Reissuing trumpeter Don Cherry's 1969 album on the Sonet label, performing at the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey in a quartet with Turkish improvisers Selcuk Sun on bass, Okay Temiz on drums & percussion and Irfan Sumer on percussion & tenor saxophone, for a wild set of world-influenced free jazz, particularly two pieces referencing Ornette Coleman, and several pieces using Turkish folk melodies.

A tribute to jazz trumpeter & composer Don Cherry--a spiritual world traveler and influential free jazz trumpeter--performed by Chicago's equally spiritual Ethnic Heritage Ensemble led by percussionist Kahil El'Zabar with Corey Wilkes, Alex Harding, Dwight Trible, and the son of Don Cherry, David Ornette Cherry; sadly also an unexpected tribute to David Ornette's sudden passing in 2022.

A warmly lyrical, mostly instrumental album of modern jazz that surprisingly takes it's title from legendary punk band MDC, and its songs from their 1982 debut album Millions of Dead Cops, led by NY drummer Mike Pride and performed with Jamie Saft (keys), Brad Jones (bass), Mick Bar (guitars) and on a few songs, vocalists JG Thirlwell (Foetus), Sam Mickens (The Dead Science) and Dave Dictor from MDC itself.

Steering far from pyrotechnics or histrionics, the drum duo of UK legend Mark Sanders and Norwegian residing in the UK and part of the new direction of Bead Records, Emil Karlsen, present six percussion improvisations that focus on textural interaction, melodic progression, polyrhythms, and sonic excitement through percussive elements; an exceptional duo.

The improvising duo light.box of Alex Bonney (trumpet) and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (bass), using expansive electronic processing at the intersection of dark ambient, gestural improv and electronic environment, is expanded through the drums and percussion of Norwegian improviser Emil Karlsen, heard in these 2021 recordings at University of Huddersfield, UK.

Developing their dialog and language during the 90s through mutual work with organizations including King Ubu Orchestra and Chris Burn's Ensemble, the unique approach to free improv between keyboard & electronic artist Matt Hutchinson and trumpeter Chris Burn are heard in these three UK concerts from 2005 & 2006 at Red Rose Club, the White House and The Music Room.

Splitting the album between two ensembles, UK composer Eden Lonsdale's beautifully languid compositions are performed first by Apartment House, and then by the young Rothko Collective, the four pieces showing Lonsdale's development of writing for harmony, timbre and resonance into works focused on the passing of time and the integration of prominent melodic elements.

Influenced by the seemingly contradictory sources of 16th century Italian composers and their polyphonic compositions, Eliane Radigue, and North Indian classical, Italian composer Marco Baldini's beautifully dark works employ a slow, rarefied pace and subdued dynamics with a fascination for pianissimo playing, heard in eight chamber compositions for low strings and marimba.

First recordings of composer Frank Denyer's "Melodies" series from the mid-1970s, arising from his ethnomusicological studies that explored the concept of what makes up a melody, or a note, creating a series of compositions with melodies of one note, then two, building up to a final work of 14- and 15-note melodies; includes a 24 page booklet by Denyer detailing the concept.

Following an exploration of the double bass in his 2018 Confront release Basse Seul, Swiss-French composer and saxophonist Bertrand Denzler again jumps into the deep end again with a quartet of accomplished double basssists--Sebastien Beliah, Jon Heilbron, Mike Majkowski, Derek Shirley--for two extended works of encompassing low-register tones.

After participating in the Birmingham Improvisors Orchestra, wind improviser Martin Archer, bass guitarist John Jasnoch and violin & electronic musician Sarah Farmer were joined in the studio by drummer Lee Boyd Allatson to record this mix of compositions, graphic scores and free improv, merging AACM-style free jazz with contemporary chamber-oriented improv.

Seeking new methods of performing real-time collective composition through improvisation, composer & guitarist Moss Freed developed a language of hand signals that could be used among a large ensemble with instructions to guide players towards particular activities, heard in this spectacular set of seven improvisations, each named for an iconic improviser or composer.

Planning a duo album since 2019, this was to be pianist Keith Tippett & vocalist Julie Tippett first new studio album in 30 years, but tragically pandemic and Keith Tippett's passing prevented that, Julie instead turning to unreleased live solo piano recordings from 1979 through 1996 to which she added new vocal performances in the studio, creating eight impressive virtual duos.

The first album from 1982 by drummer Geoff Serle's band Research, combining free improvisation with rock forms, electric and acoustic, or as he described it: "an electro-funk industrial jazz unit", configured as the quartet of trumpeter Jim Dvorak, a member of Mujician & Brotherhood of Breath, bassist Dan Brown from The Fixx, and legendary pianist Veryan Weston.

Eight studio compositions recorded in Kingston, London in 2022 between FMR label-leader Trevor Taylor on percussion and electronics, and violinist Philipp Wachsmann, also processing his sound through electronics, the two finding common ground and great compatibility in reserved pacing that seemingly allows each note and gesture to express itself fully.

Some of the finest London and Birmingham improvisers, the free improvising quartet of saxophonist Paul Dunmall with pianist Liam Noble, drummer Mark Sanders and bassist John Edwards, continue their work together with this exceptional live performance at the Eastside Jazz Club, Birmingham Conservatoire in an extended, far-ranging and engaging collective concert.

Originally formed in 1985, this free improv ensemble continues in a new rendition of the Örchestrü, with original members Mark Charig (cornet), Paul Lytton (percussion), Alfred Zimmerlin (cello) and Phillipp Wachsmann (violin) joined by new members including Axel Dorner (trumpet), Phil Minton (voice), and Melvyn Poore (tuba), for two exceptional examples of advanced collective and cooperative improvisation.

Two live performances at Sala Castello di Sannicandro di Bari and at Sala Auditorium Accademia Cinema Ragazzi in Bari, Italy from violinist & violist Stefania Ladisa's trio Strutture with drummer Marcello Magliocchi and saxophonist Adrian Northover (LIO, Remote Viewers, Runcible), using the resonance of the performances spaces in spacious free interaction.

Documenting the continued growth and evolution of the longer than a decade collaboration between American alto saxophonist living in the Philippines Ricky Countryman and Swiss drummer Christian Bucher, performing in the Strawberry Jams studio in Quezon City for thirteen succinct improvisations titled with stellar analogies, from pensive music to excitingly dynamic interplay.

Referencing the Spanish galleons that sailed the Pacific Ocean between Acapulco in Mexico and Manila in the Philippine Islands, this meeting in Mexico city brings Philippine-based saxophonist Rick Countryman together with Swiss drummer living in Mexico City Gabriel Lauber and Lauber's collaborator in the group Zero Point, Mexico City native double bass player Itzam Canois.

Confidently forceful German free improvisation with an eccentric approach, from multi-instrumentalist Udo Schindler on clarinets, cornet & tuba and artist & improviser Etienne Rolin on basset horn, Glissotar (a continuous wind instrument) & a Bansuri flute, as they improvise over Schindler's poem (jetzt/now) from his cycle frequenz schaukelt / frequency swings.

Performing at the Gallery arToxi in Munich, 2022 as part of clarinet & cornetist Schindler's LowToneStudies series, the free improvising trio of Schindler, Nikolaus Neuser on trumpet and Georg Karger on double bass perform four extended conversations of meticulous momentum and superb technique, at times repurposing, extending or modifying their instruments.

A unique exposition of an 1893 text by Robert Charles Hope exploring the legends of England's "holy wells", the water of which was purported to have healing properties, adapted to atmospheric songs by Drake and performed on a 1940 Hammond model BC organ and a Challen upright piano; delicate and descriptive songs that detail the legends and the hope they inspired.

The first meetings between UK free improvising vocalist Maggie Nicols and percussionist Mark Wastell, heard in two concerts at the Hundred Years Gallery in London, dedicated to Spontaneous Music Ensemble founder John Stevens, Wastell using two of Steven's cymbals and both using a a variety of percussive devices, in two unconventional and extended dialogs of warm camaraderie.

Expanding on the history of Henry Cow in new recordings discovered after the 19-CD Cow Redux box, including: a well-recorded concert at the the first Glastonbury Fayre in 1972, the earliest recordings of the quartet of Martin Ditcham, Fred Frith, John Greaves and Tim Hodgkinson; a 1978 grouping with Phil Minton; unrecorded compositions from 1977 in Bilbao; and a 1976 Chaumont Concert.

An excellent 50 year overview of the work of drummer & composer Chris Cutler, best known for his work with Henry Cow and his label ReR Megacorp, but also heard here in groupings including Art Bears, Cassiber, News From Babel, Aqsak Mabou, Duck and Cover, Peter Blegvad, Rene Lussier, The Work, Pere Ubu, The (ec) Nudes, Domestic Stories, Cutler/Frith, Cutler/Parkins, &c.

Capturing two exceptional concerts at London's Cafe OTO in 2021 & 2022, in the launch of a new quartet expanding the longstanding trio of NO Moore on electric guitar, John Edwards on double bass and Eddie Prévost on drums, with Alan Wilkinson on baritone & alto saxophones, and for one performance on each night, tenor saxophonist Nathaniel Catchpole joining.

Reissuing his 2003 album on the Confront label, Rhodri Davies' first solo album is a captivating set of uniquely voiced free improvisation, using a pedal harp, radio and tape recorders and percussive devices, and recorded in the natural resonance of All Angels, St Michael and All Angels Church in London, creating narrative and drama through Davie's intuitive sense of timing.

An extended solo titled for author Redell Olsen's book secure portable space (Reality Street), performed on Lever harp and EBows by UK electroacoustic improviser Rhodri Davies, recorded at Old School, Bracon Ash, in Norfolk in 2004 by Graham Halliwell and edited by Benedict Drew and John Wall, creating a richly evolving work of haunting plateaus and valleys.

Recording in Brussels, Rhodri Davies performs a composition for pedal harp written for and dedicated to him by composer and saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet, using liberal periods of space that creates hanging anticipation amidst beautiful moments of fragmented string sequence and percussive response using the frame of the harp, leaving the listener in a state of fascinated expectancy.

With titles taken from different kinds of water nymphs in Greek mythology, composer Mark Iddon's four-part work is a hauntingly beautiful set of compositions of seeming siren calls and rich percussion, realized by an octet configuration of the UK ensemble Apartment House, with two pianists (Philip Thomas and Mark Knoop), three strings, clarinet, flute and percussion.

A remarkable, intense and startlingly virtuosic solo performance from Berlin violinist Sarah Saviet in a long-form extension of an originally 15-minute work commissioned by Saviet of UK composer Bryn Harrison, developed together to allow the score to be variable in length through performer choices to re-sequence the events and repetition of the composition.

Three chamber works in single and multiple movements by minimalist composer Jurg Frey, exploring time & duration, form & shape and a balance of material, performed by a core quartet from the UK ensemble Apartment House, orchestrated for clarinet and bass clarinet, violin and cello, the final work adding piano, viola and percussion in a septet reworking of a 2014 composition.

Five works from US composer often based in Amsterdam, Evan Johnson, in solo, duo and trio settings including a triptych titled "L'art de toucher" in three configurations, demonstrating his unique approach to writing using disparate musical influences from modern to Baroque, mated to anarchic experimentalism and a Wandelweiser sensibility; fascinating!

Collecting five chamber works from prolific London-based composer Tim Parkinson, written between 1998 and 2017 and performed by the Apartment House ensemble: one piece for solo violin performed by Mira Benjamin, two duos for violin & piano (by Benjamin & Siwan Rhys), a quintet for winds and strings and a septet, both featuring flute and bass clarinet.

Four distinct compositions from French electroacoustic composer Philippe Petit, each using analog synthesizers including Buchla Easel K & Buchla 200 synthesizers, EMS Synthi and a Landscape Stereofield analog synthesizer, interestingly layered and captivatingly paced against processed voices, percussion, insider piano work, broken glass, samplers and turntables.

All three having met in the London Improvisers Orchestra, Neil Metcalfe on flute and violinist Philipp Wachsmann each worked with drummer Emil Karlsen in separate projects including Tern, and then at Karlsen's suggestion creating this new Spaces Unfolding trio, heard in their first album, recording in the natural resonance of St. Mary's Old Church in Stoke Newington.

Dublin sound inventor Henry Dagg joins soprano saxophonist Evan Parker for a live concert in Canterbury: fourteen vignettes of electro-acoustic interaction using Dagg's "Stage Cage"--valve test-oscillators, ring modulators, frequency shifter, chromatic zither, and a variable tape delay system--to both generate sound and to transform Parker's improvisations in incredible ways.

A curious book of images from artists including Rhodri Davies, John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Richard Dawson, &c. photographed in a location familiar to a touring musician--a budget hotel room--pictured laying on the bed with each artist's head covered by that room's hotel wall painting, from typically insipid to perplexingly unexpected.

Two recording sessions yielding 15 recordings of solo harp improvisations in Rhodri Davies' fifth release on his Amgen imprint, beautifully intricate works from exuberant to introspective, with titles borrowed from the works of Lisa Jarnot, Ed Luker, Nathaniel Mackey, Redell Olsen, Sun Ra, Nisha Ramayya, Sarah Riggs and Leslie Scalapino, and cover art by Jean-Luc Guionnet.

Influenced by bassist Simon H. Fell since first hearing him in 1994 in a quartet with Peter Brotzmann, harpist Rhodri Davies approached Fell to work together, enjoying 20 years of collaborations in many group settings; in 2020 Simon H. Fell became seriously ill and passed in June of that year, this extended improvisation being Rhodri Davies' heartfelt tribute to the great improviser.

Beginning in February 2022 on the 1st Saturday of the month Mark Wastell would bring his cello to the Hundred Years Gallery in London with the grace of gallery owners Graham MacKeachan and Montse Gallego and play, not as a performance, not as a rehearsal, just to play and record his improvisations as he expands his reach on the instrument, heard here in 17 fascinating excerpts.

In 1980 Duck Baker's first label deal had expired and the label changed direction, as did Baker himself from arranging traditional tunes into compositions for improvisation; still, these well-recorded demos from 1982 held an appeal through song selection and a uniquely edgy yet lyrical approach to his playing, now finally released to the public 40 years later.

One of the most capable and unusual voices on the planet, German sound artist and vocalist Ute Wasserrmann emulates the most baffling of bird songs in 10 unique performances using seemingly impossible vocal technique that morphs aviary exclamation with alien and indescribable utterance, performed along with a vast collection of bird whistles; strange indeed!

Reflecting on a magnificent career as an improviser, vocalist & organizer, including Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Les Diaboliques and the Feminist Improvising Group, Maggie Nichols releases an LP solo vocal improv: a set of intimate & expresive songs performed on voice and piano applying techniques going back to John Stevens/SME, and a take on Zappa's 'what's the ugliest part of your body'.

Reflecting on a magnificent career as an improviser, vocalist & organizer, including Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Les Diaboliques and the Feminist Improvising Group, Maggie Nichols releases two related CDs of solo vocal improv: a set of intimate & expresive songs performed on voice and piano; and a set of overdubbed free improvisations applying techniques going back to John Stevens/SME.

A remastered edition of percussionist Masahiko Togashi's 1979 trio album with trumpeter Don Cherry and bassist Charlie Haden, bridging free jazz with Eastern influences in both dynamic and introspective playing, released with the original artwork plus an 8-page booklet of new photographs, liner notes in English & French and a biography of Togashi by Paul Bowler.

Both members of Evan Parker's Electro Acoustic-Ensemble and Colourscape, the ea-improv duo of Philipp Wachsmann on violin & viola and Lawrence Casserley using a signal processing instrument and percussion, are heard in these 2012 studio recordings in Buckinghamshire in 9 wide-ranging dialogs exploring permutations of playing, processing and transforming their instruments.

Philipp Wachsmann's acoustic violin is routed through his own electronics and then fed into the Live Electronic Sampling & Transformations (LiSa) systems of Michael Bunche, processed and re-performed using time-based transformations shaped by gestural input or as static samples, creating new and unexpected trajectories, sounds snd forms for Wachsmann's playing.

Beginning their collaboration during the 1970s in the Chamberpot Ensemble, the duo of violinist Philipp Wachsmann and keyboard and electronic improviser Matthew Hutchinson are heard in live recording from three London Concerts in 2002 & 2003, Wachsmann's violin extended via live signal processing and transformations, extending their dialogs in expansive ways.