Drenched in beautiful ambiance, this inspired and spiritual meeting between Necks pianist Chris Abrahams and percussionist Mark Wastell performing on tam-tam and cymbals, was recorded while The Necks were in residence at Cafe Oto in London, the empathy between the two immediately evident in their graceful approach to these four evolving improvisations.

Confront/Sound 323's Mark Wastell meets three of Japan's most interesting minimal improvisers at Offsite in Tokyo, 2003 to perform this extraordinary two part work.

World instrumentation of shakuhachi, thai flute, shinobue, thai mouth organ, and shruti box blends with western orchestration of double bass, percussion and electronics as Clive Bell, Arild Andersen, and Mark Wastell come together in the studio after their well-received concert at Cafe Oto in London to develop these beautifully lyrical improvisations.

A one-take improvisation recorded in Berlin by trumpeter Tom Arthurs, caught on New Year's Day 2018 using piccolo trumpet, mutes and binaural field recordings, intended for headphone listening, as he provides an incredible sense of location while stimulating his listener with subtle interventions that ultimately act as a backdrop for his distinctive and sly soloing.

The full performance of legendary improvising guitarist Derek Bailey's 2001 exhilarating duo with bassist Simon H. Fell at Sound 323, originally released as a mini-CD and voted record of the year in 2002 by The Wire, then released on CD and now as a deluxe 2 LP set on 180gm White Vinyl.

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.

An extended improvisation interweaving acoustic and electronic instruments in a beautifully coherent evolution of mysterious and approachable sources, from the trio of Jan Bang, David Toop and Mark Wastell, combining tam tams, gongs, flutes, lapsteel, live sampling, gongs, brushes, elastic, paper and more to captivate the curious listener.

The duo of Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga on zither and Mark Wastell on his electronics set including bowls and shruti box, formed for the release concert for Angharad Davies' "Six Studies" in 2014, recording this excellent improvised dialog of rich and unusual sound.

Sprawl Imprint label leader Douglas Benford developed this fascinatingly layered composition with a diverse set of instruments, objects, and field recordings from captures made at the Stockholm Music Museum and at performances in Lithuania and England between 2009 and 2017, assembling them to create this exceptional odyssey of concrete, ambient and ethnic sources.

French composer Herve Boghossian pays hommage to electronic composer Eliane Radigue while asserting his own approach to continuous electronic sound in textures and pulsations, using a laptop recording feedback, plus harmonicas, drums, brooms, tuner and voice.

A live recording at Belfast's Sonic Arts Research Centre during the Translating Improvisation: Beyond Disciplines Beyond Borders colloquium, from the intrepid improvising trio of Matthew Bourne (piano), Steve Davis (drums) and Dave Kane (double bass).

A sound work about freedom, choice and politics, performed at Arika's Festival Episode 4 "Freedom is a Constant Struggle" in Glasgow, 2013, from the duo of Mattin (computer and feedback) and written with Lebanese philosopher Ray Brassier.

Using sopranino, sorano and decayed tenor saxophone, Mark Brown recorded these unusual improvisations, generating a huge variety of sounds and tones, and then constructing those recordings into this curious and captivating 40 minute work.

Contemporary composer, improviser and pianist Chris Burn in 4 lively, playful and fasciatingly structured works, as heard in Philip Thomas's renderings: "as if as"; "only the snow"; a transcription of Derek Bailey's "from ten, two, and three" in 6 parts; "pressings and screening" in 4 parts; and "the sky a silver dissonance" with Kate Ledger as a 2nd pianist.

A six part improvisational inquiry from three experienced London investigators--John Butcher on saxophones, Terry Day on drums and Max Eastley performing on his self-developed electroacoustic monochord, along with percussion and a bird call--all three performing with unusual and extended techniques to create a uniqe sonic palette applied to extremely focused conversations.

Mysteriously dark electroacoustic improv from the adept trio of John Butcher on acoustic and amplified saxophones, Burkhard Beins on amplified bass drum and electronics, and Mark Wastell on amplified 32" paiste tam-tam, slowly evolving, rich environments in sound.

A live recording at the Jazzfest Trondheim, Trondelag Senter for Samtidskunst, in May 2015 from the freely improvising duo of John Butcher and contrabassist Michael Duch, a superb extended concert of incredible reed technique and concept anchored by Duch's flexible bass work.

Extreme acoustic space recordings from saxophonist John Butcher, part of Arika's Resonant Spaces event, with performances from resonant and remote corners of Scotland.

The NY duo of accordionist Andrea Parkins, using self-designed virtual instruments, field recordings, everyday objects and small instruments, and drummer Brian Chase, applying guitar pedals to his percussion, create fascinating sculpted works of electroacoustic improvisation.

Violinist and percussionist Nick Smith, having access to St. Mary's Church at Great Baddow for music performance and rehearsals, made his first use of the space in 1996 in a duo with Mark Wastell on violincello, preparations and percussion, where they used the acoustics of the church to enhance their detailed and absorbing improvisations.

The forward-thinking trio The Contest of Pleasure of Axel Dorner on trumpet, John Butcher on saxophone and Xavier Charles on clarinet, is extended with (More) from Laurent Sassi and Jean-Leon Pallandre on phonographies, mixing and microphones, performing live in Ulrichsberg.

Having been acquainted with each other for decades but never finding the opportunity to record, improvising American guitarist Duck Baker and British guitarist Mike Cooper finally found their chance in 2010 while both were in Rome, taking two acoustic nylon Spanish guitars into the studio to record these three extended, intertwining improvisations.

Lapsteel guitarist and electronic artist Mike Cooper and percussionist Mark Wastell, employing a paiste 32" tam tam and a shruti box, pay homage to the large acoustic sound mirrors used in Britain from 1916 to 1930 as an early form or radar, each of their detailed improvisation referencing one of the locations on the British south and northeast coasts.

The results of years of collaboration between the Cremaster electroacoustic improvising duo of Ferran Fages and Alfredo Costa Monteiro with pianist Sophie Agnel, in a remarkable album of fragile yet rich tones and tonal punctuations, a feast of timbral possibilities.

A combination of cyclical themes, made-up folk dances, and invented improvisations from UK reedist Chris Cundy, performing on bass clarinet at the Cheltenham Synagogue for 10 compositions developed specifically for this Confront recording as playful pieces intended as popular music for solo bass clarinet.

Confront initiates their new Core Series with the text piece "There Is No Love" with David Sylvian on voice, vocal treatments and electronics, Rhodri Davies on harp, vibraphone and radio, and Mark Wastel on tam tam and percussion, a sophisticated spoken word piece of shadowy atmosphere and innuendo, leveraging approaches from experimental, improvised and composed music.

Assigning different times systems--standard time, decimal and hex time--to different musicians, harpist Rhodri Davies develops an electroacoustic improvisational environment of unusual perception and sensation, performed live in Cardiff in 2018 with Ryoko Akama, Sara Hughes, Sofia Jernberg, Pia Palme, Andre Parkinson, Lucy Railton, Pat Thomas, & Dafne Vicente.

Re-issue of one of the earliest Confront releases, the trio of trumpeter Matt Davis, violinist Phil Durrant and cellist Mark Wastell performing subtle and sophisticated free improvisation at St. Michael's and All Angels church, Chiswick, London in 2000.

Delicate improvised interaction based around a day of meditative composing from London-based violinist Mandhira de Saram, a founding member and leader of the Ligeti Quartet, and French pianist Benoit Delbecq, an active improviser also involved in theater, dance, and visual arts; here the two use profound control and mastery to create intensity without excess.

A series of unusual compositions originally written by Jacques Demmiere and Vincent Barras, here reworked by Demmiere and violinist Anouck Genthon, each piece focusing on sounds, breaths, frictions, silences, vowels and consonants, weaving and complementing each other through a mix of traditional, extended and unconventional techniques; fascinating.

A series of unusual compositions originally written by Jacques Demmiere and Vincent Barras, here reworked by Demmiere and violinist Anouck Genthon, each piece focusing on sounds, breaths, frictions, silences, vowels and consonants, weaving and complementing each other through a mix of traditional, extended and unconventional techniques; fascinating.

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.

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.

Having performed in duos previously, this trio came together at Festival Noise No. 5, at Theatre Le Ring, in Toulouse, the sound of the group is a "malleable space in which the musicians generate small or bigger shapes, simple and complex sounds, irregular and mechanical rhythms."

The pairing of German trumpeter Axel Dorner, and NY-born experimental artist Jason Kahn living and performing in Zurich, brings the tradition of avant free jazz and nonidiomatic improvisation into an unusual merging of techniques and approaches, each applying their advanced virtuosity to this intense concert, recorded during Hamburg's Zoom In Festival, 2017.

The pairing of German trumpeter Axel Dorner, and NY-born experimental artist Jason Kahn living and performing in Zurich, brings the tradition of avant free jazz and nonidiomatic improvisation into an unusual merging of techniques and approaches, each applying their advanced virtuosity to this intense concert, recorded during Hamburg's Zoom In Festival, 2017.

Taking their song titles from Basil Bunting's 1966 poem "Briggflatts", a mixed freeverse work with a changing rhyme scheme that is noted for its use of sound through word play to move its listeners, an apt analogy to the masterful and sophisticated dialog between double bassist Olie Brice and multi-reedist Paul Dunmall, Dunmall performing on alto & tenor saxophones, flute & clarinet.

The 8th release on Confront's Core series of factory-pressed CDs brings together improvisers Max Eastley, Fergus Kelly and Mark Wastell, employing electroacoustic devices, invented instruments, metal percussion, a piano frame and tam tam to create a rich and mysterious sound world, darkly hopeful emanations in a nighttime traversal across unknown lands.

Double double bass from the duo of John Edwards and Olie Brice performing live at Iklectik Arts Lab, in London in 2017, a return of sorts as Brice's first live improv gig was opening for the Sunny Murray Trio with Edwards and Bevan; here the two combine, in contrast and confluence as they demonstrate massive technique and concentrative conversation.

An impressive set of recordings from the electroacoustic improvising trio of Camille Émaille on percussion, dieb13 on turntables and Hans Koch on soprano sax, clarinet & bass clarinet, recording live in Switzerland at Le Singe and at Poestremeis for eleven intricate exchanges of mystery and suspense using remarkable technique and patient attention to each player's contribution.

Using sampler, dictaphone, and voice, the duo of Sidsel Endresen and Jan Bang improvise and interact to create unorthodox hybrids of fractured electronics and articulated word, as edgy and engaging as it is unusual, captured live at Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, in Oslo, Norway in 2016, a great followup to Bang's "And Poppies From Kandahar" Samadhi album.

A fully free improvisation of subtly disruptive, extended electroacoustic mastery, recorded during the Svensk Musikvår Festival at Aliasteatern, Stockholm in 2021, in a piece conceived by Mats Gustafsson who performs on saxophone & flute, with Anna Lindal on violin, Mats Lindstrom on electronics, effects & sampler and Joachim Nordwall on analog synths, effects & tapes.

Guitarist Sandy Ewen and double bassist Damon Smith recorded these 2 extended improvsations in concert as part a "Desbordamientos" series at Cine Tonala, in Mexico City, pairing live music with screenings of Derek Bailey's 4-part series on improvisation.

The French Le Bruit de la Musique festival is run by Le Quan Ninh and Martine Altenburger, who invited Simon H. Fell to perform a solo set on the doublebass, the result being this fantastic album that takes the largest of bass instruments through an astonishing array of approaches enhanced by the acoustics of the church of Toulx-Sainte-Croix.

Pianist & improviser Steve Beresford performing on prepared piano, toys & electronic, percussionist Valentina Magaletti and bass player Pierpaolo Martino are heard in this cataclysmically interesting album based around Beresford's compositions, each piece a vignette that merges elements of free improv, rock, sound & avant structures in inventive and compelling ways.

An expressive piano trio from Steve Beresford on piano, Italian-born, UK-based drummer/percussionist Valentina Magaletti, and Italian Bassist Pierpaolo Martino, Beresford using piano preparations, electronics & toys to expand the palette of their instrumentation, all three bringing a wealth of experience in jazz, free improv and experimental sound to their solid conversations.

UK sound artist Fermata Ark, aka Harry Smith, composed this work from improvisations recorded by Mark Wastell performing on cello, double bass and harmonium, and Spencer Grady performing on 5-string banjo, ebow, violin bow and brass slide, creating an extended work of immersive and mesmerizing textures and tones, sounds rising and falling in sublime and passionate ways.

Saxophonist Halliwell appears here in three duo performances with Rhodri Davies playing E-bowed harp; Steve Roden with extracts from his "resonantlighttones"; and Mark Wastell on tam-tam.

Tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler's pseudo-drone piece for the ensemble of Pierre-Antoine Badaroux (alto sax), Fidel Fourneyron (trombone) and Luis Laurain (trumpet) where the players keep the sound alive while moving in a small, pre-established musical perimeter.

Mysteriously evolving improvisations from the trio of Chris Dowding on trumpet, Sylvia Hallett on violin, bicycle wheel & saw, and Dave Ross using a self-designed time modulator, in two recordings from St. Paul's Church in Marylebone and one at Camouflage in Norwich, ea-improv that has a natural feeling and beautifully paced development; fascinating.