"Gong/Ear" is a decades-long series of improvisations with dancers from Fluxus conspirator Philip Corner, recorded in his NYC loft in 1989, using his favorite Paiste tam-tam to create a feedback loop of perceptions between gong and dance.

With many participants from Ensemble Musique and the Montreal Musique Actuelle scene, composer and multi-instrumentalist Jean Derome directs an ensemble into the exploration of electricity and "Resistances", blending electronics, turntable, 60 Hz hums and other electronics into an orchestra of improvisers executing his dynamic 16 movement composition.

Montreal's six-piece Cordame and composer Jean Felix Mailloux arrange and interpret 18th century composer Erik Satie's work "17 Variations" in celebration of his 150th birthday, adding a lilting swing and beautiful features allowing the orchestration of piano, harp, violin, cello, double bass, and percussion to improvise over these enduring melodies.

Using layers of bass clarinet in microtonal harmonies and micropolyphonies, Montreal bass clarinetist Philipe Lauzier (Sainct Laurens, Quartetski, Toiture and Not the Music) creates a mesmerizing set of textural and tonal environments, rich and slowly unfolding pieces that hold interest in the intersections of saturated timbre, tone and unforeseen harmony.

Using layers of bass clarinet in microtonal harmonies and micropolyphonies, Montreal bass clarinetist Philipe Lauzier (Sainct Laurens, Quartetski, Toiture and Not the Music) creates a mesmerizing set of textural and tonal environments, rich and slowly unfolding pieces that hold interest in the intersections of saturated timbre, tone and unforeseen harmony.

Canada's premiere creative and new music magazine in their 129th issue, Winter 2017/18, with Geronimo Inutiq on the cover, plus articles on University of Victoria's music department, reedist Karen Ng, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Kamancello, Quasar saxophone quartet, Biophilia, Spool, and an 11-track CD with music from those artists and more.

Swiss composer and percussionist Cyril Bondi, recording with d'incise, renders his piece "euhesma" (a genus within the bee family in Australia), a work performed on indian harmonium, melodica, harmonica, pitch pipes, and electric organ that slowly introduces and overlaps tones, varying the pitch, harmony, and amplitude to create rich aural environments.

German pianist Dominik Blum presents his second album for the Wandelweiser label, performing a selection of compositions from Swiss composer Hermann Meier (1906-2002), whose forward-looking work with reduced scores, modern use of time and space, and graphics scores in compositions pre-dating Messiaen, Stockhausen, Boulez, &c. that are only recently being rediscovered.

Composer Eva-Maria Houben in a collaborative work with bass flutist Rebecca Lane and bass clarinetist Samuel Dunscomb, the composer performing on piano and orgran, for two renderings of "Observing Objects", a patient work of long notes and tones interspersed with silence, lower registers in the winds balanced by the piano or organ's upper register.

Composer Michael Winter uses the "maximally complex, incomputable number" known as Chaitin's Constant, plus text adapted from Gregory Chaitin's 1994 book "The Limits Of Mathematics", samples from 36 creative musicians, the voice of Muirgen Eleonore Gourgues, plus cello from Judith Hamann and piano from Winters, to create this curious and compelling narrative work.

Three compositions for voice and piano from German composer Eva-Maria Houben, also performing on piano with soprano vocalist Irene Kurka--"Adagio" in three pieces; "Lyri"; and "Lieder Fur Die Insel (Songs for the Island)--with texts from poet Felix Timmermans (adagio) and Hilde Domin (lyrik); beautiful, stark, haunting music that presents at its own pace.

Five works for harp and voice from composer Eva-Maria Houben and soprano Tatiana Kuzina, opening with a lovely "Aeolian Harp", and including two works from her "Voice and Piano" album recorded for harp--"Adagio" in 3 movements, and "Songs for the Island" in 5 movements--alongside "Hatid" and "Two Songs with Piano" in two movements.

Composer George Lewis leads an ensemble that bridges compositional and improvisation skills through four large works written between 2012 and 2014 using the concept of "assemblage," a pragmatic, material, non-teleological approach to composition on four differing themes, yielding fascinatingly complex yet diverse, thrilling and embraceable results.

San Francisco Bay Area composer, acoustic bassist, and bandleader, Lisa Mezzacappa used the 1872 writings of British world traveler Isabella Bird "I am doing what a woman can hardly ever do ..." as the basis for lyrics for her adventurous ten-part "panoramic song cycle for improvisers, with Fay Victor handling the vocals with a stellar ensemble of modern improvisers.

A collaborative composition by Veryan Weston, Christine Duncan and Jean Martin, performed with Jesse & Joshua Zubot on violin and Andrew Downing on bass & cello, based on Weston's score "Tessellation IV (Make)", the composed material based on 52 quotations by women writers, each sung on a 5-note (pentatonic) scale, each scale changing by one note when the word "make" is sung.

Composer and vocalists Juliet Palmer leads an ensemble of vocalists through works that use layering of voices using lyrics from Emily Dickinson, Nicholas Power, Julie Salverson, Anna Cahtterton, and Christine Duncan, a fascinating mixture of haunting acappella interaction, solo voice, and one work with electronic backing and one over an ultrasound.

Five years in the making, composer Scott Johnson transcribed the speech of philosopher Daniel C. Dennett (Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) into this extended, 8-movement suite, using a rich, detailed set of musical landscapes blending musical genres that run in parity with the voice of Dennett, as Johnson emphasizes and highlight his insightful thinking.

With the collaboration of percussionist Ches Smith, John Zorn creates a magnificent and dreamlike series of parallel tracks, a "modern reconstruction" and a set of faux 78rpm albums purportedly from 1923, as an homage to pre-dada absurdist, Romanian writer Urmuz (Demetru Dem), using the studio and card-file composition to create a bizarre and astonishing set of 8 x 2 pieces.

A founder of the Slave Pianos collective and co-organizer of the Inland Concert Series, Australian computer and synth artist Rohan Drap joins keyboardist Anthony Pateras for an extended exploration of interlocking vintage electric organs, allowing their tones and timbres to interact in microtonal richness as they create tonal environments and gradually unfolding progressions.

Pianist Anthony Pateras and guitarist Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))) performed a concert in 2011 at Instants Chavires in 2011, which they took into the studio to deconstruct and recompose on 1/4 inch tape, creating a compelling landscape of fractured musique concrete, introspective meditations, electro-acoustic textures and heavy guitar; includes a 20 page interview with O'Malley.

A live recording from the Vilnius Jazz and Music of Silent Film Festival in 2016, performing for an adaptation of the silent film "The Lost World" by Arturas Jevdokimovas, by the trio of Martin Kuchen on sax & flute, Mark Tokar on bass, and Arkadijus Goesmanas on drums.

Composer Michael Pisaro teams up with Toshiya Tsunoda for an 85 minute work in 8 sections developed over 14 months, a profound saga of subtle lowercase interactions using electronics and field recordings.

With orchestration of harp, daxophone, idiophones, piano, cello, guitar, percussion, sampling & electronics, the Portuguese quintet Turbamulta (roughly translates to "rowdy mob", though clearly a very sophisticated mob) was born from the band Powertrio of Eduardo Raon, Joana Sa and Luis Martins, expanded to blend compositional, EA and improv approaches into something unique and beautiful.

The Canadian Council for the Arts commissioned this work by Hungarian composer Gyula Csapo, a student of Morton Feldman amd John Cage, realized by Montreal's Quatuor Bozzini quartet, "Deja? Koja?" meaning "Already? Where to?" is a three-part work with two intermissions, an epic work that references the same basic materials in a variety of perspectives.

Electroacoustic composer Francois Bayle, a member of Pierre Schaeffer's Groupe de Recherches Musicales, and who worked with Stockhausen and Messiaen, in two 2-part compositions from 1978 and 1979, acousmatic music of mysterious sound sources that are presented with impressive pacing, tension and drama, using a rich and diverse palette of sound.

French composer Christian Zanesi, a student of Pierre Schaeffer and Guy Reibel at the Paris Conservatory and an artistic director of the Ina GRM, in an album presenting works from 1983 ("Stop ! L'horizon") and 1991 ("Grand Bruit"), the latter built on field recordings of train travel, the former an hommage to the potential of the recording studio itself.

Hailing from Atlanta, GA, guitarist Tyler Higgins is also a multi-instrumentalist and composer who merges genres of moody, cinematic music based around folk, blues, jazz and twisted with unusual approaches, aided in his endeavors by drummer Paul Steven and wordless vocalist Ellen Higgins, producing a alluring set of musical narratives.

Spanish composer and guitarist based in France, Clara de Asis performs her own work "Do Nothing" in 6 sections, an electroacoustic, minimal studio composition for guitar and percussion, in 3 movements using space between distinct sound events to let each take its own life, offset by 3 movements of rotating or ringing percussive sound and punctuation.

New ensemble pieces by Jurg Frey and Magnus Granberg played by Ensemble Grizzana, commissioned by Another Timbre with the request that both start from the same two fragments of early music, one by Johannes Ockeghem, the other by William Byrd, each composer producing fascinatingly different pieces that both contain echoes of the source material.

An extended and beautiful composition for two guitars, exquisitely played by Taku Sugimoto and Cristian Alvear, captured in concert at Ftarri in Tokyo in 2017, and the first appearance on Another Timbre for this Japanese composer-guitarist Sugimoto, who is best known as an improviser, and who also features on the "Chamber and Field Works" album by Bruno Duplant.

French violinist Clement Janinet composes music for quartet inspired by the lyricism of the free jazz melodies of the 60s (Ornette Coleman, Phoraoh Sanders, &c.) and the timbral and rhythmic textures of repetitive music (Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams, &c) in several quartet configurations including bass clarinet, tenor sax, bass, drums, guitrar, and cello.

A double CD of delicate music from the French composer Bruno Duplant, the first disc containing three chamber pieces exquisitely played by the Suidobashi Chamber Ensemble, the second disc a long piece for solo guitar, performed by Taku Sugimoto in a public park in Tokyo, incorporating an extraordinary variety of environmental sounds.

Influenced by rock, jazz, Javanese and Balinese gamelan, NY drummer Mark Nauseef's career has embraced an inclusive blending of styles, heard in this fantastic new album embracing compositional and ea styles, recorded with previous collaborators including Tony Oxley, Bill Laswell, Walter Quintus, along with Sylvie Courvoisier, Pat Thomas, Miroslav Tadic, & Arthur Jarvinen.

The full two-hour performance of Cornelius Cardew's entire 193-page legendary Treatise graphic score, performed at Iklectik in London, England on January 28, 2017 in an 11-member ensemble of some of London's most interesting improvisers including participants in Scratch Orchestra, in a double CD release with liner notes by AMM founder Eddie Prevost.

An unusual album for American composer Michael Pisaro: six works based almost entirely on samples, punctuating more characteristic work in keeping with his Wandelweiser and EMW work with rhythmic and popular forms, albeit with Pisaro's characteristic inclusions, surprising the listener in an illusionary approach yielding serious electroacoustic compositions.

Largely derived from piano recordings by Netherlands pianist Reinier van Houdt, a member of both the Ensemble MAE and the Ives Ensemble and heard on the Wandelweiser label, expanded by several field recordings recorded by Michael Pisaro in Syros (Greece), creating a work in three pieces of rich environments that contrast peaceful passages with powerful ambiance.

Using piano, objects, charango, flute, voice, whistles, and a copy of the Editions Wandelweiser recording of Christian Wolff's "Stones", improvisers and composer Christian Wolff and Antoine Beuger present the two part "Where Are You Going Today", a series of events punctuated by silence and Beuger's brief recitations, creating great tension and mystery.

In it's 40th year, the Canadian music journal Musicworks, with a reflection on their journey, alongside articles about guitarist Sam Shalabi, composer Sarah Hennies, the music series SONICBernheim in Louisville, Kentucky, electronic-music producer Vanese "VJ" Smith (Pursuit Grooves), and a 13-track CD with music from the those artists and more.

Between 2014-16 Jakob Ullmann composed the orchestral work "steine, feuer, sterne" (stones, fire, stars) based on a modular structure, such that individual sections can be played outside of a complete performance, solo or in predetermined combinations; this album presents one section for solo bassoon titled "Muntzers stern" performed by Dafne Vicente-Sandoval.

Two electroacoustic orchestral compositions with machine analogies from composer, percussionist and electronic artist Matt Weston, mastered by Jason Lescalleet at Glistening Labs; unusual works that use abstract components against melodic snippets, electronic washes, glitch, altered voices, abrupt shifts and genre-defying resolutions; curious and unorthodox music.

Reissue of pianist Copland in a trio with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Jochen Rueckert performing ballads including pieces by Coltrane, Waldron, Porter and Sting.

Ensemble SuperMusique devotes itself to Montreal's "Musique Actuelle" and free improv community in assemblages of some of their finest players, here in a live concert in 2016 at Amphitheater du Gesu in Montreal with a stunning set of performers presenting the work of 4 composer.

P (Yann Pittard on oud and guitar & vocals), Y (Tatsuya Yoshida on drums & vocals) and N (Mitsuru Nasuno on bass & vocals) performing Arabian Progressive Pop Improvisation, an unusual melding and orchestration of arabic progressions and melodic prog rock.

Known more as a drummer than a composer, Australian-born and Tokyo-relocated Joe Talia composed and organized this two-part, album-length electroacoustic composition using his skills as a percussionist. performing on modular synths and tape machines, and using his vast studio skills as an engineer and producer to create these impressive electronic works.

With backgrounds in both improvisation and compositional music, the new trio of Cyril Bondi on harmonium, Pierre-Yves Martel on viola da gamba, and Christoph Schiller on spinet, agreed on a sequence of pitches for this 5 part improvisational work, allowing space for the players to explore pitch and melody within a contemplative and pensive framework.

One of a handful of John Cage's number pieces, this work for two pianists follows the forms of Renga poetry, composed with 36 lines of music, each containing 5 measures, and each line having 31 events occuring in the sequence 5-7-5-7-7, with the pianists allowed their own tempo but waiting to synchronize each measure, as performed by Mark Knoop and Philip Thomas.

An hour-long work for an ensemble of six musicians by Swedish composer Magnus Granberg performed by Anna Lindal on baroque violin, d incise on vibraphonen electronics, Cyril Bondi on percussion, Anna Kaisa Meklin on viola da gamba, Christoph Schiller on spinet, and Magnus Granberg himself on prepared piano, transforming material from a song by Franz Schubert.

Centered around Wagner's 200th birthday Peter Schwalm and Brian Eno explore how Wagner might reinterpret some of his works with the use of technology.

Hungarian composer, improviser and multi-reedist Jasna Jovicevic in an album researching sound vibrations and their direct impact on our body, energy, and creativity, performed with her contemporary chamber jazz sextet of bassoon, percussion, viola, violin and violincello, lyrical and joyful music "divided according to psychic centers in the human body".

Pianist and vibraphonist Karl Berger is also a professor of composition, having won numerous awards and commissions for his work, here presenting the final part of a trilogy written for Tzadik, a beautiful 14-part suite for piano and string realized with Berger himself at the keys in a septet of well known NY performers including Ken Filiano, Tomas Ulrich, Jason Kao Hwang.

The first release on pianist Anthony Pateras' new label OffCompass intended to explore a more diverse set of projects, is from the North Of North trio of Anthony Pateras on piano, Scott Tinkler on trumpet, and Erkki Veltheim on electric violin, using improvisation, Carnatic music, 20th and 21st century compositional strategies, mathematical theories and open forms of jazz.

Written in 1963 for up to 15 peformers plus a conductor who may also make sound, Japanese composer and Fluxus artist Toshi Ichiyanagi's score has 16 pages marked with combinations of lines, dots and letters indicating duration, number of events, and moments of restraint, each player using a different page, with certain options of switching pages with another player during performance.

Marianne Schuppe continues to reimagine songs and their relation to tone and melody, here in a series of 11 songs realized with voice, lute, and uber bows, creating delicate accompaniment to her lucid movements between pure sound and words, singing and speaking her lyrics of succinct phrases rich in subtle intimation and evocative imagery; beautiful.

Fourteen pieces for solo guitar from Norwegian composer Johan Lindvall, sparse yet warmly spaced pieces that focus on the individual notes or simple chords in intimate ways, meditative yet warmly evocative; two sections are presented in multiple movements, with "five songs for voice and guitar", Rasten singing words written by Marianne Moore; lovely and refined.

Pianist and composer Dante Boon performs his own work "Years, Numbers", alongside Antoine Beuguer's "Pour Etre Seul(e), Sans Reserve" and Taylan Susam's "Tombeau", and Bueger's "Nov. (piano)", four works of graceful and introspective beauty using minimal approaches to tone, chord, or spaciousness, recorded live at University Of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2014.

A sextet of Cyril Bondi (vibraphone), d'Incise (metallic objects), Magnus Granberg (piano), Anna Lindal (Baroque violin), Anna-Kaisa Meklin (viola de gamba) and Christoph Schiller (spinet) perform two works composed by Bondi and d'Incise, recorded by Simon Reynell of Another Timbre, works of repetition with distinct variations that evolve as each piece progresses.

Conservatory trained Argentinian saxophonist Sergio Merce uses a prepared tenor sax and a microtonal sax to create rich harmonics and slowly moving tonal works, layering aberrant and alluring tones in restrained configurations that allow each stratum of sound to be distinguished and appreciated, creating mesmerizing compositions of elusive and illusionistic sound.

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.

The Swiss Kukuruz Quartet of 4 pianists--Duri Collenberg, Lukas Rickli, Philip Bartels, and Simone Keller--continue their explorations of the works of late NY composer & pianist Julius Eastman, a pioneering figure in minimalism and an influential member of the 1980s Downtown New York scene; here in four works: "Fugue No.7", "Evil Nigger", "Buddha" and"Gay Guerrilla".

Melbourne, Australia's Astra Choir directed by John McCaughey use choral voice and appropriate instrumentation to interpret and present music from mediaeval to modern electronic and post-minimal music, here taking on compositions from Morton Feldman, Will Ogden, Pauline Oliveros, Warren Burt, Earle Brown, and Robert Carl.

A series of etudes and pieces for double bass composed by Bertrand Denzler specifically for Paris-based cellist and double bass player Felicie Bazelaire, presenting 7 etudes and 2 named compositions based on systems that require Bazelair to reveal the complexity of certain characteristics of the double bass within the framework of a solo performance.

A series of unusual compositions originally written by Jacques Demmiere and Vincent Barras, here reworked by Demmiere and violinist Anouck Genthon, each piece focusing on sounds, breaths, frictions, silences, vowels and consonants, weaving and complementing each other through a mix of traditional, extended and unconventional techniques; fascinating.

Spectral composers Iancu Dumitrescu & Ana-Maria Avram present 4 works recorded live in Berlin from 2009-14, with participants including Yoni Silver, Tim Hodgkinson, Stephan O'Malley, orchestration including stretchable steel and computer, crystals, prepared piano, &c.

Four fascinating compositions by Pascale Criton exploring microtonalities on instruments tuned in 1/16th tone (violin, viola, guitar) based on gestural processes developed in close collaboration with the musicians: one duo with Silvia Tarozzi and Deborah Walker, one solo piece with Deborah Walker, and two pieces performed by Dedalus Ensemble.

Victoriaville, Quebec electronic composer Charles Barbare creates abstract electroacoustic works, here in an impressive 6-movement work that covers a wide ground from minimalistic rhythmic sections to time-stretched voices and electronics to musique mystery, his inquisitive approach allowing his scores to unfold in decipherable, dramatic and coherent ways.

The second issue in the 40th anniversary year of Canada's foremost magazine exploring new music in composed, improvised, experimental and other unusual musics, articles including Peggy Lee, Circuit Bending, composer Maria de Alvear, an article on the Bug Incision label, plus a 14-track CD with tracks to accompany the articles, plus album reviews, live reviews, &c. &c.

Two ensemble works and two solo pieces by Christian Wolff's favourite contemporary composer, Cassandra Miller, who is blazing a very personal trail through the experimental music world, with brilliant performances by Apartment House, Mira Benjamin, Philip Thomas, and Charles Curtis with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ilan Volkov.

Four fragile and mostly minimal works by Victoria-based composer Alex Jang, performed by the Apartment House ensemble, with solo pieces by Heather Roche on clarinet + field recordings, one with Cristian Alvear on guitar, an acoustic quintet, and "any three players" designed for any mix of instrumentation, here on melodica, vibraphone & cello.

Four fascinating and detailed compositions from Canadian composer and painter Lance Austin Olsen, each work giving the performers space to collaborate on the results, using graphic scores and Cage-like elements from recordings; performers include Terje Paulsen, Gil Sanson, Ryoko Akama, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Katelyn Clark, Patrick Farmer and Apartment House.

A disc of extraordinary string works by Canadian composer Cassandra Miller, presenting four string quartets superbly played by the Quatuor Bozzini quartet of Clemens Merkel on violin, Alissa Cheung on violin, Stephanie Bozzini on viola, and Isabelle Bozzini on cello, including the large work "About Bach", awarded the Jules Leger Prize for New Chamber Music.

Eight sophisticated chamber pieces composed by Linda Catlin Smith and realized by the Canadian Apartment House ensemble, including a solo piano performed by Philip Thomas, a piano duo with Thomas and Mark Knoop, and works for percussion & cello, 2 quintet pieces for strings, percussion and winds, and two 7-piece conducted works with two percussionists, strings and brass.

Many years after Pere Ubu and his work as a pilot, one of the world's most unique synth players, Allen Ravenstine, releases an album of composed works, 18 discrete hybrid miniature sound worlds that blend acoustic, real-world and synthetic sounds in unorthodox ways that elusively twist conventional approaches with unexpected elements and narrative twists.

Controversial recordings from Herman Nitsch's "Orgies Mysteries Theater" as part of the Havana Biennial art exhibition in Cuba, 2012, using actors, blood, animal bodies and entrails, fruits, symbolic crucifixion, music, processions, and ritualistic gestures to enact a new form of Gesamtkunstwerk: pagan ceremonies that aim to a kind of collective catharsis.