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.

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 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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

An extended improvisation performed live at Kuhlspot Social Club in Berlin from the Takatsuki Trio of Rieko Okuda on piano, Antti Virtaranta on bass and Joshua Weitzel on guitar & shamisen (a 3-stringed traditional Japanese instrument), captured at their monthly series expanding the trio to a "Quartett" for fresh perspective, here with alto saxophonist Silke Eberhard.

Exploring how a composition can provide a sense of weightlessness, and influenced by the music of gamelan, krautrock, Tony Conrad & Arnold Dreyblatt, composer Alex Zethson structured these works to influence the 13 performers in his ensemble into a state of intense focus and listening as they strike, bow and pluck their instruments, creating an ecstatic sense of infinite motion.

Exploring the sonic and visual territory of water, centering on concepts of metamorphoses and breathing underwater, pianist Joshua White and trumpeter & flugelhorn player Steph Richards also employ resonating water vessels and percussion as they present three fluid and introspectively fathomed works in multiple movements: "Sacred Sea"; "Sequoia"; and "Northern Lights".

Berlin trumpeter Liz Allbee's solo work focuses on the interaction of voice, extended approaches to her instruments, which includes her self-designed quadrophonic trumpet, electronics and acoustic homemade instruments, on Rille presenting four enigmatic works of dramatic pacing--environmental and rhythmic--guided by impressionistic spoken words and moments of tonal clarity.

A wonderfully warm and innately lyrical free jazz quintet that grew organically from weekly jam sessions in Harlem starting in 2019, comprised of tenor saxophonist Ayumi Ishito, pianist Eric Plaks, bassist Zach Swanson, and drummer Jon Panikkar, and later, multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter, Ishito the driving force in the project and this beautiful recording.

Thirteen succinct improvisations pitting Gordon Grdina's swinging middle-eastern flavors on the oud offset by gritty, experimental guitar work against drummer Jim Black's well-chosen and rock-solid grooves, an engaging album that shifts and explores a tremendous range of ideas and adventurous attitudes that span jazz, rock and experimental genres with ease.

The Nick Mazzarella Trio, here configured as Mazzarella on alto saxophone & bells, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass and Avreeayl Ra on drums, are heard live at Constellation in Chicago in 2019, bringing together two generations of Chicago improvisers with Norwegian/US drummer Haker-Flaten for seven pieces espousing both tradition and innovative creative approaches.

The Nick Mazzarella Trio, here configured as Mazzarella on alto saxophone & bells, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass and Avreeayl Ra on drums, are heard live at Constellation in Chicago in 2019, bringing together two generations of Chicago improvisers with Norwegian/US drummer Haker-Flaten for seven pieces espousing both tradition and innovative creative approaches.

A perfect matching for a free jazz collective piano trio, bringing frequent collaborators Argentinian pianist Paula Shocron and drummer Pablo Diaz, part of the SLD trio heard on Listen! Foundation and Hatology, together with NY bass legend William Parker, recording in NYC for four powerful improvisations of great technical prowess and attentive explorative interaction.

An evening of free improvisation recorded in Berlin at au Topsi Pohl in 2020 from the Swedish trio of Euro Free Jazz legend Sven-Ake Johansson on drums, Niklas Fite on acoustic guitar and Joel Grip on double bass, performing two extended and dynamic improvisations, and then settling into jazz standard form for "Isn't It Romantic" and "Out of Nowhere" sung by by Johansson.

An evening of free improvisation recorded in Berlin at au Topsi Pohl in 2020 from the Swedish trio of Euro Free Jazz legend Sven-Ake Johansson on drums, Niklas Fite on acoustic guitar and Joel Grip on double bass, performing two extended and dynamic improvisations, and then settling into jazz standard form for "Isn't It Romantic" and "Out of Nowhere" sung by by Johansson.

Using a combination of controlled feedback, samples, computer processing and Eurorack electronics, Arcane Device aka David Lee Myers continues his long exploration of electronic music, focusing here on evolving and complex patterns complemented by beautiful tones and occasional rhythmic foundations, a great collection of elegant electronics.

Two major works of evolving acoustic soundscape from Swiss violinist & composer Patricia Bosshard realized by the 27-member Orchestra des Nouvelles Creations, which includes Bosshard, Stephane Rives, Bertrand Denzler, &c.; "Sillon" employs a percussive pulse over 27 independently transforming grooves; "Reflets" a harmonic composition for bowed strings, including three double basses.

Pandemic restrictions having cancelled their European tour, the Futari duo of pianist Satoko Fujii and vibraphonist Taiko Saito chose instead to develop a new collaborative album of improvisations exchanged by sound file, each intently listening to the other's recordings, their care and pensive responses creating an astounding and sublime album of stunningly beautiful music.

A compilation of improvised steel-string acoustic guitar works framed by pitch and intervallic restrictions, from French composer and guitarist Guillaume Gargaud, 17 succinct pieces that evade standard jazz vocabulary while integrating influences from Messiaen to Webern to Cecil Taylor, paced in contemplative and sophisticated style.

Exploring the details of everyday life as he examines the relationship between his environment and himself, microscopic audio explorer Éric La Casa investigates sounds beyond the threshold of auditory hearing, capturing barely perceptible sonic manifestations with incredible clarity and detail, constructing engaging works from these surprising and intriguing sounds.

A series of "Rooms" and related electronic environments from New York sound artist David Lee Myers, whose long running Arcane Device project runs parallel to these nearly ambient works that Myers intimates are for intimate environments, developed through deft use of Eurorack electronics, feedback, sampling and other elegant electronic processes.

Circumventing pandemic lockdowns, the trio of husband & wife, pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, recorded this album at their home in Kobe, Japan using an internet connection to perform in real time with drummer/percussionist Takashi Itani in Tokyo, their joyful and sophisticated improvisation a testament to close listening and magnificent communication.

A fierce free jazz concert recorded live at Levontin 7, in Tel Aviv by three players with a long history of collaboration and dynamic trio settings, from Israeli saxophonist formerly based in NYC Assif Tsahar, bassist William Parker and Chicago drummer Hamid Drake, in two extended, energetic and inventive improvisations and a concise closing "Stillness".

A 2004 quintet recording from Victoria Rooms in Bristol with the core of long-time collaborators Paul Dunmall on tenor sax, Paul Rogers on bass and Philip Gibbs, performing with two improvisers also well known for their work in compositional forms--Jonathan Impett on trumpet and Andrew Ball on piano--bringing unique perspectives to their far-ranging, advanced improvisation.

2021 reissue of this 2004 release on the DUNS label bringing together a uniquely voiced quartet with Paul Dunmall on tenor & soprano saxophones, virtuoso concertina player Simon Thoumire, John Edwards on double bass and Philip Gibbs on guitar, with both Dunmall & Thoumire performing on bagpipes on two tracks; a welcome reissue to a distinctive and thought-provoking album.

A live performance from London's I'klectik by British musicians John Edwards (double bass), N.O. Moore (guitar), and Eddie Prévost (drums), who have a long-standing history as a trio known for both energetic playing and extraordinary introspection, here expanded with saxophonist Alan Wilkinson for two outstanding performances of technical mastery and deep communication.

A solid modern jazz album in the Blue Note tradition with a Latin angle, the title a reference to Max Roach's 1960 protest album We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, evoked through strongly melodic tunes composed by Brooklyn saxophonist Kazemde George and performed with vocalist Sami Stevens, keyboardist Isaac Wilson, bassist Tyrone Allen II, and drummer Adam Arruda.

Recordings from two European jazz festivals in 2020--Klangspuren festival in Austria and Moers Festival in Germany--from the duo of pianist Elisabeth Harnik and multi-wind & reedist Frank Gratkowski performing on alto & soprano saxophones, clarinet & bass flute, both of whom bring classical training to their spirited, diverse and far-ranging improvisations.

Bringing together four masterful players into the studio in NYC--Joe McPhee on saxophones, Michael Bisio on double bass, Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and Juma Sultan on percussion--for a set of with one composition each from McPhee, Sultan and Lonberg-Holm, two collective improvisations, Charlie Haden's "Human Being" and Henry Grimes "For Django".

Following their Creative Sources album Wind Makes Weather, alto saxophonists Tim O'Dwyer and Georg Wissel, both employing preparations on their instruments, improvise a confluence of sonic rivers evoking, exploring and reflecting waterways from around the world, captured in concert at the cinema hall of the cultural center Alte Feuerwache, in Cologne.

Canada's leading avant music magazine in their Fall 2021 issue, with articles on Understory (Nicole Rampersaud, Parmela Attariwala, and Germaine Liu), Frank Denyer, Taylor Brook, record & live reviews, plus a 14 track CD with pieces from Rocío Cano Valiño, Understory Show One: Gabriel Dharmoo/SlowPitchSound/Lan Tung, Frank Denyer, Nick Storring, &c.

With a combined history of dj production, engineering, writing and arranging in a variety of settings from small and large ensembles, electronic music, experimental rock, classical orchestration &c, the N/UM trio of Elias Meister, Jeremy Loucas and Emil Bovbjerg (VAVAV) release their fourth album of innovative live electronics developed through a carefully conceived collective creativity.

A solo album from Belfast double bassist Alan Niblock, known for his own group Ambient Forces, and his work in a trio with Paul Dunmall and Mark Sanders (Dark Energy), on his own demonstrating a powerfully warm approach to the large strings, augmented and transformed through preparations and objects, improvising in a flowing continuum of rich strategies and concepts.

A new collective trio of New York luminaries from bassist Trevor Dunn, guitarist Miles Okazaki and drummer Dan Weiss, Okazaki and Weiss having collaborated in Weiss' own Large Ensemble and Dunn a part of Weiss' Starebaby, here in a set of unbridled and unorthodox collective improvisations, with alto saxophonist John Zorn joining the trio on two tracks.

A superb 2009 concert at Command House, in Chatham, UK from the trio of saxophonist Evan Parker, double bassist John Edwards, and late drummer/percussionist Tony Marsh, a single 36 minute improvisation of cohesive and energetic free jazz where all three pull together as a nearly telepathic unit, plus two extended duo sections between Edwards and Marsh and a Marsh solo.

An unapologetically political album from double bassist William Parker in collaboration with poet Patricia Nicholson, confronting injustice and inequality through spoken word set over Parker's compositions, performed with James Brandon Lewis on tenor saxophone, Devin Brahja Waldman on alto saxophone, Francisco Mela on drums, vocals, Melanie Dyer on viola and Gerald Cleaver on drums.

The second duo collaboration of Chicago percussionist Hamid Drake (Fred Anderson, Peter Brotzmann, DKV Trio, &c) and guitarist Dan Phillips (Chicago Edge Ensemble, Quartet Next, Dan Phillips Trio, Dan Phillips Quartet), recording in the studio for 11 improvisations that present a variety of moods and intensity, in textures and melodies from minimal to intricate interplay.

French electroacoustic composer and innovator Eliane Radigue's final work made with feedback material from 1970, five pieces that strip away at the familiar, deconstructing and decomposing classical works into mesmerizing drones, or creating rich pulsating works of sound with intense harmonic development and controlled feedback, a powerful opus of sound.

Recorded at the 2019 Salon fur Klang+Kunst, in Krailing/Munich, this consummate and creative meeting of multi-reed & brass improviser Udo Schindler and double bassist Thomas Stempkowski was performed as a dedication to bassist Simon H. Fell who passed from cancer in 2020; sadly Stempkowski also died during the production of this album, making this both a farewell and a memorial.

Unique voicing through the orchestration of saxophones, basset horn, glissotar (a modern continuous pitch wind instrument) and vibraphone, heard in this recording at the international artist house Villa Waldberta, in Feldafing-Munich, Germany, for seven recordings that blend free jazz forms with chamber jazz approaches with remarkable sophistication and composure.

Concentrating on the lower end of their instruments, Udo Schindler and double bassist Wilbert de Joode improvise live at DasKihotzky_wagnisARt and at the 99th Salon für Klang+Kunstover in Munich, for 10 parts of their "[LowToneStudies]", Schindler performing on bass clarinet, f-tuba and tubax (a contrabass saxophone), occasionally complementing their lower end with soprano sax.

Led by bass clarinetist Tobias Schirmer and harmonica player Matthias Broede, also on piano, with Jan Roder on bass and drummer Bernd Oezsevim, this German quartet blends contemporary jazz through four original Brode compositions and two collective improvisations, performed with melodic intent and tight, quick interaction as recorded live at Tito's Zentrifuge in Berlin.

The longstanding Canadian duo of alto saxophonist Francois Carrier and drummer Michel Lambert recorded this expressively energetic album of five dynamic free improvisations at Soda Acustic in Barcelona in a quartet with two South American electric guitarists living in Spain: Argentinian guitarist Pablo Scvarzman and Colombian guitarist Diego Calicedo.

An unusually contemplative solo record from New York pianist Matthew Shipp, belying the intricately subtle density of his inventive approach to solo piano improvisation, with an innate lyricism through unusual motive and direction; perhaps one of the most succinct and concise albums Shipp has released, and a beautiful reflection of his creative intentions.

After Bartok and Messiaen, trombonist & composer Steve Swell takes his sextet with Marty Ehrlich (winds), Sam Newsome (sax), Jim Pugliese (marimba), Ellen Christi (voice) and Gerald Cleaver (drums) into an exploration of Italian composer Luciano Berio with a diverse set of works reflecting Berio's vast curiosity and ovouer; a spectacular collection from a fantastic band.

The intersection of Austrian violinist, vocalist and sound artist Mia Zabelka and Canadian sound artist and multi-instrumentalist Glen Hall, using recordings of live improvisations, electronics and unusual applications of software to structure fourteen compositions of accomplished playing and startlingly unpredictable sound, a magnificent and often breathtaking journey.

Brazilian singer Moreno Veloso recorded these songs from a songbook developed from his favorite artists, inspired while singing his children to sleep during pandemic, selecting lyrical songs that he performs accompanying himself on acoustic nylon-string guitar, recording the album in a corner of his living room, giving the album a beautiful intimacy and sincerity.

One of Corbett vs. Dempsey's Black Cross Solo Sessions, Ken Vandermark recorded these twelve succinct, insightful and technically superb solo recordings at his home during pandemic lockdowns, part of a new book of compositions for solo reed instruments, each piece dedicated to an artist across multiple disciplines, including Joe McPhee, Anthony Braxton, Samuel Beckett, &c.

One of Corbett vs. Dempsey's Black Cross Solo Sessions, Joe McPhees approaches his album recorded during pandemic lockdown in his home through tenor sax, voice, water, objects and field recordings, the center of the album a cycle of compositions by Charles Mingus, alongside works by Carla Bley and influences by Joni Mitchell, and a virtual symphony of saxes on the title track.