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...

"Over the years I don't think I reviewed a lot of music by Klaus Janek, who plays processed double bass. In Vital Weekly 962 there was his release with Claudio Rocchetti, a tour document of their concerts in the Far East. Here he shows ...

"Although humanity's most in-demand and pervasive instruments the popularity of drums and guitars - or their equivalents - is so universal that there's no sanctioned method to play either. This is especially true with Free Music where adven...

"The Uliben Duo's CD Shared Memory (Creative Sources CS 327 CD) more accurately describe the performance of French bassist Benoit Cancoin facing the live processing of German Ulrich Phillipp. In other circumstances Phillips also plays b...

"Minneapolis-born Hong Kong raised and Berlin-based guitar performer Eric Wong is the author of this amazing release on Portuguese label Creative Sources, named after the initial of each of the five pieces he collected here. Since the o...

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"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...

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"Farhadian is an American composer and performer with a base in San Francisco and one in Berlin. Her work often is about connecting solo violin and interactive electronics. Combining her classical background as violist (Berkeley Symphon...

"When it comes to using electronics in improvisation (or as part of a compositional basis for improvising, a la Braxton's Diamond Curtain Wall Music), I've basically taken the attitude that if the result is engaging, I'll engage with it...

An extended improvisation of mostly quiet, occasionally cantankerous, but always intriguing free music, primarily acoustic playing with a strong cast of string players, plus reeds, keys, and computer, creating suspenseful music of great tension and impressive restraint as the sound evolves in gradations and facets of sound.

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A large work for cello, viola, sinewaves and electronics from the quartet of Guilherme Rodrigues, Ernesto Rodrigues, Ferran Fages, and Barriere, the first two foundation members for Creative Sources, the latter two frequent collaborators, Barriere bringing a mathematical background to the improvisation that blends acoustic and electronic sources in compatibly sinister ways.

"As always, the geometry is of the n-dimensional sort. The number of dimensions that vary is impressive: membership, instrumentation, location, duration, and so on. Certainly, the overall shape of each VGO performance is highly variable...

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"An interesting title to begin with. The situation of feeling like an extraneous body in a system that works according to peculiar principles. Or, in a more "mental" acceptation, the priceless condition of being completely delivered fro...

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"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...

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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...

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During legendary UK free improvising drummer Roger Turner's 2015 tour of Japan he met with guitarist Otomo Yoshihide and pianist Satoh Masahiko to record this monumental and astounding 66 minute improvisation at Fukaya City's Hall Egg Farm.

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"Two subtle works for the unique Swiss-based collective of 30/40 experimental musicians, co-ordinated and composed by d'incise and Cyril Bondi. "We started with the desire to invite as many musicians as possible to experiment with pieces...

The duo of Japanese artist Yoshio Machida and Belgian artist Constantin Papageorgiadis working together on the Synthi 100 keyboard, a modular synth used by Stockhausen, John Mcguire, Eduard Artemiev, Aphex Twin, &c. The instrument, one ...

"Spontaneous, random, uncalculated, surprising, unheard ... All this applies to improvised music, and even more! The unexpected is never to be excluded, as in life. But the everyday also occasionally requires improvisation. As part of Ak...