Five CDs with unique and joyfully creative aspects of saxophonist and composer Trevor Watts' work, from concerts and studio settings in the UK, US and South Americal in configurations of Trevor Watts Moiré Music Group, with the Enjambre Acustico Urukungolo, Trevor Watts' Moiré Music Drum Orchestra, and duos with Jamie Harris, and with Marc Hewins.

Seven succinct dialogs between two masterful rhythm improvisers--bassist Bernard Santacruz and drummer Michael Zerang--whose previous work with Jeff Parker, Joelle Leandre, Douglas Eward and Jean-Luc Cappozzo is distilled to this intimate setting, employing innate lyricism and unique approaches to their instruments to fascinate and captivate their listeners.

Investigating the continuity of our perceptions through sound--the one sense that flows continuously into our awareness--through a concert at Baza Club in Krakow, Poland in 2018 between alto saxophonist Keir Neuringer and acoustic bass guitarist Rafał Mazur, using magnificent technique as they tentatively then boldy exchanges waves of the past, present and future.

Four settings with improvising bass guitarist Rafal Mazur, 4 CDs, the first a solo studio recording of two extended improvisations; the 2nd a duo with clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio; the 3rd a live concert at Baza Club in Krakow with trumpeter Artur Majewski; the 4th a quintet session with Gregorio, Satoko Fujii (piano), Natsuki Tamura (trumpet), Ramon Lopez (drums).

Picking up where the 2013 Clean Feed album Tone Hunting left off, the quartet of Anna Kaluza on alto saxophone, Artur Majewski on cornet, Rafal Mazur on acoustic bass guitar, with drummer/percussionist Vasco Trilla replacing Kuba Suchar, the refreshed quartet is heard live at the University of Zielona Gora, Poland for an informed 6-part free improvisation.

The title referring to the spatial arrangement where sounds of different frequency are processed in the brain, New York trombonist Steve Swell and Austrian Elisabeth Harnik performing inside and out of the piano, are captured live at Martinsschlossl, in Vienna, Austria in 2019 for 8 free improvisations of immense creative drive and ebullient rapport.

The 2nd Code Girl release from guitarist Mary Halvorson presents an embraceable and ambitious set of songs from 8 poetic forms for which Halvorson composed words & music, 3 of which are sung by Robert Wyatt, the others by Amirtha Kidambi, in a band with Thumbscrew members Michael Formanek (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), plus Maria Grand (sax) and Adam O'Farrill (trumpet).

An innovator in integrating pedal steel guitar into modern improvised music, Cleveland-born, Baltimore-based pedal steel guitar player Susan Alcorn's quintet enlists a superb set of New York players--Mark Feldman on violin, Michael Formanek on double bass, Mary Halvorson on guitar, and Ryan Sawyer on drums--taking on a diverse set of Alcorn compositions.

Two innovators of free vocal improvisation come together for a concert at Santa Chiara Nuova Church during the 2015 ImprovvisaMente festival in Lodi, Italy, setting aside Chen's cello and electronics to focus on pure voice interactions, each using their unique language and technique in a single 37 minute performance of intrepid, inexplicable and unique improv.

A set of informed avant/abstract acoustic and electroacoustic improvisations recorded in the studio in Austria in 2019, from the transatlantic trio of Euro free jazz legend, trombonist Matthias Muller, Quebec bassist Eric Normand on electric bass, and innovative trumpeter Petr Vrba also deploying electronics, the trio's interaction focused on patient and inspired sonic detail.

Jean-Luc Guionnet composes for the Le Grand Groupe Régional d'Improvisation Libérée (GGRIL) directed by bassist Éric Normand, with an 11-piece ensemble recording in the studio for a work of tension and release through fitful sections that explores contrast and unison, space and contraction, guided by a wonderful sense of mystery and surprise.

Exploring the jazz tradition through 12 tone serial tone row scales, along with graphic scores & other variations, from UK composer Trevor Taylor, also on drums & vibraphones, in a quintet with Shanti Paul Jayashina on trumpet, Josh Ison on saxophones, Dan Banks on piano, and Jose Canha on Double Bass, in a set of tunes that beautifully balance freedom and lyricism.

The other side of Paul Dunmall's characteristic saxophone work is heard here on the alto flute, bringing Dunmall together with fellow flutist Neil Metcalf and the rhythm section of James Owston on bass and Tymek Jozwiak on drums for four exceptional improvisations that focus more on interaction and less on soloing, showcasing all four through sophisticated performance.

Extremely well paired in their unusual approaches to their instruments both acoustic and electronic, this live recording between Udo Schindler on reed & brass instruments and Jaap Blonk improvising with his voice and using computer electronics, results in eight diverting and inspired recording of extreme creative approaches and impressive technical skill.

A superb concert of masterful collective improvisation captured live at LOFT Cologne in 2018 from the trio of Luc Houtkamp on tenor saxophone & clarinet, Steve Beresford on piano & objects, and Martin Blume on drums & percussion, in three extended improvisations, thoughtful work building to periods of powerful passion while maintaining a reflective introspectiveness.

A convergence of reeds across the range of clarinets, from double bass clarinet to piccolo clarinet, in this live recording at Udo Schindler's 88th SALON fur Klang+Kunst in Krailling/Munich between reedists Schindler and Ove Volquartz, with particular emphasis on the deepest of reeds, the most challenging of clarinets, handled masterfully by both players.

Portuguese guitarist Marcelo Dos Reis and trumpeter Luís Vicente, Icelandic pianist Kristján Martinsson and Dutch drummer Onno Govaert release their 2nd album, moving from the studio to a live concert at Salão Brazil in Coimbra in 2018, performing six collective improvisations of explorative and technically advanced, cutting edge free improv.

Refined and free ranging improvisation between German reedist Udo Schindler performing on bass clarinet, tenor & sopranino saxophones and also on cornet, and US double bassist Damon Smith, recorded 3 days after the first volume in this series, presenting two sets from the same day of informed and diverse dialogs between two masterful improvisers.

Double bassist Joshua Abrams provides the compositions for this studio album performed with Ari Brown on tenor sax, Jeff Parker on guitar and Gerald Cleaver on drums, an exceptional quartet of master improvisers who balance lyrical and soulful playing with explorative impulse, fueled by an empathetic responsiveness that only a long history of collaboration can engender.

An epic journey through diverse improvisational approaches within a composed framework, using heavy percussion of unusual & world origins, electronics, rock/groove elements and prepared mixes created from samples, from the Boston duo of David Peck (PEK) on reeds & an arsenal of devices & sources, and Yuri Zbitnoff on drums & percussion, with narration points along the way.

The first new Sun Ra Arkestra album in twenty years, recorded in Philadelphia under the direction of saxophonist Marshall Allan, with long-standing Arkestra members including Danny Ray Thompson, Michael Ray, Vincent Chancey, Knoel Scott, Cecil Brooks, Atakatune, Elson Nascimento and Tyler Mitchel, with new material and new renderings of classic Ra compositions.

Originally released in 3 LPs as Live in Egypt on Thoth Intergalactic and then as the Saturn albums Dark Myth Equation Visitation, Nidhamu & Horizon, this set reissues and expands the 1971 Sun Ra tour recordings: The Mena House Hotel in Giza; a concert at Hartmut Geerken's in Heliopolis; a live Cairo TV channel broadcast; and a concert at Cairo's the Ballon Theatre.

A duo between Japanese free improvising drummer Sabu Toyozum and Swedish baritone saxophonist & wind player Mats Gustafsson, also performing on his own fluteophone (a mouthpiece attached to the flute), capturing five live improvisation at their 2018 performance at Jazz Spot Candy, in Chiba, Japan for an extremely inventive set of potent playing.

An exceptional album of demanding collective free improvisation from the transatlantic quartet of Nate Wooley on trumpet, Liudas Mockunas on contrabass clarinet and saxophones, Barry Guy on bass, and Arkadijus Gotesmanas on drums & percussion, recorded in the studio in Vilnius, Lithuania while Wooley and Guy were artists in residence for the 2019 Improdimensions.

Revisiting two of Archie Shepp's 1969 recordings released on the BYG label as Blasé, and title track to Yasmina, three tracks featuring the vocals of Jeanne Lee, with four band configurations including Dave Burrell, Malachi Favors, Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Sunny Murray, Philly Joe Jones, &c., beautifully remastered to bring to light Shepp's pan-stylistic impulses.

Bringing together two essential and impeccably remastered 1960's Cecil Taylor albums — Cecil Taylor Unit Structures and Cecil Taylor Unit Mixed — presenting both traditional influences and Taylor's unique approaches to modern jazz, featuring two septets with musicians including Jimmy Lyons, Henry Grimes, Archies Shepp, Ted Curson, Andrew Cyrille, Roswell Rudd, Sunny Murray, &c.

The Red Trio of pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro, bassist Hernâni Faustino and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini mark their 10th anniversary as a trio on this 2-CD set of an outstanding concert in Lisboa, PT, joining forces with the 13-member Celebration Band, whose members include John Butcher, Ernesto Rodrigues, Luis Vicente, Sei Miguel, Rodrigo Amado, Mattias Stahl, Carlos Santos, &c.

The fourth volume in the NoBusiness Records Sam Rivers Archive series is this live recording from Hamburg, Germany during River's 1979 tour of Europe, with the multi-instrumentalist performing on tenor & soprano saxophones, flute & piano in a quartet with Joe Daley on tuba, euphonium, Dave Holland on bass, cello, and Thurman Barker on drums.

Reissuing The Necks' pianist Chris Abrahams' 2004 solo album, a unique set of recordings that reflects both on his improvisational life and his explorative nature, recorded using a Positive Organ, Forte Piano, DX 7 and an acoustic piano, each piece evoking distinct sonic environments and approaches to playing and compositions that makes sense in the overall presentation.

First introduced at the "Konfrontationen" festival in Nickelsdorf in 2006, German pianist and composer Georg Graewe's Sonic Fiction Orchestra developed these diverse works of jazz, fusion-tinged, and chamber improv during a residency at the 2018/19 Porgy & Bess in Vienna, recording in the studio in 2020 for this impressive album, particularly the large "Redshift E" composition.

A 10-album collection in a solid box set of vocal and instrumental suites recorded expressly for this set between late 2018 and early 2020, with women's voices at its core (both on voice & other instruments), taking a vast view of music from around the globe through free improvisation and re-imagined sonic collage, performed by groupings of extraordinary performers.

American pianist Marilyn Crispell joined London Improviser's Orchestra saxophonist & clarinetist Harry Smith and AMM drummer Eddie Prévost for this 2012 concert at London's Cafe OTO, playing in a melodic free jazz mode of passionate interaction and deep communication, resulting in an unforced and naturally masterful set of thoughtfully lyrical improvisation.

Though not well documented, free jazz legendary pianist Cecil Taylor's working band for 3 years in the late nineties was this quintet of Harri Sjostrom on soprano saxophone, Tristan Honsinger on cello, Teppo Hauta-aho on double bass, and Paul Lovens on drums, cymbals & gongs, heard in this energetic concert at Tampere Jazz Happening in Finland, 2018.

A series of ominous duos on the dark side from NY improviser Jeremiah Cymerman on clarinets & pedals, and Charlie Looker (Extra Life, Psalm Zero) on guitars & piano, each of the five pieces exploring murky caverns of warmly bleak environments rendered through Looker's deep piano & guitar work, perforated by cracks of light through Cymerman's riffs & exclamations.

A series of ominous duos on the dark side from NY improviser Jeremiah Cymerman on clarinets & pedals, and Charlie Looker (Extra Life, Psalm Zero) on guitars & piano, each of the five pieces exploring murky caverns of warmly bleak environments rendered through Looker's deep piano & guitar work, perforated by cracks of light through Cymerman's riffs & exclamations.

The first album as a bandleader from Chicago tenor saxophonist Gerrit Hatcher in a full quintet of well-known Chicago improvisers -- cornetist Ben LaMar Gay, tenor saxophonist Keefe Jackson, bassist Katie Ernst, and drummer Julian Kirshner -- in an album that would fit well in the ESP/Ayler free-jazz mode, tipped off by a cover of Charles Tyler's "Man Alone".

Chicago saxophonist and Kettle Hole label leader Gerrit Hatcher joins with West Coast saxophonists Rob Magill (Weird Cry Records, Dreamcolour) and Japanese saxophonist based in Los Angeles Patrick Shiroishi, for five collective free improvisations of informed saxophone interaction; three approaches to the horn that complement and contrast in fascinating ways.

The Chicago collective trio of tenor saxophonist Gerrit Hatcher, Lebanese bassist Eli Namay and drummer/percussionist Bill Harris are captured live at Chicago's The Whistler in the summer of 2019 for two extended and exploratory improvisations, showing both technical mastery and a curiosity for new modes of expression through inspired and intuitive conversation.

The fourth album in 20 years from the Schnee duo of guitarist Burkhard Stangl (efzeg, Polwechsel) and Christof Kurzmann performing on lloop, voice and "ruber bands", creating music for films that have not yet been created through intensely moody electroacoustic environments, Kurzmann's voice sometimes guiding the narrative of their visionary sound.

A truly unique duo album of sax and drums from Chicago reedist Mars Williams and Spanish percussionist Vasco Trilla, using their immense technical skills to pivot reflective and meditative playing around exuberant free jazz spirit, maintaining a sense of journey and sonic introspection through unusual and extended technique; a beautifully balanced album.

Drummer Tomas Fujiwara composed these compositions specifically for his trio with Patricia Brennan (vibraphone) and Tomeka Reid (cello), beautifully orchestrated for the unique combination of instruments and the extraordinary technique of each player, resulting in lyrical improvisation performed with a clarity appropriate for each piece's dedication.

Meeting in France in 2017 for the Festival Météo de Mulhouse, Evan Parker alternating between soprano and tenor saxophones and Matthew Shipp on acoustic piano, present an epic extended improvisation that naturally evolves through several sections, followed by a brief post-script, each musician attentively focused as they support the clarity of each other's playing.

A brilliant example of trans-Atlantic collective free improv from the quartet of New York free jazz heavies Matthew Shipp on piano, Joe Morris on double bass, Gerald Cleaver on drums, and UK tenor saxophonist Paul Dunmall, playing in the tradition of ecstatic and extended free jazz in a nearly hour long live performance recorded at Roulette in Brooklyn in 2012.

Founded in 1967 by pianist Misha Mengelberg, drummer Han Bennink, and saxophonist & clarinetist Willem Breuker, this double CD documents the earliest years of the ICP collective through live & studio recordings from 1966-71, with an impressive cast of jazz and contemporary compositional players creating a delightfully diverse set of approaches to improvisation.

A lost gem from of British free sax and drums & percussion duo of saxophonist Larry Stabbins and percussionist Roy Ashbury, originally released in 1976 on the Bead Label, their interplay including masterful and extended techniques from Stabbins and an array of chimes, chains, wood blocks, shakers, and bowed cymbals augmenting Ashbury's kit; captivating dialog.

Originally released in 1980, this album reissues late trumpeter Bill Dixon's recording from Barigozzi Studio, in Milano, Italy in 1980, performing Dixon's tapestry-like compositions with Dixon on trumpet & piano, Arthur Brooks on trumpet, Stephen Haynes on trumpet, Stephen Horenstein on tenor & baritone saxophones, Alan Silva on bass, and Freddie Waits on drums.

Tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler's 1966 quintet brought a unique orchestration to his music, heard in these live performances in Berlin, Lörrach, Paris & Stockholm in November of 1966, four concerts presented chronologically as performed with the exemplary playing of brother Donald Ayler on trumpet, Michel Samson on violin, William Folwell on bass, and Beaver Harris on drums.

Extending their previous collaborations during the time of pandemic, NY electronic improviser Ikue Mori and Japanese improvisers Natsuki Tamura on trumpet and Satoko Fujii on piano developed this extraordinary ea-improv album via file exchange, starting with Fujii's piano improvisations to which Mori & Tamura added their layers, with Mori mixing the final, startling results.

The follow-up to NY drummer/composer Dan Weiss's 2018 release Starebaby is an unconventional compounding of electric jazz, doom metal, electronic music, and improvisation, performed with Matt Mitchell on piano & Prophet 6, Craig Taborn on piano, Fender Rhodes & synthesizers, Ben Monder on guitars, and Trevor Dunn on electric bass.

Recorded at the same time and influenced by the recording of their 2020 album The Anthony Braxton Project, the NY Thumbscrew trio of Tomas Fujiwara on drums, Mary Halvorson on guitar, and Michael Formanek on double bass & electric bass present 9 original compositions, three pieces from each of the musicians, of melodically inclined forward thinking, creative jazz.

After work supporting Lee Morgan, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Steve Lacy, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, &c., free jazz bassist Henry Grimes recorded this great example of his skills as a composer and leader, in a trio with Tom Price on drums and Perry Robinson, here in a definitive vinyl LP reissue of this exemplary album.

London's Otoroku label keeps this magnificent album in print with a 2021 reissue of the 1982 Incus release featuring Evan Parker performing solo on soprano saxophone, using the natural resonance of the Church Of St. Jude-on-the-Hill, in Hampstead London as he explores upper tones and high frequency split tones in a technically brilliant display.

On their 6th recording as a trio concept, The Fire! trio of Mats Gustafsson (sax), Johan Berthling (bass guitar) and Andreas Werlin (drums) add to their energetic approach to free improvisation through Mats Gustafsson performing on both baritone sax and flute, and by the addition of guests Goran Kajfes on quartertone trumpet and Mats Aleklint on trombone and sousaphone.

The debut of a new electric jazz quintet from NY violinist Sana Nagano, with Peter Appfelbaum on tenor saxophone & megaphone, Keisuke Matsuno on electric guitar, Ken Filiano on acoustic bass & effects, and Joe Hertenstein on drums, an inventive and energetic album of joyful urgency and tremendous group dynamic, fueled by Nagano's exuberant and lyrical compositions.

The first of a 3-album trilogy Playfield offers the musical equivalency of a walk through the diversity of New York in a loft-style extended improvisation from the octet of Daniel Carter on horns & reeds, Luisa Muhr on voice, Ayumi Ishito on sax, Eric Plaks on piano, Aron Namenwirth & Yutaka Takahashi on guitars, Zach Swanson on bass, and Jon Panikkar on drums.

A remarkable tour de force of solo piano improvisation on this self-released album from Virginia-based but New York-associated pianist Joel Futterman, recording in the studio in 2009 for a three-part series of exploratory and profoundly masterful improvisations, captivating with intense and technical passages that yield to lyrically beautiful and expansive playing.

An almost hour long "Rhizome" of free improvisation and a brief "Renewal" from the duo of Joel Futterman on piano and Ike Levin on tenor sax & bass clarinet, performing live at Constellation in Chicago in 2017, for a wonderfully evolving work of suspense, release, technical brilliance and exuberant expression, a dialog that only two such frequent collaborators can evoke.

John Zorn's Gnostic Quartet of Bill Frisell on guitar, Carol Emanuel on harp, John Medeski on organ, piano & Fender Rhodes, and Kenny Wollesen on vibraphone perform Zorn's melodic compositions dedicated to one of Zorn's earliest mentors, Ennio Morricone, through nine compositions of "beautiful harmonies, a driving rhythmic pulse and stunning lyricism."

Having worked together for 40 years starting in the 80's in the Downtown NY scene, guitarist Fred Frith and electronic artist Ikue Mori recorded this album in Germany, using studio time left after recording the music for a radio play by Werner Penzel, using that work as an influence for these exceptional improvisations on home made instruments, toys and electronics.

Working in a Derek Bailey vein of solo guitar improvisation, Portland, Maine improviser E. Jason Gibbs presents 14 performances on the acoustic guitar, cohesive pieces of confident development that reference not only the London improviser, but also shades of Americana and a unique voice and set of strategies uniquely his own.

Pianist Alexander Hawkins' six movement composition is realized by the UK Riot Ensemble, known primarily for their work with notated contemporary music, adding Evan Parker's incredible soprano sax soloing, and filtered through Matthew Wright's live electronic processing, resulting in this amazing hybrid masterwork that bridges modern 21st Century forms.

The 10th album from The Rempis Percussion Quartet, the dual-drumming free improvising collective quartet of Dave Rempis on alto & tenor saxophones, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass, and Tim Daisy & Frank Rosaly on drums, celebrating their 15th anniversary as a working band through this exhilarating concert captured during their 2019 European Tour at AMR in Geneva, Switzerland.

Bringing an innate lyricism to free improvisation in the piano trio format, albeit a thoroughly modern take on that format where all performers are equal and active participants, from Aki Takase on piano, Christian Weber on bass, and Michael Griener on drums, performing five Takase originals, one from Griener & Takase, and 8 collective works.

A live concert of collective free improvisation captured at Elastic Arts in Chicago in 2018 between Rob Magill on tenor & soprano saxophones, Gerrit Hatcher on tenor saxophone, Charlie Kirchen on bass, and Julian Kirshner on drums, an energetic and diverse concert in three conversations that allow for great discourse and extended soloing; numbered edition of 150 copies.

Dark and beautiful improvisation from saxophonist and electronics artist John Butcher and harpist Rhodri Davies, an incredible display of timbre, technique, and pacing.

Bassist Sebastien Beliah leads this French-Polish quartet with Louis Laurain on cornet, Pierre Borel on alto saxophone, and Olga Koziel on voice & percussions, blending free jazz and traditional Polish music & songs with an experimental bent and the flourish of East European folk energy, a passionate mix that entertains and surprises the listener with unexpected twists & turns.

From the depths of the deepest electroacoustic sea, the duo of Lisa Cameron on berimbauophone, percussion & devices and Sandy Ewen on guitar & devices release the second of their "Sea Creatures" series: two cassettes of dark aquatic audio, one recorded in the studio and the other during their 2019 Texas tour celebrating the release of the first album.

A wild ride in two live performances, one at Elastic Arts in Chicago and the other at The Sugar Maple in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, both in 2018 from the Kuzu trio of Dave Rempis on alto, tenor & baritone saxophones, Tashi Dorji on guitar, and Tyler Damon on drums, evolving free improvisation that builds from introspective to full-on burning free jazz.

In 2019 pianist Thollem McDonas toured the US -- 12 months and 25 albums worth of recordings -- joining collaborators from a vast spectrum of improvisers and performers, this album presenting two such recordings: one a duo with drummer/percussionist Alex Cline from a live concert in Santa Monica; the other a duo with guitarist Susan Alcorn recorded in Baltimore.

A 4-track collective improvisation project performed by Paul Dunmall (saxophones, fife & bagpipes), pianist Keith Tippett, guitarist Philip Gibbs and drummer Pete Fairclough, recorded at Victoria Rooms at the University of Bristol, UK in 2000 and originally issued on Dunmall's own DUNS label, here reissued 20 years later in the memory of Keith Tippett.

"Mutual aid" is the primary ethic of an anarchistic utopia in which each knows what they have, is honest about what they need, and is prepared to give and receive accordingly; here in 8 compositions from trumpeter Nate Wooley performed with Ingrid Laubrock, Sylvie Courvoisier, Cory Smythe, Josh Modney, Matt Moran, Russell Greenberg, and Mariel Roberts.

Joining the exemplary New York City Flow Trio of Louie Belogenis on tenor & soprano saxophones, Joe Morris on bass, and Charles Downs on drums is NY legendary saxophonist & trumpeter Joe McPhee, performing on tenor saxophone in an album of collective free jazz that reminds its listeners of the power of passionately unfettered yet superbly controlled free playing.

Meeting in sound artist and vocalist Yan Jun's studio in Berlin in 2017, trumpeter Axel Dörner and no-input mixer artist Toshimaru Nakamura recorded these four active and bristling improvisations, Dörner using every inch of his instrument and treating it with electronics to create the controlled chaos and richly jarring recordings that make up this, their 2nd album together.

A burning album of free jazz caught live at Au Topsi Pohl, in Berlin, Germany in 2019 between the long-running duo of tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and drummer Antonin Gerbal, best known for their work in Zoor or Denzler-Gerbal-Dorner, here working an "Interstellar Space" area of strength and energy through intense interaction and cathartic playing.

With "fragments of alien melodies, bizarre call-and-response activities, boiling liquids, airy perturbations, clusters", the electroacoustic improvising quartet of Markus Eichenberger on clarinet, Carl Ludwig Hubsch on tuba, Etienne Nillesen on extended snare drum and Philip Zoubek on synthesizer, focus their listeners on their remarkably turbulent and rich interactions.

The 2nd release from this Sydney, Austrlian acoustic sextet, creating subtle yet dynamic improvisations influenced by the musical concepts of John Cage and Morton Feldman, balancing contemplative sections with building surges, these works developed on their 2019 Europe tour, which included performances at Copenhagen Jazz Festival as well as shows in Berlin and Stockholm.

The core of the German free improvising Takatsuki Trio is Rieko Okuda (piano, viola, &c.), Antti Virtaranta (bass), and Joshua Weitzel (shamisen, guitar), who, while touring, ask a guest from the area they're performing in to join them, here inviting tenor saxophonist Matthias Schubert in Kassel, Germany, and in Wiesbaden, Germany inviting saxophonist Dirk Marwedel.

Formed in 2014 to explore their own personal history with jazz music, the French trio of Fidel Fourneyron on trombone, Sebastien Beliah on double bass and Geoffroy Gesser on tenor saxophone & clarinet put their focus on the master of be-bop, Charlie Parker, updating, reinventing and making an inventive playground of Parker's music through thirteen classics.

Bringing together two masterful percussionists -- Norwegian drummer Per Oddvar Johansen and Paris-based Japanese drummer Seijiro Murayama -- for a distinctive drum duo, each musician using a minimal set that combines a snare drum with small objects and cymbals, for an album of six improvisations and two composed pieces, all showing restraint in rhythmic interaction.

Tokyo sound artist Elico Suzuki attached or arranged "gadgets" including a small electric fan, a motor and a radio, to an upright piano whose upper and lower panels were removed and insides exposed, using their inherent sounds and those created by touching them to the piano strings to generate overlapping and evolving sound, ending each piece with force through the keyboard.

Found dead in the Thames River in 1969, pianist & composer Mike Taylor left a legacy of two solid & lyrical jazz albums, of which the complete Trio album and one track from Pendulum are remastered; but he was also a songwriter for the Eric Clapton/Ginger Baker/Jack Bruce band Cream, of which three Taylor compositions with lyrics and vocals by Baker are included.

Three active Portuguese improvisers in a trio of remarkably sensitive rapport from Gonçalo Mortágua on tenor saxophone, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello and Higino Andrade on double bass, their group name referencing "3 Old Women", though their playing is youthful and adept, bringing a sense of bright space in 14 concise and intensely creative conversations.

The electroacoustic improv trio of flutist Paolo Pascolo and electronics guru Alberto Novello (JesterN') on modular synthesizer, and Slovenian drummer Vid Drašler, for seven haunting improvisations of unfaltering patience, electronic tones commingling with atmospheric flutes and subtle percussive intervention, creating rich sonic environments or quirky conversation.

A solo album from Italian percussionsit Lucio Miele, presenting six works of layered percussion with live electronics and, on three tracks, recitation from actor Simona Fredella, each piece sound-oriented with an incredibly diverse set of percussive variety, detailed atmospheric settings and diverse rhythmic foundation; a remarkable and sometimes hair-raising album.

The trio of Bruno Parrinha on bass clarinet & alto sax, Abdul Moimeme on prepared electric guitar & objects, and Carlos Santos on electronics & objects performed this confrontational improvisation at the 2020 Small Formats Materials Festival, weaving acoustic and electronic expression with assertive confidence, affirming reductionist approaches as commanding statements.