Blending spoken word, modern classical strings, and harsh modular synths, Belgian/Dutch ensemble Sopa Boba crafts a striking electronic-orchestral oratorio based on Moldavian writer Nicoleta Esinencu's That Moment, unraveling a dark, satirical narrative of capitalist excess through seven gripping movements that merge caustic irony with haunting sonic textures.

Blending spoken word, modern classical strings, and harsh modular synths, Belgian/Dutch ensemble Sopa Boba crafts a striking electronic-orchestral oratorio based on Moldavian writer Nicoleta Esinencu's That Moment, unraveling a dark, satirical narrative of capitalist excess through seven gripping movements that merge caustic irony with haunting sonic textures.

Commissioned by and recorded during the 2018 Ars Musical Festival, Fred Frith composed this work while under the inspiration of his residency at Lou Harrison's straw-bale house in the desert at Joshua Tree, CA, then performed with the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, along with two very unique improvisations, one recorded during the dress rehearsal and then again in concert.

Commissioned by and recorded during the 2018 Ars Musical Festival, Fred Frith composed this work while under the inspiration of his residency at Lou Harrison's straw-bale house in the desert at Joshua Tree, CA, then performed with the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, along with two very unique improvisations, one recorded during the dress rehearsal and then again in concert.

Expanding the rhythmically exuberant Natural Information Society led by Chicago bassist & guimbri player Joshua Abrams with core members Lisa Alvarado (harmonium), Mikel Patrick Avery (drums) & Jason Stein (bass clarinet), are Hamid Drake (percussion), Josh Berman & Ben Lamar Gay (cornets), Nick Mazzarella & Mai Sugimoto (alto sax & flute), Kara Bershad (harp) and Ari Brown (sax).

The French Dedalus Ensemble render three works from the ground-breaking ambient work of Brian Eno--Discreet Music (1975), Music for Airports (1978), and Thursday Afternoon (1985)--performed as an 11-piece acoustic ensemble and remaining faithful to the introspectively intelligent intention and peaceful elegance of Eno's original electronic works.

The French Dedalus Ensemble render three works from the ground-breaking ambient work of Brian Eno--Discreet Music (1975), Music for Airports (1978), and Thursday Afternoon (1985)--performed as an 11-piece acoustic ensemble and remaining faithful to the introspectively intelligent intention and peaceful elegance of Eno's original electronic works.

Formed in 1977, the freely improvising group of David Toop, Peter Cusack, Terry Day & Steve Beresford approached their performances with an extensive collection of instruments spread across the floor, allowing a vast range of expression both conventional and bewildering, collective and combative, as the group reveled in a concept of "production friction", here in never-released live recordings.

The second album from the Hydra Ensemble (Goncalo Almeida on double bass, Lucija Gregov on cello, Nina Hitz on cello, Rutger Zuydervelt on electronics) is a live recording with no audience from the Worm club in Rotterdam during the pandemic, reaching deeper into their masterful world of darkly intense chamber improv and electronics, slowly yielding to a spaciously brighter ending.

The French new music group Ensemble 0 offer a second tribute to Pauline Oliveros and György Ligeti, performing Oliveros' beautifully floating 1975 composition "Horse Sings from Cloud" and Ligeti's 1953 composition "Musica Ricercata", a wonderfully complex and active composition with two percussionists performing on marimba, strings, piano and winds.

Composer Frederic Rzewsk is known for his associations with John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Alvin Curran & Richard Tietelbaum, &c.; he wrote a number of text pieces for solo piano about life, philosophy and politics, many premiered by pianist and narrator Stephane Ginsburgh, who here presents seven such compositions, several written for Ginsburgh himself.

With an obvious pleasure at their pairing, both in the studio in Belgum in 2019 and at a live concert at A New Wave Of Jazz festival at the Hundred Years Gallery in London, 2020, acoustic guitartist Dirk Serries and multi-reedist Alan Wilkinson explore a range of styles and techniques through diverse melodic and abstract expression in pursuit of new forms of expression.

A uniquely voiced duo album from Netherlands improvisers, electric guitarist Arvind Ganga and sax & bass clarinetist Riccardo Marogna also performing on electronics, taking their dialog into unusual territory while maintaining a clear thread on jazz-influenced modes, creating an exotic combination that often takes unexpected narrative turns; fascinating.

In the same character as a Wandelweiser/Jürg Frey work, guitarist Pierre Gérard offers up five minimalistic or reductionist improvisations, sparse works that follow the patterns of his mind and his improvisatory method, allowing his thoughts to linger and follow a music that is curiously compelling; an idiosyncratic companion to a quiet evening or afternoon.

French sound artist Karbe Dinel creates a complex work of sound that shifts through diverse moods and seamlessly dovetailed sections, using synthesizer and effects to create deep resonating tones and high pitched complements, mysterious grainy ambience, haunting chambers of drifting electronics; a mysterious and compelling journey in the electronic realm.

Recording in Cologne, Germany, the quartet of Arne Deforce on cello, Deborah Walker on cello, Erik Drescher on flute, and Dafne Vicent Sandoval on bassoon realize NY composer Phill Niblock's work of acoustic drone, using long sustained notes to create a seething combination of harmonic interactions with an ominous tone, ending somewhat abruptly to reveal its layers.

A rich and beautiful drone work from Stephen O'Malley recorded at EMS in Stockholm, the title translating to "East-West Summer", as the piece emulates an accommodating evening, electronic crickets introducing and then settling into a slowly rotating and absorbing combination of tones, the flickering crickets returning to fade out the sense of restful night.

The expansive mind of composer and experimenter Charlemagne Palestine presents an extended drone work performed on organ, building from a peaceful single note to a harmonically rich combination of tones with a haunting vocal quality, subtly shifting and building in momentum then slowly fading out to the 20 minute mark; an epic journey in polyphonic transition.

Two solo installation works from Wandelweiser composer Jürg Frey--"Paysage d'échos" in Aarau, Switzerland, in 2009; and "Equilibre fragile" in in Aarau in 2014--plus Frey's "Streichtrio" performed by Angharad Davies (violin), Johnny Chang (viola) and Stefan Thut (cello); and a solo piano work, "Eyot", performed by Antonio Correa.

Exploring long tones and harmonic interactions of consonance & dissonance through a slowly rotating and patiently evolving series of tones with each of the players in the Tonus trio doubling on wind instruments, as performed by Dirk Serries on soprano melodica & accordion, Martina Verhoeven on concertina & cello, and Colin Webster on clarinet & alto saxophone.

Two massive drone works for organ and pre-recorded tracks commissioned by Musica Festival Strasbourg for organist Hampus Lindwall, with tapes by Emanuel Schmelzer-Ziringer, each piece titled anagrammatically (ie. Nagro = Organ) and recorded with the composer at the Manufacture d'orgues Thomas and Orgelbau Klais organ in the Collegiale Sainte-Waudru, in Mons, Belgium.

"The images were shot in New York between 2001 and 2002. It was during the time when we were still in shock from 9.11. The stars and stripes suddenly became visible everywhere in the city. Soon after, the invasion of Afghanistan started...

Odd popster Gerard Herman in songs using a combination of poetry, canned beats, field recordings, home made instruments, excerpts from his radio shows and other musique concrete elements.

The trio of drummer Klaus Kugel, bassist Mark Tokar and vocalist Andre Pabarciute use extended vocal & instrumental technique, archaic sound objects, & ritual percussion within free metric structure.