The Squid's Ear Magazine
Squidco Distribution Sale!
   290 Albums at Distribution Prices Until Sunday, June 14!


  Top Lists Sold @ Squidco
Squidco Top 40 by Customer Orders

Manuel Linhares
Atlantico
(577 Records)

Vocalist and composer Manuel Linhares brings together a transatlantic ensemble with Glenn Zaleski, Or Bareket, Keita Ogawa, David Binney, Gil Silva, Hugo Caldeira, Felipe Jose and Antonio Loureiro, shaping jazz-rooted songs that move between New York urgency and Porto melancholy, blending Brazilian rhythmic language, avant-garde texture, folk and pop fragments into a fluid meditation on oceanic distance, memory and change.


[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright)
Play Monk [2 CDs]
(Otoroku)

After six albums reimagining Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal and Seymour Wright turn their transformative [Ahmed] project toward Thelonious Monk, atomising his compositions across two CDs into volatile, time-bending forms where piano, bass, drums and alto saxophone fracture and reassemble melody, rhythm and space through free jazz intensity, pulse and radical collective invention.


Marion Brown (Brown / Hampel / Phillips / McCall)
Live in Europe 1968 & 1972
(NoBusiness)

Alto saxophonist Marion Brown leads a remarkable quartet with Gunter Hampel on vibraphone, Barre Phillips on bass and Steve McCall on drums, revealing two rare European performances from 1968 and 1972 in which lyrical free jazz, chamber-like openness, shimmering percussion, bass mobility and Brown's searching melodic voice converge with quiet intensity.


Joel Futterman / William Parker
Transcendent Universe
(Burning Ambulance Music)

Joel Futterman and William Parker continue a collaboration of more than forty years in an hour of spontaneous composition, the pianist's heavy, high-energy approach meeting Parker's deeply grounded bass in two extended movements and a brief coda that balance ecstatic force, romantic beauty, collective listening and a rapturous sense of spiritual, improvised communion.


Pierre Favre Trio (Favre / Schweizer / Mraz)
Bird Food
(Songs)

Captured in 1968 in Zurich and long shelved before its recent discovery, this early trio session brings Pierre Favre, Irene Schweizer, and George Mraz together in a concise, fiery set of attentive free jazz, balancing Ornette Coleman's title piece with Schweizer's compositions, where dynamic interplay and acute listening reveal a nascent yet fully engaged collective voice.


AMM (Prevost / Rowe / Tilbury)
Phlegm
(Matchless)

A late-period live recording from AMM — Eddie Prévost, Keith Rowe, and John Tilbury — capturing their refined electroacoustic free improv language of near-silence, where percussion, electronics, and piano dissolve into a shared sonic field shaped by extreme restraint, microscopic detail, and a collective focus on texture, duration, and deep listening.


Trevor Watts / Barry Guy / Ramon Lopez
The First Touch
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

Reconnecting generations of European free improv, legendary saxophonist Trevor Watts joins longtime collaborator Barry Guy and percussionist Ramon Lopez for a fiercely interactive trio session balancing ecstatic energy, disciplined abstraction, and deeply responsive interplay, as decades of shared musical history erupt into vivid collective expression, explosive rhythmic momentum, and emotionally charged spontaneity.


Ava Mendoza
Alive Alone, Alive Together
(Burning Ambulance Music)

Merging solo performances from the US and Italy with fiery duets alongside drummer Hamid Drake at Antwerp's Summer Bummer Festival, guitarist/vocalist Ava Mendoza delivers eight live tracks of charged blues, rock, free improv and psychedelic intensity, her bold electric sound moving from raw riffs and declarative vocals to spiralling abstraction and ego-free guitar heroics.


[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright)
Sama'a (Audition) [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Otoroku)

Reimagining and transforming Ahmed Abdul-Malik's Jazz Sahara in their first studio session, the [Ahmed] quartet of Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal, and Seymour Wright ignite four compact, single-take explorations that fuse percussive intensity, kaleidoscopic group interplay, and a fearless reshaping of tradition into dizzying, future-leaning improvisation.


Lazro / Leandre / Lovens
For Baritone Sax, Double Bass and Drumset
(Relative Pitch)

Uniting three masterful improvisers — baritone saxophonist Daunik Lazro, bassist Joëlle Léandre, and drummer Paul Lovens — this Paris concert presents deeply attentive free improv where resonant timbral exploration, fractured lyricism, and highly responsive interplay unfold through spontaneous collective forms of sparse abstraction, visceral expression, and nuanced rhythmic detail.


Bobby Bradford / Mark Dresser / Hafez Modirzadeh
Sonic House Reunion
(NoBusiness)

Reuniting cornetist Bobby Bradford, bassist Mark Dresser and Hafez Modirzadeh on b'kongofon and tenor saxophone, this chamber-scaled trio session unfolds through five collective pieces that balance Bradford's warm, incisive lyricism, Dresser's resonant five-string bass language and Modirzadeh's pitch-bending reed work in a quietly radical exchange of free jazz, color and space.


Albert Ayler Quintet
Copenhagen, Bordeaux 1966 & Newport 1967 Live First Release
(ALAY)

Previously unreleased recordings from the Albert Ayler Quintet — captured in Copenhagen and Bordeaux during the 1966 Newport in Europe tour and at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1967 — present Ayler with Donald Ayler, Michel Samson, Bill Folwell, and Beaver Harris/Milford Graves in fiercely expressive performances, newly restored and mastered from rediscovered tapes.


Myra Melford / Satoko Fujii
Katarahi
(RogueArt)

Myra Melford and Satoko Fujii meet in a rare two-piano encounter rooted in decades of friendship, their live performance unfolding as the heart-to-heart conversation suggested by the title, with both artists so deeply attuned that individual lines dissolve into a shared language of spontaneous form, lyrical intensity, emotional openness and beautifully balanced collective invention.


Daniel Carter / Sabir Mateen / William Parker / Lou Grassi
Keeping It In Context
(NoBusiness)

Captured live in the studio in 1996, this powerful quartet brings Daniel Carter on saxophones, flute and trumpet together with Sabir Mateen on saxophones, flute and clarinet, William Parker on bass and Lou Grassi on drums and percussion for three expansive collective improvisations, balancing raw free jazz fire, lyrical exchanges and deep intuition.


Carla Bley
Joyful Noise (Live In Hamburg 1984) [2 CDs]
(Made in Germany Music)

A 1984 live recording from Carla Bley captures her ten-piece ensemble in a vibrant NDR Jazzworkshop performance, blending sly humor, unconventional harmonies, and inventive orchestration, as a stellar lineup channels tightly focused interplay and exuberant energy into a richly expressive, witty, and dynamically charged large ensemble set.


Ivo Perelman (w/ Marc Ribot / Elliott Sharp / Joe Morris)
Trifecta [3 CDs]
(Mahakala Music)

Uniting tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman with three distinct guitar voices — Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, and Joe Morris — this 3-CD set presents three separate duo encounters recorded at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, highlighting contrasting improvisational languages while exploring timbre, interaction, and the expressive possibilities of the guitar in free improv contexts.


Chad Fowler / Matt Lavelle
Whirlpool
(Mahakala Music)

Blending exploratory jazz with deeply personal free improv expression, the quartet of Chad Fowler, Matt Lavelle, Ken Filiano, and Bobby Kapp engage in a volatile and spiritually charged dialogue using rare horns, elastic rhythm, and richly textural interplay, evoking ritual, memory, transformation, and collective discovery through instrumental gesture, harmolodic freedom, and emotionally raw exchange.


Marta Warelis (w/ LaMar Gay / Baars / Ng / Haker Flaten / Rosaly)
Still Life with Lemons
(Relative Pitch)

Marta Warelis leads her first sextet as composer and bandleader in a live Bimhuis performance with Ben LaMar Gay, Ab Baars, Karen Ng, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Frank Rosaly, shaping an energetic, interplay-driven music of multilayered reeds, trumpet electronics, piano, synth, bass and percussion into a joyous exploration of multiphonics, beat frequencies and Warelis' expanding compositional language.


Sunny Murray / Sabu Toyozumi
Sun's Blessings
(NoBusiness)

Recorded live at Zippy Hall in Japan in 1999, this extraordinary duo unites pioneering free jazz drummer Sunny Murray (Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler) with Japanese free music innovator Sabu Toyozumi for two extended improvisations, their overlapping rhythmic languages creating a vivid exchange of rolling cymbal fields, sharp attacks, spacious resonance and explosive momentum.


JEM3 (JT Lewis / Elliott Sharp / Marco Cappelli)
Apices
(Klanggalerie)

A powerhouse debut from the improvising trio of drummer JT Lewis, guitarist & reed player Elliott Sharp, and guitarist Marco Cappelli, blending spontaneous composition with structured narrative in an inventive interplay of amplified classical, electric, and bass guitars, clarinet, electronics, and percussion that spans modern jazz, experimental, and avant-garde sound worlds.


Morton Feldman / GBSR Duo w/ Taylor MacLennan
Trios [6 CD BOX SET]
(Another Timbre)

Spanning Morton Feldman's three expansive trios for flute, piano, and percussion, these performances by the GBSR Duo with Taylor MacLennan immerse the listener in an extended temporal field where quiet intensity, precise timbral balance, and fragile rhythmic relationships unfold with hypnotic patience, transforming duration itself into an expressive element of listening, presence, and sustained attention.


Sylvie Courvoisier Trio (w/ Gress / Wollesen)
Eclats - Live in Europe
(Intakt)

Captured during a European tour, the trio of pianist Sylvie Courvoisier with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen presents a finely honed language shaped through deep trust and evolving interplay, where Courvoisier's compositions unfold with precision and openness, balancing intricate detail, shifting textures, and spontaneous free improv with subtle complexity and vivid expressiveness.


Peter Brotzmann / Steve Hubback
Treforest 82
(FMR)

A previously unreleased duo encounter pairing Peter Brötzmann's ferocious saxophone with Welsh percussionist Steve Hubback's compact and inventive drum setup, captured at the 1982 Treforest festival in the UK in a brief but explosive burst of free improv where probing textures erupt into cathartic climaxes through raw, intensely focused interplay.


Adams / Mezzacappa / Levis
Never But Dream The Days
(Queen Bee Records)

A focused and highly collaborative session from multi-reedist Steve Adams, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and drummer Jason Levis, whose long-standing connections through the Bay Area's creative music scene — including Mezzacappa and Levis's duo B and their co-led Experimental Band — inform these concise and sensitive 2022 improvisations with a compositional approach to form and balance.


Mike Westbrook Orchestra
The Cortege Live At The BBC 1980 [2CDs]
(Cadillac Records)

Bringing together poetry, theater, and expansive orchestral jazz, composer and pianist Mike Westbrook leads a remarkable 16-piece ensemble through a sweeping work for jazz orchestra where the vocal artistry of Phil Minton and Kate Westbrook intertwines with richly textured brass, reeds, and improvisation to evoke procession, memory, mortality, and the transformative power of collective expression.


[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright)
Play Monk [2 CDs]
(Otoroku)

After six albums reimagining Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal and Seymour Wright turn their transformative [Ahmed] project toward Thelonious Monk, atomising his compositions across two CDs into volatile, time-bending forms where piano, bass, drums and alto saxophone fracture and reassemble melody, rhythm and space through free jazz intensity, pulse and radical collective invention.


Marion Brown (Brown / Hampel / Phillips / McCall)
Live in Europe 1968 & 1972
(NoBusiness)

Alto saxophonist Marion Brown leads a remarkable quartet with Gunter Hampel on vibraphone, Barre Phillips on bass and Steve McCall on drums, revealing two rare European performances from 1968 and 1972 in which lyrical free jazz, chamber-like openness, shimmering percussion, bass mobility and Brown's searching melodic voice converge with quiet intensity.


Joel Futterman / William Parker
Transcendent Universe
(Burning Ambulance Music)

Joel Futterman and William Parker continue a collaboration of more than forty years in an hour of spontaneous composition, the pianist's heavy, high-energy approach meeting Parker's deeply grounded bass in two extended movements and a brief coda that balance ecstatic force, romantic beauty, collective listening and a rapturous sense of spiritual, improvised communion.


Pierre Favre Trio (Favre / Schweizer / Mraz)
Bird Food
(Songs)

Captured in 1968 in Zurich and long shelved before its recent discovery, this early trio session brings Pierre Favre, Irene Schweizer, and George Mraz together in a concise, fiery set of attentive free jazz, balancing Ornette Coleman's title piece with Schweizer's compositions, where dynamic interplay and acute listening reveal a nascent yet fully engaged collective voice.


AMM (Prevost / Rowe / Tilbury)
Phlegm
(Matchless)

A late-period live recording from AMM — Eddie Prévost, Keith Rowe, and John Tilbury — capturing their refined electroacoustic free improv language of near-silence, where percussion, electronics, and piano dissolve into a shared sonic field shaped by extreme restraint, microscopic detail, and a collective focus on texture, duration, and deep listening.


Trevor Watts / Barry Guy / Ramon Lopez
The First Touch
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

Reconnecting generations of European free improv, legendary saxophonist Trevor Watts joins longtime collaborator Barry Guy and percussionist Ramon Lopez for a fiercely interactive trio session balancing ecstatic energy, disciplined abstraction, and deeply responsive interplay, as decades of shared musical history erupt into vivid collective expression, explosive rhythmic momentum, and emotionally charged spontaneity.


Ava Mendoza
Alive Alone, Alive Together
(Burning Ambulance Music)

Merging solo performances from the US and Italy with fiery duets alongside drummer Hamid Drake at Antwerp's Summer Bummer Festival, guitarist/vocalist Ava Mendoza delivers eight live tracks of charged blues, rock, free improv and psychedelic intensity, her bold electric sound moving from raw riffs and declarative vocals to spiralling abstraction and ego-free guitar heroics.


Lazro / Leandre / Lovens
For Baritone Sax, Double Bass and Drumset
(Relative Pitch)

Uniting three masterful improvisers — baritone saxophonist Daunik Lazro, bassist Joëlle Léandre, and drummer Paul Lovens — this Paris concert presents deeply attentive free improv where resonant timbral exploration, fractured lyricism, and highly responsive interplay unfold through spontaneous collective forms of sparse abstraction, visceral expression, and nuanced rhythmic detail.


Bobby Bradford / Mark Dresser / Hafez Modirzadeh
Sonic House Reunion
(NoBusiness)

Reuniting cornetist Bobby Bradford, bassist Mark Dresser and Hafez Modirzadeh on b'kongofon and tenor saxophone, this chamber-scaled trio session unfolds through five collective pieces that balance Bradford's warm, incisive lyricism, Dresser's resonant five-string bass language and Modirzadeh's pitch-bending reed work in a quietly radical exchange of free jazz, color and space.


Albert Ayler Quintet
Copenhagen, Bordeaux 1966 & Newport 1967 Live First Release
(ALAY)

Previously unreleased recordings from the Albert Ayler Quintet — captured in Copenhagen and Bordeaux during the 1966 Newport in Europe tour and at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1967 — present Ayler with Donald Ayler, Michel Samson, Bill Folwell, and Beaver Harris/Milford Graves in fiercely expressive performances, newly restored and mastered from rediscovered tapes.


Myra Melford / Satoko Fujii
Katarahi
(RogueArt)

Myra Melford and Satoko Fujii meet in a rare two-piano encounter rooted in decades of friendship, their live performance unfolding as the heart-to-heart conversation suggested by the title, with both artists so deeply attuned that individual lines dissolve into a shared language of spontaneous form, lyrical intensity, emotional openness and beautifully balanced collective invention.


Daniel Carter / Sabir Mateen / William Parker / Lou Grassi
Keeping It In Context
(NoBusiness)

Captured live in the studio in 1996, this powerful quartet brings Daniel Carter on saxophones, flute and trumpet together with Sabir Mateen on saxophones, flute and clarinet, William Parker on bass and Lou Grassi on drums and percussion for three expansive collective improvisations, balancing raw free jazz fire, lyrical exchanges and deep intuition.


Carla Bley
Joyful Noise (Live In Hamburg 1984) [2 CDs]
(Made in Germany Music)

A 1984 live recording from Carla Bley captures her ten-piece ensemble in a vibrant NDR Jazzworkshop performance, blending sly humor, unconventional harmonies, and inventive orchestration, as a stellar lineup channels tightly focused interplay and exuberant energy into a richly expressive, witty, and dynamically charged large ensemble set.


Ivo Perelman (w/ Marc Ribot / Elliott Sharp / Joe Morris)
Trifecta [3 CDs]
(Mahakala Music)

Uniting tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman with three distinct guitar voices — Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, and Joe Morris — this 3-CD set presents three separate duo encounters recorded at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, highlighting contrasting improvisational languages while exploring timbre, interaction, and the expressive possibilities of the guitar in free improv contexts.


Chad Fowler / Matt Lavelle
Whirlpool
(Mahakala Music)

Blending exploratory jazz with deeply personal free improv expression, the quartet of Chad Fowler, Matt Lavelle, Ken Filiano, and Bobby Kapp engage in a volatile and spiritually charged dialogue using rare horns, elastic rhythm, and richly textural interplay, evoking ritual, memory, transformation, and collective discovery through instrumental gesture, harmolodic freedom, and emotionally raw exchange.


Marta Warelis (w/ LaMar Gay / Baars / Ng / Haker Flaten / Rosaly)
Still Life with Lemons
(Relative Pitch)

Marta Warelis leads her first sextet as composer and bandleader in a live Bimhuis performance with Ben LaMar Gay, Ab Baars, Karen Ng, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Frank Rosaly, shaping an energetic, interplay-driven music of multilayered reeds, trumpet electronics, piano, synth, bass and percussion into a joyous exploration of multiphonics, beat frequencies and Warelis' expanding compositional language.


Sunny Murray / Sabu Toyozumi
Sun's Blessings
(NoBusiness)

Recorded live at Zippy Hall in Japan in 1999, this extraordinary duo unites pioneering free jazz drummer Sunny Murray (Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler) with Japanese free music innovator Sabu Toyozumi for two extended improvisations, their overlapping rhythmic languages creating a vivid exchange of rolling cymbal fields, sharp attacks, spacious resonance and explosive momentum.


JEM3 (JT Lewis / Elliott Sharp / Marco Cappelli)
Apices
(Klanggalerie)

A powerhouse debut from the improvising trio of drummer JT Lewis, guitarist & reed player Elliott Sharp, and guitarist Marco Cappelli, blending spontaneous composition with structured narrative in an inventive interplay of amplified classical, electric, and bass guitars, clarinet, electronics, and percussion that spans modern jazz, experimental, and avant-garde sound worlds.


Morton Feldman / GBSR Duo w/ Taylor MacLennan
Trios [6 CD BOX SET]
(Another Timbre)

Spanning Morton Feldman's three expansive trios for flute, piano, and percussion, these performances by the GBSR Duo with Taylor MacLennan immerse the listener in an extended temporal field where quiet intensity, precise timbral balance, and fragile rhythmic relationships unfold with hypnotic patience, transforming duration itself into an expressive element of listening, presence, and sustained attention.


Sylvie Courvoisier Trio (w/ Gress / Wollesen)
Eclats - Live in Europe
(Intakt)

Captured during a European tour, the trio of pianist Sylvie Courvoisier with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen presents a finely honed language shaped through deep trust and evolving interplay, where Courvoisier's compositions unfold with precision and openness, balancing intricate detail, shifting textures, and spontaneous free improv with subtle complexity and vivid expressiveness.


Peter Brotzmann / Steve Hubback
Treforest 82
(FMR)

A previously unreleased duo encounter pairing Peter Brötzmann's ferocious saxophone with Welsh percussionist Steve Hubback's compact and inventive drum setup, captured at the 1982 Treforest festival in the UK in a brief but explosive burst of free improv where probing textures erupt into cathartic climaxes through raw, intensely focused interplay.


Adams / Mezzacappa / Levis
Never But Dream The Days
(Queen Bee Records)

A focused and highly collaborative session from multi-reedist Steve Adams, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and drummer Jason Levis, whose long-standing connections through the Bay Area's creative music scene — including Mezzacappa and Levis's duo B and their co-led Experimental Band — inform these concise and sensitive 2022 improvisations with a compositional approach to form and balance.


Mike Westbrook Orchestra
The Cortege Live At The BBC 1980 [2CDs]
(Cadillac Records)

Bringing together poetry, theater, and expansive orchestral jazz, composer and pianist Mike Westbrook leads a remarkable 16-piece ensemble through a sweeping work for jazz orchestra where the vocal artistry of Phil Minton and Kate Westbrook intertwines with richly textured brass, reeds, and improvisation to evoke procession, memory, mortality, and the transformative power of collective expression.


Dave Douglas / GIFTS (w / Lewis / Bhatia / Chang / Reid)
Transcend
(Greenleaf Music)

Dave Douglas expands his GIFTS Quintet with Tomeka Reid on cello alongside James Brandon Lewis, Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang, drawing on the spiritual openness of Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts in a powerful electro-acoustic jazz setting where trumpet, tenor, guitar, cello and drums merge lyricism, electronics and high-energy interplay into a reverent, forward-looking ensemble statement.


Pauline Oliveros / Mia Masaoka / Issui Minegishi
Two Days In Dreamland [2 CDs]
(Important Records)

Two days across 2 CDs capture trio sessions featuring Pauline Oliveros on Roland V-accordion, Miya Masaoka on 21-string koto, and Issui Minegishi on ichigenkin (a single-string koto), in a richly textured and immersive dialogue of cross-cultural instrumentation unfolding with patient sensitivity and Deep Listening, where expressive interplay balances tradition, experimentation, and sonic intimacy.


Eva Novoa Trio (w/ Carter / Mela)
The Freedom Suite, Vol. 2 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

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.


Henry Threadgill (Ross / Frisell / Besile-Che / Okazaki / Harris / Takeishi / Keren / Carlberg)
Listen Ship [VINYL]
(Pi Recordings)

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.


Novoa / Carter / Mela Trio
Vol.1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Brooklyn-based Eva Novoa's new trio with sax legend Daniel Carter and drummer Francisco Mela debuts with their first volume, featuring compositions inspired by the four elements — earth, wind, fire, and water — and a Cuban piece, blending Novoa's piano, Fender Rhodes, electric harpsichord, and gongs with Carter's sax and Mela's rhythms for vibrant, free-flowing interplay.


Matthew Putman / Hill Greene / Francisco Mela
Believe That Was Me [VINYL]
(577 Records)

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.


MIR 8 (Andrea Belfi / Werner Dafeldecker / Hilary Jeffery / Tim Wright)
Perihelion [VINYL]
(Shhpuma)

Mir 8 brings electroacoustic artists Andrea Belfi (drums/percussion), Werner Dafeldecker (electroncis, bass), Hilary Jeffrey (trombone) and Tim Wright (computer & electronics) together for their debut album of four cinematic tracks following an abstract narrative through panoramic landscapes.


Kan Mikami / John Edwards / Alex Nielson
Live at Cafe Oto [VINYL]
(Otoroku)

More typically a solo performer, Japanese bluesman Kan Mikami has created a distinctive path for his voice, guitar and poetic lyrics; here he is propelled in an improvisational setting with two powerful UK players--John Edwards on bass and Alex Neilson on drums--captured live at London's Cafe Oto for a growling concert of finesse and brusque attitude.


Chrome Hill
The Explorer [VINYL]
(Clean Feed)

The Norwegian quartet formerly known as "Damp" with baritone guitarist Asbjorn Lerheim, tenor saxophonist Atle Nymo, drummer Torstein Lofthus, and double bassist Roger Arntzen, blend expressive forms of jazz with blues and rock in an expansive and rich set of tunes that both pay homage and look to new and inclusive formations of emotional and effusive music.


[ism] (Pat Thomas / Joel Grip / Aontonin Gerbal)
Maua [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Recordings from the Berlin club Au Topsi Pohl where the [ism] piano trio of Pat Thomas on piano, Joel Grip on double bass and Antonin Gerbal on drums played 4 nights in a row, May 18-21, 2022, Thomas performing on a Bösendorfer grand piano, creating an omnipresent and precise sound that drove the band to great heights of interactive, warmly diverse playing.


Daniel Carter / Leo Genovese / William Parker / Francisco Mela
Shine Hear Volume 2 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Inspired by a poem Daniel Carter wrote about the transience and motion of modern life, the quartet of Daniel Carter on saxophone, Leo Genovese on piano, William Parker on bass, Gralla & Shakuhachi and Francisco Mela on drums & voice, turn in an ecstatic album of exotic collective improvisation in this second of two volumes from an excellent studio session.


Eva Novoa
Novoa / Kamaguchi / Cleaver Trio - Vol. 2 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Barcelona-born pianist Eva Novoa leads bassist Masa Kamaguchi and drummer Gerald Cleaver in their second trio release for 577 Records, recorded in 2020 and blending melodic density with contrapuntal dialogue through a boldly experimental set on piano, Fender Rhodes, Chinese gongs, and improvisation, deepening the trio's inventive, textural interplay.


Marion Brown
Awofofora [VINYL]
(AGUIRRE RECORDS)

An overlooked 1976 session led by Marion Brown on alto sax with a rhythmically driven ensemble including Ambrose Jackson, Billy Patterson, Rene Arlain, Fred Hopkins, Ed Blackwell, Jumma Santos, and Chris Henderson, merging funk and Afro-Caribbean grooves with free jazz principles through layered rhythms, collective improvisation, and Brown's distinctive, lyrical tone.


Sonic Youth
J'accuse Ted Hughes [VINYL]
(Sonic Youth Records)

The seventh entry in Sonic Youth's SYR series documents a pivotal experimental moment from the band's 2000 All Tomorrow's Parties performance, with Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley expanding a 20-minute "New Drone" into the voice-inflected J'accuse Ted Hughes, paired with a 2003 Echo Canyon studio work featuring Jim O'Rourke's bass, electronics and sound processing.


Marta Sanchez
For The Space You Left [VINYL]
(Out Of Your Head Records)

Drawing from periods of isolation spanning a 2017 residency and the early pandemic, pianist Marta Sanchez presents a solo prepared piano work that transforms the instrument into a layered, multi-voiced sound world, where interlocking rhythms, fragile textures, and introspective passages of free improv reflect contrasting emotional states shaped by solitude, vulnerability, and a deeply internal creative process.


Roger Turner / Yukihiro Isso
Takanehishigu [VINYL]
(Otoroku)

UK drummer/percussionist Roger Turner in his first meeting with Japanese Noh flutist Yukihiro Isso, an accomplished improviser who has performed with Cecil Taylor, Peter Brotzmann, John Zorn, &c., for a unique and fascinating conversation bridging two traditions.


Steve Lehman Camouflage Trio
Interface [VINYL 2LPs]
(Clean Feed)

Reissuing and re-mixing New York saxophonist Steve Lehman's 2004 album with his previous Camouflage Trio of Mark Dress on double bass and Pheeroan Aklaff on drums, perfoming a stupendous set of original compositions live at Teatro Academica Gil Vicente in Coimbra, Portugal.


Mathisen / Svendsen / Wildhagen
Momentum [VINYL]
(Clean Feed)

With a list of projects including Shagma, The Core, Zanussi 5 and Mopti, the trio of Jorgen Mathisen (sax), Christian Meaas Svendsen (bass) and Andreas Wildhagen (drums), "Momentum" is an apt name for their uniquely building, unpredictable and atypical improvisations.


Friends & Neighbors (Roligheten / Johansson / Gronberg / Rune Strom / Ostvang)
What's Wrong [VINYL]
(Clean Feed)

Following jazz traditions blending lyrical and free approaches with unexpected twists and turns from the Norwegian quintet of Andree Roligheten on sax, Thomas Johansson on trumpet, Oscar Gronberg on piano, Jon Rune Strom on double bass, and Tollef Ostvang on drums.


Gorilla Mask (Van Huffel / Fidezius / Fischerlehner)
Iron Lung [VINYL]
(Clean Feed)

An assertive album of free playing from the trio of Peter Van Huffel on alto sax, Roland Fidezius on electric bass, and Rudi Fischerlehner on drums, giving the music punk-jazz overtones in sound and rhythmic approach while clearly adhering to the heavy free jazz styles of the European masters.


Daniel Carter / William Parker / Federico Ughi
The Dream [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(577 Records)

This album was developed to present Daniel Carter, typically a wind/reed/trumpeter player, on an album that included his piano playing, which then advanced by adding the goal of both Carter and long-time collaborator, drummer Federico Ughi, to record with bassist William Parker, who rounds out this excellent trio on bass, tuba and shakuhachi.


The Holy Mountain
Toad Of Light [VINYL]
(Shhpuma)

Cinematic aesthetics and themes from the Norwegian Holy Mountain duo, performing on the uncommon pairing of two instruments--accordion played by Andreas Angell, and drums with acoustic and electronic parts and vintage synthesizer played by Aleksander Tidemann--in their 3rd release inspired by the dystopian sci-fi visions of John Carpenter, Philip Glass and Daft Punk.


Heaven (Henrik Pultz Melbye / Ole Mofjell)
IAPOE [VINYL]
(Clean Feed)

Inspired by European improvisation, 60's NY-loft-avant-garde and Ethiopian jazz, Heaven, the Norwegian collaborative project of Danish saxophonist Henrik Pultz Melbye and Norwegian drummer Ole Mofjell, merge rhythmic and melodic realms, adding stretches of noise and non-idiomatic sounds, in fast-paced, highly-energetic, and highly-informed performances.


Sarah Hennies (performed by Lenka Novosedlikova)
Sisters [VINYL]
(Mappa)

US Composer Sarah Hennies wrote these pieces for vibraphone for Lenka Novosedlíková to be performed at the church in Kyjatice, Slovokia, a medieval building the two discovered while traveling, and that they challenged each to bring life to the building while respecting it's contemplative character and using the psychoacoustic dimensions of space.


Jonas Cambien Trio (w / Roligheten / Wildhagen)
We Must Mustn't We [VINYL]
(Clean Feed)

Leveraging influences in improvisation and contemporary compositional music, Belgian/Oslo pianist Jonas Cambien, a member of Simiskina and Platform, extends his own trio of saxophonist Andre Rolighete and drummer Andreas Wildhagen with trumpeter Torstein Lavik Larsen on 2 tracks, as they balance jazz, avant, free improv and other hybrid forms in a compellingly creative album.


Sei Miguel
O Carro De Fogo De Sei Miguel [VINYL]
(Clean Feed)

Recording live in the Namouche Studios in Lisbon in 2018, trumpeter Sei Miguel's octet performs a large work translating to "Fire Car", inspired by William Blake's "Jerusalem" (Chariot of Fire), reminding of early 70's Miles/fusion work as organist Andre Goncalves creates an atmospheric backbone over which the band introduces repetition and variation; mysterious and singular.


Rachel Musson / Pat Thomas / Mark Sanders
Shifa: Live at Cafe Oto [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(577 Records)

"Shifa", or "Healing", is the London-based trio of saxophonist Rachel Musson, pianist Pat Thomas, and drummer Mark Sanders, here in a live concert at Cafe Oto in 2018 of two collective improvisations of arching sax lines, rolling and potent drumming, powerful block chords and intricate lines, from dark to joyful moments, an intoxicating tonic for the ears.


[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright)
Play Monk [2 CDs]
(Otoroku)

After six albums reimagining Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal and Seymour Wright turn their transformative [Ahmed] project toward Thelonious Monk, atomising his compositions across two CDs into volatile, time-bending forms where piano, bass, drums and alto saxophone fracture and reassemble melody, rhythm and space through free jazz intensity, pulse and radical collective invention.


Marion Brown (Brown / Hampel / Phillips / McCall)
Live in Europe 1968 & 1972
(NoBusiness)

Alto saxophonist Marion Brown leads a remarkable quartet with Gunter Hampel on vibraphone, Barre Phillips on bass and Steve McCall on drums, revealing two rare European performances from 1968 and 1972 in which lyrical free jazz, chamber-like openness, shimmering percussion, bass mobility and Brown's searching melodic voice converge with quiet intensity.


Joel Futterman / William Parker
Transcendent Universe
(Burning Ambulance Music)

Joel Futterman and William Parker continue a collaboration of more than forty years in an hour of spontaneous composition, the pianist's heavy, high-energy approach meeting Parker's deeply grounded bass in two extended movements and a brief coda that balance ecstatic force, romantic beauty, collective listening and a rapturous sense of spiritual, improvised communion.


Pierre Favre Trio (Favre / Schweizer / Mraz)
Bird Food
(Songs)

Captured in 1968 in Zurich and long shelved before its recent discovery, this early trio session brings Pierre Favre, Irene Schweizer, and George Mraz together in a concise, fiery set of attentive free jazz, balancing Ornette Coleman's title piece with Schweizer's compositions, where dynamic interplay and acute listening reveal a nascent yet fully engaged collective voice.


AMM (Prevost / Rowe / Tilbury)
Phlegm
(Matchless)

A late-period live recording from AMM — Eddie Prévost, Keith Rowe, and John Tilbury — capturing their refined electroacoustic free improv language of near-silence, where percussion, electronics, and piano dissolve into a shared sonic field shaped by extreme restraint, microscopic detail, and a collective focus on texture, duration, and deep listening.


Trevor Watts / Barry Guy / Ramon Lopez
The First Touch
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

Reconnecting generations of European free improv, legendary saxophonist Trevor Watts joins longtime collaborator Barry Guy and percussionist Ramon Lopez for a fiercely interactive trio session balancing ecstatic energy, disciplined abstraction, and deeply responsive interplay, as decades of shared musical history erupt into vivid collective expression, explosive rhythmic momentum, and emotionally charged spontaneity.


Ava Mendoza
Alive Alone, Alive Together
(Burning Ambulance Music)

Merging solo performances from the US and Italy with fiery duets alongside drummer Hamid Drake at Antwerp's Summer Bummer Festival, guitarist/vocalist Ava Mendoza delivers eight live tracks of charged blues, rock, free improv and psychedelic intensity, her bold electric sound moving from raw riffs and declarative vocals to spiralling abstraction and ego-free guitar heroics.


[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright)
Sama'a (Audition) [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Otoroku)

Reimagining and transforming Ahmed Abdul-Malik's Jazz Sahara in their first studio session, the [Ahmed] quartet of Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal, and Seymour Wright ignite four compact, single-take explorations that fuse percussive intensity, kaleidoscopic group interplay, and a fearless reshaping of tradition into dizzying, future-leaning improvisation.


Lazro / Leandre / Lovens
For Baritone Sax, Double Bass and Drumset
(Relative Pitch)

Uniting three masterful improvisers — baritone saxophonist Daunik Lazro, bassist Joëlle Léandre, and drummer Paul Lovens — this Paris concert presents deeply attentive free improv where resonant timbral exploration, fractured lyricism, and highly responsive interplay unfold through spontaneous collective forms of sparse abstraction, visceral expression, and nuanced rhythmic detail.


Bobby Bradford / Mark Dresser / Hafez Modirzadeh
Sonic House Reunion
(NoBusiness)

Reuniting cornetist Bobby Bradford, bassist Mark Dresser and Hafez Modirzadeh on b'kongofon and tenor saxophone, this chamber-scaled trio session unfolds through five collective pieces that balance Bradford's warm, incisive lyricism, Dresser's resonant five-string bass language and Modirzadeh's pitch-bending reed work in a quietly radical exchange of free jazz, color and space.


Albert Ayler Quintet
Copenhagen, Bordeaux 1966 & Newport 1967 Live First Release
(ALAY)

Previously unreleased recordings from the Albert Ayler Quintet — captured in Copenhagen and Bordeaux during the 1966 Newport in Europe tour and at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1967 — present Ayler with Donald Ayler, Michel Samson, Bill Folwell, and Beaver Harris/Milford Graves in fiercely expressive performances, newly restored and mastered from rediscovered tapes.


Myra Melford / Satoko Fujii
Katarahi
(RogueArt)

Myra Melford and Satoko Fujii meet in a rare two-piano encounter rooted in decades of friendship, their live performance unfolding as the heart-to-heart conversation suggested by the title, with both artists so deeply attuned that individual lines dissolve into a shared language of spontaneous form, lyrical intensity, emotional openness and beautifully balanced collective invention.


Daniel Carter / Sabir Mateen / William Parker / Lou Grassi
Keeping It In Context
(NoBusiness)

Captured live in the studio in 1996, this powerful quartet brings Daniel Carter on saxophones, flute and trumpet together with Sabir Mateen on saxophones, flute and clarinet, William Parker on bass and Lou Grassi on drums and percussion for three expansive collective improvisations, balancing raw free jazz fire, lyrical exchanges and deep intuition.


Carla Bley
Joyful Noise (Live In Hamburg 1984) [2 CDs]
(Made in Germany Music)

A 1984 live recording from Carla Bley captures her ten-piece ensemble in a vibrant NDR Jazzworkshop performance, blending sly humor, unconventional harmonies, and inventive orchestration, as a stellar lineup channels tightly focused interplay and exuberant energy into a richly expressive, witty, and dynamically charged large ensemble set.


Ivo Perelman (w/ Marc Ribot / Elliott Sharp / Joe Morris)
Trifecta [3 CDs]
(Mahakala Music)

Uniting tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman with three distinct guitar voices — Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, and Joe Morris — this 3-CD set presents three separate duo encounters recorded at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, highlighting contrasting improvisational languages while exploring timbre, interaction, and the expressive possibilities of the guitar in free improv contexts.


Chad Fowler / Matt Lavelle
Whirlpool
(Mahakala Music)

Blending exploratory jazz with deeply personal free improv expression, the quartet of Chad Fowler, Matt Lavelle, Ken Filiano, and Bobby Kapp engage in a volatile and spiritually charged dialogue using rare horns, elastic rhythm, and richly textural interplay, evoking ritual, memory, transformation, and collective discovery through instrumental gesture, harmolodic freedom, and emotionally raw exchange.


Marta Warelis (w/ LaMar Gay / Baars / Ng / Haker Flaten / Rosaly)
Still Life with Lemons
(Relative Pitch)

Marta Warelis leads her first sextet as composer and bandleader in a live Bimhuis performance with Ben LaMar Gay, Ab Baars, Karen Ng, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Frank Rosaly, shaping an energetic, interplay-driven music of multilayered reeds, trumpet electronics, piano, synth, bass and percussion into a joyous exploration of multiphonics, beat frequencies and Warelis' expanding compositional language.


Sunny Murray / Sabu Toyozumi
Sun's Blessings
(NoBusiness)

Recorded live at Zippy Hall in Japan in 1999, this extraordinary duo unites pioneering free jazz drummer Sunny Murray (Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler) with Japanese free music innovator Sabu Toyozumi for two extended improvisations, their overlapping rhythmic languages creating a vivid exchange of rolling cymbal fields, sharp attacks, spacious resonance and explosive momentum.


JEM3 (JT Lewis / Elliott Sharp / Marco Cappelli)
Apices
(Klanggalerie)

A powerhouse debut from the improvising trio of drummer JT Lewis, guitarist & reed player Elliott Sharp, and guitarist Marco Cappelli, blending spontaneous composition with structured narrative in an inventive interplay of amplified classical, electric, and bass guitars, clarinet, electronics, and percussion that spans modern jazz, experimental, and avant-garde sound worlds.


Sylvie Courvoisier Trio (w/ Gress / Wollesen)
Eclats - Live in Europe
(Intakt)

Captured during a European tour, the trio of pianist Sylvie Courvoisier with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen presents a finely honed language shaped through deep trust and evolving interplay, where Courvoisier's compositions unfold with precision and openness, balancing intricate detail, shifting textures, and spontaneous free improv with subtle complexity and vivid expressiveness.


Peter Brotzmann / Steve Hubback
Treforest 82
(FMR)

A previously unreleased duo encounter pairing Peter Brötzmann's ferocious saxophone with Welsh percussionist Steve Hubback's compact and inventive drum setup, captured at the 1982 Treforest festival in the UK in a brief but explosive burst of free improv where probing textures erupt into cathartic climaxes through raw, intensely focused interplay.


Adams / Mezzacappa / Levis
Never But Dream The Days
(Queen Bee Records)

A focused and highly collaborative session from multi-reedist Steve Adams, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and drummer Jason Levis, whose long-standing connections through the Bay Area's creative music scene — including Mezzacappa and Levis's duo B and their co-led Experimental Band — inform these concise and sensitive 2022 improvisations with a compositional approach to form and balance.


Mike Westbrook Orchestra
The Cortege Live At The BBC 1980 [2CDs]
(Cadillac Records)

Bringing together poetry, theater, and expansive orchestral jazz, composer and pianist Mike Westbrook leads a remarkable 16-piece ensemble through a sweeping work for jazz orchestra where the vocal artistry of Phil Minton and Kate Westbrook intertwines with richly textured brass, reeds, and improvisation to evoke procession, memory, mortality, and the transformative power of collective expression.


Dave Douglas / GIFTS (w / Lewis / Bhatia / Chang / Reid)
Transcend
(Greenleaf Music)

Dave Douglas expands his GIFTS Quintet with Tomeka Reid on cello alongside James Brandon Lewis, Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang, drawing on the spiritual openness of Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts in a powerful electro-acoustic jazz setting where trumpet, tenor, guitar, cello and drums merge lyricism, electronics and high-energy interplay into a reverent, forward-looking ensemble statement.


Pauline Oliveros / Mia Masaoka / Issui Minegishi
Two Days In Dreamland [2 CDs]
(Important Records)

Two days across 2 CDs capture trio sessions featuring Pauline Oliveros on Roland V-accordion, Miya Masaoka on 21-string koto, and Issui Minegishi on ichigenkin (a single-string koto), in a richly textured and immersive dialogue of cross-cultural instrumentation unfolding with patient sensitivity and Deep Listening, where expressive interplay balances tradition, experimentation, and sonic intimacy.


MIR 8 (Andrea Belfi / Werner Dafeldecker / Hilary Jeffery / Tim Wright)
Perihelion [VINYL]
(Shhpuma)

Mir 8 brings electroacoustic artists Andrea Belfi (drums/percussion), Werner Dafeldecker (electroncis, bass), Hilary Jeffrey (trombone) and Tim Wright (computer & electronics) together for their debut album of four cinematic tracks following an abstract narrative through panoramic landscapes.


Egil Kalman / Fredrik Rasten
Weaving a Fabric of Winds
(Shhpuma)

Swedish bass player Egil Kalman, here on modular syntheizer, joins Norwegian guitarist Fredrik Rasten for a lovely album of drifting electronics and beautifully entwining acoustic guitar, unhurriedly developing environments of warm, slowly evolving chord structures that show influences from players like Catherine Lamb or the Wandelweiser collective.


Luis Lopes Love Song
Emmentes
(Shhpuma)

The third release in Portuguese guitarist Luís Lopes' Love Song Project is a solo album performed on a nylon-stringed acoustic guitar, six beautifully peaceful and introspective improvisations revealing a calm side to Lopes' often assertive electric guitar work, instead allowing harmonics and notes express his curiosity of life and love of music.


Kasper Toeplitz T.
Erosions Programmees [CD + BOOKLET]
(Akousis Records)

An epic collaboration between saxophone and real-time electronics recorded at La Muse en Circuit in France, where Bertrand Gauguet's breath, multiphonics, and shifting overtones are continuously transformed by Kasper T. Toeplitz into evolving timbral landscapes that erode instrumental identity and build an expansive, immersive sound-mass through slow, majestic transformation.


Anouck Genthon / Lionel Marchetti
Suite Blanche [2 CDs]
(UnRec)

Exploring the fusion of acoustic presence and electronic projection, violinist Anouck Genthon and electronic musician Lionel Marchetti shape a two-disc journey where the violin's resonance folds into shifting synthetic textures, spatial loudspeaker design guiding evolving sound-forms that radiate like a focused beacon through immersive, exploratory improvisation.


Eric La Casa / Francisco Lopez
Collection Supranaturelle: Induction / Mutation [2 CDs]
(Swarming)

Beginning with recordings of an electric induction cooktop made in his kitchen, French sound artist Éric La Casa constructs an electroacoustic work from improvisations and environmental sounds, which Spanish composer Francisco López then transforms into a dense studio mutation, the two discs tracing a dialogue of listening, transformation, and immersive sonic textures drawn from everyday objects and resonant spaces.


David Liebman
The Distance Runner
(Hatology)


Raphael Vanoli
Bibrax
(Shhpuma)

Amsterdam guitarist Raphael Vanoli in a solo record of discovery, hiper-amplifying his guitar so that slight motions create forceful statements, where gently blowing on the strings creates dynamics and harmonics rarely explored, effected to create complex sonic compositions with unique, unusual and fascinating properties.


The Holy Mountain
Toad Of Light [VINYL]
(Shhpuma)

Cinematic aesthetics and themes from the Norwegian Holy Mountain duo, performing on the uncommon pairing of two instruments--accordion played by Andreas Angell, and drums with acoustic and electronic parts and vintage synthesizer played by Aleksander Tidemann--in their 3rd release inspired by the dystopian sci-fi visions of John Carpenter, Philip Glass and Daft Punk.


Luis Lopes
Love Song: Post Ruins
(Shhpuma)

With only an electric guitar, Luis Lopes (Humanization 4tet) Love Song presents the mostly composed work "Post-Ruins", recorded live at Teatro Maria Matos, in Lisboa, using notes, intervals and chords chosen with the intention of transmitting the perception of an eternalized moment occupying the space like a sculpture, full of emotions, infinite in itself.


Andre Goncalves
Instrumentals
(Shhpuma)

A compilation of compositions for conventional, acoustic, musical instruments, performed through synthetics and computer processing as an album of electronic music, composed by Lisbon based sound and media artist André Gonçalves, each of 9 parts simply titled "Instrumental", and each a fascinating microcosm of kinetic, synthetic-acoustic potential.


Well... The Yes (Jeph Jerman / Dave Knott)
No, Really. [CASSETTE]
(Self Released)

Beginning in 1995 in Seattle, audio explorers Jeph Jerman & David Knotts explore lo-fi approaches using cassettes, mini-cassettes, dictaphones, various assortments of homemade instruments & collected materials, this 2020 cassette including recordings of mouth, stone, wood, glass, metal, paper, plastic, radio, and input from a number of contributors.


Jos Smolders
Bagatellen [CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(esc.rec.)

Inspired by Jeroen Diepenmaat's Xerox collage art book, "co//age co//py", sound artist Jos Smolders developed these tracks as a response through 9 brief works and one larger construction, intersecting voice, synth, sax, piano and field recordings in a mix of oddly and abruptly sliced sound offset with periods of beauty; a compellingly curious album.


Frond
Always There, Somewhere [CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(esc.rec.)

Frond, aka Richard Bultitude, is a UK sound artist who creates rich soundscapes of guitar, synthetics, field recordings and other ethereal elements, the mix of live instrumentation over drone and ambient environments adding warmth and personality to beautifully crafted works, each exuding a sense of inner calm through innately melodic music replete with detail.


Center For Whatever
Boogie Spiderland [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD]
(Huvudbry Recordings)

The first collaboration between Brooklyn-based experimental improvising drummer Hampus Ohman-Frolund (Apuh!) and guitarist John Lindaman (True Love Always), blurring rock forms and experimental electronics into a hybrid space rock that takes unexpected twists and turns, with the goal to produce compelling psychedelic inspired sound; headphones recommended!


Center For Whatever
Ensorcelled [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD]
(Huvudbry Recordings)

An intensely experimental journey in sound through guitars, electronics and percussion from the Brooklyn-based duo of John Lindaman and Hampus Ohman, a diverse set of pieces improvised using sound sculpting, noise and melodic elements, creating a great balance between darkness and light amidst solid conceptual and technical approaches to their instruments.


Teube
Teube [CASSETTE]
(BeCoq)

Strange environments of sound from the French trio of Simon Le Vigouroux on double bass, Cyril Noël on electronics and Thomas Coquelet on electronics, in two morphing works connected by name through each side of the cassette, expeditions guided by murky rythmic elements and mutated field recordings, surrounded by rich and darkly tinged sonic elements.


Matt Weston
Sparky 3 [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD]
(4 Men With Beards)

The 3rd installment in percussionist & composer Matt Weston's serialized opera for percussion ensemble + electronics, a set of narratives and counter-narratives that explore mental health struggles as they develop over time in varying circumstances, realized through a combination of site-specific graphic, multidimensional and instantaneous scores.


Richard Comte
Endless Tapes [CASSETTE]
(nunc.)

An immersive drone performed on acoustic guitar, captured and extended through loops and effects and recorded to 4-track cassette, from French improviser Richard Comte (Hippie Diktat, Vegan Dallas), a single extended piece that begins with actively repeating chords that evolve into rich layers of textured, expansive loops, a seemingly infinite work that begs to be looped.


Matt Weston
Sparky 4 [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD]
(7272music)

The 4th installment in percussionist & composer Matt Weston's serialized opera for percussion ensemble + electronics, a set of narratives and counter-narratives that explore mental health struggles as they develop over time in varying circumstances, realized through a combination of site-specific graphic, multidimensional and instantaneous scores.


Matt Weston
Sparky 6 [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD]
(7272music)

The 6th and final installment in percussionist & composer Matt Weston's serialized opera for percussion ensemble + electronics, a set of narratives and counter-narratives that explore mental health struggles as they develop over time in varying circumstances, realized through a combination of site-specific graphic, multidimensional and instantaneous scores.


Bruno Duplant / Seth Nehil
The Memory Of Things
(Sublime Retreat)

An immersive and often explosive set of dark compositions from Seth Nehil & Bruno Duplant, blending field recordings, electronics, percussion and percussive objects into a controlled chaos of inexplicably murky and uncategorizable sounds, at times like a surreal firework display, or inserted into a complex machine on the verge of collapse, all imbued with a consistent resonant hue.


Charles Lareau
Stasis (CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD)
(Eh?)

Sound artist Charles Lareau, a member of Naturaliste with Bryan Day, Chris Fischer & Lonnie Methe, in six solo compositions of assertive electronics and noise, using recordings, found sounds and various electronics while often incorporating his environment to add aural excitement and unexpected moments between sections of slowly shifting, static textures.


Jeff Surak
Eris I Dysnomia [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD]
(Eh?)

Washington DC-area sound artist and Zeromoon label-leader Jeff Surak, creating audio environments since the 80's home taping days, in a set of sound recordings of electro-acoustic drones, tape generated musique concrete, "plus a heavy dose of weirdness"; five tracks of diverse approaches to sonic experimentation, particularly the epic "Parasite Lost".


Innovative Landscapes Laboratory
Spontaneous Dimensions
(Sublime Retreat)

Ukrainian composer Taras Opanasiuk explores spontaneous soundscapes, blending free improvisation with a meticulous compositional process as he transforms modular synthesizer sessions into five compelling sound collages that balance atmospheric electronics, musique concrète, and studio layering, in an imaginative and introspective journey through Opanasiuk's unique sonic palette.


Eva-Maria Houben (Nate Wooley)
Chanting Ballads
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)

Commissioned for the for/with series, Eva-Maria Houben presents a long-form work for Nate Wooley's trumpet, voice, and whistling, where sparse, precisely placed tones unfold in a meditative arc, expanding from an early performance into a deeply considered exploration of pure timbre, attentive listening, and the subtle interplay between composition and free improv.


John Zorn (w/ Julian Lage / Gavin Riley)
Seven Sonnets
(Tzadik)

John Zorn continues his lyrical acoustic guitar writing with a Shakespeare-inspired book of seven intimate compositions for Julian Lage and Gyan Riley, whose long collaboration as interpreters of Zorn's music brings warmth, precision and conversational clarity to pieces that draw on early music, minimalism, contemporary classical forms, folk, jazz and soundtrack-like atmosphere.


Klaus Lang / Apartment House
Geschrieben In Wasser
(Another Timbre)

Klaus Lang's chamber works for Apartment House trace a patient, inwardly focused music of sustained tones, structural clarity and lyrical restraint, drawing from Pre-Raphaelite poetry, Basho's autumnal imagery and Keats' epitaph as clarinets, strings, piano and electric organ reveal slowly shifting architectures where beauty, stillness and sound become forms of quiet protest.


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.


Tyshawn Sorey
Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)
(DaCamera Editions)

Composed and conducted by Tyshawn Sorey, this expansive work presents a luminous, long-form meditation inspired by Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel, blending voice, strings, keyboards and percussion into a deeply contemplative soundscape of spiritual fragments, sustained tonal color and quiet emotional intensity, realized by soloists Davóne Tines, Kim Kashkashian, Sarah Rothenberg, Steven Schick and the Houston Chamber Choir.


John Cage (Wegmann / Debacker)
Two2 (1989) for 2 Pianos
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Judith Wegmann and Marlies Debacker perform John Cage's 1989 Two2, a late work for two pianos whose thirty-six short lines unfold through independent tempi, shared pauses and resonant decay, allowing the duo's deep experience in composed and improvised music to shape a live performance of patient asymmetry, concentrated listening and quietly radical spaciousness.


Edu Haubensak
Sequoia I-IV (for 6 Pianos)
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Swiss composer Edu Haubensak's 2019-2024 cycle for six scordatura pianos, performed by Simone Keller, Rafael Rütti, Asia Ahmetjanova, Stefan Kägi, Yoko Sawa and Stefan Wirth, builds a monumental field of microtonal resonance and harmonic colour, paying homage to Ivan Wyschnegradsky's Arc-en-ciel while linking Haubensak's mature tuning work to his 1979 Schwarz Weiss.


Matthias Muche Bonecrusher
Densities - for 12 trombones & percussion
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Expanding Matthias Muche's BONECRUSHER into a 12-trombone ensemble with Etienne Nillesen on extended snare drum, this powerful ezz-thetics release explores the trombone as a massive yet highly detailed acoustic organism, moving between composition and improvisation through crackling chords, microtonal pressure, resonant overtones, dense brass clouds and fiercely sculpted collective sound.


Morton Feldman (Judith Wegmann)
Triadic Memories [2 CDs]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

The second of four connected solo piano works by Morton Feldman, Triadic Memories is about that reality, the acoustic space created by the piano's strings and soundboard, as Feldman attempted to expand the temporal frame of his music, heard here in Judith Wegmann's 2019 recording, where thThe second of four connected solo piano works by Morton Feldman, Triadic Memories is about the acoustic space created by the piano's strings and soundboard, as Feldman worked to expand the temporal frame of his music, heard her in Judith Wegmann's 2019 studio recording where that space is revealed by a magnificent Bosendorfer 280VC piano.at space is revealed by a magnificent Bosendorfer 280VC piano.


Catherine Lamb / Harmonic Space Orchestra
Prisma Interius VII 7 VIII
(Sacred Realism)

Two hauntingly beautiful works in microtonal composer and violist Catherine Lamb's "Prisma Interius" series, the first a duo with violinist Johnny Change and Xavier Lopez on the "secondary rainbow synthesizer", which channels the sound outside of the performance space as a generator of ambient sound; then a sextet of strings and winds with two secondary rainbow synthesizers.


John Cage / Apartment House
Number Pieces [4-CD BOX SET]
(Another Timbre)

A 4-disc box-set with a 44-page booklet of extensive notes, presenting John Cage's Number Pieces which he wrote in the last five years of his life, adapted for mid-size ensembles and performed by the London-based ensemble Apartment House, compositions 'Five' to 'Fourteen' along with alternative versions of three of the pieces; significant and essential.


Linda Smith Catlin
Flowers of Emptiness
(Another Timbre)

The 6th album on Another Timbre from Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith, a leading voice in contemporary chamber music, presents eight exquisite works performed by Apartment House, including the 1st recordings of three string quartets, alongside a violin duo, a clarinet quartet, an early string trio, a cello and piano duo, and a bass clarinet solo; evocative and deeply expressive artistry.


Christopher Fox
Dissenting Voices
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

The second set of compositions from Christopher Fox emulating the Subharchord's sonic architecture through acoustic means, performed by Dominic Lash on double bass, Elisabeth Flunger on bass drum, and Kathryn Williams on bass flute, drawing deep resonance from extended techniques and elemental gestures in a richly textural exploration of dissent, descent, and transformation.


Japp Blonk
Kurt Schwitters Ursonate
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)

Dutch vocal artist Jaap Blonk performs Kurt Schwitters' iconic Dada sound poem Ursonate with deeply internalized precision and theatrical nuance, drawing on decades of experience to present a vivid, expressive interpretation of the four-movement work, including both an improvised and written Kadenz, in this definitive 2024 studio recording.


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.


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.


Maya Bennardo / Erik Blennow Calalv / Kristofer Svensson
For A Lemon Tree
(Another Timbre)

Exploring Kristofer Svensson's 11-limit Just Intonation tuning for Prakāśa, violinist Maya Bennardo, bass clarinetist Erik Blennow Calälv and Svensson on Indonesian kacapi shape a fragile, resonant chamber music of fully notated form and modal improvisation, where breath, string resonance, silence and unequal intervals create a quietly radiant field of melancholy and meditative depth.


Eugene Chadbourne
German Country Und Western
(Volatile Records)


Luigi Nono
20 Jahre Inventionen V
(Edition Rz)

Three compositions by Luigi Nono, recorded at the Berlin festival "Inventionen", live electronics moving away from clear spatial and timbral assignations rendering the acoustic instruments barely recognizable.


What Is Music
Volume 1 Liquid Metal Dreaming
(MusicNow)

Duo music from Robert Evans and Laurie Scott Baker for crwth, tambura, lyre, fiddle, double and electric bass and metal percussion, four slowly evolving pieces rooted in the harmonic series and Pythagorean tuning, weaving airy but focused textures of resonant strings and shimmering overtones into quietly luminous, immersive soundscapes.


Klaus Lang
einfalt.stille
(Edition Rz)

Austrian composer in a work for flute, viola, percussion, and voice aboout the inner state and flow we perceive when listening and concentrating on a piece of music.


Klaus Lang / Arditti String Quartet
20 Jahre Inventionen III
(Edition Rz)

The string quartet sei-jaku by German composer Klaus Lang, documented on this CD, was performed on June 30, 2002 in the Grober Sendesaal of the SFB Berlin by the Arditti String Quartet during the festival Inventionen 2002.


Jurg Frey
Collection Gustave Roud [2 CDs]
(Another Timbre)

A double CD with five beautiful pieces that engage with the work of the extraordinary French-Swiss poet Gustave Roud, with performers including Dante Boon, Stefan Thut, Andrew McIntosh and Jurg Frey himself, 10 compositions that Frey wrote in the manner that Roud would, roaming with a sketchbook and developing the pieces based on impressions of his surroundings.


Sarah Hennies (performed by Lenka Novosedlikova)
Sisters [VINYL]
(Mappa)

US Composer Sarah Hennies wrote these pieces for vibraphone for Lenka Novosedlíková to be performed at the church in Kyjatice, Slovokia, a medieval building the two discovered while traveling, and that they challenged each to bring life to the building while respecting it's contemplative character and using the psychoacoustic dimensions of space.


Julius Eastman / Apartment House
Femenine
(Another Timbre)

A live recording of Julius Eastman's 1974 work "Femenine" performed by Apartment House led by cellist Anton Lukoszevieze, with Simon Limbrick on vibraphone, Kerry Yong on piano, Mark Knoop on keyboard, Mira Benjamin on violin, and Gavin Morrison and Emma Williams on flute, an ecstatic and intricate work using a repeating figure contrasted with both asynchronous and complementing backgrounds.


Andre Duchesne
Ch'val
(Ambiances Magnetiques)

Montreal composer, guitarist and arranger Andre Duchesne developed the pieces on this solo album as a tribute to his sister Carole, "the one who dreamed of horses," who passed in 2010, his pieces incorporating elements of rock, improvisation and compositional forms, a sincere tribute developed by recording daily over a month as a virtual rock band of guitar, bass and drum programming.


Henry Cow
The Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow [18 CDs, DVD & 3 BOOKLETS]
(Recommended Records)

Expanding the definitive collection from British avant-garde pioneers Henry Cow, this expanded edition compiles the complete 40th anniversary box with remastered studio and live recordings, rare material including Cabinet of Curiosities and Glastonbury and Elsewhere, plus a DVD and three extensive booklets totaling 250 pages, presenting a comprehensive and rigorously documented portrait of the band's uncompromising, genre-defying work.


Sonic Youth
J'accuse Ted Hughes [VINYL]
(Sonic Youth Records)

The seventh entry in Sonic Youth's SYR series documents a pivotal experimental moment from the band's 2000 All Tomorrow's Parties performance, with Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley expanding a 20-minute "New Drone" into the voice-inflected J'accuse Ted Hughes, paired with a 2003 Echo Canyon studio work featuring Jim O'Rourke's bass, electronics and sound processing.


The World Heritage
Invitation to the World Heritage [DVD + CD]
(Magaibutsu)

CD & DVD of this supergroup of Japanese improvising and advanced rock forms with members of Ruins, Koenji Hyakkei, Korekyojinn, ROVO, Boredoms, Bondage Fruit, &c!


Konrad Strumpfel & The Set
refrescoscopio [CASSETTE]
(Music a la Coque)

An unissued album from Bavarian experimenter & songwriter Konrad Strumpfel and "The Set", the Czech duo of Herbert Lukundra & Josif Afkak, who added their contributions to Strumpfel's work which had been sent to them by post, the strengthening of the "Iron Curtain" between the USSR & Europe in the late 80s then prohibiting the release of their collaboration.


Huvudbry
Det ar ingen ordning pa allting [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD]
(Huvudbry Recordings)

Drummer Hampus Ohman-Frolund (Apuh!) leads the Huvudbry septet of structured rock forms, with an intriguing orchestration of trumpet, lap steel, double bass, guitars, keyboard and voice, using intervals of unusual sonic experimentation and field recordings to create a unique album that bassist Mats Dimming refers to as "A mix of Captain Beefheart, Yann Tiersen & Swedish House Mafia".


Henry Kaiser / Rome Yamilov
The Lenoir Investigation
(Little Village)

The Little Village Foundation run by keyboardist Jim Pugh assembled this band through Indian blues harmonica player & singer Aki Kumar, who brought drummer June Core and guitarist Rome Yamilov, deciding to make the release a "crazy guitar album" by adding Henry Kaiser; along with vocalist Lisa Leuschnet they hit the mark in an exuberantly diverse set of blues performing the music of J.B. Lenoir.


Eclectic Maybe Band
Again Alors?
(Discus)

Led by Univers Zero bassist and composer Guy Seger, the third album from Eclectic Maybe Band combines elements of rock, jazz, electronic and abstract landscapes, performed by an ensemble of chamber rock players including Discus label leader Martin Archer, varying groupings within the band focusing on each section in a mix of composed and improvised approaches.


Eclectic Maybe Band
Cosmic Light Clusters
(Discus)

Guy Segers (Univers Zero) in his 5th expansive EMBand project, assembling an ensemble of progressive and avant-garde musicians in ever-shifting configurations, for an album that evolves from introspective and textural atmospheres to dynamic and complex sonic landscapes, incorporating voices, poetry, and intricate instrumental interplay; a compelling example of Europe's progressive music scene.


Koenjihyakkei
Live at Club Goodman [2 CDs]
(Skin Graft)

Recorded without an audience at Tokyo's Club Goodman in 2020 and later mixed for release, Koenjihyakkei's double live set spans their entire catalog, unleashing over 100 minutes of virtuosic Zeuhl that fuses progressive rock, jazz fusion, symphonic and neoclassical elements with punk energy, metal power, and dazzling ensemble interplay in a career-spanning, high-intensity performance.


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.


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.


Fred Frith & The Gravity Band
s/t
(Klanggalerie)

A vibrant 2014 large-ensemble performance recorded live in Nijmegen and Moers, with Fred Frith leading an extraordinary lineup including Marie Abe, Kasey Knudsen, Aaron Novik, Lisa Mezzacappa, Ava Mendoza, William Winant, Dominique Leone, Wobbly, Kaethe Hofstetter, and Jordan Glenn in dynamic, genre-blurring interpretations of his Gravity-era compositions.


Albert Ayler Quintet
Copenhagen, Bordeaux 1966 & Newport 1967 Live First Release
(ALAY)

Previously unreleased recordings from the Albert Ayler Quintet — captured in Copenhagen and Bordeaux during the 1966 Newport in Europe tour and at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1967 — present Ayler with Donald Ayler, Michel Samson, Bill Folwell, and Beaver Harris/Milford Graves in fiercely expressive performances, newly restored and mastered from rediscovered tapes.


Art Edmaiston / Chad Fowler w/ Bob Moses / Damon Smith / Clifford Jackson
Memphis Mandala
(Mahakala Music)

Recorded live at Crosstown Arts in Memphis in March 2024, this concert brought together Art Edmaiston, Chad Fowler, Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Damon Smith and Clifford "Pee Wee" Jackson for a spiritually charged free jazz session that channels a deep Southern lineage, blending blues-rooted intensity with fearless collective improvisation into a cohesive, dramatic and wholly spontaneous performance.


[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright)
Sama'a (Audition) [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Otoroku)

Reimagining and transforming Ahmed Abdul-Malik's Jazz Sahara in their first studio session, the [Ahmed] quartet of Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal, and Seymour Wright ignite four compact, single-take explorations that fuse percussive intensity, kaleidoscopic group interplay, and a fearless reshaping of tradition into dizzying, future-leaning improvisation.


Eri Yamamoto / Matthew Shipp
Horizon
(Mahakala Music)

A deeply personal collaboration between pianists Eri Yamamoto and Matthew Shipp, recorded live in the studio with Yamamoto in the left channel and Shipp in the right, as Yamamoto marks thirty years in New York with a set of original compositions for this occasion, their distinctive voices intertwining in an elegant, searching, and harmonically rich conversation of friendship, individuality, and creative life.


Joe Morris
Perpetual Frontier The Properties of Free Music [BOOK]
(Riti Publishing)

Joe Morris wrote this book to discuss aspects of free music, including responses to his questionnaire written by Joe McPhee, William Parker, Jamie Saft, Ken Vandermark, Marilyn Crispell, Nate Wooley, Jack Wright, Matthew Shipp, &c.


AMM (Prevost / Rowe / Tilbury)
Phlegm
(Matchless)

A late-period live recording from AMM — Eddie Prévost, Keith Rowe, and John Tilbury — capturing their refined electroacoustic free improv language of near-silence, where percussion, electronics, and piano dissolve into a shared sonic field shaped by extreme restraint, microscopic detail, and a collective focus on texture, duration, and deep listening.


Manuel Linhares
Atlantico
(577 Records)

Vocalist and composer Manuel Linhares brings together a transatlantic ensemble with Glenn Zaleski, Or Bareket, Keita Ogawa, David Binney, Gil Silva, Hugo Caldeira, Felipe Jose and Antonio Loureiro, shaping jazz-rooted songs that move between New York urgency and Porto melancholy, blending Brazilian rhythmic language, avant-garde texture, folk and pop fragments into a fluid meditation on oceanic distance, memory and change.


Tomeka Reid Quartet (w/ Roebke / Halvorson / Fujiwara)
Dance! Skip! Hop!
(Out Of Your Head Records)

Led by cellist Tomeka Reid, this longstanding quartet with Mary Halvorson on guitar, Jason Roebke on bass, and Tomas Fujiwara on drums delivers a rhythmically propulsive and structurally nimble set that balances grounded low-end drive with agile drumming, incisive guitar textures, and Reid's expressive counterpoint, channeling echoes of 1960s jazz while asserting an exuberant, and yes — danceable — release!


Cecil Taylor Unit (w/ Lyons / Silva / Cooper / Murray)
Live At Fat Tuesday's February 10, 1980 First Visit [CD + POSTCARDS]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

The 2nd night of the superb, extended live performance from 1980 at NYC's Fat Tuesday jazz club, from the outstanding sextet of forward-thinking free improvisers, Jimmy Lyons on alto sax, Ramsey Ameen on violin, Alan Silva on double bass & cello, Jerome Cooper on drums & African Balaphone and Sunny Murray on drums, led by Cecil Taylor on piano in an ecstatic concert never previously released.


Morton Feldman / GBSR Duo w/ Taylor MacLennan
Trios [6 CD BOX SET]
(Another Timbre)

Spanning Morton Feldman's three expansive trios for flute, piano, and percussion, these performances by the GBSR Duo with Taylor MacLennan immerse the listener in an extended temporal field where quiet intensity, precise timbral balance, and fragile rhythmic relationships unfold with hypnotic patience, transforming duration itself into an expressive element of listening, presence, and sustained attention.


Ivo Perelman (w/ Marc Ribot / Elliott Sharp / Joe Morris)
Trifecta [3 CDs]
(Mahakala Music)

Uniting tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman with three distinct guitar voices — Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, and Joe Morris — this 3-CD set presents three separate duo encounters recorded at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, highlighting contrasting improvisational languages while exploring timbre, interaction, and the expressive possibilities of the guitar in free improv contexts.


AMM with Sachiko M
Testing
(Matchless)

A rare meeting between Japanese minimalist Sachiko M and AMM's Eddie Prévost and John Tilbury, recorded in 2004 at London's Museum of Garden History, where sine wave precision meets tactile percussion and spacious piano in an intricate electroacoustic improvisation that explores silence, texture, and the fragile tension of deep collective listening.


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.


Peter Brotzmann / Steve Hubback
Treforest 82
(FMR)

A previously unreleased duo encounter pairing Peter Brötzmann's ferocious saxophone with Welsh percussionist Steve Hubback's compact and inventive drum setup, captured at the 1982 Treforest festival in the UK in a brief but explosive burst of free improv where probing textures erupt into cathartic climaxes through raw, intensely focused interplay.


Marion Brown
Capricorn Moon To Juba Lee (remastered)
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Merging and remastering two essential albums from free jazz saxophonist Marion Brown: his 1966 ESP album "Marion Brown Quartet" with trumpeter Alan Shorter, bassist Reggie Johnson and percussionist Rahied Ali; and his 1967 Fontana album "Juba-Lee" in a septet with Reggie Johnson, drummer Beaver Harris, pianist Dave Burrell, trombonist Grachan Moncur III & saxophonist Bennie Maupin.


Derek Bailey / John Stevens
The Duke of Wellington
(Confront)

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.


Steve Lacy Three
Live Lugano 1984 - First Visit [CD + 2 POSTCARDS]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Recorded live in Lugano in 1984, Steve Lacy's trio with guitarist Barry Wedgle and bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel reimagines his compositions in an intimate and transparent setting, where Lacy's masterful soprano saxophone carves precise yet expressive lines, drawing on influences from poetry, Monk, and visual art to create a striking balance between structure and improvisation.


Evan Parker / Joelle Leandre
Long Bright Summer
(RogueArt)

Drawing on decades of fearless improvising, saxophonist Evan Parker and bassist Joëlle Léandre engage in an intense and unfiltered acoustic dialogue recorded live in France, their shared language enabling lightning reactions, extended techniques, surges of density and flow, hushed textural intimacy, and moments where Léandre's wordless voice merges seamlessly into their spontaneous interplay.


Teiku (Harlow / Taylor / Shahid / Formanek / Leafar)
Teiku
(577 Records)

Teiku, a Talmudic acronym that roughly translates to "unanswered question", was co-founded by pianist Josh Harlow and percussionist Jonathan Barahal Taylor to explore each of their family's unique Passover vocal melodies through improvisation and sonic exploration, performed in a quintet with Art Ensemble/Sun Ra bassist Jaribu Shahid and reedists Peter Formanek & Rafael Leafar.


Byron Coley / Mats Gustafsson / Thurston Moore
Now Jazz Now: 100 Essential Free Jazz & Improvisation Recordings (1960-80) [BOOK]
(Ecstatic Peace Library )

Drawing from deeply personal listening histories, this richly illustrated volume assembles 100 essential free jazz and improvisation recordings from 1960-80, presenting album art, notes, and reflections that frame the music as non-hierarchical and interlinked, offering an immersive guide for adventurous listeners interested in the lineage, spirit, and lived culture of creative freedom.


Albert Ayler with Don Cherry
1964 Recordings First Visit Completed [2 CDs + POSTCARDS]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Four sets of recordings from September, 1964 in Copenhagen, Denmark from a week performing live at Club Montmarte, and a recording in Hilversum, The Netherlands for VARA Radio, collecting and remastering these vital recordings from tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler's most vital free jazz quartet with Don Cherry on cornet, Gary Peacock on double bass and Sunny Murray on drums.


Karl Evangelista's Apura + Andrew Cyrille
Bukas
(577 Records)

West Coast Bay Area guitarist Karl Evangelista leads his Apura ensemble — Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), Francis Wong (tenor sax), Rei Scampavia (keys, electronics), and Lewis Jordan (alto sax) — joined by drum legend Andrew Cyrille in a powerful statement of free improvisation, blending expressive intensity and forward-looking vision with deeply rooted passion and creative openness.


Albert Ayler Trio
Prophecy Live, First Visit
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Recorded live at New York City's Cellar Café in June 1964, this essential document captures Albert Ayler, bassist Gary Peacock, and drummer Sunny Murray in a pivotal moment of spiritual free jazz, expressing motifs like 'Ghosts' and 'Spirits' into an ecstatic, ever-evolving language, with this remastered edition offering a refined perspective on a landmark session that shaped Ayler's uncompromising vision.


Eri Yamamoto Quadraphonic
Fly With The Wings
(Mahakala Music)

A warm and lyrical new quartet from pianist, vocalist, and melodica player Eri Yamamoto alongside Chad Fowler on alto sax & flute, Kevin Thomas on bass, and longtime collaborator Ikuo Takeuchi on drums, blending groove-driven jazz, free improvisation, and tender balladry with Yamamoto's distinctive touch, highlighted by playful interplay, beautiful melodies, and a soulful, unhurried charm.


Fieldwork (Iyer / Lehman / Sorey)
Thereupon
(Pi Recordings)

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.


Angles 11
Tell Them It's The Sound Of Freedom
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

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.


Joe McPhee / Steve Swell / Mark Tokar / Klaus Kuge
Spontaneous Convergence
(Not Two)

Recorded live at the Alchemia Club in Krakow, Joe McPhee (reeds) and Steve Swell (trombone) join Mark Tokar (bass) and Klaus Kugel (drums) for a sharply interactive quartet session that moves from tight, prickling exchanges to wide-open collective surges, anchored by the twenty-eight-minute "Joy And Imagination Are Uncontainable."


Webber/Morris Big Band
Unseparate
(Out Of Your Head Records)

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.


Cecil Taylor Unit (w/ Lyons / Silva / Cooper / Murray)
Live At Fat Tuesday's February 9 - First Visit Archive [CD + POSTCARDS]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

A superb and extended live performance from 1980 at NYC's Fat Tuesday jazz club, from the outstanding sextet of forward-thinking free improvisers, Jimmy Lyons on alto sax, Ramsey Ameen on violin, Alan Silva on double bass & cello, Jerome Cooper on drums & African Balaphone and Sunny Murray on drums, led by Cecil Taylor on piano in an ecstatic concert never previously released.


John Coltrane Quartet (w/ Tyner / Garrison / Jones)
Impressions From Graz 1962, Revisited [2 CDs]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Expanding and remastering the 2019 single CD of John Coltrane's Quartet from its European tour in the fall of 1962, with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on double bass, and Elvin Jones on drums, performing at Stefaniensaal in Graz, Austria, beautifully recorded by ORF Steiermark and now presented in both volumes, showcasing Coltrane's lyrical roots and growing free inclinations.


Alan Niblock / John Butcher / Mark Sanders
Tectonic Plates
(577 Records)

A formidable trio debut from Irish double bassist Alan Niblock with British improvisers John Butcher on saxophones and Mark Sanders on drums and percussion, recorded live at The Black Box in Belfast and unfolding across five tectonically inspired pieces that channel collective intuition, dynamic interplay, and seismic shifts of intensity and form.


Davis / Ferrari / Mazza
Things Of This Nature
(Mahakala Music)

The quartet Things Of This Nature — Caylie Davis (trumpet), Chris Ferrari (woodwinds), Shogo Yamagishi (bass), and JJ Mazza (drums) — brings together a young generation of New York improvisers whose tight ensemble interplay, bold free jazz sensibility, and energetic collective approach draw deeply from the tradition while pushing their music toward fresh and expressive terrain.


Anthony Braxton
Solo Bern 1984 First Visit
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Thirteen years after his breakthrough solo saxophone album For Alto, Anthony Braxton is heard in an inventive solo concert on the same instrument, performing at the Altes Schlachthaus Theatre in Bern, Switzerland for a set of original numbered compositions, the standards "Alone Together" and "I Remember You", and two Coltrane pieces: "Giant Steps" and "Naima".


Rob Brown / Brandon Lopez / Juan P. Carletti
Walkabout
(Mahakala Music)

An energetic trio session of collective free improvisation from NY alto saxophonist Rob Brown, bassist Brandon Lopez, and drummer Juan Pablo Carletti, recorded in the studio and driven by an intense energy that maintains a powerful swing, with Brown's incisive phrasing, Lopez's commanding bass, and Carletti's dynamic percussion merging into a spontaneous and deeply expressive musical force.


Tomas Fujiwara
Dream Up
(Out Of Your Head Records)

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.


Peter Brotzmann w/ Peter Uuskyla / Peter Friis Nielsen
Flying Feathers
(FMR)

Blazing through a set of raw, high-intensity free jazz, Peter Brötzmann joins Danish bassist Peter Friis Nielsen and Estonian drummer Peeter Uuskyla for a ferocious trio session where roaring saxophone and tarogato collide with clanking electric bass and trance-like percussion, balancing relentless energy with occasional lyrical openings in this fiercely driven improvisational encounter.


Jimmy Giuffre (w / Bley / Swallow)
Free Fall Clarinet 1962, Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Reissuing clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre's 1963 Columbia album Free Fall, presenting trio performances with bassist Steve Swallow and pianist Paul Bley recorded after their 1961 European tour, along with duos between Giuffre and Swallow and several solo tracks from the clarinetist himself, propelling himself and his band into his sophisticated, risk-taking chamber jazz compositions.


Marion Brown
Three For Shepp to Gesprachsfetzen Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Remastering and restoring Marion Brown's 1967 Impulse! album with Grachan Moncure III, Dave Burrel, Stanley Cowell, Sirone, Beaver Harris & Bobby Capp, and his 1968 album on the Calig label with Gunter Hampel, Steve McCall, Ambrosa Jackson & Buschi Niedergall; two albums of essential "New Thing" work through fascinating composed forms by Brown, plus Archie Shepps' "Delicado"; essential.


Ornette Coleman
Free Jazz To Ornette! Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Exploring further the concepts of free jazz, saxophonist Ornette Coleman's back-to-back 1961 & 62 albums find the composer and innovator in a ground-breaking double quartet that includes Eric Dolphy, Don Cherry & Freddie Hubbard, Scott LaFaro & Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgns & Ed Blackwell; then with quintet with Scott LaFaro temporarily taking Charlie Haden's chair.


Ellery Eskelin Trio New York
About (or On), First Visit [2 CDs]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Reuniting for two powerful studio sessions recorded in 2011 and 2013, tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, organist Gary Versace, and drummer Gerald Cleaver form Trio New York, navigating an intuitive path between free improvisation and jazz standards with soulful depth, rich allusions, and a shared language that reimagines the classic organ trio.


Thelonious Monk with Sonny Rollins
1953 To 1957 Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Restoring and remastering three key sessions documenting the evolving creative relationship between Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, alongside artists including Julius Watkins, Ernie Henry, Oscar Pettiford, and Max Roach, in a vital revisitation of formative collaborations that highlight Monk's unique brilliance and Rollins' early improvisational voice within shifting post-bop ensembles.


Joseph Holbrooke (w/ Derek Bailey / Gavin Bryars / Tony Oxley)
Last Live 2001 - In Memoriam Derek Bailey And Tony Oxley [2 CDs]
(Tzadik)

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.


Frode Gjerstad / Alexander von Schlippenbach / Dag Magnus Narvesen
Seven Tracks
(Relative Pitch)

A dynamic trio session from Frode Gjerstad on alto sax & clarinet, Alexander von Schlippenbach on piano, and Dag Magnus Narvesen on drums & percussion, their first collaboration unfolds in seven spontaneous improvisations that balance fierce intensity with lyrical openness, revealing a seasoned interplay that blends deep exploration with collective free jazz sensibility.


[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright)
Play Monk [2 CDs]
(Otoroku)

After six albums reimagining Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal and Seymour Wright turn their transformative [Ahmed] project toward Thelonious Monk, atomising his compositions across two CDs into volatile, time-bending forms where piano, bass, drums and alto saxophone fracture and reassemble melody, rhythm and space through free jazz intensity, pulse and radical collective invention.


Charles Mingus
Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird, Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Three sides of Charles Mingus in this remastered reissue set: the 1961 Candid album Mingus Presents Mingus with the classic quartet of Eric Dolphy, Ted Curson and Dannie Richmond; then the Mercury release Pre-Bird from the same year, in ensembles performing the music of or influenced by Duke Ellington, along with the ambitious and brilliant through-composed work, "Half Mast Inhibition".


John Butcher / John Edwards
This Is Not Speculation
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

A remarkable live recording from Einstein Kultur in Munich, reuniting British free improvisation masters John Butcher on saxophones and John Edwards on double bass in four expansive, detailed, and often breathtaking duets, exploring abstract soundscapes with razor-sharp interplay, extended techniques, and an uncompromising sense of sonic exploration.


Eva Novoa Trio (w/ Carter / Mela)
The Freedom Suite, Vol. 2 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

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.


Oliver Lake / Fred Hopkins / Phillip Wilson / Baikida Carroll / Michael Gregory Jackson
Rivbea Live! Series, Volume 4
(NoBusiness)

Recorded during the mid-1970s loft-jazz flowering at Studio Rivbea in New York City, this live session finds Oliver Lake leading a volatile ensemble with Baikida Carroll, Michael Gregory Jackson, Fred Hopkins, and drummers Phillip Wilson and Jerome Cooper, blending post-BAG urgency, searching improvisation, and sharp ensemble interplay into a raw, idealistic document of creative rebirth.


Mats Gustafsson / Ken Vandermark / Tomeka Reid / Chad Taylor
Pivot
(Silkheart)

Four master improvisers (Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Tomeka Reid, Chad Taylor) from overlapping creative circles engage in a set of powerful interactions, where dense low-end reeds, lyrical cello, and rhythmic elasticity create shifting terrain; through deep listening and long-forged connections, they navigate spontaneous form with urgency, restraint, and a shared sense of sonic purpose.


Henry Threadgill
Listen Ship
(Pi Recordings)

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.




The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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