Two dense, 20-minute tracks of physical, visceral playing from prepared electric guitarist Simeon Abbot with the Bent Spoon Duo: percussionist Chris Dadge and viola/trombone player Scott Munro.

Longtime collaborators Abbott and Dadge release their first album together, a dizzying array of ideas and sounds recorded live at the monthly Calgary based Bug Incision concert series.

This duet between cellist Altenburger and guitarist Russell was recorded at the Musique en Mouvement Festival Theatre du Jarnisy in 2008, an intense and intricate dialog of great dynamics.

ap'strophe began working together in 2006 in search of a common sonoric space, which they found in the investigation of distinctive timbres between acoustic guitar and zither.

1999 recordings from the trio of cornetist Bobby Bradford, Tuba player Tom Heasley and guitarist Ken Rosser, bridging chamber and free jazz with a unique orchestration.

Drummer Cappozzo and trumpeter Perraud met at Tours "La Chapelle at St. Anne" in 2009 to record this strong album of extended improvisation merging conventional and extended techniques.

Saxophonist Coleman's 1st US label release in 9 years, 6 original compositions of complex, constantly shifting rhythms that convey a fundamental sense of groove from his 6 piece band.

Guitarist Jez Franks and saxophonist Tori Freestone co-lead this quartet in a sophisticated take on melodic yet complex, hard driving jazz, intelligent playing for a modern age.

Live recordings from 2009 at Delbury Hall with the mighty Paul Dunmall on tenor and clarinet; blistering music from an incredible trio playing seriously smoking free jazz.

Clarinetist Markus Eichenberger's beautiful solo work "Half Time" work is a foray into a landscape of memory using the instrument in traditional and unconventional ways.

The Ember quartet's 2nd release recorded during the 2008 Ahornfelder Festival in Leipzig, an amazing live/studio album of distinct and clearly separated structured improvisations.

The 4th Fanfare Pourpour perform a lively and inventive music joining jazz, rock, and orchestral forms, played by 20 musicians including Jean Derome, Damian Nisenson, Norman Guilbeault, Pierre Tanguay, &c.

Unpublished work by the late electronic composer Ferrari, two pieces for tape and various instruments that incorporate improvisation; mysterious and sonically beautiful compositions.

The inimitable Frode Gjerstad in a trio with some of Chicago's finest, bassist Fred Lonberg-Holm and percussionist Michael Zerang performing live at Milwaukee's Sugar Maple, 2009.

Trumpeter Gonzalez's band with sons, bassist Aaron Gonzalez and drummer Stefan Gonzalez, joined by saxophonist Tim Green and legendary UK/South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo.

The trio of reed player Frank Gratkowski, pianist and live electronics artist Chris Brown, and vibraphonist/pecussionist William Winant performing live at Mills College.

The Grid Mesh trio performing live at The Loft in Cologne, dark and biting improv with an electroacoustic edge that shifts between playful dialog to massive walls of sound.

Sound sculptist and percussionist Steve Hubback met with Dutch saxophonist Ad Peijnenburg on baritone and sopranino in a release of thoughtful and mesmerizing improvisation.

Masters of tonality, in their 2nd release the dual clarinets of Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke are heard without any guest musicians, making a rich, gorgeous album of tense timbres.

Swiss saxophonist Michael Jaeger's quartet Kerouac meets saxophonist Greg Osby and guitarist Phillip Schaufelberger for a set of original compositions played on the outside.

Detroit area improviser Mike Khoury in live solo recordings from various radio broadcasts in Maine, Illinois, and DC, ribbons of lyrical, stream-of-consciousness violin playing.

10 babies under 1.5 years old are gathered from several countries to improvise on zither, piano, steel pan, toy turntable or computer-controlled pacifier with unlikely results.

Incredible and telepathic ea-oriented improv from violist Ernesto Rodrigues, saxophonist Martin Kuchen, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, and electronicist Carlos Santos.

The dual alto saxophones of Martin Kuchen and Seymour Wright meet guitarist Keith Rowe for an impressive journey of free improvisation with Rowe taking the lead.

Initially planned as a trio with Russian Alexey Lapin, Roger Turner's presence expanded this to a quartet, and then flautist Helen Bledsoe joined to complete the quintet as recorded live at the LOFT.

The trio of bassist Joelle Leandre, saxophonist Maguelone Vidal and guitarist Raymond Boni performing live compositions at the Centre Choregraphique National de Montbellier.

Serbian string player and band leader Szilard Mezei in an impressive solo performance of three works - Heat; Snow; and Chrom - performed on viola and double bass.

The unusual cello duo format is explored by Mitzlaff and Mira in these experimental contemporary improvisations using acoustics and techniques mimicking live electronics to create a uniquely informed music.

An incredible hour-long 6 part drum set from one of Europe's most active drummers, performing live at Foundacio Joan Miro in Barceloa during the Nits de Music series.

The trio of guitarist O'Leary, drummer Pasborg and Fender Rhodes player Anderskov, Nordic lyricism juxtaposed with dark neo gothic landscapes in a gorgeous post-ECM flavor.

Formed in 2008 the Norwegian trio of trumpeter Stian Omenas, guitarist Are Kolbeinsen and drummer Ulrik Thorsrud draws on influences including Asian folk musics, trad jazz, & abstract soundscapes.

"Two compositional responses upon the same sonic matter from two sound artists" - Tomas Phillips, and Francisco Lopez each creating extended works using the same source materials.

Founded in Hamburg in 1989, TonArt Ensemble is a democratic collective of free improvising musicians, here in collaboration with Portuguese string player and composer Ernesto Rodrigues.

Large scale electroacoustic conduction by Ernesto Rodrigues (Creative Sources) with a monumental orchestra including some of Europe's finest improvisers performing live at Porto's Casa da Musica.

Steelpan and electronics player and Amorfon label leader Yoshio Machida met the Serbian CINC band for these sophisticated and lovely post-rock pieces recorded in Belgrade, 2006.

Using mostly unprocessed electric guitars, the duo of Elliott Sharp and Scott Fields' latest release presents eight dueling guitar works using dynamic, angular tones and textures, from extremely aggressive work to clean avant-jazz with twisted technical intent.

The trio of bassist Gary Peacock, pianist Paul Bley, and trumpeter Franz Koglmann interpret and improvise on the music of avant song-writer Annette Peacock.

Legendary trumpeter, composer and educator Bill Dixon in a 17 piece orchestra playing original compositions live at the 12th Vision Festival in New York City.

The first Hopscotch release from the then husband/wife duo of wind player Assif Tsahar and drummer Susie Ibarra, lyrical and textural powerfully woven improvisation.

This Toronto quintet spent two years researching and performing the music of Steve Lacy, focusing on the vocal works, which they play with precision, imagination and love.

Tokyo based transboundary sound & visual artist Yoshio Machida in his 2006 4th release of steel pan music, here solo or multi-tracked without electronics in 7 pieces including one inspired by Satie.

A masterful fountain of melodic ideas, intriguing rhythms, and exceptional technical skill from the duo of Hamid Drake on drums and frame drum, and Sylvain Kassap on clarinets and chalumeau, recording live at the France Musique at Studio Theatre dÕAlfortville and in the studio.

A live performance at Judson Church in Manhattan as part of the 20th Vision Festival from the NY/France free improvising trio of Joelle Leandre on double bass, Mat Maneri on viola, and Gerald Cleaver on drums and percussion, two tracks of steadily building, incredibly compatible dialog.

The 35 poems found on Fortner Anderson's "Solitary Pleasures", performed with Michel F Cote, Sam Shalabi and Alexandre St-Onge, speak of the obsessions, phantasies and encounters of Anderson's life.

Roman philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus named "Clinamen" the unpredictable (in time and space) swerve of atoms falling in the void, which aptly describes the unexpected directions taken in subtle free improvisation from this French trio, led by bassist Louis-Michel Marion, with Jacques Di Donato on clarinet, and Philippe Berger on viola.

A co-production between BeCoq Records and Creative Sources, the quartet of saxophonist Mathhiew Lebrun with 3 guitarists--Leo Rathier, Paul Menard, and Thomas Coquelet--use preparations, feedbacks, glass, cymbals, microswitches, and unusual sax techniques to create unusual sonic environments that ebb and flow in introspective and disquieting ways.

The Swedish duo of percussionist Andreas Pollak and prepared pianist Johan Graden (Adam & Alma) in an album of references and innuendo, clandestine and furtive sounds that evoke great mystery and drama in beautifully shaped sound; evocative music that deceives to emerge from the electronic realm while in actuality coming from all acoustic sources.

A reference to rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from a single point in the sky around dusk or dawn, as heard through a combination of acoustic guitar, objects and no-input mixing board.

Goh Lee Kwang performing on no-input mixer meets Julien Ottavi on TamTam, bass drum and a computer running Puredata and Apodio 10 for an album of electronic improvisation recorded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Nantes, France, balancing aggressive and meditative sound.

A 71 minute unedited improvisation between guitarist Zai Kuning, Otomo Yoshihide on guitar and turntable, and Dickson Dee on electronics, Asian improv moving between turbulence and stillness.

This laptop trio create a dense and scurrying sound world of a surprising freeform nature that avoids cliches by combining sound-generation tools for ever-shifting results.

Swiss voice artist Isa Wiss with Marc Unternahrer on tuba in a surreal set of alphabetized improvisations in a Minton-esque mode with Unternahrer taking the tuba into untold territory.

With over 90 minutes of additional material this reissue of "Nothing Is..." from the 1966 ESP College Tour adds a 2nd set from the Arkestra, a sound check, and an introduction by Burton Greene.

A fascinating rendering of Ferrari's Tautology--everyday activities enacted in gesture, noises, words, &c.--used as a framework for a chamber work where the performers recorded their parts independently, which were then overlapped and played alongside Ferrari's tapes and narration.

The classic collective improvisation trio of Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker and Paul Lovens playing in the auditorium that Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius inscribed.

The meeting of the extreme jazz trio Borbetomagus and the electroacoustic trio Voicetrack for an album of radical textures, timbres, colors, and tone fields.

On the cover: Kode9; plus: Patterson; Contributors: Clive Bell, Nick Cain, Jace Clayton, Mark Fisher, Alan Licht, Nick Richardson, Peter Shapiro, etc.