The third part of composer and performer Michael Pisaro-Liu's "Hearing Metal" series, Pisaro providing sine tones, performing with Greg Stuart on 16 suspended cymbals plus grains/surfaces.

Ricefall (2), the 2nd is a 72-minute piece for 64 separate tracks of rice falling on objects, performed with percussionist Greg Stuart, a composition of unusual dynamics and pacing.

The enduring sax and drum duo format is invigorated with US drummer Chris Corsano and Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, who push each other in free improvisation that uses insanely great technique while delivering a passionate and ecstatic dialog.

The duo of pianist Dana Reason and drummer & sampler player Peter Valsamis in an album crossing boundaries of jazz, classical, and creative new music from two exceptional players involved in a rich dialog.

After 10 years together, the Rempis Percussion Quartet led by saxophonist Dave Rempist, Frank Rosaly, Tim Daisy on drums and percussion, and Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten on bass, recorded this concert at Chicago's Hungry Brain for a superlative album of rhythmically simmering free improv.

Percussionist Robair placed an Ebow over a street-sweeper blade or a short length of guitar string, and then placed those on the head of a snare drum or floor tom, recording without effects to allow natural rhythms and harmonic modulation to come forth.

Drummer Roberto Rodriguez interprets John Zorn's "Book of Angels" in this 23rd volume from the series, recording in Israel with a wonderfully compelling ensemble emphasizing both rhythmic and melodic elements in nine exciting compositions.

Percussionist Danielle Palardy Roger's first major solo composition in 13 pieces which is performed by Claude Beaugrand, Jean Derome, André Duchesne, Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse, and Martin Ouellet.

Italian drummer Mirko Sabatini on a solo album that explores different aspects of his instrument's sound and mechanics through interesting improvisation.

An album of solo percussion from authoritative European improvising percussionist Gunter "Baby" Sommer, 9 works of exhilarating rhythms performed on drums, tubular bells, hang, gongs, xylophone, an array of unusual percussion instruments, plus his voice.

Gunter Sommer in a solo percussion album that has him following effortlessly from drums to gongs, darabuka, schalmei, hacvkbrett - and back again in melodic and rhythmic ways.

The duo of Pierre Tanguay on drums and percussion and Tom Walsh on trombone in a release of minimalist construction that blends composition and improvisation.

The solo debut album from electronic artist and composer Pierre Tanguay is a collection of dark ambient background music that is minimalist in nature but also very impressive.

The third collaboration from the duo of Israeli saxophonist Assif Tsahar and Japanese percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani, an amazing journey in tone and rhythm from two kindred spirits through 20 short, inventive, and stunning improvisations.

Live recordings of the Trevor Watts Drum Orchestra from 1983, a turning point in his career towards evolving a complex, polyrhythmically-driven approach to improvised structures.

Four recordings from the 1990 Latin America Tour of saxophonist Trevor Watts' Moire Music Drum Orchestra, with concerts from Venezuela and Mexico in a band with Nana Tsiboe, Nee-Daku Patato, Nana Appiah, Jojo Yates, Liam Genockey, and Colin Gibson.

Xu Fengxia traditional Sanxian & Guzheng player and free vocalist in duo with drummer/percussionist Lucas Niggli for suspenseful cross-cultural improvisations.

The long-running duo of US-based Japanese percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and French saxophonist Michel Doneda in an album merging superb technical skills and creative approaches in an almost telepathic dialog of surprising twists and turns.

Compositions on fourteen gongs performed and recorded by Tatsuya Nakatani during the winters of 2014 and 2015, 6 untitled works of powerful tones evoked from these large instruments using bows and mallets, each slowly unfolding and enveloping the listener.

The quartet of Cosottini, Melano, Pisani, Miano (EAQuartet Electroacoustic) in compositions referring to the 4 cardinal map points using graphic scores, games, open readings, &c.

Legendary trumpeter, composer and educator Bill Dixon in a 17 piece orchestra playing original compositions live at the 12th Vision Festival in New York City.

Parker's definitive document of his Curtis Mayfield songbook project with Hamid Drake, Dave Burrell, Sabir Mateen, Darryl Foster & Amiri Baraka, promoting Mayfield's positive messages of hope and fortitude.

Yoshio Machida's steelpan live recordings in Europe and Japan between 2001-2008; including early pieces by combination of self-made steelpan Gamelan sound and computer to recent acoustic steelpan pieces.

Drummer and percussionist Tatsuhisa Yamamoto meets steelpan player Yoshio Machida for an album of rhythmic and melodic intersections with electronic underpinnings.

Solo recordings of percussionist Mathias Pontevia embracing a breathtaking variety of approaches and sonic environments, in a beautiful art release with the CD attached to a laminated disc with embedded objects.

Composer Petit in an opus dealing with the dynamic of resonance and its incidences: a microphonic exploration of a single sound body made to resonate by means of different types of percussion, building a dramatic story from sampled and processed percussive elements.

Ever-inventive drummer/percussionist Raymond Strid and performance collaborator, Norwegian-Swedish free improvising vocalist Andreas Backer, for a set of unusual, absurd and detailed improvisations, as the two complement each other in unexpected ways.

Tzadik's series reinterpreting John Zorn's Masada compositions releases the 24th "Book of Angels", performed by Klezmerson, a Mexico-based ensemble led by violist & composer Benjamin Shwartz, who founded the group in 2003 to integrate music from a Mexican standpoint.

Michel F Cote, Bernard Falaise, Alexandre St-Onge, Christof Migone, and Sam Shalabi, all members of the excellent group Klaxon Gueule, in a minimalist release of improv.

Geographic improvisations from this trio of string and percussion players, with each track named by location and distance between Montreal and Chelsea, Ontario.

Mysterious and intense works for electric guitar, signal processing, field recordings and voice from experimenter, improviser and audio researcher Gunnar Geisse.

The New York trio of trumpeter Kirk Knuffke, bassist Max Johnson and Ziv Ravitz recording mostly original compositions in the studio, modern improvisation blending melodic and free improvisation in excellent ways.

Portugal pianist Bernardo Sassetti's trio with Carlos Barretto (Lokomotiv) and drummer Alexander Frazao, delicate and exquisite jazz from an extraordinary composer.

Tokyo based transboundary sound & visual artist Yoshio Machida in his 2006 4th release of steel pan music, here solo or multi-tracked without electronics in 7 pieces including one inspired by Satie.

The 1st of 2 album with Amorfon label leader Yoshio Machida performing acoustic improvisation on the steelpan drum influenced by traditional Indian improvised music, adding elements of Jazz, twelve-tone and ethnic music to create a unique hybrid, in a limited clear vinyl LP.

The 2nd of 2 album with Amorfon label leader Yoshio Machida performing acoustic improvisation on the steelpan drum influenced by traditional Indian improvised music, adding elements of Jazz, twelve-tone and ethnic music to create a unique hybrid, in a limited clear vinyl LP.

Chicago's 2012 Marshmallow Festival brought together improvising drummer Frank Rosaly with New York guitarist Thurston Moore for a thick 35 minute improvisation that builds in intensity as Moore's drive and Rosaly's vehement interaction take the listener on a monumental journey.

The duo of Johannes Nastesjo on double bass and Vasco Trilla on drums and percussion, an album of extended techniques and unexpected devising, using quietly aggressive techniques balanced by concentrative improv to create unexpected eruptions and unusual sonic environments.

Israeli saxophonist Tom Soloveitzik, Turkish electronics player Korhan Erel (Islak Kopek), and US cellist Kevin Davis in an international dialog of rich and sonically charged electroacoustic improvisation.

During her stay in London from 2004-2008, saxophonist Chefa Alonso developed a rewarding duo with percussionist Tony Marsh of great technical and musical value, as heard on these excellent recordings from Red Rose and Ryan's Bar in London, and Matadero in Huesca, Spain.

Borbetomagus' Jim Sauter has been performing in a duo with drummer Kid Millions for several years, creating a blistering and urgent wail of free improvised energy, as heard on this two track 7 inch, succint sonic blasts of freedom.

Assembling a wide range of percussive instruments accumulated through world travels, from Korean gongs to scrap metal sheets from Ethiopia, Paal Nilssen-Love presents an intense and wide-ranging solo percussion tour-de-force, recorded in Oslo by frequent collaborator Lasse Marhaug.

The duo of Paul Abbot on drum kits, percussion & computer, and Seymour Wright on alto saxophone and feedback, in a massive edge-of-your seat live recording from London's Cafe Oto in 2015, a mix of brutal and beautiful playing with unexpected and surprising twists.

The studio debut of drummer Federico Ughi and electric guitarist Adam Caine's project The Moon, a touring band crossing jazz based free improvisation with rock elements in free-flowing and driving music highlight the technical and melodic skills of both players.

3rd solo album from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's drummer Staiano, 11 tracks recorded on guitar, loops, drums, and percussion without overdubs.

Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith's extended composition for violin and percussion in 15 parts, performed by percussionist Simon Limbrick and violinist Mira Benjamin, a unique orchestration that reveals a journey of steady pace, tension and beauty.

An absorbing album of solo drum work from French drummer/percussionist Antonin Gerbal, recording in the studio and demonstrating his profound sonic and technical approaches to the drums, isolated from projects like Peeping Tom, Bertrand Denzler/ONCEIM or Zoor.

Barcelona drummer and percussionist Vasco Trilla, know for his work with Planeta Imaginario, Filthy Habits Ensemble, Cows On Trees, &c. in a solo album that takes the listener through a myriad of tones and emotions along a varied and tonally hybrid journey of prepared drums, assorted percussion

A brilliant album of subtle and masterful improvisation recorded in 2012 at and using the reverb of the St. Peters church in Whitstable by soprano saxophonist Evan Parker with two percussionists: Toma Gouband on lithophone-based percussion and Mark Nauseef on metallophone-based percussion.

The roots of Xenofox, the duo of electric guitarist Olaf Rupp and drummer Rudi Fischerlehner, performing at the 2014 Lydfestival in Aarhus, Denmark in an excursive set of free improv with a rock-oriented edge that ebbs and flows with power and technical skill.

Long-time collaborators and compatriots Frank Paul Schubert on soprano sax and Rudi Fischerlehner on drums and percussion recorded these intricate and engaging improvisations in their shared studio in Berlin, presented as a live album, unedited and in the order performed.

The debut of Xenofox, the duo of Olaf Rupp on electric guitar and Rudi Fischerlehner on drum playing electric improv that ranges from critically dense to spacious and exploratory, blending rock and European Free Improv sensibilities into a moody and absorbing album.

The piano and vibraphone duo of Sten Sandell and Mattias Stahl in improvisations that borrow from both Sun Ra and contemporary classical such as Cage, Cowell, Xenakis, &c.

Jean-Marc Foussat joins drummer Ramon Lopez for an album of inventive sound and rhythm, spontaneous compositions of unusual approach and texture, Lopez using an array of percussion and drums including tablas to provide punctuation and depth to Foussant's other-worldly playing.

The Architek Percussion ensemble is a Montreal quartet performing works by Canadian composers, using percussion, drums, sampling, electronics and synth in wonderfully odd ways, here with two guest performers presenting works composed and mixed by Elliot Britton.

A live performance at Judson Church in Manhattan as part of the 20th Vision Festival from the NY/France free improvising trio of Joelle Leandre on double bass, Mat Maneri on viola, and Gerald Cleaver on drums and percussion, two tracks of steadily building, incredibly compatible dialog.

Japanese Steelpan player Yoshio Machida's 11th solo album, performed on the metal slit drum, made from a small gas tank tuned to the C scale over 2 octaves, which he takes into warm territories of rich overtones and melodic invention influenced by Kora, Gamelan, Kulintang and Myanmar musics.

Excerpts from drummer/percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani's 2012 Taiga release on cassette, presenting pieces from his Gong Orchestra project, where Nakatani takes his large collection of gongs on the road and teaches members of the community how to bow, strike, and follow his conduction, creating an amazing ritual of sound.

Anthony Pateras was commissioned to compose this work by Synergy Percussion for their 40th birthday in 2014, performed with a six piece ensemble including electronic artist Jerome Noetinger, using the same instrumentation as Xenakis' "Pleiades" of more than 100 orchestral percussion instruments, including Xenakis' 17-pitch microtonal metallophones.

Roman philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus named "Clinamen" the unpredictable (in time and space) swerve of atoms falling in the void, which aptly describes the unexpected directions taken in subtle free improvisation from this French trio, led by bassist Louis-Michel Marion, with Jacques Di Donato on clarinet, and Philippe Berger on viola.

Live recordings at LOFT in Cologne, Germany from the trio of George Wissel on prepared saxophone, Achim Tang on doublebass, and Simon Camatta on drums & percussion, performing seven "Movements" that use prodigious technique with reserve and direction, revealing the structure of their work as the pieces build and recede in fascinating ways.

An extended improvisation (the title meaning "film in your head") from Berlin drummer Yorgos Dimitriadis, a founding member of GRIX, GLUE and FABRIC trio, here in his first solo release, driving a small drum kit played conventionally and a hand-held microphone into remarkable sonic territory, in both meditative and rapidly rhythmic sections.

Berlin-based improvisers Christian Lillinger on drums and Tobias Delius on tenor sax and clarinet in an album of powerful rhythms, instant melodies, and quick-witted responses, bridging a generation of experience in dialog and give and take that works well head on and in reserve, a great encounter from two modern and active creative players.

Double CD of bleak and sinister metal-oriented improv from the duo of Jamie Saft on keys and bass and Mike Pride on drums and hostile and freakish vocals.

Drummer Charles Rumback in a quartet with Greg Ward & Joshua Sclar on sax, bringing together jazz tradition with the aesthetics of the eclectic Chicago scene.

Percussionist Ziya Tabassian plays solo tombak, the main percussion instrument used in Persian classical music, in 9 pieces that explore the large range of tones and nuances of the instrument.