Pianist Nico Chientaroli leads this 9-piece Dutch ensemble, based around free improvisation but merging rock & experimental music from funky to abstract, in generally energetic and slightly unhinged music in a Dutch improv kind of way, incorporating spoken word with texts from Jorge Luis Borges, William Burroughs, Martin Calegari, &c.; wonderfully embraceable and eclectic.

Aptly described as chiaroscuro--a veritable play of light and shadow in quick-witted--through nearly microscopic and highly interactive acoustic improvisation from the quartet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Maria da Rocha on violin, Bruno Parrinha on clarinet & bass clarinet and Jose Oliveira on percussion, performing live at Galeria Monumental, in Lisbon in 2022.

Translating loosely to "Something begs the patience of the clouds", the collaborative electroacoustic quintet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Bruno Parrinha on bass clarinet, Luisa Goncalves on piano and Carlos Santos on electronics present two extended improvisations of tension, masterfully adept technical skill and intensively close listening.

A confluence of reeds from Bay Area saxophonists David Boyce and Phillip Greenlief, both performing on and professing an open love letter to the tenor saxophone, the positioning of each clear through stereo placement as they improvise seven dialogs of intent listening and tremendous technique, from high speed intertwining to introspective contemplation.

A live recording of free improvisation recorded at Theater im Viertel, in Saarbrucken, Germany in 2021 from the SteDaJoDa quartet of Daniel Studer on double bass, Stefan Scheib on double bass, Daniel Weber on drums and Johannes Schmitz on guitar, the dark double bass foundation and floating ("Schwebend") percussion work balanced by Schmitz' blues oriented electric.

Saxophonist & electroacoustic improviser Pedro Sousa (Pao, Lisbon Freedom Unit, Sousa / Berthling / Ferrandini) was commissioned by Lisbon's Jazz in the Park to create this hybrid work of jazz, electronica and dub, performed with collaborators, drummer Gabriel Ferrandini (PeterGabriel, Red Trio), Simão Simões (electronics), Bruno Silva (electronics), and Miguel Abras (bass).

A collaboration recorded in New York City and Paris through the exchange and evolution of sound files between sound artists and instrumentalists, percussionist Flin van Hemmen and pianist Jozef Dumoulin, each using samples, field recordings, percussion, keyboards, voice and programming to create sound portraits of propulsive impetus and reflective evocation.

Known for his The Rite of Trio, guitarist Andre B. Silva releases his 2nd solo album featuring compositions in a chamber jazz mode, including long passages of composed music that open into improvisation, performed with Jose Soares on saxophone, Raquel Reis on cello, Sophie Bernado on basson, Paulo Bernardino on bass clarinet, Andre Carvalho on double bass & Ricardo Coelho on drums & vibes.

Known from the TGB trio and work with Bernardo Sassetti, Portuguese deep brass player Sergio Carolino turns from his typical tuba for a solo album on a new instrument of his own invention--the lusophone--a standing tuba based on the Jazzophon, a trumpet in the shape of a saxophone, here built from parts of frontal bell tubas and demonstrated in an impressive, extended improvisation.

Using simple motives to guide remarkably complex and lyric collective improvisations clearly in the jazz tradition, the Portuguese quartet of João Mortágua on alto & soprano saxophones, Carlos Azevedo on piano, Miguel Angelo on double bass and Mário Costa on drums approach their music with concise expression and a clear exuberance for the music they create.

A unique album of oddly metered yet highly rhythmic jazz from guitarist and composer Mané Fernandes, a member of Pedro Alves Melo Omniae Large Ensemble, but more importantly, part of a scene he refers to as Post-Beat Aesthetics, merging electronic and synthetic elements into jazz form, a serious and diverting direction for creative improv and studio play.

Beautifully lyrical compositions filled with a sense of wonder and mystery in the 4th Clean Feed release from double bassist and composer Hugo Carvalhais, improvising in a sextet with Emile Parisien on soprano saxophone, Liudas Mockunas on tenor saxophone & clarinet, Fabio Almeida on alto saxophone & flute, Gabriel Pinto on piano & keys and Mario Costa on drums.

A recently discovered 2007 live concert from Portuguese pianist & composer Bernardo Sassetti's Trio with Carlos Barretto on double bass and Alexandre Frazao on drums, celebrating the trio's then 10th anniversary in a performance at Grande Auditório da Culturgeste in Lisbon, an excellent example of the great skill and dexterity of this much-missed pianist and trio's work.

Referencing Thomas Chapin, Ornette Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell & Evan Parker, Spanish saxophonist Liba Villavechia's trio with drummer/percussionsit Vasco Trilla and double bassist Alex Reviriego explore the "tentacles that stem from the great Jazz octopus" through five Villavecchia compositions, one collective improv, and Thomas Chapin's "Bypass".

Featuring some of Poland's most interesting improvisers and contemporary players and led by wind & reedist Marek Pospieszalski, this 8-piece ensemble use the compositions of Krauze, Kotonski, Baird, Rudzinksi, Stachowski, Sikorsi, &c. as the inspiration and influence for sophisticated arrangements & improvisations merging concepts of jazz, contemporary composition & sound art.

German vocalist Birgit Wunsch leads this improvising trio with Edith Steyer on clarinet & saxophone and Alberto Cavenati on guitar, using abstract and atonal melodies in a chamber improvised setting for freely improvised voice, text and sound, crossing a sense of pop music with non-idiomatic improvisation of great technical and creative intent.

Four improvisations recorded iteratively during the pandemic and assembled into this exquisitely subtle two-part composition with Eva Maria Houben's piano & organ recorded in Berlin in 2020, Guilherme Rodrigues's cello recorded in Berlin and Ernesto Rodrigues's zither recorded in Lisbon in 2021, merged with nocturnal recordings from Carlos Santos captured in Spain & Portugal.

The core Rekon trio of multi-instrumentalist and wind player Daniel Borgegård Älgå, guitarist Leif Jordansson and drummer Perry Vallgren are joined by guests, cellist Helena Espvall, bassist Niklas Billstrom, trumpeter Mike Lloyd and pianist Lisa Ullen, for four lyrical and experimentally inclined improvisations, a beautiful balance of diverse approaches to modern jazz.

Recording in Berlin in 2021, the quartet of English saxophonist Simon Rose, here on baritone sax and German double bassist and Evil Rabbit label leader Meinrad Kneer join with Creative Sources father/son string improvisers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello for seven delicately commanding, chamber-oriented free improvisations.

A reductionist set of spartan improvisation performed live at Casa da Cultura, in Setubal, Portugal in 2021 from the trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, João Silva on trumpet and Andre Hencleeday on piano, applying extended techniques on their instruments in a dark night, quiet but intently close listening conversation from three authoritative voices.

Two strings, sax, bass and percussion from the free improvising chamber jazz quintet of Mia Dyberg on alto saxophone, Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Johan Moir on double bass and Jose Oliveira on percussion, in an interactive and dynamic live performance recorded in 2018 during the CreativeFest XII at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, Portugal.

Recording at Studio CCAM Scene Nationale de Vandaeuvre-les-Nancy in France, the freely improvising duo of contemporary saxophonist Violaine Gestalder and double bassist Louis-Michel Marion approach the five improvisations on Marges with an ear to patient sonic interaction through extended and unusual techniques on their instruments.

An experiment in inter-species communication between the avian artist Kakaduu and the three instrumentalists Hui-Chun Lin (cello), Elo Masing (violin), Christoph Schwantke (8-string guitar), recorded during a private performance of two duets, which were developed from the practice of the three instrumentalists performing for Kakaduu over a period of two years.

A diverse set of conversations between Austrian improvisers, drummer/percussionist Fredi Pröll (Trio Now!, Lull) and free vocalist Mara Kolibri, recording in the studio for seven concise and far-ranging dialogs, from cantankerous interactions to controlled incoherence of absurdly implied vocalization punctuated with creative percussive reaction, often returning to lyrical jazz-influenced moments.

A series of real-time improvised performances from Athens, Georgia guitarist Killick Hinds, made with strings and occasional computer augmentation, an album he describes as to date his fullest expression of the Appalachian Trance Metal/Piedmont Shaman Rock concept that he has been developing for years, these works inspired by Zaila Avant-garde, Paolo Angeli and Bali.

Merging gritty and angular guitar work with versatile and creative drumming, the duo of Finish guitarist Heikki Ruokangas and North Carolina multi-instrumentalist Landon George show their diverse interests in both technically assertive playing and beautifully misty environments, through eleven concise works including two parts of "Chaos", a "Rainy Day" and a "Rainy Eve".

A duo of free and spaciously building exchanges between Dutch drummer George Hadow (Zwerv, The Blue Lines Trio) and Belgian guitarist Dirk Serries (A New Wave of Jazz), in an extended dialog of great technical skills and creative use of their instruments, performing live at the 2021 JazzBlast event held in the chapel Groels Kapel in Bocholt, Belgium.

A confluence of strings from the trio of Portuguese improvisers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, performing in Berlin with double bassist Stephan Bleier, the title referring to a gradual ascending progression formed through small changes, an apt analogy for the illusory and shape-shifting approach their 5-part improvisations lead.

A play on the Percaso band name "Day & Taxi", the trio of Christoph Gallio on soprano & alto saxophones, Dominique Girod on double bass and Dieter Ulrich on drums & bugle recorded this extended improvisation, a combination of scrambling, determined expression and post-bop creative jazz, part of the series "Life At The Zoo" at Studio the Zoo in Berne, Switzerland.

Italian and Portuguese musicians meet in the studio in Berlin for a set of studio free improvisations, from Creative Sources father/son collaborators Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello meeting trombonist Davide Piersanti and vocalist Ligia Liberatori for twelve exceptionally open, informed and unusual conversations.

Recorded live in 2019 at Burgbachkeller in Zug, Switzerland, the international trio Jorge's Orbe creates tapestries of sound, bringing together free improvisers from three different parts of the world: Switzerland through trombonist George Francis Marti, Japan through pianist Tsukiko Amakawa, and Spain through Pelayo Fernandez Arrizabalaga on turntables and voice.

The Virtual Balboa trio of Philadelphia improvisers Zachary Darrup on guitar, Evan Lipson on double bass and Ben Bennett on percussion, all performers associated with Spring Garden Music & saxophonist Jack Wright, are joined by open-form trumpeter Greg Kelley for this wonderfully scrabbly and tenacious live set captured at Vermillion in Seattle in 2019.

The collective Who Trio of pianist Michel Wintsch, bassist Bänz Oester and drummer Gerry Hemingway take on the music of Billy Strayhorn & Duke Ellington in eight studio recordings and one live performance, interpreting in a collective fashion rather than straight readings of each work, allowing a unique level of freedom to be applied to these essential jazz compositions.

The Norwegian trio Ballrog, which started as the duo of Klaus Ellerhusen-Holm on clarinet and Roger Arntzen on double bass, then expanded with guitarist Ivar Grydeland, who is replaced by guitarist David Stackenäus, a perfect choice for the lyrical chamber approach of intertwining lines and fluid melodic statement, with a sense of "free chamber americana"; beautiful.

Conceived as a collective starting in 2017, the Milan-based group Piranha led by clarinetist Federico Calcagno, has performed in configurations from duo to quartet, here with Filippo Rinaldo on piano and Stefano Grasso on percussion, presenting original compositions from each member alongside collective free improvisations, blending jazz, chamber and contemporary compositional music.

Led by Argentinian guitarist based in Lisbon, Javier Subatin, the core of his band is fellow Portugal-based Argentian bassist Demian Cabaud and drummer Pedro Melo Alves, with guests improvisers on a number of tracks, presenting a series of "Mountain" tracks interspersed with "Rocks", "Birds", "Cave", &c. in impressively advanced use of time, rhythm, structure and harmonics.

Borrowing elements from a vast spectrum of improvisatory styles, fueled by a variety of saxophones, tanpura, drums, prepared cymbals and voice, Swedish improviser Martin Küchen (Angles) joins with Slovak percussionist living in Oslo, Michaela Antalová, taking their listeners on a meteorological journey through a remarkable tempest of sound.

The third release in Portuguese guitarist Luís Lopes' Love Song Project is a solo album performed on a nylon-stringed acoustic guitar, six beautifully peaceful and introspective improvisations revealing a calm side to Lopes' often assertive electric guitar work, instead allowing harmonics and notes express his curiosity of life and love of music.

Essentially written by Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist D. Liedel, who handles most of the parts on this unusual blend of rock, electronics, jazz, pop punk and a number of unlikely genres, presenting strange songs that take sharp turns into twisted realms, neatly layering each piece into a heady brew that's hard to pin down, but a great deal of fun trying.

Blurring abstract electronics with folk improvisation in gently evolving music with an experimental edge, the London Panang Food Tigers duo of Stephen Lewis and Spencer Grady use keyboards, guitars, dobro, charango, field recordings and electronic sources to create contemplative atmospheres, a sort of ambient-folk music drawing out forgotten daydreams and moods; beautiful.

Referencing 60s free jazz (the band's name is from an Ornette Coleman album) and structuring their tunes with melodic heads that develop into intricate structures giving the players room for impressive soloing, this is the 5th album from the Scandinavian quintet of Andre Roligheten (winds), Thomas Johansson (trumpets), Oscar Gronberg (piano), Jon Rune Strom (bass), and Tollef Ostvang (drums).

Translating to "Eulogy of the Shadows", the free improvising duo of violinist Carlos Zingaro and percussionist Pedro Carneiro performing on marimba with a damper pedal, structure their work as though emerging out of the dark night, each step subtly increasing the glow of luminescence through intensity of interaction until receding again into obscurity; sublime.

Drawing on genres blurring avant jazz, compositional forms, experimental rock and their uniquely twisted sense of humor, the Portuguese trio of guitarist Andre Silva, bassist Filipe Louro, and drummer Pedro Alves (also credited for screams!) present their sophomore album, a strange and compelling set of delirious improvisations in three Parts organized across 13 tracks.

Three expansive and stunning performances at Centro Cultural de Vila Flor as part of the Guimaraes Jazz 2020 festival by drummer and percussionist Pedro Melo Alves' expanded 23-piece Omniae Ensemble directed by Pedro Carneiro, adding electronics, voice and a diverse orchestration that gives his band both power but also flexibility to express an astonishing array of moods.

Exploring dream-like instrumental states in electrified modern creative jazz, drummer and composer João Lencastre leads an octet featuring saxophonists Albert Cirera & Ricard Toscano, guitarists André Fernandes & Pedro Branco, pianist Benny Lackner and bassists João Hasselberg & Nelson Cascais through six original compositions of fascinating free-flowing forms.

The first duo album by pianists Sten Sandell and Lisa Ullén, recorded in their home country of Sweden, performing eight freely improvised piano works which include the two-part "Double Music" and two-part "Onyx", each recording contrasting complex interplay of discord and harmony with beautiful passages of introspection and intellectual depth; a remarkable merging of masterful talent.

Presented as a a tribute to past jazz masters John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry and Charlie Haden, Rotterdam's Ritual Habitual trio led by double bassist Gonçalo Almeida with drummer Philipp Ernsting and Riccardo Maronga on tenor sax, bass clarinet & synthesizers, create a sense of ritual through deep repetition of modern creative jazz rooted in free jazz tradition.

L.U.M.E., aka the Lisbon Underground Music Ensemble directed by pianist Marco Barroso, is a big band with a chamber ensemble feeling, Barroso's upbeat and melodically sophisticated compositions driving the band by borrowing from a variety of jazz, funk and even cartoon-like styles to create a richly complex and compelling set of tunes that twist, turn and surprise.

Conceived by saxophonist Kirstoffer Berre Alberts and Lasse Marhaug, who composed this large acoustic work for strings, percussion, blowing instruments, pipes (organ and accordion) and vocals, soliciting solo recordings created in isolation during the pandemic which they layered and blocked in the studio to create these two remarkable works of eccentric timbre, motion & pitch.

The Hamburg-based performing quartet of Lorena Izquierdo on free improvised voice, Aziz Lewandowski on cello & voice, Kris Kuldkepp on double bass and Felix Mayer on trombone are heard in these eight studio recordings of quietly creepy conversation, generally slow motion and reflectively introspective work that occasionally rises in throttled crescendo.