This time around the long-standing trio of drummer Andrew Cyrille, bassist Reggie Workman, and saxophonist Oliver Lake doesn't add a 4th player to the group, instead focusing on the trio itself and their intuitive and implicitly lyrical approach to free jazz, in this 11th album recorded in the studio to feature their masterful collective playing as a group of equals where "music is the leader".

Textural improv of improbable grooves and tones driven by intense periods of interaction balanced with spatial sonic environments; adventurous and exuberant dialog caught live at the Jazzfestival Willisau, in Switzerland, 2016 from the trio of Dominic Landolt on guitar, Ramon Landolt on Hammond organ, synthesizer & samples and Mario Haenni on drums.

Cuban pianist Aruan Ortiz explores a range of musical idioms and styles, drawing on experiences from many phases of Ortiz' life in Cuba, Spain, France and the US, exploring cubist principles, faceting, and multiple perspectives with folkloric elements, as he presents 10 original compositions of passionate and playful music, performed with virtuosic skill.

Two generations and two monumental masters of free improvisation from Europe and New York joined together at the unerhort!-Festival Rote Fabrik Zurich in 2015 to unleash this technically awesome and ebullient duo in a fantastic concert of dynamic power, lyrical insight, intense rhythmic support and counterpoint, and profound musical ideas; incredible!

Swiss accordionist Hans Hassler stands above the (small) crowd of improvising accordionist in the breadth of his career, his ability to balance both lyrical, abstract, serious, and humorous aspects in his approach to the instrument, a true original in intent and ability to engage his listeners, in 15 original and diverse compositions recorded in 2017.

The New York collective trio of bassist Stephan Crump, pianist Kris Davis and drummer Eric McPherson focuses on starfish (asteroida), which can regenerate lost sections of itself, as this band creates highly focused group compositions that use melodic elements as rhythm and vice versa, recontextualizing and transforming their confident and masterful playing.

"Pan-Scan" refers to pan-Scandinavian, and the nine players on this thrilling and joyful recordings are all of that origin, performing live at Blow Out in Mir, Oslo, Norway in 2016, including both Lotte Anker and Ann Hogberg on sax, Thomas Johansson, Emil Stranberg and Goran Kajfes on trumpet, Sten Sandell on piano, and Paal Nilssen-Love and Stale Liavik on drums.

The 25 year collaboration of Norwegian free improvisers Frode Gjerstad on saxophones and clarinets and drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love, starting with Circulasione Totale Orchestra and best experienced in their duo recordings, here in an album dedicated to Frode's close friend and musical colleague, pianist and accordion player Elvin One Pedersen.

An excellent introduction to Norwegian percussionist and composer Paal Nilssen-Love's big band, Large Unit, through tracks showing the breadth of the band's ability in game pieces, ballads, a collaboration with Brazilian percussionists, live recordings from their 2015 North American tour and at Moers festival in Germany, and their first concert at Molde Jazzfestival in 2013.

The 3rd album from Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love's big band Large Unit, here in a 12-member configuration, adding saxophonist Kristoffer Berre Alberts (Starlite Motel, Cortex) to the band, in an album centered on Nillsen-Love's penned title track "Fluku", and the equally impressive "Playgo", large complex works that showcase the group's collective and individual voices.

Oxford-based keyboardist and composer Alexander Hawkins balances free improv and lyrical jazz forms in a quartet with bassist Neil Charles, drummer Stephen Davis, and vocalist Elaine Mitchener, with both Hawkins compositions and pieces from Archie Shepp, Jeanne Lee, and Patty Waters, a beautiful balance that appeals to modern listeners steeped in the history.

Spacious improvisations from the French duo of guitarist Jean-Sebastien Mariage and double bassist David Chiesa, slowly unfolding discussions of subtle nuance and contemplative colors.

A free improvisation session with Gunter Christmann on cello and trombone, Alexander Fragenheim on double bass, and extended free vocalist Elke Schipper.

Violinist Gerszewski developed an individual form of notation to create his "ordinary music", a continuation of abstract visual thinking by means of sound.

The quartet of Andreas Backer on voice, David Stackenas on guitars, Joe Williamson on bass, and Stale Liavik Solberg on drums & percussion, for open-minded, improvised chamber music focusing on interaction, textures, dynamic variations and timbre.

Inspired by Albert Ayler's work for strings, Jason Kahn wrote this graphical score for amplified percussion, Vincent Millioud on violin, Bo Wiget on cello, and Christian Weber on contrabass.

The Para trio with hornist Elena Kakaliagou, pianist Ingrid Schmoliner, and bassist/composer Thomas Skempowski contains within itself both composed and improvised musics, here in 8 pieces of exceptional and well-paced dramatic work.

The trio of Hans Koch on clarone and soprano sax, Thomas Rohrer on rabeca, soprano and c-melody sax, and Antonio Panda Gianfratti on percussion; open-ended and active improvisation.

Eight free improvisations recorded in the studio from London improvisers, guitarist Daniel Thompson and flautist Neil Metcalf, recorded and presented in the order played to maintain the familiar dialog and sense of adventure between two frequent collaborators.

A quirky and ingenious duo from two saxophonists using extended techniques: Alipio C. Neto on soprano sax and Thelmo Cristovam on C-melody sax, using the reeds, body and breath to create an unusual and uncommon dialog.

Violist Ernesto Rodrigues and Ricardo Guerreiro on computer are joined by saxophonist Bertrand Gauguet for two improvisations of subtle & rich sound work: intertwining sax breathing, intense sonic pressure, and long string tones developing beautiful audio environments.

The trio of Paulo Curado, Paulo Chagas, and Joao Pedro Viegas on flutes and reeds, 11 pieces of mostly improvised music that blend idiomatic music from old and new approaches, while inventing a few of their own.

A pioneer of the modern singer/songwriter genre from the 50s, little is known of Connie Converse except her exceptional songbook, given life here in a tribute to her work through 16 songs interpreted by an amazing set of singers and instrumentalists, including Laurie Anderson, Petra Haden, Mary Halvorson, Mike Patton, Eyvind Kang, Oren Bloedow, Jessica Pavone, &c. &c.

Downtown NY guitarist Chris Cochrane (No Safety, Curlew) joins up with bassist Stuart Popejoy (Sugarlife, Bassoon, Sarah Bernstein Quartet) for an album of exploratory sonic environments born from improvisation, with rich guitar processing, glitch, heavy riffs, and indescribable sonic environments in a well-balance album of informed experimentation.

One of the most active albums from the set of Lisbon String Trio (plus one) albums released in 2017, saxophonist Blaise Siwula brings a unique virtuosity to this live album from Galeria Monumental in Lisbon, prompting at times a chamber jazz feeling, alongside very free improvisation with impressive transitions from spacious to highly detailed playing.

An impressive, creative, startling meeting between Japanese trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and German double bassist Alexander Frangenheim, taking Tamura out of his more typical structured improv and Frangenhemin into more active and agressive styles than his Creative Sources output; a great album reminding just how fun and awe inspiring free improvised music can be.

"Now, two duos with the participation of Udo Schindler, German multi-instrumentalist who has been paying particular attention to bass and bass variants of the clarinet, but also uses the soprano saxophone and, in "Empty Pigenhole", the ...

Active and exciting electroacoustic improvisation with a strong emphasis on the electronics from Richard Scott and his uniquely developed modular synthesizer, from this Berlin-based collective trio with double bassist Alexander Frangenheim and trumpeter Nikolaus Neuser, exploring Trialectics, a complex system of 21st century thought and formal logic.

Correctly configured, the Portugese ensemble Octopus is an octet, and though named after the most common of the breed, this 8-tentacled orchestration of strings, flute, trumpet, piano, guitar, electronics and percussion, all using extended techniques, slides deftly and with incredible restraint through a large, detailed dark-water work of electroacoustic improvisation.

A student of Christian Dierstein and Fred Frith, French percussionist Camille Emaille, working in both modern compositional and improvised music and influenced by Middle Eastern and Persian approaches, presents an album of solo percussion work selected from eight improvisations recorded in Bromont, Canada, using a diverse and unusual set of percussive instruments.

Kern is the Berlin-based free improvising acoustic trio of clarinetist and saxophonist Edith Styer, trombonist Matthias Muller (Splitter Orchester, Xenon), and drummer Yorgos Dimitriadis (Fabric Trio, Glue), recording in the studio for 10 works of informed dialogs of great restraint and consummate control, from a mix of collective compositions and two from Steyer.

Creative Sources core artist double bassist Alexander Frangenheim met Zeitkratzer multi-reedist Frank Gratkowski, The Necks drummer Tony Buck, and free improvising vocalist Adachi Tomomi, in one of a series of concerts at the loft Studio Boerne 45 in Berlin in 2015; this, their first meeting, yielded an impressive flow of creative and far-ranging collective dialog.

Sounding almost electric through unique string manipulations and harmonic overtones and inside playing on the piano, the quartet of Ernesto Rordigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Biliana Voutchkova on violin and pianist Magda Mayas render an eerie and atmospheric examination of trees, the self, blindness, and other obscure topics through cautious and slow-moving improvisation.

Four controlled improvisations from the New York City based trio of Michael Lytle on clarinet, Denman Maroney on piano, and Stephen Flinn on percussion, non-idiomatic collective improvisations that often have the feeling of electroacoustic improv through Flinn's use of percussion, Maroney's inside piano work, and Lytle's upper register playing.

A beautiful album of darkly lyrical jazz duos from Israeli saxophonist and bass clarinetist Albert Beger and collaborator and member of the Albert Beger Quartet Shay Hazan, on double bass and guimbri, for seven pieces recorded in the studio: 6 improvised works and the composed piece "Cycles".

Three free improvisations from the Lisbon, Portugal trio of Jorge Nuno on electric guitar, Jose Lencastre on alto saxophone and Pedro Santo on drums, four pieces titled for the length of their dialog as they explore spacious sound sculpting and energetic free playing, a nicely balanced set of work that transition with finesse between ardor and tranquility.

Nine freely improvised introspections as "enlightening spots on different forms of life in a rather muddy environment" from Lucerne, Switzerland based tenor saxophonist Elio Amberg and pianist Christoph Baumann, wonderful miniatures of great style and skill, a diverse exploration of their fictional pond that's quite spellbinding and exciting.

Croatian guitarist and electroacoustic musician Ame Zek in an album of electroacoustic improvisation using prepared guitars, acoustic percussions, self made objects, contact microphones, analog modular synthesizer, amplified feedback speakers, magnetic field microphones and digital midi machines; an album of raw, raspy, dark and dissonant sound.

Recording in Portugal, the quintet of Aural Terrains label leader Thanos Chrysakis on piano, Creative Sources label leader Ernesto Rodrigue on viola, son Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Miguel Mira on double bass and Abdul Moimeme on electric guitar, three parts of microscopic collective electroacoustic improvisation of highly focused, detailed interplay.

Electroacoustic improvisation from the trio of Marc Vilanova on saxophone, Sergio Castrillon on cello, and pianist James Andean also performing on objects and electronics, in nine collective improvisations of close-knit dialog balancing intense activity and silent space, building tension and releasing it in unexpected and wonderfully eccentric ways.

Porto bassist Miguel Angelo's solo release is an album of pure improvisation, unrepeatable takes, which, for the artist, makes musical and emotional sense as a satisfying moment of musical sensation, through 11 tracks on the double bass of powerful playing, creative impulse, lyrical and rhythmic inventiveness, and ultimately, great satisfaction.

With members from Angles, Universal Indians, Frode Gjerstad Trio, Friends and Neighbors, &c. the quintet of Martin Kuchen (sax), Thomas Johansson (trumpet), Mats Aleklin (trombone), Jon Rune Strom (bass) and Tollef Ostvang (drums) play modern, energetic jazz that kicks Satan's ass; highly recommended!

"Back in July, I mentioned Skulking in the Big House from a quartet led by Alexander Frangenheim, and Frangenheim continues to release albums on Creative Sources, including more recently Kochuu, featuring French vocalist Isabelle Duthoit...

Peter Hammill continues his immense solo career, intricately linked to his work with Van Der Graaf Generator, but more focused in intelligent lyrics, profound vocal layering, and fluid song structures, a unique voice who for more than 35 studio albums has developed an approach to songwriting and intellectual observation of subtle sophistication and detail.

Smash and Teeny are Toronto-based sound artists Nilan Perera and Sarah Peebles performing on guitar, laptop, detuned sho, and effects, here in a double CD of their intertwining improvisation combining active and spatial environments, joined on disc 2 for an extended dialog with John Butcher, plus a video featuring Chung Gong.

A grooving cosmic album issued in 1976 on the French Cobra label, Sun Ra leads his large ensemble on a Rocksichord keyboard, alongside Arkestra members Marshall Allen, Danny Davis and John Gilmore on sax, Craig Harris on trombone, Ahmed Abdulla on trumpet, Vince Chancey on French Horn, Jac Jackson, Eloe Omoe, and Danny Ray Thompson on winds, Larry Bright on drums, and Tony Bunn on bass.

Diverse aspects of the 2011 disaster at the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant brought on by a tsunami orchestrated in sound by composer/pianist Satoko Fujii and rendered in remarkable ways from some of New York finest improvisers, including Tony Malaby, Ellery Eskelin, Oscar Noriega, Herb Roberts, Joe Fiedler, Stomu Takeishi, Nels Cline, &c &c.

A highly unusual performance in 10 parts from cellist Honsinger and pre-existing media manipulist Simonini that falls between radio art, music theatre, and the inexplicable

Japanese avant blues guitarist, vocalist and modern shaman Keiji Haino met UK free improvising vocalist John Butcher in 2012 when Butcher opened for Haino's Fushitsusha band at Cafe Oto; in 2016 they met to play two concerts, one in Hong Kong, one at London's Cafe Oto, the latter resulting in this powerful concert, five dialogs of intertwining reed, guitar and voice.

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.

"We've written about Frangenheim before, whether playing solo, as on "The Knife Again", or in duo with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura on "Nax". On "Talk For A Listener", he goes far beyond conventions, getting rid of any foothold 'a listener"...

Remastering the 1st release on the Nessa label, two quartet sessions recorded in '67 and led by trumpeter Lester Bowie which would lead to the formation of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, performed with Roscoe Mitchell (reeds), Malachi Favors (bass) and, on the 2nd quartet, Joseph Jarman (reeds), an incredible forward-looking album of free improvisation.

An intensely concentrative and deeply spiritual performance at Cafe Oto in 2017 from the duo of Julie Tippetts on voice, Sri Lankan hand drums, bells, singing bowls, water bowls, thumb piano, seed pod shaker, Balinese mini xylophone, and struck hand drum, and Mark Wastell on tam tam, cracked ride cymbal, shruti box, chimes, hand drum, Indian temple bells, and singing bowls.

Double double bass from the duo of John Edwards and Olie Brice performing live at Iklectik Arts Lab, in London in 2017, a return of sorts as Brice's first live improv gig was opening for the Sunny Murray Trio with Edwards and Bevan; here the two combine, in contrast and confluence as they demonstrate massive technique and concentrative conversation.

An inevitable meeting of New York luminaries, trumpeter Nate Wooley joins saxophonist Ivo Perelman with frequent sideman Matthew Shipp for an album of complex and sophisticated collective free improvisation, spectacular playing and like-minded conversation of incredible technique and lyrical innuendo; released with the quartet album "Octagon".

The second release pairing Brazilian-born, New York-based saxophonist Ivo Perelman with trumpeter Nate Wooley, in a quartet with bassist Brandon Lopez and drummer Gerald Cleaver, a frequent hard bop configuration, here in an 8 part set of studio recordings that range from exultant and vigorous group interplay to pointillist interaction, a superb album of creative modern jazz.

Acoustic free improvisation with an ea-attitude, improvising drummer/percussionist Pedro Oliveira (Bernardo Sassetti) and classical pianist Paulo Mesquita used prepared instruments in a dialog that contrasts solid rhythmically melodic piano progressions with a mix of propulsive percussion, deep resonant tones, environmental timbre, and percussive interventions.

Four psychedelic blues and rock tracks from Japan's Acid Mothers Temple led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto, with vocalist Cotton Casino, synth guru Higashi Hiroshi, guitarist Mitsuru Tabata, drummer Satoshima Nani, and S/T Wold on tape, space and time, informed and psych-referencing music that slowly builds into intricate and explosive inner headspaces.

Nine original compositions from pianist Paul Giallorenzo in his 2nd Delmark CD, reducing the band to a classic piano trio with compatriots Joshua Abrams on bass and Mikel Patrick Avery on drums, in a passionate album that balances high energy polytonal swing to profound and lyrical ballads, with abstract blues and free-form inventiveness; excellent.

Chicago luminary, multi-wind player Roscoe Mitchell has collaborated over the previous 2 decades with multi-instrumentalist Stephen Rush, here joining Rush's band Yugonaut with Tom Abbs on bass, cello, violin, tuba & digideroo and Geoff Mann on drums, cornet & banjo, to perform these energetic improvisations live at Ann Arbor's Edgefest in 2009.

Bass clarinetist Jason Stein draws from the work of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Lennie Tristano plus original compositions, with his quartet of Chicago peers Keefe Jackson (tenor sax & contrabass clarinet) and Joshua Abrams (bass) and NY drummer Tom Rainey, in enthusiastically energetic and lyrical music that uses modern creative skills to look forward and back.

Martin Kuchen (Angles, Fire! Orchestra, All Included, &c) on tenor and soprano sax, Jon Rune Strom on bass, and Tollef Ostvang on drums for an album of muscular playing and intense interaction, including a breakdown of All Included's "Satan In Plain Clothes".

Czech composer Leos Janacek was fascinated with speech melodies, writing them down in notebooks to use in his compositions; Italian composer Alessandro Bosetti has adapted these notes, using the words themselves to create a series of works that builds rhythmic structures in place of melody, injecting himself and other performers into Janacek's interest in the voice.

Using recordings of Polish Jewish cantors with cello arrangements from Marek Czerniewicz, DJ Lenar (aka Marcin Lenarczyk) dedicates an album to the memory of Polish Jews by reimagining the recordings in subtle and sincere ways, reinforcing the powerful voices that guide the liturgical music of the Jewish faith, accompanied by a booklet of inspirational text.

A collection of more than two hundred Hebrew religious chants compiled and published by cantor Abraham Berenstein in 1927 in Vilna, Poland (today Vilnius, Lithuania), re-composed by Arturas Bumsteinas using fragments of melodies found found in the Berenstein's book, with electronics recorded on the old Russian analogue synthezier Polyvox then mixed in EMS.

Polish guitarist Raphael Roginski presents works from baroque English composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695), considered one of the greatest English composers, performed on solo guitar and with accompaniment by Sebastian Witkowski on synth and Olga Myslowska on voice, a beautiful and languorous album that pays homage to the profound lasting qualities of Purcell's music.

Several compostions by Polish composer Boguslaw Schaeffer developed in the Polish Radio Experimental Studio from 1966-1978, including works for tape, electronic computer, voice, a quadraphonic generator, the SynLab synthesizer, composed using both graphic and notated scores, and realized with incredibly detailed layering and development of the material.

The second volume of Rutger Zuydervelt AKA Machinefabriek's soundtrack for System Era's Astroneer game, a sci-fi exploration and adventure game, in discrete tracks presenting the themes and melodies that are played continuously in reaction to the action of the player in the game.

Inspired by a concert in Bologna, Italy at the Museo della Musica, these are studio tracks with one live recording from that concert, great new versions of classic songs!

Dark Tree's Southern California archive series adds this phenomenal session from multi-woodwind player Vinny Golia's Wind Quartet with clarinetist John Carter, trombonist Glenn Ferris, and cornetist Bobby Bradford, recorded fairly early in their careers in 1979 live at Century City Playhouse in LA for two sets of exploratory, dexterous and astounding jazz.

Four solo saxophone improvisations, two on tenor and two on soprano, using remarkable technique and concentration from Swiss improviser Christian Kobi performing live in Tokyo and Osaka in 2017, plus a live quartet improvisation with flutist Wakana Ikeda, violinist Yoko Ikeda, and guitarist Taku Sugimoto for an open-approached performance of detailed, minimal improv.

The eighth release from Ken Vandermark's hard-hitting quartet with Austrian electronic improviser Christof Kurzmann, Netherlands bassist Jasper Stadhouders, and Chicago drummer and frequent Vandermark collaborator Tim Daisy, for 3 vigorous and extreme pieces dedicated to Shellac, Susan Sontag, and Kerry James Marshall; powerful, informed, essential.

Nicole Mitchell explores the work of African-American writer Octavia Butler in a science fiction concept of intergalactic integration, achieved through 9 detailed pieces that balance improvisation, composition and song in unique and sophisticated ways.

Under-recorded but legendary Japanese free improvising saxophonist Aishi Oyauchi in a double CD, performing on alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, and piano through 52 untitled and inventive pieces, from a few seconds in length to several minutes, presented as 7 composite tracks; part of the Armageddon Nova Series exploring radical free improvisation.

Two trios, "Black" with cellist Chris Eubank and violist Dan Ruccia, and "White" with trombonist Jeb Bishop and saxophonist Laurent Estoppey, each with the foundation of bassist David Menestres, balancing experience in free improvisation and compositional music to create an exciting hybrid, a chamber collective of tumult and control.