"Back in July, I mentioned Skulking in the Big House from a quartet led by Alexander Frangenheim, and Frangenheim continues to release albums on Creative Sources, including more recently Kochuu, featuring French vocalist Isabelle Duthoit...

An album of intense and passionate free jazz from the Netherlands trio of John Dikeman on sax, George Hadow on drums and Goncalo Almeida on bass, captured live at Zeal 100 in Amsterdam for four romps in creative conversation, balancing technical playing with enthusiastic joy and wild energy, an unusual but very welcome album in the Creative Sources catalog.

A composite of environmental sounds, electronics, and viola, recorded in Barcelona, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal from intrepid audio explorers Ferran Fages and Ernesto Rodrigues, the single long work taking the listener on a theoretical journey of transparent traffic, squealing wheels and indeterminate location, engrossing in its detail and the mystery it presents.

One of Portugal's most interesting large scale lowercase ensembles led by violist Ernesto Rodrigues, with frequent Creative Sources collaborators including Nuno Torres on alto sax, Carlos Santos on electronics, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Miguel Mira on bass, 14 musicians move with subtlety in a tapestry of electroacoustic resonance and mystique.

Kadima Collective saxophonist Ariel Shibolet presents an extended solo work for soprano saxophone, a patiently unfolding piece using multiphonics, an extended technique where the typically monophonic saxophone produces several notes at once, the harmonics and textures becoming the focus and excitement as Shibolet commands the instrument into unanticipated territory.

Recording in Madrid in 2002, and at The Groupe de Musique Electroniqueacoustique d'Albi-Tarn in France in 2004, saxophonist Wade Matthews presents 9 solo works using close miking, circular breathing, percussive sounds from the instruments themselves, and other creative and unusual extended techniques, in an idiosyncratic and fascinating album of personal expression.

An album of extended and unusual techniques between German trumpeter Franz Hautzinger and Beirut trumpeter Mazen Kerbaj, opening with only the errata of their instruments through breath and thump, slowly adding identifiable brass sounds contrasted with rich utterance and elusively electronic-sounding output, always maintaining a solid and fascinating dialog

The second album from the trio of Ferran Fages (acoustic turntable), Ruth Barberan (trumpet), and Alfredo Costa Monteiro (accordion) expands on their first "Atolon" album with these two recordings of intense electroacoustic improvisation, a mixture of ritual, controlled chaos, mysterious and often disruptively provocative sound, and other inexplicable evolutions.

One of the most active albums from the set of Lisbon String Trio (plus one) albums released in 2017, saxophonist Blaise Siwula brings a unique virtuosity to this live album from Galeria Monumental in Lisbon, prompting at times a chamber jazz feeling, alongside very free improvisation with impressive transitions from spacious to highly detailed playing.

Portugal's Lisbon String Trio with Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Miguel Mira on cello, and Alvaro Rosso on double bass, in a series of releases adding one additional improviser, here joined by Etienne Brunet on soprano saxophone, for two extended improvisations of active counterpoint and beautiful open sections, an excellent and rousing collaboration.

Two women in a duo of voice and amplified objects, Lali Barrier using a variety of devices that are clearly micro-amplifed and mixed in performance, as Marta Sainz intones vocal sounds, never speaking but creating innuendo and drama at a cautious pace, allowing Barrier's objects to interact, creating an unusual sonic environment of unpredictable and interesting discourse.

Like the Lisbon String Trio, this trio explores strings in a viola, cello and double bass trio configuration, from Creative Sources core players Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues, and Alexander Frangenheim, exploring a classic trio concept towards new expressions and boundaries, through spritely interaction and sonic expedition.

Recorded in Lisbon, Creative Sources core performers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Miguel Mira on cello and Carlos Santos on synthesizer are joined by renowned German free improviser Matthias Muche on trombone and Cologne based guitarist Nicola L. Hein for two extended improvisations of actively subdued dialog that ebb and flow in commanding ways.

An incredible example of Creative Sources/Ernesto Rodrigues' large electroacoustic ensembles, blending acoustic and electronic sources in slow moving and subtle improvised works of a large scale, here with 12 musicians layering string, brass, keys, percussion, synth and computer into a mysterious harmonic and hallucinatory convergence of powerful intention.

Portuguese guitarist Manolo Rodriguez chose these 9 pieces from about 8 hours of improvised music, recorded on a Gibson acoustic guitar with piezo microphones on various parts of the guitar, passed through effects and finally controlled by a mixer, intended as a tribute to "the sense of sight as an intermediary of thought, and to artists who, with their eyes, have changed the world."

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"[...] Trilla fits agreeably into the Creative Sources aesthetic, which values collective mood-building over individual displays of prowess. Nepenthes Hibrida was recorded live a few days before Christmas 2016, and features Trilla, viol...

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"Although some improvisers deny that one of the main parameters that they deal in their projects is the language, this almost always ends (I would say until always) to happen. The interest of the music that results depends on what they ...

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"Ensemble MIA unites over 60 improvisers and experimental musicians from all over the world, who participated in MIA 2016 - 7th Encontro de Música Improvisada de Atouguia da Baleia (Improvised Music Encounter) festival. The event ...

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"[...] Blattwerk's two torrents of strings move like a waveform, cresting and dipping in volume and intensity. The quintet features an unusual line-up-violin, viola, two cellos, and Trilla's drums-and shifts between an indeterminate wor...

"A similar grounding of sound in silence characterizes Layering Time [cs435], an austerely beautiful piece for piano, field recording and viola by Eva-Maria Houben in collaboration with Rodrigues. Houben, who plays piano and provides a ...

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"The music that is created at the Amsterdam improvisation hall 100 will gradually be able to spread outside the capital. The debut album of the quintet Zwerv was recorded, and is filled with five free improvisations. Founder of the grou...

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After a six year break the Humcrush duo of Stale Storlokken on keys and Thomas Stronen on drums & electronics return with this studio album of rhythmic angularities and experimental sound worlds, drawing on their experiences with bands including Supersilent, Food, Elephant9, Time is a blind guide, Meadow and Motorpsycho.

The Portuguese trio The Selva of Ricardo Jacinto (cello), Goncalo Almeida (double bass) and Nuno Morao (drums) in an album building on world and historic music forms focused through modern improviser's ears, creating a hybrid approach that slowly reveals its jazz roots in an unhurried but cultured take on new creative music.

A live concert at Les Soirees Tricot Festival in Paris, France in 2016, dedicated to the "City of Light", from the quartet of Luis Vicente on trumpet, Theo Ceccaldi on violin, Valentin Ceccaldi on cello and Marcelo dos Reis on acoustic guitar and prepared guitar, in music that, like the city, exhibits gorgeous simplicity through intricate sophistication.

Viola improviser and composer Mat Maneri leads this trio with British UK legend Evan Parker on soprano and tenor saxophone and Romanian ex-patriot and frequent collaborator Lucian Ban on piano, for ten compositions blending tradition, song, and improvisational tactics, recalling 20th century modern classical music in addition to jazz.

Rather than ancient Germanic alphabet letters, "Rune" Your Day is named for Norwegian composer and band-leader, double bassist Rune Nergaard [Bushman's Revenge], and his quartet with Jorgen Mathisen on alto & soprano sax & clarinet, Andre Roligheten on tenor & baritone sax, and Axel Skalstad on drums, for an album of concentrated, creative jazz.

Drawing from some of the finest players on the New York Downtown jazz scene, with Dave Ballou on trumpet, Tony Malaby and Oscar Noriega on reeds, Peter McEachern on trombone and Michael Sarin on drums, double bassist Mario Pavone presents a set of 11 new compositions of lyrical and sophisticated jazz anchored by the leader's powerful compositional structures.

A lyrical outing from the Chicago working trio of Nick Mazzarella on alto saxophone, Matt Ulery on doublebass, and Jeremy Cunningham on drums, performing live at the Whistler in Chicago, Illinois in 2016, recorded for this debut album of Mazzarella compositions, flexible pieces that balance jazz traditions with avant options for the players.

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 Scandinavian quintet of Ole-Henrik Moe on violin, Kim Johannesen on guitar; Ola Hoyer on double bass; Erik Nylander on drums & drum machine; and Klaus Ellerhusen-Holm on alto saxophone and Bb on clarinet, in a daring album of mostly Ellerhusen-Holm compositions, arranged collectively into these creative and energetic gems.

The Californian saxophone quartet composed of Bruce Ackley, Steve Adams, Larry Ochs and Jon Raskin is extended with Henry Kaiser on guitar and Kyle Bruckmann on analog synth to perform the music of saxophone legend Steve Lacy in 7 compositions, putting an eclectic spin on the iconic composer and performer's music.

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Creative Sources regulars Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Abdul Moimeme on electric guitar join the long-running duo of alto saxophonist Ilia Belorukov and electronics artist and Mikroton label-leader Kurt Liedwart to record these two lowercase electroacoustic improvisations, transmuting acoustic and electronic sound in both stark and subdued ways.

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.

Portugal's IKB Ensemble is an electracoustic improvising ensemble with a strong string and wind section, balanced with electric guitar, electronics, and percussion, each album focusing on an object--an art work, Dracaena Draco (Dragon Tree), Chelonoidis Nigra (Giant Tortoise)--and here taking on the Ornithorhynchus Anatinus, or platypus, in 3 fascinating movements.

A unique take on this large brass instrument from Italian trombonist and Free Flow Festival director Carlo Mascolo, using preparations, focusing on components of the instrument, and using extreme techniques to create a startlingly diverse set of sounds, vocalisations, microtonal output and simply bizarre utterances as Mascolo brings new language to horn.

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