Lithuanian reedist Liudas Mockunas in an unusual record of clarinet and saxophone improvisations, from solo work of powerful technique to pieces using water prepared instruments to create a wealth of bubbling and aberrant sound on the instrument, side A presenting the 7 part "Hydration Suite", Side B the 3 part "Rehydration", and "Dehydration".

A double 10" featuring unreleased and rare Sun Ra recordings, including a live track from Paris in 1983, two unreleased cuts from the "Disco 3000" concert tapes, a quartet session with Sun Ra on the Crumar Mainman synth, and three selections from the Sub-Underground series of Saturn LPs, including a ballad and new material from "Live at Temple" and "What's New".

The Thing with Mats Gustafsson on tenor and baritone sax, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten on electric and double bass, and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums and percussion, are joined by Downtown NY legend, guitarist James Blood Ulmer, for a live set at the Moldel International Jazz Festival in 2015 performing an exuberant and all-out impressive set of Ulmer composions.

Reissuing the debut album by vocalist Annette Peacock and pianist Paul Bley recorded during their first European tour in 1970, in a quartet with compatriots Mario Pavone on bass and Laurence Cook on drums, Bley using an early Moog synthesizer; unique and original avant jazz.

A double LP and the second release from the duo of Crys Cole and Oren Ambarchi, also romantic partners, as they explore their relationship through sound and voice, each side presenting a unique approach to their collaboration while maintaining a certain somnambulist feeling over rich guitar, organ work, and other unfathomable sound.

Drummer Sven-Ake Johansson is also a poet, writer and visual artist; here he joined forced with Alexander von Schlippenbach in 1988 to record these songs, never previously released, sung in German and English, for a set of 9 fascinating narrations that engage the listener independent of language, as von Schlippenbach improvises with prodigious technique.

NY free jazz drummer and composer Harris Eisenstadt brings his talents to the compositional world with this four movement suite performed by the Mivos Quartet of Olivia De Prato, Josh Modney, Victor Lowrie and Mariel Roberts, a creative composition blending melodic and textural approaches to the strings in a bold rendering of Eisenstandt's work.

Recorded in Istanbul, Turkey, guitarist Thurston Moore teams up with Konstrukt guitarist Umut Caglar to record these three rich and twisting pieces, each guitarist extracting unique performances from the other over three pieces that draw on technique and effects to create fragile and heavy sonic environments, an impressive album of modern guitar potential.

Mary Halvorson continues her string of excellent modern jazz albums with this octet release with fellow guitarist Susan Alcorn, Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Jon Irabagon & Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Jacob Garchik (trombone), John Hebert (bass) and Ches Smith (drums).

Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum draws on a variety of techniques from improvised conduction to big band orchestration to deconstructed fanfares, with a large 15 member ensemble of impressive improvisers embodying a diversity of generations, backgrounds, ethnicities, and gender, presenting three large scale compositions that are ambitious and wonderfully accomplished.

Percussionist and electronics artist Matt Weston (Arthur Brooks Ensemble V, Arc Pair) in a 7" release showcasing his playing skills over his own notation systems employing additional dimensions of pre-and post-gestural strategies, using written standard notation and visual cues based on multiple and simultaneous, graphic scores.

Four psychedelic blues and rock tracks from Japan's Acid Mothers Temple led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto, with vocalist Cotton Casino, synth guru Higashi Hiroshi, guitarist Mitsuru Tabata, drummer Satoshima Nani, and S/T Wold on tape, space and time, informed and psych-referencing music that slowly builds into intricate and explosive inner headspaces.

Heavy rock riffs and shredding from Australian guitarist Oren Ambarchi, his version of karaoke being repeating rock structures plundered and played over, giving him a platform to show his power tools, which are heavily modified and effected guitar lines in an oddly compelling album of rock machinations from this typically explorative, experimental player.

Deluxe box set edition of the 1998 Materiali Sonori CD, originally released to accompany the book release of "Sonora: John Zorn", here in its first vinyl release presenting early Downtown NY recordings between the duo of Zorn and guitarist Eugene Chadbourne, with vital players including Tom Cora, Polly Bradfield, Davey Williams, Fred Frith, Mark Kramer, &c.

New York's literate and genre-encompassing rock band Barbez led by guitarist and journalist Dan Kaufman present their 5th album, renderings of protest songs from The Spanish Civil War in a tribute to the Spanish International Brigades, blending avant-rock, contemporary classical, and folk music styles into a compelling and historically important set of songs.

The mysterious electronic musician Eleh in his first full length release since 2012, seeking to expose the inherent musicality of pure electrical currents via high resolution Serge STS synthesizers, a slowly developing work of subtle harmonic and melodic motion.

A split LP, with the first side from Christina Kubisch as she contemplates Nicolai Tesla and his concept of electrical remoteness as it applies to the modern world using electromagnetic field recordings from modern devices; side B presents Eleh's composition "Ohmage/Resistor" utilizing a new kind of spaciousness, composed for piano & Serge STS modular synthesizers.

San Diego's Parkeology director Kate Clark and composer Samuel Dunscombe organized this concert to take advantage of the Balboa Park's Spreckels Organ, inviting local and regional experimental composers to develop works for the 5,017 pipe instrument, attracting artists like Michael Pisaro, Samuel Dunscombe, Steven Andrew Flato, Wen Liu, &c.

Japanese avant blues guitarist, vocalist and modern shaman Keiji Haino met UK free improvising vocalist John Butcher in 2012 when Butcher opened for Haino's Fushitsusha band at Cafe Oto; in 2016 they met to play two concerts, one in Hong Kong, one at London's Cafe Oto, the latter resulting in this powerful concert, five dialogs of intertwining reed, guitar and voice.

A definitive vinyl remaster of vibraphonist Khan Jama's 1972 album in a sextet of vibes, marimba, drums, African percussion, glockenspiel, guitar, bass, and live sound effects, a legendary album fusing free jazz, black psychedelia, and early dub elements, a truly unique album from an artist with a profound perspective applying a wide rhythmic spectrum to free jazz.

A reissue and remaster of the late free improvising legend Derek Bailey's "Solo Guitar Volume 1" released on Bailey's own Incus label in 1971, is the first in a series of 3 albums from the Honest Jon's label to re-issue Bailey's early albums, this volume adding tracks from previous reissues and a performance at York University in 1972; essential.

Reissuing the 1984 album of the live collaboration between New York multi-reedist Anthony Braxton and UK free improvising guitarist Derek Bailey, caught in performance at the Royal Hotel, in Luton, England in 1974, and originally intended to be released as two volumes; here the first volume and never-released second volume are in one newly mastered double LP.

The third volume in Honest Jon's Records reissue of early and essential albums from UK free improvising guitarist Derek Bailey, remastering and adding additional unreleased material, here from Bailey's duo album with Dutch drummer Han Bennink from 1972 recorded in '69, originally issued on Bailey's Incus label, alongside a previously unreleased '70 improv session.

Bass clarinetist Jason Stein draws from the work of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Lennie Tristano plus original compositions, with his quartet of Chicago peers Keefe Jackson (tenor sax & contrabass clarinet) and Joshua Abrams (bass) and NY drummer Tom Rainey, in enthusiastically energetic and lyrical music that uses modern creative skills to look forward and back.

Savage noise jazz in a rare 7" from the early 90s by the trio of saxophonists Don Dietrich and Jim Sauter and electric guitarist Donald Miller, two live version of "Coelacanth" recorded a year apart.

A live album in 2016 from the mind-blowing and prolific Japanese psychedelic improvising rock band Acid Mothers Temple with Kawabata Makoto, Higashi Hiroshi, Mitsuru Tabata, Stoshima Nani, S T, and Pika, performing some of their well known works and starting with Gong's "Flying Teapot", all recorded at 15th Acid Mothers Temple Festival at Tokuzo (Nagoya).

An album of dark atmospheric electroacoustic sound with voice and introductory narrative from Zu bassist Massimo Pupillo and Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk, the first meeting between the two, performed live at Cafe Oto for four pieces of rich sonics, emotional and hypnotic playing from two creative masters with a long history of powerful and passionate music.

The third album from this international trio of powerful improvisers--Norwegian drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love, Chicago bassist Kent Kessler, and Chicago/NY saxophonist Mars William-- in four odysseys that take the listener from introspective playing to out and out blowing, using technique to serve their incredible dialog.

Sharing guitarist Andy Moor of The Ex, this quartet's first album established them as a truly alternative and intelligent rock band that incorporated free playing, a band literate and technically skilled but upholding a punk/no-wave drive and determination, with political and socially conscious attitudes, and superlative upbeat and danceable music.

The uniquely voiced free improvising Kodian Trio formed of saxophonist Colin Webster using aggressive techniques and unusual approaches to his horn, electric guitarist Dirk Serries (vidnaObmana) throwing spiky lines in forceful and unorthodox dialog, and in-demand UK drummer Andrew Lisle providing underpinning and punctuation, in six far-ranging and impressive tracks.

The eighth release from Ken Vandermark's hard-hitting quartet with Austrian electronic improviser Christof Kurzmann, Netherlands bassist Jasper Stadhouders, and Chicago drummer and frequent Vandermark collaborator Tim Daisy, for 3 vigorous and extreme pieces dedicated to Shellac, Susan Sontag, and Kerry James Marshall; powerful, informed, essential.

More typically a solo performer, Japanese bluesman Kan Mikami has created a distinctive path for his voice, guitar and poetic lyrics; here he is propelled in an improvisational setting with two powerful UK players--John Edwards on bass and Alex Neilson on drums--captured live at London's Cafe Oto for a growling concert of finesse and brusque attitude.

"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.

Using circular breathing and continuous sound, the Montreal duo of clarinetist and saxophonist Philippe Lauzier and Pierre-Yves Martel on viola da gamba, objects & feedback is a concentrative album of understated but definitive sound that develops with a profound level of precision and control, using suspense, tension, release and confidence in each other's unusual dialog.

One long-form sound composition each from Argentinian guitarist and sound artist Alan Courtis and San Francisco experimenter Thomas Dimuzio, each developing their track using sound sources provided by the other artist, which they manipulated, layered and morphed into these fascinating side-long works, presented together on green translucent vinyl.

Four solo saxophone improvisations, two on tenor and two on soprano, using remarkable technique and concentration from Swiss improviser Christian Kobi performing live in Tokyo and Osaka in 2017, plus a live quartet improvisation with flutist Wakana Ikeda, violinist Yoko Ikeda, and guitarist Taku Sugimoto for an open-approached performance of detailed, minimal improv.

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.

Dutch saxophonist Ab Baars and guitarist Terrie Ex last recorded together in 2000 for their "Hef" album, reuniting in 2015 in Amsterdam for this well-rounded and exhilarating duo album, with Ex on electric guitar and Baars on tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet and shakuhachi, demonstrating both player's growth and continued joy in improvisation.

Three complete 2016 concerts at North Sea Jazz Festival, Ljubljana Jazz Festival and Oslo Jazz Festiva, and 3 CDs to present them, from drummer Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity, a superb free/post-bop group with a core of Nilssen, bassist Petter Eldh, and saxophonist Andre Roligheten, featuring 3 saxophonists: Fredrik Ljungkvis, Kristoffer Berre Alberts, and Jorgen Mathisen.

Recording in Brooklyn, the quintet of Daniel Carter on alto, soprano & tenor saxophones, Patrick Holmes on clarinet, Matthew Putman on piano, Hilliard Greene on bass, and Federico Ughi on drums bring together players of a very different backgrounds who share a nearly telepathic level of communication through free improv, in an album graced with Carter's poetry.

This album was developed to present Daniel Carter, typically a wind/reed/trumpeter player, on an album that included his piano playing, which then advanced by adding the goal of both Carter and long-time collaborator, drummer Federico Ughi, to record with bassist William Parker, who rounds out this excellent trio on bass, tuba and shakuhachi.

For more than 15 years multi-reedist, wind and trumpet player Daniel Carter and drummer Federico Ughi have collaborated in live performance and on record, here showing the results of their work in this duo album, the vinyl edition of their exceptional 2013 CD release that shows their melodic and technical sides, their jazz roots, and their warm camaraderie.

Saxophonist Sabir Mateen's NY based Shapes, Textures, and Sound Ensemble with Steve Swell on trombone, Matt Lavelle on trumpet, Matthew Heyner on bass and Michael T.A. Thompson on drums, run though a gamut of post-bop and collective, creative jazz forms with energy, incredible dexterity, and tremendous group interplay, a great example of the modern spirit of jazz.

A unique collective jazz album drawing on science and math in 5 improvised works from the New York quintet of Daniel Carter on alto & tenor sax, clarinet and trumpet, Demian Richardson on trumpet, Matthew Putman on piano, Dave Moss on upright bass, and Federico Ughi on drums, in a limited edition LP with a download code; superlative playing in rich layers of interaction.

Two dark works of sound creating a mysterious chasm of drones, pulsations, electronic stretches, and mysterious percussive engines, a strange pair of recordings that definitely fit the title of this 7" record from Norwegian sound experimenter Lasse Marhaug.

Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple), Richard Pinhas (Heldon), and Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins), modern and prolific explorers in the 21st century evolution of progressive rock, reunite at the Studio Condorcet in Toulouse (France) to record a series of fiery improvisations and experimentations blending free noise, blues, and psychedelia.

Spinning an unusual story, the trio of saxophonist and pocket trumpeter Joe McPhee, guitarist and laptop artist James Keepnews, and drummer David Berger envision the first encounter between alien life and a delegation of earthlings, while giving a nod to jazz's original man from another planet, Sun Ra, with a side-long suite dedicated to him.

The genre-defying trio Fire! with Mats Gustafsson on saxophones & electronics, Andreas Werliin on drums, percussion and effects, and Johan Berthling on upright and electric bass, blend heavy and dark elements of free improvisation, free rock, free blues, sound and noise, and sampled overlays in their latest, cultured and crude album of brooding and gripping music.

Cortex propels their persuasive, groove oriented approach to jazz with this swinging album that blends free jazz styles with great hard bop, in line with a band like The Thing, this Scandinavian group wants to make your body move without indulging in excess or pandering, instead following a muse that's solidly in the exuberant free jazz tradition.

Recordings from Sun Studios made between 1968-1969 with Astro-Ihnfinity Arkestra including Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Daddy Davis, Ray Thompson, Danny Davis, &c. in nine tracks, six of which have never been heard before in any form, plus remasters on 1950s classics "Sunology" and "Ancient Aiethiopia", plus an early rendition of "Why Go To The Moon".

The Recital label continues its Loren Conners editions/reissue series with their 4th album of the guitarist's music, collecting and remastering tracks from out of print albums "Sails" and "Little Match Girl" in an album of ballads, complemented with a 12-page art-booklet of previously unpublished illustrations by Conners himself.

Remastering a singular album of joyfully disruptive free improv recorded in England in 1979 at Ikon Gallery from the quartet of Max Eastley, Steve Beresford, Paul Burwell, and David Toop, their goal: to create music from instruments and objects that would be whirled to produce sound, performed behind a net and played with masks to protect the performers and audience.

Recording at Empty Gallery in Hong Kong during a week residency, the duo Jean-Luc Guionnet (Ames Room) on saxophone and Daichi Yoshikawa (Eddie Prevost) using self-developed feedback of speakers, contact microphones & found objects, create intense yet constrained improvisations of impressive control, technique and exotic soundscape.

An extremely soulful electric album from Sun Ran and the Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra, a groove driven and funky swirling masterpiece from the late 70's, with Sun Ra on piano, electric piano and organ, the Arkestra propelled by the drumming of Luqman Ali over a full band with Craig Harris, Michael Ray, Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Danny Ray Thompson, &c &c.

A fantastic album of free improvisation between two creative and versatile players captured live at Kerkje van Oostum, Groningen, The Netherlands in 2015--percussionist Gerry Hemingway and trombonist Samuel Blaser--both using immense talent and unorthodox approaches to their instruments as they shift from unexpected atmospheres to lyrical richness.

A great example of collective free improvisation from the quartet of drummer/percussionist Martin Blue, tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Tobias Delius, pianist Achim Kaufmann, and double bassist Dieter Manderscheid, performing live at the LOFT in Cologne, Germnay in 2016 for two extended intricate, melodic, and commanding performances of expressive and passionate free jazz.

Korean free saxophonist Kang Tae Hwan recorded this album of sincere and satisfying solo improvisations in 1995 at Cafe Amores, in Hofu, Yamaguchi, Japan, two decades after forming his first free jazz trio of experimental improvisations, demonstrating powerful technical skills and a unique voice on the sax; a long-overdue distillation of his music.

Two bass players--European free improv legend Barre Phillips and Japanese master Motoharu Yoshizawa--met at Cafe Amores in Yamaguchi, Japan in 1994, with Phillips on an amplified acoustic upright and Yoshizawa using an electric vertical 5-string bass of his own design, as the two weave and merge their unique sounds and approaches in a brilliant concert.

Aural explorer Jeph Jerman reworks 20 years of source material into this large work of recurring sound, obscuring sources in a rugged mill that turns its sonic grist into a mesmerizing flow of ringing tones and resolute grit, constructed from Jerman's own recordings and tapes from Eric La Casa and Oskar Burmmel, and metal & wood from Ben Brucato.

An impressive vinyl reissue of guitarist Derek Bailey, one of the most unique and influential free improvisers, in his 1974 solo recording on the Incus label, with Bailey playing on two amps and two volume pedals, a veritable duo split in the stereo field with occasional banter and observations, as he blends abstract and lyrical approaches on guitar in amazing ways.

A proper reissue of the 1976 Incus album from guitarist Derek Bailey and cellist Tristan Honsinger, primarily from a live concert at at Verity's Place in London on February 7, 1976, with two unusual studio recordings punctuating the album, an early example of their long history of collaboration and a great example of their intense, joyful, and truly free improvisation together.

The Norwegian Elephant9 trio of Stale Storlokken on organs and keyboard, Nikolai Haengsle on bass, and Torstein Lofthus on drums, are complemented by Pekka Pohjola of Wigwam fame, for their fifth studio album, a powerful blend of prog-era instrumental rock that's informed by impressive improvisational skill and fueled by the original enthusiasm of complex rock forms.

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.

Massimo Pupillo (ZU, Laniakea), electronic artist Luciano Lamanna and string instrument virtuoso Roberto Zanisi combine to form Creta, creating sonic works that blend sci-fi ambient atmospheres with dark bass pulses and languid Mediterranean string instruments, an unusual yet surprisingly complementary set of approaches yielding a darkly lyrical album.

Chicago experimenter and improviser Kevin Drumm releases the sequel to his 6-CD boxset "Elapsed Time", using audio generators and various electronic devices to generate beautiful ambient environments and drones that are complemented by field recordings and short spoken sections, a rich work of subtle complexity, dark warmth, and mystery.

Eugene Chadbourne has been obsessed with "horror" for years, so when Bisou asked him to make an album for children he suggested theming it on horror movies and monsters, taking keyboardist Steve Beresford and multi-reedist Alex Ward into a London studio to record these 9 tracks, with references to classic horror and to Chad's own Shockabilly project.

A much-needed reissue of Australian guitarist and sound artist Oren Ambarchi's 2004 album, an achievement and turning point for Ambarchi in the scope of his work, expanding his instrumental palette to incorporate more lyrical aspects into his sound, complementing his previous bass-heavy drone work, the album remastered for this essential gatefold release.

In 1973 Sun Ra went into the studio for Impulse! to record "Cymbals" with the octet of Danny Davis, John Gilmore, Elmoe Omoe, Ronnie Boykins, Derek Morris, and Akh Tal Ebah; though 2 LP's worth of material were recorded, the album was never released until now, in a remastered edition bringing listeners this much-anticipated album of synth-heavy, Arkestra-oriented 'Ra.

From 1973-75 the Impulse! label released a few Sun Ra albums, the first of which was "Astro Black" with a large Arkestra-like ensemble with well-known collaborators making up the ensemble as they perform the title track, "Discipline, "Hidden Spheres" and "Cosmo-Fire", reissued as a 2018 Record Store Day releases in its first proper reissue.

The follow-up to 2008's Brotzmann/Lonberg-Holm duo album on Atavistic, "The Brain of the Dog in Section", this limited LP was recorded in 2011 at The Loft in Koln, Germany, bringing multi-reed legend Peter Brotzmann together again with Chicago cellist and electronic artist Fred Lonberg-Holm for a thrilling album of diverse, dynamic, and superb improvisation.

Recorded during the Jazz Middelheim Festival in 2014, the quartet of Belgium drummer and label-leader Teun Verbrougeh and pianist Jozef Dumoulin are joined with Norwegian bassist living in the US Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, and New York trumpeter Nate Wooley, to record this set of formidable free jazz, released in a vinyl LP with 3 12x12 prints, one for each piece.

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.

Pianist Espen Eriksen's Trio with bassist Lars Tormod Jenset and drummer Andreas Bye in their third album of melodic and inventive creative jazz, here with 8 new lyrical pieces informed by their extensive touring, and charged by the addition of legendary UK saxophonist Andy Sheppard, for whom Eriksen wrote a set of tunes tailored to his playing.

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.