Three superb London improvisers, two from the new generation of free improv--bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders--in a trio with legendary pianist John Tilbury in a two part work of tension and release, performed live at Cafe Oto in 2013.

Three CDs in a beautifully constructed fold-out cross with liner notes and recording data from NY drummer Kate Gentile, in a set of 41 studio recordings with her working band of Matt Mitchell on piano & keys, Kim Cass on acoustic & electric bass and Jeremy Viner on reeds, each disc exploring a distinct yet connected approach to her fascinating compositions and group interaction.

Drummer Steve Noble assaults his drum kit in a way that excellently parallels Ikue Mori's electronics, producing an enthralling blend of acoustic and electronic music.

A meeting between two accomplished saxophonists recorded live at Kernel Brewery, in London in 2014, and at The Studio in Derby, with Seymour Wright on alto saxophone and Evan Parker on both alto and soprano, criss-crossing and combining in exuberant and astonishing ways.

UK free improvising drummer Roger Turner meets Japanese guitarist Otomo Yoshihide at the Hara Museum, Tokyo in the winter of 2013 for a performance that balances introspective improvisation with assertive and authoritative playing for a captivating and dynamic album.

New York-based trumpeter Nate Wooley and London-based saxophonist Seymour Wright in a series of 9 duos using the fringes of their instruments in exploratory and introspective dialog of great depth and intensity.

Performing on the 7,466 pipe Æolian-Skinner organ at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, one of the first American classic-style organs and among the largest church organs in the West, John Zorn continues his solo organ series with this tribute to Terry Riley in two extended improvisations, part of his 70th birthday celebration as part of Fred Barnes's concert series.

Improvising over the abyss, Texas drummer Lisa Cameron (Roky Erickson, ST 37) and violinist Alex Cunningham (Sandy Ewen, Damon Smith, Claire Rousay) present three extended interactions using conventional instrumentation in unconventional ways, augmented by feedback, bowed cymbals, electronics and objects, under the control of exceptional technique.

Unofficial jazz documentarian Boris Rose captured these recordings on reel-to-reel tape of the Bill Evans Trio in 1960, an artistically fulfilling concert at Birdland in NYC and a rare recording of this particular trio with bassist scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian; originally issued in 1992 on the Cool & Blue label, here properly restored and remastered.

A trio of leaders in their own right performing pianist Satoko Fujii's demanding compositions, bassist Takashi Sugawa and drummer Ittetsu Takemura rise to the challenge in a set of six exciting works that push and pull this remarkable piano trio in unexpected directions, responding to the twists and turns of Fujii's intense and intricate directions; superlative!

The result of two formidably versatile improvisers--pianist Joel Futterman and drummer/percussionist Michael Wimberly--meeting in Futterman's home city of Virginia Beach for a session of collective, spontaneous improvisation, is this magnificent two-part work released as the unedited live first takes, an epic journey through masterful technique and compelling expression.

Joining with two of London's finest free improvisers, Swiss saxophonist Christoph Gallio of DAY & TAXI fame and performing on alto, soprano & c-melody saxophones, meets drummer Mark Sanders and double bassist Dominic Lash at London's Cafe OTO for a remarkable concert of free collective playing in two large works: "Wildlife" in three parts, and "Homelife" in two parts.

The third album of piano works from Japanese composer Jo Kondo performed by pianist Satoko Inoue, known for her interpretations of Morton Feldman, John Cage, Luc Ferrari, &c., here performing Kondo works written between 2013 and 2020 that apply different methods and approaches to form and interpretation, including works that incorporate improvisation and choices left to the performer.

The Kaze quartet of trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, pianist Satoko Fujii, trumpeter & flugelhorn player Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins, continues its avant-embracing and uniquely voiced project with this live performance at Lille, France, an episodic and spontaneously diverse set of three collective improvisations of intuitive, adventurous interaction.

Compressing his Exploding Star Orchestra to a sextet, Chicago trumpeter Rob Mazurek presents two expansive works of ecstatic, exploratory electric and groove-oriented jazz, performed with Damon Locks (voice, electronics), Tomeka Reid (cello), Angelica Sanchez (Wurlitzer electric piano), Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten (double bass) and Chad Taylor (drums).

Expanding on their 2007 release Kinda Green, the decades-long collaboration of SF Bay Area improvisors Tom Djll on trumpet & electronics and Tim Perkis on "coding" and electronics presents six unusual spontaneous compositions of live trumpet, electronics and real-time manipulation, release by the Ubu, Incorporated project supporting experimental and electronic music.

The Tamarisk trio of bassist David Menestres, guitarist Andrew Weathers and vocalist Christina Carter (Charalambides) are heard live at Casa del Popolo, in Montreal and at PIT, in Brooklyn, New York, joined in Brooklyn by flutist Laura Cocks, each performance an extended journey between assertive, cathartic improvisation and introspective rumination.

Using analog computers that "require a lot of real-time intervention to flesh out their neurotic narratives", the typically trumpeter Tom Djll (Grosse Abfahrt) turns his attention to a series of prickly sound works of strange intention and direction, through fourteen works titled like a series of math equations mashed into a dictionary; good weird fun.

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.

The first meeting of tenor saxophonist Catherine Sikora and pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn was at the Zurcher Gallery in New York City in 2022, an inventive dialog of free improvisation split between three "Filaments", their interaction ranging from delicate dialog to asservite discourse in a wonderfully expressive concert of sincere affinity.

Three innovative cellists at the intersection of improvisation, contemporary compositional and experimental forms — Tomeka Reid from Chicago, Isidora Edwards from Chile and based in London, and Elisabeth Coudoux from Germany — meet in Wiesbaden to record these four multi-layered improvisations merging their unique perspectives with great concentrative expression.

Picking up from their last album in 2005, Lapis Exilis, alto saxophonist Jim Hobb's Fully Celebrated Orchestra joyfully returns with a new set of lyrical Hobb's compositions, Timo Shanko still creating a solid bass foundation and Luther Gray taking Django Carranza's place, extending the band with AYCH member Taylor Ho Bynum on cornet and Ian Ayers on guitar.

French free vocalist Isabelle Duthoit and world traveling improviser and Zeitkratzer trumpeter Franz Hautzinger continue their collaborations at GMEA Centre National de Creation Musicale, in Albi, France to record these 11 unusual duos, using outrageous technique and inexplicable intent to create aberrant accompaniments to your most subtle and frightening dreams.

The follow-up to their debut album, Orbital Decay, finds guitarist Phil Venable and drummer Tommy Jackson delving deeper into their free duo referencing free jazz, ambient, no wave, and other forms of experimental and avant-garde music, their often turbulent dialog inspired by a desire to find hope in the world despite a contemporary period of death and injustice.

Commissioned in 2020 by pianist Philip Thomas, whose health prevented him from performing the work, Canadian composer Martin Arnold's 79-minute hypnotic solo work for piano emphasizes the keyboard's upper register in slow moving textural melodies influenced by innovative 50's & 60's bop pianists, performed in 2022 at the University of Huddersfield by pianist Kerry Yong.

An exceptional collection of works by composer Frank Denyer written between 1973 and 2021, especially the monumental 5-part "Five Views of the Path", performed by the UK Octandre Ensemble led by composer Christian Mason and conductor Jon Hargreaves, which focuses on modern composers with an emphasis on works of timbre and ritual, Denyer's work being an ideal match.

Reissuing the 2013 box set of the 1980s UK/Euro improvising rock band Cassiber, including their 4 remastered studio albums + 2 additional CDs, a 2 hour DVD, and a 32-page color book, revealing an amazing band merging experimental rock, fringe jazz, punk, pop, plunderphonics, improvisation, & musique concrete with an energetic and complex form of studio composition - superb!

Composed using an "exquisite corpse" method during the pandemic, where each player provided a partially complete track with instructions to expand their concept, enlisting an incredible set of musicians across the US & Europe, directed by Moe! Staiano, including Jesse Quattro, Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, GW Sok, Amy X Neuburg, Darren Johnston, &c &c.

The improvising string duo of stalwart London improvisers, Daniel Thompson on acoustic guitar and Phil Durrant on the octave mandola, are heard in two settings of texturally rich, intricate interactions, first at Cafe OTO in 2022 for an extended improvisation, then at Cable Street Studios two months later for six succint, impressively diverse dialogs.

Saxophonist & composer Ingrid Laubrock's quartet with Jon Irabagon on sopranino sax, Zeena Parkins on electric harp and Tom Rainey on drums, in a work of conventional and graphic notation with text instructions, accompanied by fixed media tape pieces (monochromes), from Nate Wooley, Adam Matlock, Tom Rainey, and by JD Allen, David Breskin & Ingrid Laubrock manipulating Harry Bertoia sculptures.

A stunning album that effortlessly blends styles from jazz, electronics, minimalism and contemporary forms, rendered by an eclectic group of primarily NY artists including Nate Wooley, Jennifer Choi, James Brandin Lews, Oscar Noriega, Anna Webber, Shahzad Ismaily and Smith himself, in an exhilarating and well-balanced set of Smith compositions that inform and groove spectacularly!

Anna Webber's explorations of just intonation in a quintet of New York improvisers, with Webber herself on tenor sax & flutes, Adam O'Farrill on trumpet, Mariel Roberts on cello, Elias Stemeseder on synthesizer and Lesley Mok on drums, her approachable compositions blurring the lines between tuning systems while focusing on fascinatingly exotic tonal combinations.

One of the largest ensembles associated with Creative Sources, merging acoustic and electronic improvisers, this conduction by violist Ernesto Rodrigues at Torre Do Tombo in Lisbon in 2023 was the opening for an exhibition about the struggle of college students against the Portuguese dictatorship during the years 1970-74, leading to the Carnation Revolution.

Their familiarity honed from work together in the Impetus Group and in Tonus, viola improviser Benedict Taylor and archtop guitarist Dirk Serries (Vidna Obmana) are heard in seven free improvisations recorded in 2023 at the Kapel Oude Klooster in Brecht, Belgium, their strings in plucked, bowed and curious consonance through unusual technique and expression.

Working together in a variety of setting and ensembles--Variable Geometry Orchestra, Suspensao, groupings with Hernani Faustino & Jose Oliveira, with Michel Stawicki, and with onsieur Trinite--the core trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Bruno Parrinha on bass clarinet and Joao Madeira on double bass, is heard in three studio improvisations of dark woods explorations.

While theremin & synth specialist Andrew Levine was on a 2023 tour of Portugal he met with a core trio of Creative Sources improvisers--Ernesto Rodrigues on viola & Crackle Box, Bruno Parrinha on bass clarinet & objects, Flak on electric guitar & effects--meeting in Flak's countryside studio for one detailed, extensive improvisation and 6 short works of differing sonic characters and colour.

Two unique string players--Lisbon's Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Chicago's Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello--with pianist Andre Hencleeday and percussionist Jose Oliveira, in an exhilarating concert of dynamic free improvisation captured live in 2023 at Lisboa Incomum in Lisbon, presented as two "Statements", an apt description of their confident and declarative interplay.

A profoundly patient extended improvisation referencing the pensive and strategic decisions made in a game of chess, creating a dynamic interplay of sounds through unconvential technique in this live recording at Werkhalle Wiesenburg, Berlin from the quartet of trumpeter Axel Dorner, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, tenor saxophonist Jung-Jae Kim and percussionist Stephen Flinn.

A double opus of improvised String Quartets in four movements each, using impressive technique and exquisite pacing in this live recording captured at the Offene Ohren, in Munich, Germany, 2023 by Dietrich Petzold on violin, tenor violin, clavichord & bowed metal, Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello and Matthias Bauer on double bass.

Pointillistic, scrabbly and playful improvisation from the duo of Polish double bassist Marcin Bozek, known for creating and as the conductor of the Gdynia Improvisers Orchestra, and viola improviser and baroque musician Marie Takahashi of Reanimation Quartet; together their five improvisations show remarkable technique, momentum and determination in a wonderful confluence of strings.

Two improvisations by saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet & violinist Dan Warburton recorded in Paris & Melbourne parking garages 14 years apart, registering the behavior and characteristics of environmental and instrumental sound within these unique spaces, edited by Eric La Casa and Philip Samartzis as a 4-channel master by synchronizing two sets of independent stereo recordings.

Spanish pianist Eva Novoa leads the trio of Drew Gress on bass and Devon Gray on drums in her second 577 album, and the first of two volumes with this trio, in a solid and lyrical traditional piano trio album of melodic themes, masterly trio interplay, swinging touches and strong grooves, augmented at times with a subtle electronic tapestry of modular synthesis provided by Gress.

The debut for young Slovenian pianist Rebeka Rusjan Zajc, living and working in Amsterdam, brings forward a new voice in lyrically elegant and virtuosically confident solo piano improvisation, her extended piece "Illusion" divided in natural segments that allow her progressions to develop through accomplished, lively runs and moments of suspended beauty.

Old Mountain is the Portuguese duo of pianist Pedro Branco and drummer João Sousa, drawing on melodic jazz of the past with a venturous twist, here in their 3rd album, dedicated to Misha Mengelberg, Masabumi Kikuchi, Thelonious Monk and Paul Motian, extended as a quintet with double bassists João Hasselberg & Hernani Faustino and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby.

Merging jazz organizations, Norwegian trumpeter & composer Thomas Johansson brings together the third stream large band Scheen Jazzorkester with the electric jazz band Cortex (Kristoffer Alberts (baritone & tenor saxophone), Ola Høyer (double bass) and Dag Erik Knedal Andersen (drums)), for a rousing, exciting and diverse live concert at Hamar Teater in Norway.

Commissioned by Norway's Motvind festival, Belgian-born, Oslo-based composer & keyboardist Jonas Cambien takes a sly approach to his compositions, incorporating contemporary & experimental forms with solid free jazz playing, performed with drummer Andreas Wildhagen, bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, saxophonist Signe Emmeluth and guest trombonist Guro Kvale (Scheen Jazzorkester).

Having worked together in other collaborations, this was the first meeting as a trio by Giuseppe Doronzo on baritone sax & Iranian bagpipe, Andy Moor on electric guitar and Frank Rosaly on drums, performing live at BIMHUIS in Amsterdam for a contemplatively charged set of unorthodox instrumental approaches using contemporary improv attitudes through structured and collective playing.

An exuberant album of modern jazz from the Norwegian quintet of Andre Roligheten on tenor saxophone, Thomas Johansson on trumpet, Oscar Gronberg on piano, Jon Rune Strom on double bass and Tollef Ostvang on drums & percussion, their 6th full album of lyrically rich, energetic free jazz taking the 60's & 70s New Thing movement into new modern directions; excellent!

Rooted in an approach to the piano trio attributed to Bill Evan's non-hierarchical improvisation, the trio of long-standing collaborators Jim Baker on piano and Steve Hunt on drums & percussion, with younger generation double bassist Jakob Heinemann, bring equal voice to their highly interactive conversations in a mix of live and studio performances.

The concluding opus of a trilogy that began with "Through This Looking Glass" and followed with "In Praise Of Disorder", Portuguese pianist Joana Sa merges acoustic piano with well-balanced electronics and resonance, using preparations and fragments of previous recordings to create a uniquely expressive solo performance: forceful, fragile, and captivatingly fascinating.

The second of three archival albums from late saxophonist Mars Williams' vaults, this 1996 recording is a rare duet with Chicago drummer Hamid Drake, and is also one of the first concerts of the Empty Bottle Jazz and Improvised Music series, a diverse set of four improvisations marked by energetic enthusiasm, doubling of reeds, and wild playing from both.

The 1st of three archival albums from saxophonist Mars Williams' vaults, this 1996 concert in Utrecht with the NRG Ensemble--the band that Williams' carried forward after Hal Russell's passing in 1992--in an unrestrained concert of original material from Williams and fellow saxophonist Ken Vandermark, with Kent Kessler on bass, Steve Hunt on drums, and Brian Sandstrom on bass, guitar & trumpet.

From subtle dynamics to invigorating free exchanges, the collective improvising band Easter Quartet brings together New York luminaries Ken Filiano on bass with two drummer/percussionists--Lou Grassi and Todd Capp--and Leipzig, German pianist Simone Weissenfels, performing in the studio for three extended, forcefully confident, evolving improvisations.

In September of 2002, Szilard Mezei performed a series of 5 consecutive, unaccompanied solo concerts in Hungary improvising on viola, this album presenting two of these captivating and magnificent performances, balancing impressive technique with his ability to captivate through stunning passages of exquisite lyricism and thematic development, an incredible achievement.

While NY trombonist Steve Swell and alto saxophonist Rob Brown were in Paris, flutist Michel Edelin, who has recorded and performed with Swell over more than a decade, organized this session with Paris-based American ex-pats, drummer John Betsch and bassist Peter Giron, recording three Swell compositions, two by Brown, one from Edelin and four collective improvisations; magnifique!

Assembling a world-class ensemble of 24 string players drawing from the Quartets JACK, Sirius, Flux, and Bergamot, here performing as SysOrk, Elliott Sharp's large-scale algorithmic composition provides simple instructions to the participants, creating a seething sonic tapestry of shifting, swirling tones and acoustic drones, exceptionally immersive and detailed.

Featuring works premiered at the ESM concert "Zigzague and Colore" in November 2022 in Montreal at Escape Orange - Edifice Wilder - Espace Danse, this exceptional concert of Montreal's premiere improvising Ensemble SuperMusique presents the works of three female composers--Elizabeth Millar, Laura Kavanaugh, and Danielle Palardy Roger--through a variety of graphic scores.

In the footsteps of the band for which she's the vocalist — Scott Thomason's The Rent paying homage to the music of Steve Lacy — Montreal vocalist and movement performer Susan Hood steps out on her own to merge the words of German poet Judith Malina, who influenced Lacy and Irene Aebi's "Cycle of Jazz Art Songs", with Steve Lacy's exuberant music, for a captivating and sincere pairing.

Delicately forceful, the live concert at Real Art Ways, in Hartford, Connecticut as part of the ImprovisatioNOW concert series, is a perfect encounter between two legendary New York improvisers--trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and guitarist Joe Morris--capturing five dialogs of impressive technique and creative expression, including references to Monk and Ma Rainey.

The Swiss guitar trio of Florestan Berset on electric guitar with Norbert Pfammatter on drums and Francesco Losavio on double bass perform a mix of lyrical compositions from Berset, along with lyrically inclined collective improvisation from the group, each player bringing unique approaches to their instruments in a highly compatible set of conversations.

The 2nd album from the Polish guitar trio of Marek Malinowski on guitar, Robert Rychlicki-Gasowski on double bass & bass guitar, and Wojciech Zadruaynski on drums, performing Malinowski's embraceable mix of lyrically inclined modern jazz compositions with an explorative side, balancing structure with free space for sprightly spontaneity, a beautiful followup.

A wildly explorative and masterful studio encounter for three of the UK's most well-known and well-recorded improvisers--Paul Dunmall on tenor & soprano saxophones, clarinet & flute; Paul Rogers on 7-string double bass; and Mark Sanders on drums--in four collective improvisations that run the gamut from explosive to introspective conversation; ferocious!

A series of electroacoustic improv "Ballads" and "Blues", beautiful and chimerical works at the intersection of strings and a miscellany of percussion, patiently and unhurriedly unfolding under the deep listening ears from the Polish trio of Patryk Zakrocki on prepared electric guitar & granular delay, Maciej Garbowski on double bass and Krzysztof Gradziuk on multipercussion, objects & toys.

Meeting at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, the NY trio of Ivo Perelman on tenor saxophone, Mark Helias on bass and Tom Rainey on drums record seven collective free improvisations of great depth and expression, unhurried playing that concentrates on the group dialog, yielding space for exceptional soloing supported by perceptive interaction; masterful!

A collection of arboreal pieces for solo acoustic guitar--wood transformed into a resonator with the help of metal oscillators and digital manipulation--performed in the studio by NY guitarist and improviser Elliott Sharp, developing the works around trees, "austere and intense", each piece unfolding like delicate branches of acoustic and ethereal framework.

A CD intended to sell at concerts from Mars Williams' own Soul What Records label, a studio recording in 2012 from the powerhouse trio of Chicago multi-reedist Mars Williams, in-demand Norwegian drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love, and Chicago bassist Kent Kessler, running the gamut from furious blowing to introspective interaction.

Masterful, fervent free jazz from trans-Atlantic trio of Mars Williams on saxophones, Kent Kessler on bass, and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums, captured live at Elastic Arts, in Chicago in 2017 for three impressive collective improvisations of intense energy, articulate and extended expression, and ecstatic improvisation in an exceptional and cohesive concert.

Chicago saxophonist Mars Williams directs his Albert Ayler tribute band, Witches and Devils, to merge Ayler-esque compositions with Christmas songs, performed by Josh Berman (cornet) Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello), Jim Baker (keys, viola), Kent Kessler (bass), Brian Sandstrom (bass, guitar, trumpet); an unexpected and welcome present for your free jazz festivities!

Following her 2022 album Ogura Plays Stockhausen, Japanese born, Frankfurt-based pianist Miharu Ogura turns her attention to her own compositions, presenting five uniquely creative works unfolding in pacing that surprises the listener, balancing silence and clusters of layered patterns that move at differing speeds and rhythms, from simple clarity to labyrinthine entanglement.

Part of the split series from Swedish label FRIM (Association For Free Improvised Music), this album presents the two solo concerts from an evening at Rönnells Antikvariat during the 2022 Sound of Stockholm festival, first from drummer Henrik Olsson performing on turntables & objects; then from Aviva Endean on clarinets, electronics, voice & plastic pipes.

The NC Tragic Assembly free improvising trio of Charles Chace on guitar, Crowmeat Bob on reeds and Phil Venable on upright bass are joined for this 2022 concert at Carrboro, NC's ArtCenter by improvising percussion powerhouse Tatsuya Nakatani, adding sonic expansion and rhythmic punctuation to this trio's typically drum free configuration, heard in four striking improvisations.

The eighth album from the long-running CHANGES TO blind project of Phil Zampino, eight works drawing on compositions & improvisations, acoustic & synthetic instruments, field recordings & samples, with guests Levi Erik providing field recordings & voice and Wilmington, NC's 910 Noise Members of Carl Kruger, subterrene, John Bishop, Authorless and Ryan Lewis.

Mailing unspooled 1/4" tape to each other along with a magnet to randomly erase part of each tape, Marc Baron & Mark Vernon captured these fragments and placed them into sequence based on the minute past the hour each was originally recorded, contrasting the degraded recordings with the original; an exacting but fascinating method of creating something unexpected and uniquely engaging.

Often performing together as a duo after their initial 2004 Chicago Tentet encounter, drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen and multi-reedist Peter Brötzmann typically released albums of live performances, this 2015 studio date in Antwerp unique in their catalog, an exemplary set of recordings, particularly with Brötzmann on a new contra-alto clarinet and Paal adding gongs to their improvisations.

Concepts of community, dialog, sharing and transmission, or "recontre", are the linking ideas between these four works commissioned of Montreal composer and wind player Jean Derome, developed for four Quebec ensembles, these pieces combine contemporary and improvisational forms, the scores shaped by constraints from the combinatorial mathematics of Marin Mersenne.

Joining the Boston free improvising duo of David Peck on clarinets, saxophones, clarinets & flutes, and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice--the core duo of Leap of Faith Orchestra--are Bonnie Kane on tenor sax, flute & electronics, and John Loggia on drums and percussion, capturing the extended title track and a brief, "possible outcome" as a summation.

The first album under 577 label leader and drummer Federico Ughi's name in five years brings together the incredible bass skills of Brandon Lopez and expansive Argentinean keyboard sonics of Leo Genovese, the first of two planned volumes recorded in the studio for a boundary-less album of acoustic and electric improv influenced by the music and philosophy of Sun Ra.

An overview of Montreal's Ensemble Supermusique celebrating their 40th anniversary, drawing on works from founders Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse, and Danielle Palardy Roger and their projects including Wondeur Brass, Les Poules, Justine, &c., realized by 40 instrumentalists in 8 groups of 3 to 8 players; masterful sophistication with a sense of humor and wonder — exceptionnelle!

The second trio release from clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio, double bassist Damon Smith and Jerome Bryerton on gongs, selected metal & cymbals (but no drums), in a sophisticated album of eight collective improvisations numbered as "The Planar Effect" and two Gregorio compositions, an absolutely impressive set that obscures the line between "spontaneous" and "composition".

A live and extended performance of brutal but shifting sonic assault performed before an appreciative audience at London's Cafe OTO in 2016, a solo performance from Japanese noise legend Masami Akita, AKA Merzbow, each of the 2 CDs in this set more than 50 minutes of tightly controlled electronic mayhem from the unremitting determination of one of the globe's masters of noise.

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".

Giusto Chamber Orchestra performs three works for twelve strings by German composer and visual artist Nikolaus Gerszewski, whose music of shifting pitches, vibrations and volumes--compared with experimental sound & noise work--is influenced by composers Radulescu and Dumitrescu's spectral music, James Tenney's "swell form" and Cornelius Cardew's graphic scores.

Presented in two versions--a stereo mix and a binaural mix for headphones--flugelhorn improviser and composer Franz Koglmann leads his septet of exceptional players through 10 original Koglmann compositions, sophisticated works that show influences from Ellington to Franz Joseph Haydn or Johann Strauss, in pieces influenced by or tipping the hat to modern artists, musicians and writers.

Copenhagen composer Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard's long form work refers to units of compositional structure in systems of instruments, each a "bubble" that interacts and collides creating fluctuations, ruptures and tension release in an hypnotic sonic tapestry, performed by Montreal's Quatuor Bozzini on violins, viola, cellos and harmonica; mesmerizing.

Zeitkratzer director and pianist Reinhold Friedl meets with Martin Siewert (Radian, Fake the Facts, Dry Thrust) for three improvised explorations on piano, guitar and electronics, through the course of powerful transitions building from deep introspection into prickly, bellicose interaction, yielding to a brooding finale of subtle electronics and punctuation; profound.