Inspired by Gertrude Stein's experimental poem Yet Dish, Swiss saxophonist Christoph Gallio leads an ensemble with vocalist Sonia Loenne, bassist Vito Cadonau, and percussionist Flo Hufschmid in a nuanced exploration of language and sound, transforming Stein's rhythmic abstractions into vivid musical dialogues where wit, structure, and spontaneity intertwine with poetic precision.

Recorded in Verona, Italy, pianists Francesca Gemmo and Magda Mayas engage in an intricate dialogue between piano and prepared piano, blending Gemmo's contemplative lyricism and impressionist echoes with Mayas's inventive explorations of touch, timbre, and texture, creating a vivid and unpredictable sonic landscape of tension, nuance, and resonance.

A seasoned quartet of trombonist Robert Morgenthaler, vibraphonist Christopher Dell, bassist Fridolin Blumer, and percussionist Heinz Geisser recorded in Zurich, exploring the essence of free improvisation through deep listening and spontaneous structure, where interplay and attentiveness replace convention, revealing the magic that happens in the space between the rules.

Composed by Cat Hope and recorded live at the Tura and Perth Festival, this striking opera for four vocal soloists, bass orchestra, and community choir unites the visceral voices of Caitlin Cassidy, Judith Dodsworth, Sage Pbbbt, and Karina Utomo under conductor Aaron Wyatt in a profound, wordless protest against the inhumanity of refugee detention and a moving appeal to shared compassion.

Recorded at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn in 2025, this first document of Peter Evans (trumpet), Joe Morris (bass), and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) captures four expansive improvisations where Evans's quicksilver trumpet, Sorey's architecturally detailed drumming, and Morris's tensile bass cohere into a lucid, high-energy trio language that balances raw edge with striking clarity.

The first documented meeting of bassist John Edwards, trumpeter Luís Vicente, and percussionist Vasco Trilla channels the duo rapport of Vicente/Trilla into a volatile trio language, where tensile bass arcs, quicksilver trumpet figures, and textured percussion intertwine from hush to rupture across four expansive studio improvisations captured in Portugal — forcefully fractured.

Drawn from three 2024 concerts in Berlin, St. Johann, and Cormons, drummer Joe Hertenstein's touring trio with Michael Moore (reeds) and Michael Formanek (bass) welcomes trombonist Ray Anderson, the quartet forging strong themes and free-form interplay where Anderson's ebullience, Moore's lyricism, Formanek's foundational lines, and Hertenstein's flexible drive spark constantly evolving momentum.

Tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and trombonist Ray Anderson distill their proven chemistry heard in the quartet album Molten Gold (FSR 03|2023), here in twelve concise, alchemy-titled improvisations, Perelman's elastic lines and altissimo edge intertwining with Anderson's plunger color, slide glissandi, and buoyant phrasing to forge vividly conversational miniatures of texture, tension, and release.

Marking their 39th year together, pianist Chris Abrahams, drummer Tony Buck, and bassist Lloyd Swanton expand their immersive approach to improv across three discs of evolving intensity, recording in the studio in Australia, where four long-form pieces unfold with hypnotic patience, microscopic detail, and The Necks' hallmark balance of restraint, texture, and boundless improvisational discovery.

Reuniting after a decade, guitarist George Draguns and percussionist Robert Cozzolino revive their duo Flying Sutra at Metropolitan Sound in Brooklyn with saxophonist Ayumi Ishito, their telepathic interplay and raw intensity yielding four vividly improvised tracks that expand their textural range and transcend genre through fearless, high-energy experimentation.

The duo of Roscoe Mitchell on bass and sopranino saxophones with percussion, and Michele Rabbia on percussion and electronics, engage in a meticulous and expressive dialogue where the smallest breath or strike is amplified into vivid detail, redefining improvisation as an inclusive and responsive art of conversation that balances order, disorder, and creative transformation.

Led by alto saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra, BLINK embraces collective improvisation over solo display, blending microtonal tuning, layered rhythmic cycles, and ensemble interplay inspired by insect swarms, African High Life, and minimalist rock, resulting in an inventive, off-balance sound that thrives on tension, texture, and spontaneous cohesion.

Reuniting pianist Pandelis Karayorgis with bassist Nate McBride and drummer Randy Peterson, and featuring composer-pianist Eric Moe, this microtonal project bridges jazz and contemporary composition through Werntz's Capricious Nocturnal Variations, as Karayorgis' trio expands its themes with richly textured interplay and fluid explorations of the uniquely tuned Werntz Nocturne Scale.

A solo journey of striking imagination, Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser channels the modernist spirit of Blaise Cendrars in eighteen original works recorded in Berlin, blending sculptural sound, melodic exploration, and poetic abstraction into a deeply personal meditation that bridges contemporary jazz, literature, and sonic art.

Finnish composer Antti Tolvi's 72-minute realization of Morton Feldman's Intermission 6 transforms the brief 1953 piano score into an extended meditation on sound and silence, his patient, quietly unpredictable interpretation revealing the work's subtle randomness and serene depth, evoking Feldman's later explorations of duration and near-stillness.

Reimagining Bach's Three Sonatas for Solo Violin through the lens of Just Intonation, composer Marc Sabat adds a second violin to create intricate harmonic dialogues performed with Sara Cubarsi and Xenia Gogu, where precise microtonal tuning and subtle psychoacoustic resonance reveal new shades of Bach's counterpoint, bridging baroque invention with contemporary exploration.

Composed from four pools of material inspired by Johnny Mandel's A Time for Love, Magnus Granberg's 2024 work for his Swedish ensemble Skogen unfolds in ten slow cycles where delicate fragments, melodic shadings, and restrained improvisation interlace across strings, harp, guitar, percussion, and prepared piano, creating a quietly luminous meditation on fragility and motion.

Developed during a residency in the Spanish town of Blanca, violist Julia Eckhardt's eight compositions trace daily walks through the arid hills as sound, image, and memory, each piece born from field recordings, photographs, and improvisations that echo the wind-swept landscape, transforming the act of walking and listening into meditative musical reflection.

The debut composer album from Apartment House bassist James Opstad presents five chamber works performed by Apartment House, the GBSR Duo, and clarinettist Heather Roche, tracing his evolution from electroacoustic exploration to intricately layered instrumental writing, where overlapping tempi, gradual transformations, and subtle harmonic shifts create a sense of suspended motion and quiet intensity.

Blurring the line between sound and action, English composer James Saunders' composition transforms 100 pages of performance instructions to tear, score, press, and write on paper, creating a tactile soundscape where performers Conor Bourgal, Lindsay Goss, Ryan Seward, and Andrew Weathers weave rustle, rhythm, and resonance into a fragile equilibrium between the mundane and collective sound art.

A transpacific collaboration merging long-distant sonic composition and improvisation between Taipei-based Ryan J Raffa and Texas composer Andrew Weathers, capturing the evolving project Reign of Ferns in an intimate, improvisational exchange of texture and tone, their music shaped by distance, friendship, and the quiet resonance of shared creative presence.

In a fully improvised solo recording, pianist Matthew Shipp channels a lifetime of discipline and influence into an expansive and deeply personal work whose shifting architectures, sly dissonances, and luminous pacing unfold with the gravity of composed modern classical music while retaining the spontaneous intensity of free jazz, reframing his sound in a broader, genre-fluid context.

With longtime collaborators Jason Lindner, Ben Monder, Tim Lefebvre, Zach Danziger, Nate Wood, Ryan Dahle, and Jonathan Maron, visionary saxophonist Donny McCaslin channels the raw intensity of improvised jams into a cinematic, high-energy sound world, blending jazz with rock, electronica, and soulful urgency, a fierce and timeless statement.

Recorded live at the 2022 Vision Festival in Brooklyn, Jason Kao Hwang conducts a remarkable ensemble of strings, guitars, bass, and percussion in a work that blends notated passages with conduction-driven improvisation, forging a powerful and fluid language that transcends cultural and stylistic boundaries while illuminating collective individuality and truth.

New York pianist Eva Novoa joins bassist Drew Gress and drummer Devin Gray for their second trio release on 577 Records, weaving melodic themes with swing and groove as Novoa expands the palette with Chinese gongs and whistling, Gress layers in modular synth textures, and the ensemble explores freedom, interplay, and evocative electronic landscapes.

For their third studio release, bassist and composer Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten leads his (Exit) Knarr septet through graphic scores that blend visual art, mythology, electronics, and free jazz into a vivid collective process, the ensemble — now including Amalie Dahl and Marta Warelis — shaping long and short forms alike into explosive, texturally rich works of improvisational energy and imagination.

For their third studio release, bassist and composer Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten leads his (Exit) Knarr septet through graphic scores that blend visual art, mythology, electronics, and free jazz into a vivid collective process, the ensemble — now including Amalie Dahl and Marta Warelis — shaping long and short forms alike into explosive, texturally rich works of improvisational energy and imagination.

The duo Senso di Voce, with Esin Gunduz on voice and Paul J. Ferington on oboe, create an immersive chamber work of voice, oboe, and electronics whose movements balance the ancient and the contemporary, weaving resonances, silence, and philosophical imagery into a meditative and exploratory sound world that rewards repeated listening with new layers of detail and emotional depth.

The ninth set from Evil Clown's Perturbations project brings together reed players David Peck and Michael Caglianone with brass player John Fugarino, each expanding their roles through percussion, electronics, and objects, while Joel Simches provides real-time processing, creating a vivid and continuously transforming improvisation of shifting sonorities and electro-acoustic textures.

Expanding to a nine-piece ensemble, Leap of Faith Orchestra with PEK and Glynis Lomon joined by John Fugarino, Eric Dahlman, Michael Caglianone, Tor Snyder, Albey onBass, Dennis Warren, and Joel Simches, transforms through broad palette improvisations where horns, strings, guitar, bass, percussion, electronics, and real-time processing converge into a richly layered orchestral improvisation.

With PEK and Glynis Lomon joined by John Fugarino, Eric Dahlman, Michael Caglianone, Tor Snyder, Albey onBass, Scott Samenfeld, Cliff White, and Joel Simches, Leap of Faith expands into a richly textured septet where strings and horns form the core dynamic, augmented by percussion, electronics, and processing in an improvisation that evolves through a vast range of sonorities.

Composer Henry Threadgill conducts a suite for six acoustic guitars and two pianos, bringing together Bill Frisell, Miles Okazaki, Brandon Ross, Gregg Belisle-Chi, Jerome Harris, Stomu Takeishi, Maya Keren, and Rahul Carlberg in an intricately orchestrated work whose intervallic syntax and meticulous counterpoint entwine with unexpected timbres to reveal his singular and sublime vision.

Seventeen years after their last recording, the New York trio of Steve Lehman (alto saxophone), Vijay Iyer (piano, Rhodes), and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) reunite with dense, high-impact compositions and fearless interplay, blending complexity with groove as they reaffirm their status as one of the most vital ensembles in contemporary improvised music.

Drummer and composer Dan Weiss brings together Peter Evans (trumpet), Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), and Miles Okazaki (guitar) in a set of compositions written for their distinct voices, shifting from meditative calm to intense peaks, weaving intricate contrapuntal textures and improvisations into a mysterious and transcendent collective sound.

Brooklyn pianist Eva Novoa joins saxophonist Daniel Carter and drummer Francisco Mela for the second volume of The Freedom Suite, a set of twelve pieces blending piano, Rhodes, harpsichord, gongs, and vocals with Carter's multi-reed brilliance and Mela's Cuban-inflected drumming, creating an urgent, intimate, and fluidly improvised dialogue of words, sound, and fearless imagination.

The debut of Sydney-based quartet Believe-Peter Farrar (alto saxophone), Novak Manojlovic (piano), Clayton Thomas (double bass), and Laurence Pike (drums)-unleashes three expansive improvisations of visceral energy and nuanced intimacy, blending extended techniques, shifting textures, and percussive interplay into a powerful free jazz statement that feels as natural as wind and waves.

In a live set at Amsterdam's club & workspace Splendor, Argentinian tenor/sopranino explorer Ada Rave and Polish pianist Marta Warelis shape an intimate but volatile dialogue, fusing air, resonance, clusters, and melody into patient arcs that bloom from microscopic detail to surging release, a great example of the city's improvising community at their most attentive and fearless.

After a six-year hiatus, The Young Mothers return with their third album as Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Jawwaad Taylor, Jason Jackson, Stefan Gonzalez, Jonathan F. Horne, and Frank Rosaly merge jazz, hip-hop, experimental rock, electronics, and free improvisation into a restless and unpredictable collective statement, balancing cinematic flair with raw immediacy in their most dynamic release to date.

After a six-year hiatus, The Young Mothers return with their third album as Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Jawwaad Taylor, Jason Jackson, Stefan Gonzalez, Jonathan F. Horne, and Frank Rosaly merge jazz, hip-hop, experimental rock, electronics, and free improvisation into a restless and unpredictable collective statement, balancing cinematic flair with raw immediacy in their most dynamic release to date.

Bringing together his Knarr ensemble for a second recording, bassist and composer Ingebrigt Håker Flaten leads Mette Rasmussen, Karl Hjalmar Nyberg, Erik Kimestad Pedersen, Oscar Grönberg, Jonathan F. Horne, Olaf Moses Olsen, Oddrun Lilja Jónsdóttir, and Joakim Rainer Petersen in an exuberant homage to Jaimie Branch, weaving spirited improvisation, textured arrangements, and collective joy into a vibrant and heartfelt statement.

Recorded at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, drummer and composer Tomas Fujiwara introduces his Percussion Quartet with Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, Tim Keiper on African strings and percussion, and Kaoru Watanabe on Japanese drums and flute, blending global traditions into vivid, imaginative works that traverse groove, texture, and color with striking originality and depth.

Brooklyn trumpeter Adam O'Farrill leads a superb octet — Mary Halvorson (guitar), Patricia Brennan (vibes), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), and others — through dramatically inventive compositions inspired by the literature and arts of the 1930s, balancing angular rhythmic intensity, rich melodic lyricism, and expressive improvisational depth with adventurous sophistication.

Five years after their debut, co-leaders Anna Webber and Angela Morris return with a 19-piece large ensemble recording that showcases their next-level compositional voices, unfolding through the "Just Intonation Etudes for Big Band" suite and a series of richly orchestrated works that balance drones, contrapuntal density, rhythmic blasts, and lyrical themes in an adventurous exploration of sound and structure.

Blending lush harmonies, rhythmic twists, and inspired interplay, alto saxophonist and composer Beth Schenck leads a Bay Area quintet of Cory Wright, Matt Wrobel, Lisa Mezzacappa, and Jordan Glenn in a set of fiercely original compositions that traverse ethereal soundscapes and propulsive forms, reflecting deep musical relationships, artistic nuance, and a richly personal voice.

Celebrating guitarist Joe Morris's 70th, this trio with Brad Barrett on cello and Beth Ann Jones on bass unfolds with deliberate restraint and deep listening, Morris layering textures around Barrett's lyrical and percussive bowing while Jones anchors with sculptural, propulsive bass, the group seamlessly shifting between spacious intimacy and taut collective momentum in an immersive improv dialogue.

Recorded in the extraordinary resonance of Paris's Saint-Merry Church, this double album captures soprano and sopranino saxophonist Michel Doneda in duo with pianist Frédéric Blondy, their improvisations unfolding in deep dialogue with the architecture itself, as tones and textures expand into the vast acoustics, creating immersive, luminous soundscapes of remarkable depth and presence.

Composed in 2020 during the first months of the pandemic and recorded at Oktaven by Ryan Streber, this striking work for strings expands the JACK Quartet with violist Yura Lee and cellist Michael Nicolas, delivering two masterful pieces of dramatic tension, mercurial movement, and virtuosic beauty that stand among Zorn's most compelling contributions to modern chamber music.

Spanning a decade of collaborations, this double LP and CD set presents Phillip Schulze's electro-acoustic responsive instrument in dialogue with Anthony Braxton, Christian Jendreiko, Andrew Raffo Dewar, and Detlef Weinrich, each duo exploring transidiomatic communication through improvisations that merge analog and digital realities, resulting in vivid encounters of texture, gesture, and sonic imagination.

Documenting Anthony Braxton's 1985 UK tour with his classic quartet, Forces in Motion combines travel diary, interviews, and essays to present both the warmth of Braxton's personality and the depth of his visionary musical and philosophical project, offering an essential introduction to his art and a profound exploration of sound, creativity, and spirit.

The transatlantic quartet of Elisabeth Harnik (piano), Dave Rempis (saxophones), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello), and Tim Daisy (drums) in their second album, recorded live at the North St. Cabaret in Madison, WI, weaving surges of energy with passages of lyricism, deep timbral exploration, and spacious formal development, balancing ferocity and subtlety in a richly detailed and dynamic collective architecture.

A captivating solo recording from multi-reedist Ned Rothenberg on alto sax, clarinets, and shakuhachi, showcasing his extraordinary mastery of circular breathing, overtones, and multiphonics in works of rhythmic intensity, lyrical sensitivity, and soulful depth, culminating in a graceful rendering of Monk's "'Round Midnight" as an aural refuge of beauty and resolve.

A collaborative project by Éric Normand, Dur Temps Pour les Rouges (Hard Times for the Reds.) combines recordings from 2020-2025 by a large ensemble of voices, horns, strings, guitars, drums, synths, and electronics to realize a textured and emotionally rich sound world: intimate and expansive, lyrical and experimental, a striking and immersive listening experience.

A 46-page French-language book with download code from bassist Éric Normand, combining text, illustrations by Robert Marcel Lepage, and partial scores with recordings of duo improvisations made between 2020 and 2022 with Sarah Albu, Philippe Lemoine, Xavier Garcia, Rémy Bélanger de Beauport, Tom Malmendier, Lori Freedman, and Jean-Sébastien Mariage; inventive and exploratory.

A solo double bass album from Colombian-born, Montreal-based improviser Pablo Jiménez, recorded at the Conservatory of Music in Montreal in 2024, where his imaginative use of extended techniques and deep engagement with improvisation reveal a distinctive personal language that merges avant and contemporary traditions into a striking and sensitive exploration of the instrument.

A collection of Yoshio Machida's soundtracks for NHK documentaries on artists Shinro Ohtake, Junichiro Tanizaki, and Maruyama Okyo recorded between 2020 and 2023, presenting a wide stylistic range from acoustic chamber works and dreamy piano reverberations to glitch electronics, steel pan melodies, funk beats, and jazz, highlighting Machida's versatility as composer and performer.

A purely electric album by Yoshio Machida recorded in 2023, made entirely with the EMS Synthi AKS; with its patch-matrix routing, built-in 256-step sequencer, spring reverb, three oscillators and analog coloration, Machida improvises tempo and phrasing as if in conversation with a string quartet, layering organic, nostalgic, chamber-like textures entirely without outboard gear.

An evocative solo album from Yoshio Machida, who performs and overdubs steelpan, piano, bass, drums, and electronics in serene, poetic soundscapes where the transparent timbre of steelpan and keys weave ambient textures of nostalgic beauty, influenced by Buddhist notions of emptiness and form, recalling the refined aesthetics of ECM while creating a deeply personal aural refuge.

The formidable trio of Larry Stabbins (saxophones, flute), Keith Tippett (piano, voice), and Louis Moholo-Moholo (drums, voice, bass) ignite with ferocious intensity and explosive interplay, unleashing torrents of fiery improvisation that surge with wit, lyricism, and raw power, captured live in Foggia, Italy in 1985 when each was at the peak of their artistry.

Seminal figures in the evolution of free or nonidiomatic improvisation, guitarist Derek Bailey and percussionist/pocket trumpeter John Stevens are heard in a 1989 London performance vividly captured by Michael Gerzon at The Duke of Wellington, their restless and enthusiastic interplay shifting from angular invention to lyrical reflection in a compelling document of their remarkable rapport.

Delivering his sixth Discus Music release in two years, saxophonist Paul Dunmall leads a dynamic nonet drawn largely from Birmingham's thriving scene, joined by guests Martin Archer, Corey Mwamba, and John Ball, their first-take performances balancing sharply honed compositions with spontaneous invention in a powerful suite that shifts between bluesy themes, lyrical reflection, and collective fire.

The trio of Rachel Musson on tenor saxophone, Pat Thomas on piano, and Mark Sanders on drums perform as Shifa, their 46-minute improvisation moving through fiery intensity and spacious reflection in a cohesive journey shaped by deep trust, attentive listening, and fearless exploration, captured live at London's Café Oto in 2023.

Bringing together two major figures of UK improvisation, saxophonist Larry Stabbins - long associated with innovators like Mike Westbrook, Keith Tippett, and Robert Wyatt - and percussionist Mark Sanders (Paul Dunmall, John Butcher, Veryan Weston, &c) in 2024 Bristol sessions captured with stunning clarity, their 1st-take performances unfolding as thoughtful, exploratory dialogs of texture, rhythm, and timbre.

Breaking away from their acoustic trio Bleyschool, the long-standing partnership of Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash, and Tony Orrell reconfigure as Lifeline, trading piano, bass, and drums for keyboards, electroacoustic percussion, and electric guitar in a spontaneous studio performance that channels noise, dance, and rock energy into electrified free improv brimming with risk, tension, and surprise.

The tenth duo recording from pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura presents eight compositions of slow, lyrical beauty-seven by Tamura and one by Fujii-crafted with exquisite restraint and intimacy, as the long-time collaborators sustain a dignified atmosphere of quiet intensity and emotional depth, shaping silence and subtle detail into music of profound elegance.

An extraordinary 1996 Mixtery Studio encounter between pianist Borah Bergman, Anthony Braxton on a wide range of reeds, and Peter Brötzmann on saxophones, clarinet, and tárogató, balancing ferocious torrents of free jazz interplay with moments of surprising lyricism and abstraction, as three titans of improvisation push their individual voices into a thrilling collective dialogue.

Meeting for the first time at Café OTO in 2024, soprano saxophonist Evan Parker and guitarist Bill Nace on electric taishogoto create an extraordinary improvised duo, Parker's circular-breathed torrents entwining with Nace's drone-soaked dynamism, from raw intensity to transcendent stillness in a performance of unbounded spirit, deep resonance, and ecstatic liberation.

Guitarist Oren Ambarchi, bassist Johan Berthling, and drummer Andreas Werliin return for their third ghost, expanding their collective language with looser and more immediate performances, their intricate focus and rhythmic precision balanced by playful excursions through ambient neo-jazz, post-kraut, minimal funk, and prog-like energy through an ever-evolving sonic architecture.

The fifth collaboration between composer-performers Eiko Ishibashi and Jim O'Rourke, reshaping material from their 2023 European tour into a vivid electroacoustic dialogue, layering live improvisations, acoustic fragments, and evolving digital textures into a kaleidoscopic sound world of subtle juxtapositions and fluid, unpredictable structures of color, resonance, and playfully reimagined form.

Celebrating three decades of collaboration, Loren Connors and Alan Licht performed at Café OTO in 2023, captured in their first set with Connors on piano before shifting to guitar, their improvisation unfolding with spacious warmth, melodic restraint, and shimmering textures that evoke Rothko-like hues, blending blues abstraction and lyrical fragments into a calm, luminous dialogue.

Recorded at Hackney Road Studios in London, vocalist, composer, and movement artist Elaine Mitchener presents her first solo LP, drawing on the works of African-American and African-Caribbean poets Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Aimé Césaire, Una Marson, and N.H. Pritchard, creating twelve vocal compositions that disrupt semantic sense through phonetic freedom, silence, and multiphonics.

Reuniting after four years, guitarist Hedvig Mollestad with Ellen Brekken and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad deliver six tracks that fuse hard rock riffing, progressive jazz, and psychedelic exploration, balancing raw power with nuanced improv, from searing grooves and shifting meters to poignant balladry, in seamless interplay of exhilaration and deep expression.

With more than a hundred albums behind them, Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO unleash another ecstatic journey, a studio album blending swirling psychedelia, trance-inducing drones, cosmic synths, and Kawabata Makoto's searing guitar with hurdy-gurdy textures from Tomo Katsurada, heavy bass from Taigen Kawabe and soaring vocal layers, a kaleidoscopic ritual of boundless imagination.

The legendary trio Joseph Holbrooke — guitarist Derek Bailey, bassist Gavin Bryars, and drummer Tony Oxley — reunited after decades for one final performance in 2001, captured in this historic live recording that highlights their uncompromising commitment to free improvisation, the set resonating with both the radical spirit of their 1960s origins and the profound artistry of three pioneering voices in avant-garde music.

Harpist and composer Zeena Parkins, a defining voice in the Downtown NY experimental music scene for four decades, presents an extended work inspired by fearless Beat-era visual artist Jay DeFeo, performed with percussionist William Winant on an array of resonant bells and gongs, their collaboration weaving bold textures and hypnotic patterns into a richly expressive and deeply imaginative sound world.

Created for the Festival of New Trumpet Music, Dave Douglas leads a sextet with a trio of trumpeters — Douglas, Alexandra Ridout & Dave Adewumi — plus Patricia Brennan on vibes, Kate Pass on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums, their collaboration unfolding from Douglas' lyrical compositions that highlight the breadth of brass voices, collective interplay, and vibrant ensemble synergy.

Performing two Bill Dixon works alongside pieces by pianist Alexander Hawkins, Hawkins and cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum unite in a deeply intuitive duo recorded live in New Haven, their spacious and lyrical exchange balancing improvisational freedom with structural grace as two distinct voices attuned to form, texture, and expressive subtlety.

The first meeting as a trio between Jaap Blonk on voice, Damon Smith on bass, and Michael Zerang on percussion, captured live in Chicago and continuing the Kontrans Improvisors series, bringing together three longstanding collaborators in new formation for an inventive and uncompromising set of free improvisation that highlights their commanding spontaneity and creative rapport.

The first collaboration between pianist Matthew Putman and drummer Francisco Mela, joined by bassist Hilliard Greene, in a trio whose remarkable chemistry balances lyrical melodies with adventurous free jazz, experimental energy, their performance radiating both spiritual intensity and the creative synergy of long-standing artistic bonds.

The first collaboration between pianist Matthew Putman and drummer Francisco Mela, joined by bassist Hilliard Greene, in a trio whose remarkable chemistry balances lyrical melodies with adventurous free jazz, experimental energy, their performance radiating both spiritual intensity and the creative synergy of long-standing artistic bonds.

Tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman joins Nate Wooley (trumpet), Matt Moran (vibes), Mark Helias (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums) in a tempered yet highly active quintet that nods to the blues, moving through free, melody-rich dialog; vibes replace piano to color the space as the group shifts from playful exchanges to surging peaks, their seemingly telepathic interplay balancing warmth and power.

Martin Küchen's Angles returns as an 11-piece — two trumpets, expanded reeds, vibraphone and amplified violin, Fender Rhodes/synth, and a three-drummer engine — lifting songful, anthemic themes into free, melody-rich interplay and propulsive grooves, the ensemble shifting from playful exchanges to surging peaks as its close-knit rapport balances warmth, bite, and momentum.

On a custom 7-string double bass, Paul Rogers delivers a powerful eight-part solo recital where deeply melodic lines and harmonically rich textures meet commanding technique — bowed chords, ringing harmonics and agile counterpoint — shaping fluid narratives that balance intensity and lyricism into a remarkable, satisfying journey.

An intimate and reflective duo album from Polish improvisers Marcin Halat on violin and Maciej Garbowski on bass, recorded in Wojkowice and exploring a conversational interplay that draws from jazz, contemporary, and classical traditions, as the long-time collaborators create spacious, subtle, and emotionally resonant dialogues marked by deep mutual understanding.

An historic document of Chicago's Extraordinary Popular Delusions in their final quintet performance with the late Mars Williams, recorded live in August 2023 at Elastic Arts Foundation, capturing Williams' fiery, life-affirming playing alongside Edward Wilkerson Jr. (tenor sax0, Jim Baker (piano & kesy), Brian Sandstrom (bass), and Steve Hunt (drums) in a two-set suite of fearless improvisation.

A searing trio of saxophonist Martin Escalante, bassist Tete Leguia, and drummer Charlie Mumma, captured across sessions in Nashville and Grand Rapids, unleashing an uncompromising pedal-free noise assault that fuses the extremity of free jazz with noise music intensity, their ferocious interplay creating dense, volatile structures that channel chaos into a raw, intuitive sonic onslaught.