An absolutely intense sax & drum duo recorded in Chiba Prefecture, Japan at Kashiwa Church in 1986 between free improvising saxophonist Akira Sakata and drummer Takeo Moriyama, two influential performers whose work began in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio in the early 70's, here in concentrated form for 18 improvisations, including a burning version of Albert Ayler's "Ghosts".

An absolutely intense sax drum duo recorded in Chiba Prefecture, Japan at Kashiwa Church in 1986 between free improvising saxophonist Akira Sakata and drummer Takeo Moriyama, two influential performers whose work began in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio in the early 70's, here in concentrated form for 18 improvisations, including a burning version of Albert Ayler's "Ghosts".

Contemporary German painter Albert Oehlen invited Steamboat Switzerland — Lucas Niggli on drums; Marino Pliakas on electric bass; Dominik Blum on drums& voice — to create music for his solo exhibition Tramonto Spaventoso at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles, these extended compositions that connect to Oehlen's work the result, from dark ea-improv to hardcore Hammond free jazz.

A wonderfully idiosyncratic and masterful live recording from the Akademie der Kunste in Berlin, 1979, in this reissue of the 1979 FMP LP from the trio of Peter Brotzmann on alto & tenor saxophones, E flat & A clarinets & bass clarinet, Misha Mengelberg on piano and Han Bennink on drums, with a bit of free bop, some free insanity, and passages of stark beauty.

A tremendous concert from the 1974, 105th NDR Jazzworkshop at the Funkhaus Hamburg from the influential free jazz ensemble Globe Unity Orchestra with a who's who of European Free Jazz players (Brotzmann, schoof, Parker, Rutherford, Bailey, Kowald, Bennink, Lovens, Schlippenbach, &c) in a Satirical Oratorio in seven parts with the NDR Choir, plus Schoof's "Kontraste Und Synthesen".

Two works from Austrian pianist and composer Elisabeth Harnik sharing a subtle and complex aesthetic balancing acoustics & electronic instruments through extended approaches while accommodating composed and improvisation sections: Holding Up A Bridge commissioned by Viennese ensemble Studio Dan; and Superstructure performed by ALL Ears Area Ensemble.

Three duos--"Tandem Spaces"--and two solos--"Dry Swing"(s)-between drummer Gunter Baby Sommer, who was celebrating his 70th birthday the year of this recording, and younger generation pianist and Euphorium label-leader Oliver Schwerdt, the duos an exciting set of exchanges often building to high speed, with Schwerdt's solo work engrossingly intricate and quick-witted.

A 60 page book and CD from sound artist Jason Kahn, the audio composition representing an interconnected set of sound impressions focused on the Indian city of Varanasi, using field recordings of life on the street, the people, animals & music heard there, into the holy sites of the city, the school rooms, ending with a cremation and inevitable quiet at end of day.

After riding through his city of Zurich to the Kunstraum Walcheturm studio in 2020, Jason Kahn was struck by the quiet aspects of the usually busy city, now quelled by pandemic; entering the studio feeling the desolation and strange sense of peacefulness in the midst of so much tragedy and suffering, he recorded these "songs" of passionate free vocal improvisations and acoustic guitar.

Two major works designed for multi-channel sound projections from electronic composer Marcus Schmickler: "Sky Dice / Mapping the Studio", a work for ARP 2500, Publison DHM89B, Publison Infernal Machine and Computer, premiered at Donaueschinger Tage fur Neue Musik in 2018; "Fortuna Ribbon" a 6-part work based on spatial hearing and auditory otoacoustic distortions.

Dark, often unsettling and rich in detail and innuendo, bassist Marc Urselli brings together this quartet with Lee Ranaldo on guitar, pedals & bells, Jim Jarmusch on guitars, pedals & synth, and Balazs Pandi on drums for their second album of sublimely tension-filled improvisation, patiently building to stealthy momentum and retreating back into night.

Referencing Ornette Coleman in the group name, Portuguese tenor saxophonist engages three US free jazz players--legendary saxophonist and pocket trumpeter Joe McPhee, double bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Chris Corsano--for this 2017 concert at Jazzhouse in Copenhagen, Denmark, capturing four exemplary, at times explosive, and always tightly interactive collective improvisations.

A fiery record of collective free improvisation from the Mofaya! Quartet of American saxophonist based in The Netherlands John Dikeman, Chicago trumpeter Jaimie Branch, US East Coast bassist Luke Stewart and Slovenian drummer Aleksandar Skoric, recording live at Roze Tanker in Amsterdam for three exhilarating improvisations that embody US & European Free Jazz forms.

Four works by Argentinian composer Max Bober living in Warsaw, Poland, performed in solo, duo and trio configurations by pianist Alejandro Peña Gutiérrez, flutists Francisco Rojas and Clara Peláez Hidalgo, and soprano Natalia Jarosiewicz; fragile works of depth and beauty that unfold gracefully.

One circular and one continuous composition from Argentinian composer Sergio Merce, using rich tones like clouds of sound generated by a microtonal saxophone, synthesizer and wind synth, the title referring to his sense of music a channel to see, to reveal, a channel that opens through intuition, observation and attention but not through thinking; beautiful.

"An invitation into our perceptual periphery, where noise(s) — and perhaps we — can be somewhat disobedient" read the liner notes to Colombian composer Sergio Cote Barco's sound work, three compositions from extreme minimalism and silence to rich sound, each varying the topography and envelopes of sound, ostensibly performed by "electronic music".

Using guitars, violin, electronics, field recordings, abstract voice, and a "sound knife in the sand", Pierre Gerard recorded this set of 13 works in Liege, Belgium, and Wimereux, France, in 2019, using intuitive approaches to his minimalist electroacoustic compositions as he assembles his elements to convey human gesture and architectural form in sound.

The centerpiece of composer Kevin Good's "Slow" series is this evening-length glockenspiel solo, performed by San Diego based glockenspiel player Michael Jones, the composition of slow, melodic fragments that are increasingly permeated by swathes of silence of increasing length, exploring how the expressivity of the melodies are perceived and framed by these silences.

Exploring the difference between the two Greek concepts of time--chronos (measurable) and kairos (qualitative moments)--Bern composer Urs Peter Schneider's 1973 composition uses synthesizers to measure, divide, experience, forget, free from, and embody time; plus a 1968 composition with Ensemble Nueue Horizon Bern, and two recent works with Ensemble Montaigne.

A fascination for clouds may have influenced French electroacoustic composer Lionel Marchetti in the composition of his incredible "Micro-Climat", a journey through concrete and acousmatic sound with a sense of open environments, perfectly paired on this LP with the epic journey presented to the listeners in his expansive and impressionist work "La Grande Valée".

A split LP between two GRM associates: Florian Hecker in a work of computer-generated sound with resynthesized situated texture recordings, drawing on the history of computer synthesis; and cellist Okkyung Lee in an overture of cello multiplications, fragmentations, and duplications creating incredible tension in interacting layers of sound.

Elliott Sharp's fifth compilation bringing a diverse and global view on modern solo guitar work continues the series on a new record label and with the same exceptional ear for superb musicians, here including Anthony Pirog, David Watson, Liberty Ellman, Matteo Liberatore, Mike Baggetta, Chris Vine, Craig Green, Jerome Harris, Philip L'Epee, Will Bernard, &c.

Franz Hautzinger formed the orchestra in 1995 as an ensemble for experimental music, developing into an advanced improvising band that incorporates a shifting and diverse set of styles, heard here at Klangspuren Festival in 2019 with Hautzinger on trumpet, Christian Fennesz on guitar & laptop, Otomo Yoshihide on guitar & turntables, Luc Ex on bass, and Tony Buck on drums.

Recorded in a winery in Gorizia, Italy, in 2019, Austrian based pianist and composer Elisabeth Harnik, who works in both composed and improvised music, joined with Italian-born American composer, percussionist, multimedia artist and Ictus label leader Andrea Centazzo to perform this series of creative and authoritative "Duophonic Landscapes".

A uniquely eccentric free improv album by Fred Frith on electric guitar and Lol Coxhill on soprano sax, originally released in 1983 on the French AAA label, the album assembles recordings from the "Musiques de Traverses" Festival 1981, 1978 concerts in Sainte Croix, in Poitiers, and at M.J.C. Aliénor D'Aquitaine in Limoges, plus additional material from 1999 in Munchen & London.

Since their 1988 duo album Sonic Explorations and through a number of group collaborations, the duo of alto saxophonist Rob Brown and pianist Matthew Shipp have extended and evolved their uniquely astute and confident dialog, as heard in this magnificent 8-part studio album, a reflection on their compatibility and perceptive artistry.

An excellent example of the 80s Downtown NY approach to improvisation from the trio of wind player Ned Rothenberg on alto & tenor saxophones, bass clarinet & flute, Elliott Sharp on guitar, bass & violin, and Samm Bennett on drums, percussion & electronic drums, all in the height and excitement of the new music being developed and performed in NYC in the 1980s; awe-inspiring!

A fierce display of raw free improvisation from a concert that closed the open-minded and essential New York City venue Tonic in 2007, from the the Full Blast trio of Peter Brotzmann on reeds, Marino Pliakas on electric bass, and Michael Wertmuller on drums, playing to a receptive and excited crowd, with Brotzmann speaking to the audience before the final burner.

The 2nd release from the Bonjintan quartet led by Akira Sakata on saxophone, clarinet & voice, with Jim O'Rourke on double bass, Giovanni Di Domenico on piano & Hohner pianet, and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto on drums, an international grouping with experimental approaches to improvisation and avant music, yielding unusual results of great character, tension and pointed expression.

The core members of NY saxophonist Ohad Talmor's Newsreel Sextet are Jacob Sacks (piano), Miles Okazaki (guitars) and Dan Weiss (drums) along with Matt Pavolka on acoustic bass and Shane Endsley on trumpet, performing Talmor's adventurous modern jazz compositions, merging jazz, North Indian traditional and contemporary compositional forms in lyrically embraceable ways.

Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz reflects on his upbringing in Santiago de Cuba, evoking the cascades of daily sound and rhythm he heard there, through compositions performed with the trio of fellow Cuban Mauricio Herrera on percussion & marimbula, and drummer Andrew Cyrille, Emeline Michel and Marlene Ramirez-Cancio providing vocals on the powerful opening invocation.

Three works from Italian composer and sound artist Bernard Parmegiani, the title track "Violostries" performed with violinist Devy Erlih and Parmegiani on sound projection, intersecting several of Parmegiani's research concepts and presented as simultaneous dialogues; plus "Capture Ephemere" an active acousmatic work; and the rotating composition "La Roue Ferri".

Originally issued in 1972 on the FMP label, drummer Sven-Ake Johansson follows his instincts in polyrhythmic drum improvisation, demonstrating the prowess that makes him such a capable sideman of Peter Brotzmann, Alexander Von Schlippenbach, &c., through three direct and compelling statements of powerful rhythms that layer time signatures and tempos, dynamics and pulse.

The music to composer Craig Shepards performance work that presents listeners with text drawn from court testimony in the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, here concentrating on the quiet long tones generated by wind instruments and ebow strings, where pure tones pass between the musicians to build a pulsating chord that then drops away tone by tone.

Four compositions for solo piano from Swiss composer Urs Peter Schneider, founder of Ensemble Neue Horizonte Bern, with four accompanying prose pieces with text in German from Schneider himself, Martin Luther, and Ita Wegman; unusual words to accompany Schneider's minimalist works of clear progressions, thoughtful direction and interesting concepts.

An hour long work for the string quintet of Nigel Deane (violin), Patrick Behnke (viola), Tanner Pfeiffer (viola), Tal Katz (cello) & Julius Tedaldi (cellos) performing on two contrasting charts, one where musical elements change and recur, the other where things change but don't recur, creating a textural feel of dovetailed motion and intricate interstices.

An harmonically rich album of spacious guitar interaction from two Argentinian guitarists and composers--Catriel Nievas and Tomas Cabado--who also work in the trio Merce / Cabado / Nievas, a minimal yet satisfying set of 8 pieces that interact through stereo positioning, harmonic disturbance and long decay, the effect mesmerizing and beautifully peaceful.

Christoph Nicolaus began working with the stone harp around 2007, a block of granite with a slanted top that is deeply notched to create fins that resemble a loaf of bread, played by "bowing" the sides with wet hands causing each to vibrate in unique and beautiful tones; this album collects 13 compositions & improvisations performed between 2008 and 2018, in rich and uniquely evocative sound.