Demonstrating the striking diversity modern solo percussionists present, the Italian tape label TSSS Tapes compiles an international set of solo works from explorers Tim Daisy, Jeph Jerman, Ted Byrnes, Wojtek Kurek, Clinton Green, Rie Nakajima, Emilio Berne, Shakeeb Abu Hamdan, Lucie Nezri, Karen Willems, Paolo Sanna, Li Qing, Carlos Godinho, and Rodrigo Vieira.

Two mysteriously veiled electroacoustic improvisations recorded live at Maison des musiques, in Brussels, Belgium between performers Nicola Lancerotti, an Italian-born double bassist & sound artist, and sound artist Chiara Bacci, using glitch, veiled voices, synthetics and acousmatic sources, packaged in a sparkly green tinted cassette with download code.

The Thessaloniki trio Vasilis Liolios, Aris Giatas and Yiannis Tsirikoglou, aka Eventless Plot, pays great attention to sonic details through experimental sound and sonic expression, here in a two-part work performed on percussion, analog modular synth, tapes/Revox A-77, field recordings, electromagnetic mic & objects, joined by double bassist Antonis Argyriou for the 2nd part.

Four unedited performances of extreme double bass work from Tripticks label leader Nat Baldwin, merging free playing with extraneous bass sounds, noise and unusual techniques, yielding a muscular set of double bass improvisations, the opening tracks building technique around fractured lyrical expression as the album builds to the closing "negation" of burning intensity.

An album of sonic environments reflecting on religion in the Southeast from Atlanta, GA drummer and sound artist Kelsey Wilson, using organ, tapes and field recordings to create dark and brooding meditations intended for loud playback, five opaquely layered constructions of ambience and drone, crackling tape loops, low-tones synths and disembodied voices.

Two distinctive works of sounds and noise from Atlanta sound artist and drummer Kelsey Wilson composing extended works using field recordings collected between 2020-2022, volume/feedback and synthesizers; first a howling and heavy journey in "Bootstrap Story"; then a rich and ringing birthday party for Nick Cave that ends with haunting bells and running water.

Bassist & composer Nick Dunston's Berlin band Skultura creates a uniquely experimental and fascinatingly sculpted approach to free jazz through layers of sound and serious playing punctuated by voice and concrete elements, each piece keeping the listener in anticipation of what might happen next, eased into serious jazz grooves, then whisked away in new directions; not to be missed!

A heavy and wild ride in the 9th album from New York's The Gate of composer and tuba player Dan Peck, bass player Tom Blancarte and percussionist Brian Osborne, concise pieces of heavy melodic elements, dark riffs and an ominous attitude, intersecting with plundered asides and anxious pauses, a strong addition to their discography and an engrossing collection of deep disturbance.

Taking the viola da gamba and the daxophone into uncharted (dark) territories, composer Daniel Fishkin (who studied with daxophone inventor Hans Racheil) presents four works leveraging interference & frequency patterns, performed with an exceptional set of specialists on each instrument, and Fishkin's own 20-foot long instrument, The Lady's Harp, creating long, sustained tones.

Straddling quirky folk song and experimental sound collage, the long-running Western Massachusettes duo of fiddler, banjo player & singer Mia Friedman and clarinetist, wind player & sound artist Andy Allen (Guerilla Toss) present an album of observational songs with unusual perspectives and an anything goes approach to the music that surrounds each song; delightful.

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.

Excerpted from their 2022 concert at Museo Ex Teresa Arte Actual in Mexico, flutist Camilo Ángeles (TVL REC label), also performing on bass flute, joins with New York City violist Joanna Mattrey, an active performer and improviser associated with Issue Project Room and Roulette, for six unusual duos of wind, string and voice leveraging the natural resonance of the museum space.

Active as a drum soloist since 2003, Ryosuke Kiyasu (Fushitsusha, SETE STAR SEPT, Kiyasu Orchestra) performs solo in a live performance split between two extended improvisations, captured at Tokyo Arts and Space in 2022, using a snare drum and a table in a forceful demonstration of rhythm and punctuation that is affected by the ambiance of the space.

Cantankerously informed and paced like a perfect tumble, the duo improvisations of Massachusetts collaborator Stella Silber on turntables and Nat Baldwin on upright bass augment their work through turntable preparations and static, Baldwin performing all over his instrument, as the duo surprise and maintain interest through accessible abrasiveness.

One "Small Dog" and one Big from the Texas experimental duo of Andrew Weathers on synth, lap steel, recorder & electronics, and Gretchen Korsmo on voice, keys & percussion, both members of the Full Spectrum Records collective, their confident collaboration morphing drones, sonic deformation, resonance, voice, bells and mysterious sources in two well-paced & passionate sonic journeys.

The third release for the Chicago collective improvising trio of Jeff Kimmel on clarinet & electronics, Ishmael Ali on cello & electronics and Bill Harris on drums & feedback, acoustic interplay in the foreground with electronics adding layers of intriguing sonic pressure as their playing evolves through clear and cohesive conversation over punctuated & textural foundations.

Cornetist Josh Berman, drummer Bill Harris, and cellist Ishmael Ali meet with NY pianist Eli Wallace in Chicago, recording live in the studio for a session that focuses on acoustic interplay using unusual techniques, inside piano playing, textural percussion with scrapes & drags and melodic & harmonic fragments, Fitting quite well in a set of interesting moods and motion.

Extending their initial collaboration "One Moment in Time", released during the pandemic and picked up by Apple Music's Pure Meditation playlist, the trio of Stijn Huwels on electric guitar & pedals, Cok van Vuuren on dobro & mando guitars, and Michel Banabila on keys, sampler, voice & granular fx, extend their catalog with "Across the Sky", a beautifully warm work of layered drones.

A collection of works from Netherlands composer Michel Banabila, including a piece developed with saxophonist Dave Liebman and previously released only digitally; a work with Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek); a work with Pierre Bastien; and excerpts from scores for Yin Yue's choreography in two works: "Somewhere" for New York Live Arts and "Timeless Tide" for BalletMet.