963-64) (Amgen Records)
An historic world-premiere recording of Éliane Radigue's earliest surviving work, performed at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, where a stellar ensemble realizes her flexible "sonic proposition" through evolving textures, mathematical spirals and dynamic transformations that foreshadow her later visionary soundworld. ... Click to View
Ilia Belorukov / Alex Riva:
Wrestling For Futility [CASSETTE w/DOWNLOAD] (Notice Recordings)
A bristling electro-acoustic duo encounter in which Ilia Belorukov's restless modular synthesis collides and intertwines with Alex Riva's recorder work and effects, generating playful yet volatile improvisations that shift between lo-fi textures, glassy winds, and surging electronic fragments, as tension, friction, and timbral curiosity drive the music through constantly mutating sonic terrain. ... Click to View
Various Artists:
Evil Clown Shorties Vol 6 (2025) (Evil Clown)
A lively sampler of Evil Clown's expansive improvisational universe, this collection assembles fourteen concise, high-energy performances drawn from livestream sessions across multiple ensembles, where shifting instrumental combinations, dense textures, and spontaneous interaction distil the label's long-form aesthetic into sharply focused bursts of collective invention. ... Click to View
Axioms:
Fundamental Statements (Evil Clown)
A tightly focused and interactive trio session pairing spoken word with expansive instrumental color,bringing Jane's incisive poetry into close dialogue with Albey onBass's grounded sonorities and David Peck's wide-ranging reeds, electronics, and resonant objects, revealing an articulated improvisational language where text, texture, and collective intuition lock together. ... Click to View
Simulacrum:
Replicants (Evil Clown)
A densely layered electro-acoustic ensemble improvisation in which expanded electronics, tightly integrated horns, and richly colored percussion generate a constantly evolving sonic field, balancing muscular collective energy with intricate textural detail as shifting instrumental roles and deep ensemble cohesion drive a forward-moving exploration of sound and form. ... Click to View
Jakob Ullmann:
Solo I / Solo IV (Another Timbre)
Jakob Ullmann's Solo I and Solo IV are realised together as two ultra-quiet, long-form works in which graphic notation, fixed pitch sequences, and subtle performance choices guide quarter-tone flute and double bass through slowly shifting regions of colour and resonance, blending live sound with tailored playback to create a fragile, immersive acoustic environment. ... Click to View
Eldritch Priest :
Dead-Wall Reveries (Another Timbre)
Three chamber works from Canadian composer Eldritch Priest trace his distinctive blend of lyric drifting and restless detail, from a fragile, noise-tinged string quartet to a reflective solo piano piece and a shifting, daydream-like ensemble work, each drawing on his interest in improvisation, ambiguity, and melodies that wander with deliberate aimlessness. ... Click to View
Marja Ahti:
Visiting Cloud (Two Translations) (Another Timbre)
Acoustic ensemble realizations of two electroacoustic works by Marja Ahti, in which members of the Italian ensemble Blutwurst translate her drifting textures, elemental timbres, and spatial sensibilities into slow, finely detailed instrumental environments, expanding the original works into patient, resonant soundworlds shaped by pitch nuance, breath, and sustained collective focus. ... Click to View
Melaine Dalibert / David Sylvian:
Vermilion Hours (Ici d Ailleurs)
A refined collaboration between pianist Melaine Dalibert and David Sylvian, transforming Dalibert's algorithmic piano works through subtle, impressionistic electronic treatments that deepen their harmonic resonance, creating a luminous and contemplative soundworld shaped by spectral motion and quiet atmospheric detail. ... Click to View
Eric La Casa / Jerome Noetinger:
Off Tracks (erstwhile)
Compositions from Éric La Casa and Jérôme Noetinger built from site recordings made while exploring buildings emptied of their activities, crossing spaces abandoned by their occupants and drifting through the ghostly traces of vanished presence, revealing a mysterious electroacoustic force that lingers within the shifting textures of these emptied environments. ... Click to View
Fredrik Rasten w/ Asterales:
Fuse Modulations (thanatosis produktion)
Guitarist-composer Fredrik Rasten joins the Berlin quartet Asterales to explore slowly shifting just-intonation harmonies in four movements where quarter-tone bass flute, synthesizer, double bass, and fretless electric guitar weave sustained microtonal textures into a resonant, deeply attentive study of modulation, timbre, and collective harmonic precision. ... Click to View
Kory Reeder:
In Place (thanatosis produktion)
Three works from American composer Kory Reeder's Grid Series bring piano and two violas into sparse, quietly shifting environments where structured pitch fields, performer agency, and subtle repetition form reflective sound spaces that balance structure and spontaneity, inviting deep listening through poised restraint and the poetic tension between silence and tone. ... Click to View
Laura Cetilia:
Gorgeous Nothings (elsewhere)
Three intimate chamber works from composer-cellist Laura Cetilia unfold in finely sculpted layers of cello, voice, violin, and vibraphone, blending delicate harmonics, quiet resonance, and attentive presence into a spacious, quietly immersive soundworld that bridges classical lineage with exploratory clarity and luminous restraint. ... Click to View
Shoko Numao:
The Siwnin Sails (elsewhere)
A debut solo album of eight songs for voice and guitar from Japanese singer-songwriter Shoko Numao, blending poetic introspection, translucent vocal timbres, and quietly expressive melodies shaped through years of performance, as she crafts intimate, subtly shifting pieces that balance lyrical clarity with a gentle, atmospheric sense of stillness. ... Click to View
John Zorn:
The Song of Songs [CD + CD BOOK] (Tzadik)
A rich all-vocal rendering of the Bible's sensual Song of Solomon, featuring five distinguished female voices with narration by Barbara Hannigan and Mathieu Amalric, and guided by Jeremy Fogel's new translation, this lush limited-edition CD book highlights one of Zorn's most evocative and beautifully realized creations in a single extended work. ... Click to View
John Zorn (Marsella / Smith / Roeder):
Nocturnes (Tzadik)
Exploring the tradition of night music with subtle, dreamlike elegance, Zorn's latest piano-trio work — the fourth in his series with Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, and Ches Smith after Suite for Piano, Ballades, and Impromptus — unfolds as a lyrical and expressive creation performed with seemingly telepathic, virtuosic, and finely nuanced interplay. ... Click to View
Amir ElSaffar / New Quartet:
Live at Pierre Boulez Saal (Maqam Records)
Blending Arabic maqam with jazz-inflected improvisation, ElSaffar's new quartet — joined by Tania Giannouli, Ole Mathisen, and Tomas Fujiwara — delivers an intense and expressive live performance whose spontaneous, newly composed material unfolds with lyrical depth, microtonal color, and dynamic interplay, captured at Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal with additional alternate takes. ... Click to View
Amir ElSaffar / New Quartet :
Live at Pierre Boulez Saal [VINYL] (Maqam Records)
Blending Arabic maqam with jazz-inflected improvisation, ElSaffar's new quartet — joined by Tania Giannouli, Ole Mathisen, and Tomas Fujiwara — delivers an intense and expressive live performance whose spontaneous, newly composed material unfolds with lyrical depth, microtonal color, and dynamic interplay, captured at Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal with additional alternate takes. ... Click to View
Ziv Taubenfeld Full Sun (Taubenfeld / Moore / Buis / Ku / Chientaroli / Heggen / Govaert):
Nomads (Full Sun Records)
Recorded live at the Bimhuis, Ziv Taubenfeld's Full Sun gathers Michael Moore, Joost Buis, Yung-Tuan Ku, Nico Chientaroli, Rozemarie Heggen, and Onno Govaert for a slow-unfolding suite steeped in polyphonic colors, lyrical interplay, and spirited homage to Jimmy Lyons, Duke Ellington, Sun Ra, and Misha Mengelberg, shaping a warm, exploratory, and deeply communal sonic journey. ... Click to View
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The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco ! |