Primarily a creative filmmaker, Blick here provides narrative improvisation--phonemes, gutturals, word fragments, and spoken word--over improvising keyboardist Jean-Marc Foussat's Synthi AKS, creating expansive landscapes or curious audio aberrations, through four recordings demonstrating a diverse set of sonic environments interweaving voice and sound.

The EMS Synthi AKS was introduced in 1972 as a portable analog synthesizer, used in many avant rock & electronic settings; on Spielgelungen both Jean-Marc Foussat and Thomas Lehn perform on the Synthi, their adept skills and experience with the instrument in free improv highlight both their incredible creative drive and the flexibility of the AKS.

Fraqx, the Netherlands duo of guitarists Jacq Palinckx and Frank Crijns, both on electric guitar and "devices", debut their collaboration with this 7-part journey of rich deformations, from raw visceral energy to subdued experimentation, a diverse set of textures and powerful playing from two players with a long history of unusual improvisation.

Two compositions--"Unbearable" and "Nauseating"Ð-from the synth & electronics trio of Ken Ganfield, Kurt Liedwart and Petr Vrba, starting with improvisations on three synthesizers and electronics brought to the extreme edge, the results remixed by Liedwart to create these outer limit tracks of sci-fi psychedelia and Gameboy nightmare; truly unique and disquieting music.

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"While the previous Garcia/Branche CD seemed also improvised to me, this five-person work is of the two the more improvised one. The quintet of players also like their sounds to be sustaining, placing bows on strings, but also motorized...

A subtle album of soundscape from the French trio of Violaine Gestalder on saxophones, Louis Michel Marion on double bass, and Stefania Becheanu on field recordings, depicting 3 virtual aural views of a single landscape, the field recordings conveying a sense of location as the bass and sax use extended techniques and subliminal playing to create their vista.

French clarinetist Jean-Brice Godet leads the trio of bassist Pascal Niggenkemper and drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq in a live album of abstract free improvisation using tools like radios, dictaphones, object, and zithers, creating powerfully unique sound worlds.

Andre Gonvalves, known for the ADDAC System brand of modular synthesizers and several devices for electronic music, in a solo album combining analog and digital sounds and tools, processing of field recordings and ready-made materials, a rich and beautiful work.

DC electronic explorer Chester Hawkins releases this limited edition album of 50 copies shaped in a metal bullet that unscrews to reveal a USB drive with more than 4 hours of extended forays into psychedelic electronics, synth and tabletop guitar, journeys of hard drone & abstract concrete elements, in mp3 & wav format with a pdf, housed in a handsome black case.

Electro-psychedelic explorer Chester Hawkins presenting two live performances in Washington DC -- one recorded in isolation at Intangible Arts' studio (4th September 2018) and one in public at Rhizome community arts space (8th September 2018) -- improvised autopsies of Lutoslawski's String Quartet by means of three granular synth engines and one tape-edit/concrete emulator.

The meeting of Johnny Chang (viola), Jamie Drouin (suitcase modular synth), Dominic Lash (double bass), Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga(zither, and David Ryan (bass clarinet) recording at Bourough welsh Congregational Chapel, in London in 2013, recorded by Another Timbre label leader Simon Reynell, for a unique merging of disparate approaches to ea-improv.

"HumaNoise Tutti is an opportunity to hear Rodrigues in a large group that's not of his own devising-though there is often such complex and varied activity here, it would be misleading to evaluate it in the context of any one individual...

Sonic sources of a wide variety of timbre, rhythm and tone, mixed with voice, feedback, even bird sounds, make up the strata of this intriguing album from Oslo Improvisers Agnes Hvizdalek (voice), Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard (electric bass, electronics, field recordings), Utku Tavil (snare drum, no input mixer, sampler), and Natali Abrahamsen Garner (voice, electronics).

Sonic sources of a wide variety of timbre, rhythm and tone, mixed with voice, feedback, even bird sounds, make up the strata of this intriguing album from Oslo Improvisers Agnes Hvizdalek (voice), Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard (electric bass, electronics, field recordings), Utku Tavil (snare drum, no input mixer, sampler), and Natali Abrahamsen Garner (voice, electronics).

With discographies reaching back to the 80s, the trio of Beat Unternahrer on trombone and Furst-Pless-Horn, Jan Schacher on contrabass, objects and voice, and Pelayo Arrizabalaga, known for his reed work, on turntables and sine-generator, create 16 mostly improvised, succinct works that are influenced by free jazz, ea-improv, and sonic composition.

With references to "Robinson Crusoe" and titles referencing islands, the sea and shipwrecks, Argentinian guitarist living in Brooklyn, NY, Luis Ianes (Parias Ensemble) records his album that roughly translates to "Useful Ancient Constructions", using effects to create percussive, accompanying, and aquatic sounds, sometimes idiosyncratic, always interesting.

IKB, a ten-piece reductionist electroacoustic ensemble of strings, reeds, guitar, computer, percussion, piano, drums & objects, continues their exploration of exotic animal species with this 2020 live performance at O'Culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, Portugal, detailing the long-billed shore bird Limosa through intricate, restrained and remarkable expression.

Portugal's IKB Ensemble is an electracoustic improvising ensemble with a strong string and wind section, balanced with electric guitar, electronics, and percussion, each album focusing on an object--an art work, Dracaena Draco (Dragon Tree), Chelonoidis Nigra (Giant Tortoise)--and here taking on the Ornithorhynchus Anatinus, or platypus, in 3 fascinating movements.

Recorded at CreativeFest#12 in Lisbon at O'Culto de Ajuda, the 21-piece electroacoustic ensemble Isotope takes on the chemical element Radium in a gripping piece of evolving improvisation, intensely restrained and extremely detailed, orchestrated with cello, baroque violin, double bass, acoustic & electric guitars, zither, psaltery, winds, brass, keys, electronics and percussion.

Petr Vrba and Veronika Mayer use non-idiomatic improvisation to research the combination of textural materials, crossing them with vibrations of objects on the speakers, pure sound waves, feedbacks, tones coming from trumpet, accordion, electronics, and laptop, culminating in the creation of a muscular frenetic soup of tense energy fields.

Sporting a strange sense of humor and blending rock and improvisation, instrumentally this Amsterdam is the duo of Raphael Vanoli on guitar, synth, & electronics and Gerri Jager on drums, synths, & electronics, with Sandor Caron providing sound design, here in an album of stylistic amalgamations of unexpected and upbeat rhythmic oddity and fun melodic inventiveness.

Aberrant experiments with a stereo DJ mixer from Herbal International label leader Goh Lee Kwang, 5 tracks of unexpected sounds, micro-drills, crackles, purrs, hums, buzzes, quirks and bleeps from the mixer itself, performed live with no overdubs or pre-programming.

A work for heavy electronic drone and glitch, Herbal International Label founder Goh Lee Kwang presents this live performance from Malaysia's Finders Art Space in Kuala Lumpur, for 36 minutes of mysterious intensity that settles and fills the listening space like a pall.

Early recordings from Lab Coast (Chris Dadge and David Laing) from an odd session of improvisation recorded to cassette and restored for the band's debut release.

The debut of this reconfigured Boston-area trio drawn from the Leap of Faith lineup, starting with the core duo of PEK on clarinets, saxophones, clarinets & flutes, and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice, with guest Eric Woods on synth and percussion, the trio using heavy percussion and electronics gear in a unique journey of extended freeform improvisation.

Kurt Liedwart creates a personal journey through multiplicity of intense abstract layers of electronic and synthetic sound, constructing atmospheres of dronescapes, and cryptic songs, keeping the listener on edge in this album of intense "Tones" wrought from sythesizers, electronics, light controlled electronics, electromagnetic devices, and radio.

A live concert at Dom Cultural Center in Moscow, Russia in 2015 from Norwegian tuba player Martin Taxt, Saint Petersburg violinist and object player Andrey Popovskiy, and ppool performer Kurt Liedwart focusing on sinewaves and noise, in an extended lowercase improvisation exploring harmonic and microtonal sounds.

Moscow sound experimenter Phil Raymond, recording with computers and percussions, is resampled live by Moscow musician Kurt Liedwart on lloopp, electronics & percussion, to create these 5 darkly ambient tracks merging organized and improvised approaches.

Visual artists Maria Lucchese is also a multi-instrumentalist and voice performer based in Berlin, working with Gio Kaptra, a filmmaker, visual artist and scientist based in Urbino, take their listeners on a 7 part cosmic exploration using tibetan bells, theremin, voice, modular synth, breath and sound processing, the title translating to "through hardships to the stars".

A 5-part work of improvisations on keyboards, voice, guzheng and flute from French improviser Jean-Marc Foussat and Bao Luo (Beijing Talking), a mysterious album of nocturnal sounds, grand expressions, furtive language, and rich textures and timbres, as Bao Luo provides a guiding voice in song and speach to their beguiling dialog; an exotic and expressive album.

Maria da Rocha's name may not be familiar to jazz and improvised music lovers in Portugal, and this is because this violinist and violist from Lisbon has worked mainly on the Berlin and Stockholm circuits and much of her dedication goes...

The fourth collaboration between electronic composer Rutger Zuydervelt, aka Machinefabriek, and violinist, violist and vocalist Anne Bakker, in a work that merges and contrasts Bakker's string work and wordless vocals with soundscape, obscured field recordings and concrete sounds, using consonance and dissonance to create emotional pressure and release.

Translating to "Black Manner", saxophonist and electroacoustic artist Francesco Massaro, a member of the Italian band Bestiario, presents a dark and troubling album of intense and power solo saxophone and acousmatic accompaniment, which he refers to as "fixed media", each of the 8 pieces referencing musicians including Lenoci, La Volpe, &c.; enigmatic and superb.

One of the most prolific Evil Clown ensembles, Metal Chaos Ensemble distinguishes itself through the use of Gongs, chimes, glockenspiel, Tibetan Bowls and many other metallic sounds, with horns, compositions and narratives by multi-reedist PEK, in a rhythm-heavy fantastical journey in a septet with Moouse Traore on djembe and Mike Gruen on Azoth and Basilisk.

Each of these Boston-area improvisers handles an arsenal of equipment in the Metal Chaos Ensemble of David Peck (PEK) on reeds, synth, & daxophone, Bob Moores on synths & laptop, Eric Woods on synth, metal & wood, Abby on bass & electronics, and Yuri Zbitnoff on drums & percussion, in a massive work of detailed and passionate electroacoustics over PEK's large synthetic mix.

Metal Chaos Ensemble, formed in 2015 as a working project to explore rhythms on metallic instruments guided by rules-based chaotic systems of a very large number of small components, in a quintet studio recording using three dedicated drummers, reeds, electronics, and accompanying "tape" mixes, resulting in epic, inspired and wonderfully unpredictable improvisation.

PEK and Yuri Zbitnov lead the Metal Chaos Ensemble, here in a septet rendering of this Boston-area free improvising group that embraces an impressive arsenal of percussive, electronic and acoustic instruments, using unique strategies to yield densely active and eerily surreal music, an incredible excursion through experimental improvisation.

One of the most prolific Evil Clown ensembles, Metal Chaos Ensemble distinguishes itself through the use of Gongs, chimes, glockenspiel, Tibetan Bowls and many other metallic sounds, with horns, compositions and narratives by multi-reedist PEK, in a rhythm-heavy fantastical journey in a septet with Moouse Traore on djempe and Mike Gruen on Azoth and Basilisk.

This Boston-area collective ensemble explores chaotic rhythms on metallic instruments, heard in this 2019 recordings with three horns, doubled percussion and electronics, analog synthesis, and driving drum and bass work from Yuri Zbitnov and Mike Gruen, leveraging the Evil Clown arsenal of percussive devices as they perform an extended improvisations covering a wide scope of sonority and concept.

Guitarist Andy Moor of The Ex plays his guitar while electronic artist Kaffe Matthews reprocesses the sounds live into loops, drones, and static buzz, allowing Moor to respond to the manipulated sounds.

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Gordon Beeferman and Dafna Naphtali perform duet pieces and improvisations for piano and voice with kinetic sound processing, fractal rhythms, and polyphonic/kaleidophonic disturbances, as Beeferman creates solid structures which are augmented by Naphtali's live processing, while she employs extended vocal techniques and hand & voice activated electronics.

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Two large compositions by Montreal bassist Éric Normand, the first in a quintet with Camille Brisson, Antoine Simard, Marc-Antoine Mackin and Sébastien Maltais, using electronics, objects and motors; the second an acoustic work performed by the Quasar saxophone quartet of Marie-Chantale Leclerc, Mathieu Leclerc, André Leroux & Jean-Marc Bouchard.

A concise and essential concert from the Octopus octet, recorded in performances at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, Portugal during the Creativefest XII, the ensemble of mostly acoustic instrumentation (cello, viola, flute, clarinet, classical guitar, piano, percussion and synthesizer) carefully evolving a shade of blue in subtle details of tense restraint.

Takamitsu Ohta, known for his work with artists Anne-F Jacques & Ryoko Akama, in three unexpected recordings using the microphone and speaker of small devices with recording and playback ability, from five to fifteen such linked devices creating surprisingly stacatto and expressive voices from feedback, each piece aptly named for the resulting articulation each combination creates.

Unusual glitch and extreme electronics improvised by the duo of New York artist Dominic Cole and Chicago/NY artist Hunter Brown (Sound Tribe Sector Nine), using approaches including glitch, noise & circuit bending in 9 pieces with tongue-in-cheek titles, balancing erratic moments with exploratory sections and near silence, an interesting and enigmatic album of aberrant electronics.

Using a reel to reel deck, a mixer, electronics, and extraneous room sound, Brooklyn-based Ben Owens creates an album of contrasting drones and spaces, harmonically rich or pure tones contrasting with slowly drawn tape and abstract environmental sound, bringing enigmatic moments amidst drifting hiss and subliminal resonance; mysterious and intriguing.

Chicago born, Brooklyn-based saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson performs live at The Bunker on baritone saxophone, accompanying himself on analog synthesizer, using arpeggiated and repeating structures over which he improvises lyrical work using extended techniques including circular breathing, multiphonics, and overtones to great effect.

Evil Clown mastermind David Peck (PEK) in a double album of solo work, 1st pure solo, then in a long work accompanied by his own prepared mixes, using clarinets, saxophones, English horn, goat horn, tarota, bamboo, Chistmas & alto flutes, slide whistles, sheng, Melodica, Akai Wind controller, moog subsequent, gongs, brontosaurus & tank bells, Englephone, and delay.

A great example of the state of David Peck (PEK)'s approach to improvisation & arsenal of instruments, in an epic solo work merging acoustic and electronic sources with an unhurried path in a coherent long-form improvisation using reeds, sheng, fog horn, game calls, gongs, chimes, crotales, daxophone, [d]ronin, mpa 019, therimin, aquasonic, loops, & signal processing.

Two discs of solo work from Boston-area reedist, composer and Evil Clown collective leader David Peck (PEK), the first CD with 3 tracks, each focusing on a unique instrument from David Peck's large arsenal, in this case the bass tromboon, a C flute and a contrabass clarinet; the second a large improvisation using a mix from the first recordings along with live signal processing.

The fourth PEK Solo effort of 2020 finds Boston-area reedist David Peck in a virtual duo with himself, using a digital delay in a call and response on a single instrument - the tenor saxophone - his primary horn for a large part of his early history, demonstrating his current improvisational thinking & language on his most familiar instrument.

Approaching his solo work with new compositional strategies, multi-reedist and percussionist David Peck uses time and texture as the principal organizational elements in 9 pre-mixed recordings over which PEK was allowed more flexibility and freedom in instrumental choice during performance, using a vast collection of instruments in dramatic improvisations.

David Peck, aka PEK, took advantage of the down time from his typically busy performance schedule with the Boston-area collective of bands centered around Leap of Faith to record a number of solo performances, using a variety of reed and wind instruments and the arsenal of unusual percussive instruments at his disposal, recording the 3 full CDs of new material presented in this set.

"Siete Colores presents a trio of Rodrigues' viola and the dual electric guitars of Moimeme and Argentinean Fernando Perales (perhaps best known for the group Reynols with Anla Courtis). As "23 44'00"S 65 29'00" O" opens what's immediat...

The Berlin-based electroacoustic Red List Ensemble founded by cellist Guilherme Rodrigues in a studio recording of the 3-part "Scope", improvised music created in real time using extensive techniques to create and raise tension in a game of contrasts, exploring orchestration in micro-groups through organization of surfaces that are opposed in terms of timbre and sound texture.

New Haven instrumentalist Carl Testa and Chicago guitarist Christopher Riggs in a large composition for prepared electric guitar and live electronic processing that references Ashley, Stockhausen and Braxton while manipulating one's sense of time, space, and memory.

Franck Vigroux's performance at Museum de la Mine, Saint Etienne, France in 2012, performed without an audience, dramatic textural sound work in an impressive and twisted industrial setting.

Portuguese guitarist Manolo Rodriguez chose these 9 pieces from about 8 hours of improvised music, recorded on a Gibson acoustic guitar with piezo microphones on various parts of the guitar, passed through effects and finally controlled by a mixer, intended as a tribute to "the sense of sight as an intermediary of thought, and to artists who, with their eyes, have changed the world."

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Recorded in the studio in 2017, "Cyclic Symmetry" presents an electroacoustic trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, and CS mainstay Carlos Santos on field recordings, in a minimal work suggested to be heard on infinite loop, contrasting deep silence with sections accenting the slow, interwining harmonics of both Rodrigues' string work.

Two sets across two nights during CreativeFest #12 at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, Portugal, in a septet of six acoustic sources--viola, cellos, flute, trumpet, piano and percussion--and electronics, an extended journey approached with quiet tension and incredible detail, the recording of the first set used as the basis for the 2nd to create a virtual ensemble.

1. Plane, Line Segments, Rays And Some Dissipations 49:49

1 Macaronesia 36:52

French double bassist Fred Marty joins Creative Sources core performers, violist Ernesto Rodrigues, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues and electronic artist Carlos Santos for an extensive improvisation exploring both lyrical and pointillistic improvisation, themed loosely around a garden quartet or frame, the music detailed, active and formidably sophisticated.

A lowercase meeting of strings, objects, microphones and computer between core Creative Sources members Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, and Karne Decorne (objects) and Simon Proffitt (microphones & computer), investigating microsound in four unhurried conversations that include moments of odd interjections, tones, and timbre.

Recorded on New Years Eve in Sintra in the Penedo region of Portugal, three strings--viola from Ernesto Rodrigues, cello from Guilherme Rodrigues, and a second cello from Miguel Mira--are joined by Carlos Santos on electronics for three extended and richly detailed improvisations, active yet concentratively controlled, using impressive and extended techniques.

An immersive album of collective sound from the Portugues quintet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, Eduardo Chagas on trombone, and Carlos Santos on computer, developing rich sonic environments of great detail and intense patience, a tremendous journey that rewards the careful listener.

Portuguese violist Ernesto Rodrigues joins with German electronic improviser Has W Koch for an album of interactive acoustics and electronics, where textures from Rodrigues' viola are fed into Koch's electronics to create new and unanticipated transformations, both patiently evolving the textures to reveal sublime minutiae and detail.

A very open free improvisation of Portuguese musicians recording in Azores, PT from the quintet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Luis Senra on tenor saxophone, Gianna de Toni on double bass, Luis Couto on electric guitar, and Biagio Verdolini on homemade instruments, using space amid patiently evolving conversation with an overall acoustic feeling in three movements of "Dissonanze".

Three frequent collaborators--Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, and Abdul Moimeme on electric guitar--captured live in 2019 at Logradouro da Compostinha, in Lisbon, Portugal, each using their instruments with unusual approaches through extended techniques, in a half hour set balancing subtle aural ambience with rich, detailed activity; spellbinding.

Norwegian percussionist Stale Liavik Solberg (Gjerstad, VCDC, &c) joins frequent collaborators Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Nuno Torres (saxophone), and Carlos Santos (electronics) for a studio album of often pointillistic interaction, Solberg punctuating the unusual voicing and techniques of acoustic and electronic interactions as they permute the word "soon".

Nine numbered improvisations for viola, cello and analog synth from the trio of Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues and Richard Scott, recorded live at Audience, in Berlin, Scott's synth layers adding subtle nuance including vocal sampling and static and strange noise as a counterpoint to the Rodrigues' subdued but detailed techniques, textures and intense concentration.

Using a diatonic accordion and electronics, Robin Servant from Rimouski, Canada explores the acoustics of the places he visits by making them vibrate with his accordion and electronics, presenting 3 recordings from concerts in PiedNu in Le Havre, France, the Old Theater of St-Fabien, in Quebec, Canada, and at the Beaulieu Culturel du Temiscouata, in Quebec.

Writer Iain Sinclair joins The London Experimental Ensemble to perform his narrative work, a sequel to Living With Buildings: And Walking With Ghosts, telling a surreal story of the imaginary 25-year journey of a whalebone box, told in detailed images and incredible sonic support through keys, strings, brass, winds, guitar, electronics and voice; profoundly powerful.

New York reedist Josh Sinton takes the contrabass clarinet on a wild ride, performing live with no overdubs, using clip-on mics, a mixing board, a sans amp box, a volume pedal, and a bass amp, as he explores sonic possibilities and unexpected directions for this big reed instrument in his quest to redefine the old Slavic word for beauty or splendor: krasa.

Since 2014 the collective [SNDNG STTNS] has explored theatrical situations between musictheatre, staging and composition with live music, instruments, recordings, samples, speach and live editing, this work featuring cellist Guilherme Rodrigues bridges the art of the brazilian "violeros" with contemporary music, acoustic and electronic composition and improvisation.

Brooklyn's Sontag Shogun (Ian Temple-piano; Jesse Perlstein-electronics; Jeremy Young-tapes & electronics) in their debut album, compiling three years of composing and directed textural improvisations, presented in 9 rich musical works.

An exploration of space, not outer, but the space we give to each other, the space between events and the space between musical expression, as composed by electronic artist Rafael Toral, using acoustic & electronic feedback and amplification with his quartet of Hugo Antunes on double bass, Nuno Mora on drums & percussion and Nuno Torres on saxophone & electronics.

A concept record from Gaudenz Badrutt (electronics & synth) and Christian Muller (electronics & contrabass clarinet), starting with an improvised piece which is then resampled live into 6 new pieces, changing the character with each pass, and presented in reverse order.

This "Sub-unit" from Boston's improvising Leap of Faith Orchestra presetns a duo between Eric Zinman on piano, percussion and synth and David Peck on an array of saxophones, clarinets, bassoon and other reeds, plus small percussion, Theremin and accordion, in a unique and active duo with both players suggesting a larger ensemble through diverse strategeis and instrumentation.

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