Michel F Cote in a hybrid release of country and actuelle music that is unpredictable and funny with help from artists such as Bernard Falaise, Frank Martel, Billie Folliday, etc.

An excellent 50 year overview of the work of drummer & composer Chris Cutler, best known for his work with Henry Cow and his label ReR Megacorp, but also heard here in groupings including Art Bears, Cassiber, News From Babel, Aqsak Mabou, Duck and Cover, Peter Blegvad, Rene Lussier, The Work, Pere Ubu, The (ec) Nudes, Domestic Stories, Cutler/Frith, Cutler/Parkins, &c.

Re-issue of one of the earliest Confront releases, the trio of trumpeter Matt Davis, violinist Phil Durrant and cellist Mark Wastell performing subtle and sophisticated free improvisation at St. Michael's and All Angels church, Chiswick, London in 2000.

Univers Zero bassist Guy Seger brought this eclectic group of improvisers into the studio to develop the music on this genre-defying album, informed by a sextet of musicians who have performed and recorded with projects and artists including Vanishing Pictures, X-Legged Sally, Wrong Object, Tony Levin, Tony Bianco, Paul Schutze, Trevor Watts, Zeena Parkins, Jim O'Rourke, &c.

UK Composer Michael Edwards wrote these quiet compositions using his "slippery chicken" software, originally written as a challenge to pianist Rei Nakamura, in contrast to his technical skills, instead requiring pensive accuracy over a steady line of quiet chords.

The Empty Cage Quartet in 2 compositions that incorporate improvisational systems based on harmonic palindromes & melodic sequences derived from the cycles of the Mayan calendar

1. Ma(R)Ker #1 4:32

2. Ma(R)Ker #2 4:38

3. Ma(R)Ker #3 3:30

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5. Ma(R)Ker #5 6:15

6. Ma(R)Ker #6 3:04

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11. Ma(R)Ker #11 5:34

"Both Giesriegl and Gratkowski are responsible for the sound in the gearbox. It deals with an extreme range of vocalisms, which are often composed of elements of spoken language, which are part of the sound ensemble. He draws from an al...

Drummer Joe Herteinstein's followup to his 1st Clean Feed HNH album from his New York trio with Pascal Niggenkemper on bass and Thomas Heberer on cornet, adding a New York attitude to European modern jazz, with oustanding playing using a mix of traditional and inventive approaches.

Out free improvising vocalist Viviane Houle's debut solo release in duos with a veritable who's-who of Vancouver's finest improvisers including Peggy Lee, Jesse Zubot, &c. &c.

In tribute to late free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, the West Coast/Vancouver trio of guitarist Henry Kaiser, alto saxophonist John Oswald and vibraphonist Paul Plimley explore the intention of Taylor's singular style in six anagrammatically titled improvisations, with Chicago violinist Tracy Silverman joining for the massive "Oceans Felons Salad", and Scott Amendola joing for "fir loom".

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Since 2007 Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii and Australian keyboardist Alister Spence have collaborated on performance and recording in several configurations, including work with Tony Buck, Raymond McDonald, Jim O'Rourke, &c.; this energetic and otherworldly quartet session with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and drummer Ittetsu Takemura was recored live Knuttel House, in Tokyo, 2017.

Soprano vocalist Irene Kurka performs two works works by Antoine Beuger, and one each by Christopher Fox, Eva-Maria Houben, and Thomas Stiegler, accompanied by Antoine Beuger on flute for his composition "Chants de Passage"; 5 beautiful, unhurried works that bring the delicate beauty of each compositions, and of Kurka's refined voice, to a resonant foreground.

Hyperpianist Denman Maroney in a quintet with Ned Rothenberg, Dave Ballou, Reuben Radding and Michael Sarin, complex and rewarding structured & multi-tempo music.

A fully free, quirky and marvelous set of virtually indescribable improvisation from the trio of French vocalist Clara Weill (known from her work with Fred Frith), Olivia Scemama on bass and Tom Malmendier on drums, three active international collaborators with powerful technical skills and a strange sense of humor willing to take their music where ever it oddly leads.

Composed by pianist Magda Mayas for an octet of superb avant improvisers including Rhodri Davies, Zeena Parkins, Michael Thieke, Angharad Davies, &c. and performed live at the 2019 Music Unlimited 33, in Wels, Austria, this extended work uses a graphic score to interpret 12 photographs taken over an hour observing the merging waters of the Rhone and the Arve rivers.

Trumpeter Manuel Mengis 3rd Hat release, 8 original compositions of sophisticated and enjoyable modern jazz from a sextet with dual sax and guitar leads.

Four unique compositions from Portuguese trumpeter Sei Miguel, whose work embraces jazz history while incorporating his own music systems, here each piece varying the size of each grouping with one constant, his frequent sideman, alto trombonist Fala Mariam; plus luminaries including Rodrigo Amado, Ernesto Rodridgues, Helena Espvall, Nuno Torres, Rafel Toral, Paulo Curado, &c.

The MMM Trio of Carlo Mascolo on prepared trombone, Miguel Mira on cello and Marcello Magliocchi on drums & percussion recorded this album during a concert series in Puglia, Italy, placing each musician in a separate room with headphones, promoting the close listening and concentrated interaction each brings to their unusual approach to free improvisation.

A series of exceptional compositions by saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc plus one by Alice Coltrane, performed in a variety of group settings, from duos to quintet, with sidemen Matthew Shipp, Roy Campbell, Steve Swell, Hilliard Greene, and Newman Taylor Baker.

Merging Hannes Strobl's electric bass and effects with David Moss' unusual vocal approach into stream of consciousness observations and rich music of momentum and mood that are evocative, mysterious and fully engaging.

Ever-active Calgary guitarist Scott Munro (Bent Spoon Duo) in his debut solo album of freely improvised guitar performed on a baritone guitar, treated and untreated, captured live at Weeds Cafe in 2010 & 2011.

A split LP with each side featuring a 20 minute solo track from both brotherly halves of the acclaimed space guitar improvising band My Cat Is An Alien.

Sean Lennon & Greg Saunier (Mystical Weapons) are joined by multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Shahzad Ismaily for this one-sided, 19.50 minute art LP with an original illustration by Sean Lennon screen-printed on the B side.

After the 2019 retrospective box-set of the late 90s, legendary band The Quintet, and after the sad passing of bassist Bjornar Andresen, saxophonist Carl Magnus Neumann, guitarist Ketil Gutvik and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love decided to form a new quartet, adding bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, commencing their organization with this outstanding 2020 live concert in Oslo.

Two works from two distinctive composers from different periods--Jurg Frey and Luigi Nono--both for two violins, Frey using the two violins in parallel to emphasize their distinction; Nono using powerful gestures of divergence and contrast in a dream-like duo.

"Vancouver pianist Paul Plimley and his comrades, bassist Lisle Ellis and drummer Scott Amendola, have issued a tough little gem of a recording in Safe-Crackers. Plimley's pianism ranges in voice from fierce avant-garde improvisation to...

The Ratchet Orchestra is a large ensemble of 30 fringe musicians from Montreal headed by director Nicolas Caloia whose compositions allow for improvised chamber jazz and showcase the talents of the orchestra's most passionate players.

London's Remote Viewers in their 13th release, quoting W.H. Auden in an album of excellent structured improvisation with David Petts, Caroline Kraabel, Sue Lynch & Adrian Northover (saxes), John Edwards (bass & drums), and Rosa Lynch (keys and percussion).

The affect of Carlos Santos' electronics and recordings are the foundation of this Portuguese quintet's improvisations, creating an environment over which Ernesto & Guilherme Rodrigues on viola & cello, Eduardo Chagas on trombone, and Andre Hencleeday add subtle gestures of unusual approaches to their instruments, in a mysterious album of lowercase improv.

Saxophonist and bass clarinetist Andre Roligheten leads his quartet with Adrian Loseth Waade on violin, Jon Rune Strom on double bass, and Erik Nylander on drums and percussion through 7 original compositions and Ornette Coleman's "Kathleen Gray", writing for the players, particularly the combination of sax and violin, and the flexibility of a chordless quartet.

"As Frogworth says in one review: 'Two giants of Australian avant-garde music getting together here, dedicating their record to Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks, whose house in Paddington, Sydney is used for residencies/sabbatic...

"Recorded live at the Victoriaville Festival in 1996, this disc features the Italian saxophone and improvisation master surrounded by a band from heaven -- or hell, depending on your view of modern free jazz -- ensuring his own "social s...

An amazing solo CD of free improvisation from guitarit David Stackenaus, showing incredible technique and melodic intent, equally at ease when exploring tonality and melody or abstract noisy textures; compelling and impressive playing!

The excellent trio of Alfred Harth on sax, Kevin Norton on percussion, and the late Wilber Morris on bass, performing at the 2001 Vision Festival VI in New York City.f

Drummer Federico Ughi is heard in three duo configurations of three improvisations each with British improvisers Steve Buckley on alto saxophone and bass clarinet; Rachel Musson on tenor saxophone; and Matthew F. Morris on baritone saxophone, recording in the studio in London, 1998.

A collection of compositions from drummer/composer Federico Ughi dedicated to the four cities where he's lived: Rome, London, Montreal and New York, performed in a quartet with Darius Jones (sax), Eri Yamamoto (piano) and Ed Schuller (bass).

A 46-member orchestra of electroacoustic improvisers performing live at St. George's Church in Lisbon in 2015, for an extended and dynamic tapestry of sound conducted by leader Ernesto Rodrigues, with an impressive list of artists familiar to those following the CS label.

Hard-edged NY improvisation from the performing trio of Sam Weinberg on sax, Henry Fraser on bass and Weasel Walter on drums, who since 2017 have developed a group sound of powerful and fiercely determined free jazz roots using interesting instrumental technique, often muscular and urgent but also with periods of constrained interplay and dialog; an extremely well balanced band.

Two very different but openly creative improvising duos on a split CD, initiating the Swedish label and concert organizer FRIMS's split recording series: first 4 improvisations from legendary free improvisers Raymond Strid on drums & percussion and guitarist Mattias Windemo; then an extended dialog from new generation players Marcus Warnheim on alto saxophone and Karin Ivgves on piano.

"5th January, 12th January, 19th January, 4th February of the year 2015 have a thin red line (or I'd rather say a black line, considering their color on a calendar). They occurred on Monday, the first five Mondays of that year to be pre...

An unusual pairing of effected accordion and a 3D printer from Czech accordionist living in NY, Lucie Vitkova, also performing on harmonica, Korg Volca Bass and Moog, and NY multimedia artist Merch Blasco, the album titled for the name of Blasco's 3D printer "Anette", which also printed the thimble-microphones she wears on her fingers to capture parts of this performance.

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

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

The album art represents the intensity of this Swedish duo's Industrial music, from keyboardist Carl Westholm (Carptree, Avatarium, Krux, Candlemass) and bass player Gustaf Hielm (Pain of Salvation, Meshuggah, Mats/Morgan, Tiamat, &c), using electronics, field recordings, pulsing rhythms and synthetics to develop a complex and dark world of menacing force.

The album art represents the intensity of this Swedish duo's Industrial music, from keyboardist Carl Westholm (Carptree, Avatarium, Krux, Candlemass) and bass player Gustaf Hielm (Pain of Salvation, Meshuggah, Mats/Morgan, Tiamat, &c), using electronics, field recordings, pulsing rhythms and synthetics to develop a complex and dark world of menacing force.

A gorgeous album of acoustic improvisation from Anthony Pateras performing on a prepared piano and Stephen O'Malley on steel string acoustic guitar, recorded live with no overdubs during O'Malley's residency at La Becque on Lake Geneva in the summer of 2021, slowly interacting through resonant harmonics and percussive tones that glide and fill the air with contemplative sound.

Twenty three succinct recordings sourced from glass and related objects--wine glasses, glass bulbs, water jars, glass rods, &c.--each allowed to resonate or sing its unique characteristics, released as a vinyl album in 1970 and here remastered by Lawrence English under the guidance of Annea Lockwood herself; a unique album opening a microcosm of richly translucent sound.

An unusual duo of sax, electronics and live processing from New York reedist Ingrid Laubrock on soprano & tenor saxophones, and Cecilia Lopez on electronics and processing Laubrock's playing, releasing an intense yet masterfully controlled set of ten recordings that range from freight trains of powerful disruption to mischievous interactions of alien expression.

Two like-minded electronic sound & feedback artists, David Lee Myers, aka Arcane Device from NYC and Toshimaru Nakamura from Japan, use feedback matrices & modular electronicsÊ(Myers) and No-input Mixing Board (Nakamura) in a remote collaboration of alien overlays, sonic extensions and disruptive digressions through 12 complex and varying compositions.

Fall 2023 issue of Canada's premiere new music magazine, with Julie Richards on the cover in an article exploring the legacy of little known Black female composers; plus articles on Maria Chavez and her turntable art; Michele Geister use of '80s music TV; composer Trevor Grahl; Mustafa Rafiq; Evan Dysart; plus reviews, essays and a CD of tracks from the aforementioned artists.

Two works for voice and chamber orchestra performed by the UK Explore Ensemble under the direction of Nicholas Moroz, and a multi-tracked vocal work by Lotte Betts-Dean, rich and understated works of rich harmonics and atmospheric overtones composed by Catherine Lamb, placing phonetic vocals in space and ambiance, eschewing words for tone, texture and motion; mesmerizing.

Improvisations from graphic scores that influence the structural framework for these five pieces from New York-based artist & composer Nickolas Mohanna, who uses a varied palette of percussive devices alongside electric guitar and computer, including hammered notes and brushed cymbals to create pulsing and immersive shapes that emerge and submerge in each floating work.

Recorded thirteen years before this release and rediscovered during pandemic lockdowns, the improvising and extremely open-minded trio of Fred Frith on electric guitar, Sudhu Tewari on percussion (or as credited, "recuperated junk") and Cenk Ergun on electronics recorded these seven superb improvisations in the studio at Expression College for Digital Arts, in Emeryville, CA.

Joining long-time UK improvising collaborators, saxophonist Paul Dunmall and drummer Mark Sanders is London performer and engineer Alex Bonney performing on trumpet, modular synthesizer and laptop, the trio recording in the studio for three conversations of lyrically inclined electro-acoustic improv, Bonney's synthetics adding an alien aspect to sophisticated dialog.

During cellist and Confront label-leader Mark Wastell's 2022 residency at the East London Hundred Years Gallery he recorded four solo recordings, using his acutely creative approach to the strings in unique ways for each recording, which he then layered in the studio without edits to create this wildly and often psychedelically stochastic orchestral work.

Formed in 2019 by Red Trio members Rodrigo Pinheiro on piano and Hernani Faustino on double bass plus core Creative Sources electronic musician Carlos Santos, with Joao Almeida on trumpet and Joao Valinho on drums, the "inter.independence" referencing an experimental approach to collective improv through independent layers that interact to create unexpected intersections.

A psychedelic set of recordings based around the guitar work of Philip Gayle, improvised, recorded, and layered into diverse experiments in sound and performed on banjo, bass, cello, door, guitars, mandolin, percussion, piano, toy piano, voice, ukulele and waterphone, with guests including saxophonist Shogo Ohshima and vocalists Shizka Ueda, Omusubisan and Fuuchan.

Percussionist Sheldon Suter steps out from groups including Musique Brute, Big Bold Back Bone, Marco von Orelli 6 or Jurg Wickihalder Orchestra for a seductive album of solo percussion, using zithers, portable turntables, a shruti box and harmonica in immersive works intermixing six pulsing and serene lullabies with five ominous nocturnal environments.

Percussionist Sheldon Suter steps out from groups including Musique Brute, Big Bold Back Bone, Marco von Orelli 6 or Jurg Wickihalder Orchestra for a seductive album of solo percussion, using zithers, portable turntables, a shruti box and harmonica in immersive works intermixing six pulsing and serene lullabies with five ominous nocturnal environments.

Italian percussionist, sound artist, improviser and composer Nicholas Remondino expresses the sentiment of the 18 recordings on this solo album of prepared drum improvisations through a single sentence, each piece flowing into the next through unusual punctuation, gestures and intersections, as the listener is carried along curious landscapes of extraordinary technique.

An impressive set of recordings from the electroacoustic improvising trio of Camille Émaille on percussion, dieb13 on turntables and Hans Koch on soprano sax, clarinet & bass clarinet, recording live in Switzerland at Le Singe and at Poestremeis for eleven intricate exchanges of mystery and suspense using remarkable technique and patient attention to each player's contribution.

Having collaborated over 15 years in bands including Slow is Possible and Cat in a Bag, the Portuguese quartet of Duarte Fonseca on drums, Joao Clemente on guitar, Nuno Santos Dias on Waldorf Zarenbourg electric piano and Ricardo Sousa on double bass, borrow from electric 70's jazz, rock and experimental forms through 10 diverse and intriguing concepts tinged with a dark wit.

A beautiful album of expanded landscapes performed on electronically modified Electronic Wind Instrument, field recordings, virtual instruments and synthesizer from Argentinian sound artist Sergio Merce, his characteristically patient pacing and use of space creating dramatic and beautiful sonic environments that hint at warm narratives in a seductive excursion.

Contrasting motion and static notes, Portuguese sound artist living in Barcelona, Alfredo Costa Monteiro uses a combination of two wind instruments--accordion and melodica--and the harmonic differences between their natural textures to create beautiful ebbs and swells of consonance and dissonance, applying feedback tuned to one or the other instrument to create subtle beat frequencies.

A wild live improvisation at Apollo, in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo from legendary Japanese reedist Akira Sakata on alto sax and clarinet, Raiga Hayashi on drums, and Toshimaru Nakamura on no-input mixing board, the latter adding unusual electronic elements to otherwise characteristically energetic free jazz from the Tokyo scene, making this a wonderfully unique album.

Berlin recordings from the lowercase chamber improvising string quartet of New Zealand violinist Sarah Claman, Portuguese violist Ernesto Rodrigues and cellist son based in Berlin, Guilherme Rodrigues, with Swiss sound artist Caroline Cecilia Tallone on electroacoustic hurdy gurdy & amplified objects, exploring three shadow aspects of "Umbra", "Penumbra" and "Antumbra".

The band name Omawi is a conglomerate of this Dutch trio's name, appropriate for the nearly telepathic interaction of pianist Marta Waleris, drummer Onno Govaert and double bassist Wilbert de Joode, captured in their first live performance after the pandemic lockdown at Zaal100, in Amsterdam, their enthusiasm and pent-up expression clearly evident in five extraordinary improvisations.

Using the resonance of the parking garage under the Jazz Cat in Monterey Park, California, Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist Patrick Shiroishi recorded nine solo improvisations, interacting with the environmental sound and reverberant ambiance through contemplative, curious and explosive moments, at times augmenting his saxophone with the metallic notes of a glockenspiel.

An unusual pairing of effected accordion and a 3D printer from Czech accordionist living in NY, Lucie Vitkova, also performing on harmonica, Korg Volca Bass and Moog, and NY multimedia artist Merch Blasco, the album titled for the name of Blasco's 3D printer "Anette", which also printed the thimble-microphones she wears on her fingers to capture parts of this performance.

Bringing together two generations of sound artists and field recording specialists--Belgian composer Moniek Darge, known for her ethnomusicologist "soundies" from global locations; and American sound composer Vanessa Rossetto transforming everyday occurrence--for a meeting at Lincoln Center in NYC to record the city and reshape its sound into four impressionistic sonic reveries.

The first collaboration between electroacoustic composers and performers, Graham Lambkin (The Shadow Ring) from Kent, England and Australian composer, improviser and concrète collagist James Rushford, the two developing a series of fascinatingly mysterious and detailed sound compositions that incorporate live playing; beautifully packaged.

Two realizations of Michael Pisaro-Liu's 2006 work for sustaining instruments, harmonium & field recordings, recorded first at Wild Gallery, in Brussels with Guy Vandromme (keyboards) and Adriaan Severins (field recordings and synthesizer); then at the Museo Archeologico San Lorenzo, in Cremona, Italy with Luciana Elizondo (viola da gamba) and Fabio Gionfrida (field recordings), in collaboration with Guy Vandromme (Indian harmonium).

Performing live in a virtual festival performance at his home studio as an extension of his work at erstwhile's 2011 Amplify festival, Japanese sound artist Taku Unami recorded these three extended works using cardboard boxes and small robots, creating the curious sounds of their interactions and capturing them on binaural microphones to recreate their dynamics as exactly as possible.

Following their 2009 release of the same title, this album of primarily free improvisation is a well-paced presentation of two 3-movement works between Japanese percussionist Seijiro Murayama providing precise rhythmic abstractions, and French sound artist Eric La Casa using field recordings of recurring and curious sound sources plus objects to expand Muriyama's punctuations.

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

Two extended works for percussion & electronics from Matt Weston, a curious coupling of resonant interactions that is likely a mysterious mixture of preparation, improvisation and composition, augmented with electronics and modified in the mix through studio manipulation, making for fascinating journeys through enigmatic punctuation and sound.

A duo recorded in Tokyo in 2019 as a live performance, and through remote collaboration on the internet, between NY sound artist Victoria Shen, who focuses her work on extreme textures and gestural tones, using "chaotic sound" to oppose signal and information to elude traditionally embedded meaning, and Japanese noisician Toshiji Mikawa of Hijokaidan & Incapacitants fame.

A split release between two noise artists from opposite sides of the planet: first Greek sound artist Manos Michaelides, aka Ego Death, in a brutal assault of abrasive sound recorded over a decade; then an amalgamation of a live recording from Hiroshi Hasegawa (C.C.C.C.) performing at IAF shop in Fukuoka, Japan and in the studio at Koenji-Minami Studio, in Tokyo, Japan.

Eight illusory and ethereal sound and noise works from Daniel Sine, aka Le Chien Nu, from beautiful sonic environments to raspy nightmares, putting special emphasis on the latter, with enough diversity between each work to make a complete REM cycle of unsettling sleep offset by moments of beauty.

Each side of this LP from The Haters mastermind GX Jupitter-Larsen is a minimalistic noise work in the style of The Haters, built from loops and extraneous sounds, obscure and curious and each side ending with a giggle; you either need more of this kind of sonic opaqueness, or perhaps you too are a Hater.

Daniel Sine, aka L'eclipse Nue, in his third releases on Love Earth Music and his first on vinyl, the title evoking the sense of joyful noise and ritual aspects to his work through eight pieces of divergent sonic experiments, recalling the work he participated in Japan through bands with Le Chien Nu and SHROUD OF VAPOUR.

With albums on Creative Sources, Bolt and esc.rec., &c., Lithuanian sound artist working in the digital electronic realm Gintas K. releases a solo album of nine compositions for computer, midi keyboard & controller, using glitch, oddly punctuated rhythmic elements and alien sound sources for an oddly compelling album of slippery electronics and strange sonic environments.

A split 7" vinyl between UK collage artist Ade Rowe, also known as Awkward Geisha, in a country & western song of improvised guitar & sax titled "Psycho"; and somewhat appropriately backed with a quartet of guitar, harmonica, mandolin & trumpet from avant country eccentric Eugene Chadbourne, poking fun through a song titled "Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother".