The duo of Chantal Michelle and Grace Villamil transform the monumental land sculpture of Opus 40 into a resonant instrument, layering voice and electronics with field recordings and audience interactions to create an immersive, spatially dynamic performance of ambient tension and sonic obliteration, masterfully teetering between composed sound, environmental resonance, and blooming noise.

A focused and highly collaborative session from multi-reedist Steve Adams, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and drummer Jason Levis, whose long-standing connections through the Bay Area's creative music scene — including Mezzacappa and Levis's duo B and their co-led Experimental Band — inform these concise and sensitive 2022 improvisations with a compositional approach to form and balance.

An exciting meeting of French pianist Sophie Agnel, known for her extended and prepared piano techniques, and Swiss turntablist Joke Lanz, renowned for his work in noise, experimental music, and performance art, presenting a dynamic and playful duo of spontaneous improvisation blending percussive textures, sonic collage, and energetic interaction revealing a sense of humor and awe.

Guitarist Oren Ambarchi, bassist Johan Berthling, and drummer Andreas Werliin return for their third ghost, expanding their collective language with looser and more immediate performances, their intricate focus and rhythmic precision balanced by playful excursions through ambient neo-jazz, post-kraut, minimal funk, and prog-like energy through an ever-evolving sonic architecture.

An inventive and lyrical contemporary piano trio session from Dan Banks (piano), Trevor Taylor (drums) and José Canha (bass), where agile post-bop themes unravel into spacious free improvisations, balancing lyrical reflection with muscular rhythmic drive as the group twist melodies, textures and momentum through constantly shifting perspectives.

A bristling electro-acoustic duo encounter in which Ilia Belorukov's restless modular synthesis collides and intertwines with Alex Riva's recorder work and effects, generating playful yet volatile improvisations that shift between lo-fi textures, glassy winds, and surging electronic fragments, as tension, friction, and timbral curiosity drive the music through constantly mutating sonic terrain.

The first meeting as a trio between Jaap Blonk on voice, Damon Smith on bass, and Michael Zerang on percussion, captured live in Chicago and continuing the Kontrans Improvisors series, bringing together three longstanding collaborators in new formation for an inventive and uncompromising set of free improvisation that highlights their commanding spontaneity and creative rapport.

Dutch vocal artist Jaap Blonk performs Kurt Schwitters' iconic Dada sound poem Ursonate with deeply internalized precision and theatrical nuance, drawing on decades of experience to present a vivid, expressive interpretation of the four-movement work, including both an improvised and written Kadenz, in this definitive 2024 studio recording.

Three intimate chamber works from composer-cellist Laura Cetilia unfold in finely sculpted layers of cello, voice, violin, and vibraphone, blending delicate harmonics, quiet resonance, and attentive presence into a spacious, quietly immersive soundworld that bridges classical lineage with exploratory clarity and luminous restraint.

Recorded live at the Donaueschingen Music Festival in 1971, this extraordinary collaboration between Don Cherry, Krzysztof Penderecki, and The New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra merges free jazz with avant-garde composition, blending fiery improvisation, unconventional orchestrations and global influences into a powerful experience that challenges traditional genre boundaries.

The first solo album from West Coast violist Amy Cimini, blending amplified distortion, percussive textures, and spacious effects into a deeply personal and genre-blurring performance that channels experimental noise, tuneful abstraction, and the spirit of feminist rock and protest music into a resonant and evocative sonic journey.

Reinventing his compositional voice, Clevenger charts a reflective and lyrical suite for a deep Bay Area ensemble, the writing balancing chamber-like colour and improvisational space as reeds, low flutes, brass, cello, vibes, marimba, drums and bass articulate an expansive journey of personal discovery and renewed purpose.

Exploring the resonant depths of the serpent, a low-pitched lip-reed aerophone, and her own voice through effects and extended techniques, Belgian musician Berlinde Deman crafts an intimate and deeply personal sound world where breath, tone, and distortion intertwine, her slow and deliberate process unfolding like a meditative journey toward balance, discovery, and quiet transformation.

A sophisticated and delightful cinematic work from Seattle multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio, who composes and leads a 12-piece ensemble in a dynamic new soundtrack to the 1925 silent film Varieté, blending electric guitar, accordion, voice, and hammered dulcimer with a chamber orchestra of woodwinds, strings, and percussion in a rich, genre-defying studio recording.

An unconventional Australian trio exploring breath, vibration, and material resonance, as flutist Jim Denley, airdrum inventor Dale Gorfinkel, and sonic sculptor Peter Farrar create a richly textured world of wind, water, and pressure in two improvised pieces of organic, immersive sound, recorded in Sydney and shaped by the physical vitality of their experimental instruments.

Montreal composer, guitarist and arranger Andre Duchesne developed the pieces on this solo album as a tribute to his sister Carole, "the one who dreamed of horses," who passed in 2010, his pieces incorporating elements of rock, improvisation and compositional forms, a sincere tribute developed by recording daily over a month as a virtual rock band of guitar, bass and drum programming.

Wearing the cloak of 60's pyschedelic organ trios modernized in approach and maturity, this is the 8th album from the Swedish improvising, prog-oriented rock band Elephant9, presenting six new compositions from keyboardist Stale Storlokken (Supersilent, Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns) performed with Nikolai Haengsle on electric bass and Torstein Lofthus on drums.

Blending Arabic maqam with jazz-inflected improvisation, ElSaffar's new quartet — joined by Tania Giannouli, Ole Mathisen, and Tomas Fujiwara — delivers an intense and expressive live performance whose spontaneous, newly composed material unfolds with lyrical depth, microtonal color, and dynamic interplay, captured at Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal with additional alternate takes.

An uncompromising solo debut from Mexican saxophonist Martin Escalante, recorded live in Japan and presenting an unrelenting storm of harsh acoustic noise without electronics, his ferocious technique transforming the saxophone into a raw conduit of layered textures, tones, and vocalizations for an intensely passionate and overwhelming performance.

Portuguese saxophonist Ravenna Escaleira's rugged and deeply personal solo album layers saxophone, electric bass, and piano into four urgent, uncompromising pieces shaped by her wandering relationship with Lisbon, blending raw noise, deep lyricism, and powerful emotional intensity as she transforms personal history and urban experience into vivid, layered sound.

The cross-continental trio of Cheryl E. Leonard, Tom Djll, and Bryan Day create an improvised electro-acoustic environment of equal voices, blending trumpet with attachments and electronics, invented instruments, homemade synths, driftwood, shells, bones, feathers, and field recordings in a dynamic performance recorded in Albany, NY and San Pablo, CA, mastered by Thomas Dimuzio.

A textural and quietly immersive collaboration between Italian percussionist Francesco Covarino and Greek trio Eventless Plot, combining modular synth, field recordings, percussion, and tapes in an intricate 2024 live studio session that continues the exploratory cassette ethos of Covarino's TSSS label through Innovo Editions' equally intimate and tactile aesthetic.

An intimate, restrained electroacoustic collaboration between Eventless Plot and Haarvöl, unfolding in two extended, meditative movements that explore a nuanced dialogue between piano, field recordings, tapes, and electronic expression, gradually revealing layered sonic detail and immersive depth through spacious, dramatic momentum.

A rich electroacoustic dialogue recorded in Greece, Entanglements teams the hybrid percussion/modular-objects trio Eventless Plot with Berlin sound sculptor Yorgos Dimitriadis, layering responsive drum gestures, electronics, tape, samplers, and modular synth in a live performance that blurs composition and improvisation into immersive, intricate sonic interplay.

Blending acoustic trio writing, subtle electronics, and everyday vocal gestures, Argentine composer Santiago Diez Fischer's decade-spanning set of five works for Gyre Ensemble shapes a raw, sculptural, and "punk-poetic" sound world where baritone sax, accordion, and percussion merge with the composer's vocal and electronic interventions to reveal music poised deliberately between rough material and refined form.

The debut of saxophonist Michael Foster, guitarist and banjo player Webb Crawford, and drummer Joey Sullivan, a free trio whose quirky yet technically impressive improvisations shift from sax shouts and overblown tones to frenetic banjo and guitar textures, driven by metallic percussion into a dense but dynamic interplay that combines raw energy with finely detailed, unpredictable explorations.

Six compositions for solo piano written by English composer Christopher Fox between 1991 and 2015, performed by Netherlands pianist John Snijders at Abbey Road Studios in London, each work uniquely approached in both writing and performance, each a concept or style that brings something unique to Fox's music while still retaining his voice and character in composition.

The second set of compositions from Christopher Fox emulating the Subharchord's sonic architecture through acoustic means, performed by Dominic Lash on double bass, Elisabeth Flunger on bass drum, and Kathryn Williams on bass flute, drawing deep resonance from extended techniques and elemental gestures in a richly textural exploration of dissent, descent, and transformation.

Joel Futterman delivers a coherent and expansive studio performance presented in three parts, seamlessly weaving beautiful melodic passages, rapid harmonic and rhythmic development, and a profound sense of jazz history that evokes the finest players while remaining distinctly and unmistakably his own — an absolutely masterful achievement.

A cryptic live document from The Gate's expanded lineup — Dan Peck, Tom Blancarte, Brian Osborne and guests — casting subharmonic dread, electroacoustic rupture, and dirge-like trance into two versions of the same ritual, where Almost Live blurs performance and fabrication and the Marston Mix sinks the remains into deeper, uncharted gloom, accompanied by a fractured visual zine of equal disquiet.

Leveraging the resonance of a Romanesque chapel, the duo of reedists Bertrand Gauguet and Jean-Luc Petit bring together alto and baritone saxophones with contrabass clarinet and sopranino in five improvisations whose instrument pairings shift from track to track, the changing light and hour colouring breath, multiphonics and resonance into patient spectral dialogues of evolving harmonics.

Exploring the fusion of acoustic presence and electronic projection, violinist Anouck Genthon and electronic musician Lionel Marchetti shape a two-disc journey where the violin's resonance folds into shifting synthetic textures, spatial loudspeaker design guiding evolving sound-forms that radiate like a focused beacon through immersive, exploratory improvisation.

Approaching the concept of endless repetition, New York composer and pianist Phillip Golub (Tropos, Sarafand Ensemble, Cecil McBee) presents his debut solo piano album, a contemplative set of system-based looping phrases that open up to improvisational variety in live performance, here in four renderings that defy the categorization of a "loop".

Seven works composed in the 21st century by Sebastian Gottschick, who arranges and conducts the Ensemble Fur Neue Musick Zurich, configured as an ensemble with percussion, a sextet, a chamber ensemble with baritone and soprano, and performing himself solo on viola; sophisticated and modern works that employ complex tonality, timbre and playing techniques.

An intimate and reflective duo album from Polish improvisers Marcin Halat on violin and Maciej Garbowski on bass, recorded in Wojkowice and exploring a conversational interplay that draws from jazz, contemporary, and classical traditions, as the long-time collaborators create spacious, subtle, and emotionally resonant dialogues marked by deep mutual understanding.

Active since 2010, the German/Swiss duo of classical guitarist Christian Buck and improviser Christian Wolfarth occupies a space between music and sound art, as they perform two works each by Ed Haubensak and Tomas Korber, pieces that make use of time, microharmonies, multiphonics, unusual tuning systems, interference patterns, and other conceptual approaches to music.

An extended work for piano by Sarah Hennies, SOVT (Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract) transforms the instrument through putty-muted strings and resonant sympathetic vibrations, performed with rhythmic precision by Richard Valitutto in a hybrid piano-percussion sound world inspired by vocal-tract exercises and Hennies' exploration of voice, identity, and embodied resonance.

This self-titled debut from the Berlin-based duo of Danish alto saxophonist Mia Dyberg and Argentine drummer Axel Filip explores freely improvised jazz through spontaneous structures and shifting sonic playgrounds, with a sharp focus on timbral nuance, textural interplay, and an upbeat creative immediacy that unfolds into vivid, evolving sound narratives rooted in exploratory expression.

As part of her Colonial Piano Project, Australian pianist Gabriella Smart commissioned and performs "Kaps Freed" by Cat Hope, a contemplation of composer Percy Grainger's Free Music ideals, with Stuart James on electronics; and the alliterative "Two New Proposals for an Overland Telegraph Line ..." by Erkki Veltheim, inspired by the 1st piano to arrive in Alice Springs, AU.

Recasting theatre music composed by Szilárd Mezei along with a Hungarian folk song arranged by Mezei in an intimate live improvisation from a duo of violin/voice and viola, drawing out folk-tinged motifs and open forms into tensile dialogues, balancing chantlike lines and earthy drones with quicksilver bow work to reveal a spare, luminous chamber language that breathes beyond the stage.

The second album of piano works from Japanese composer Jo Kondo performed by pianist Satoko Inoue--a noted interpreter of solo works by Feldman, Ferrari, and Cage--here presenting all of Kondo's works for solo piano written from 2001 to 2012, alongside two early works from 1975, exploring a wealth of harmonic, rhythmic, and conceptual ideas from a diversity of projects.

Conductor Sebastian Gottschick presents an additional selection of songs and chamber music works from composer Charles Edward Ives that reflect this broad range, 20 mostly brief and innovative works composed between 1898 and 1921, blurring the boundaries between genres through unusual motifs, themes, gestures and phrases that appear in new vocal and/or instrumental contexts.

An intimate, immersive duo recording in which Tom Jackson's finely articulated clarinet and Daniel Thompson's responsive, highly attuned guitar create a richly expressive terrain of spontaneous sound, channeling the spirit of free improvisation's pioneers in a deeply communicative exchange of timbre, space, and dynamic nuance.

A major work in Kassel Jaeger's catalog, blending musique concrète and electronic synthesis into a drifting, immersive soundscape across two LP sides, shifting through abstract environments rich with elusive textures and hidden detail, as subtle rhythms and concrete sounds evoke a sense of motion, memory, and a yearning that echoes the meaning behind the album's title: a deep longing to travel.

A powerhouse debut from the improvising trio of drummer JT Lewis, guitarist & reed player Elliott Sharp, and guitarist Marco Cappelli, blending spontaneous composition with structured narrative in an inventive interplay of amplified classical, electric, and bass guitars, clarinet, electronics, and percussion that spans modern jazz, experimental, and avant-garde sound worlds.

The second album from Swiss improviser Jason Kahn and Taiwanese experimental vocalist Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, in eight pieces of free vocal improvisation recorded during Jason Kahn's one-month artist residency in September 2023 at Ting Shuo Hear Say in Tainan, Taiwan, an unusual collaboration of idiosyncratic interactions using a wide spectrum of vocal techniques.

Drawn from field recordings made in Tainan, Taiwan and recomposed in Zurich, this album by Jason Kahn transforms ambient hums, distant voices and architectural resonances into a contemplative sonic map where place becomes material, silence pulses with hidden motion and listening itself is foregrounded as gesture, inviting deep immersion rather than narrative resolution.

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.

Recorded live in Tainan, Taiwan, the ever-inventive Jason Kahn strips his sound to acoustic guitar, harmonium, and voice, weaving fragile melodies and raw textures into an intimate, exploratory performance that bridges his electroacoustic sensibility with an unvarnished eccentric vocal presence of remarkable immediacy and tension, at times invoking a Basho-like spirit.

Guitarists Henry Kaiser and Kurt Newman engage in free improvisations inspired by classic songs they love — not covers, but intuitive commentaries recorded after listening to tracks by Pink Floyd ("See Emily Play"), The Who, ZZ Top, Fleetwood Mac, Richard Thompson, &c. — creating spontaneous, exploratory duets that reinterpret familiar sonic memories through raw, imaginative abstraction.

West Coast composer and saxophonist Noah Kaplan, associated with Anthony Coleman, David Tronzo, Peter Erskine, Rinde Eckert, Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Joe Maneri, &c., here in his 3rd album with his Noah Kaplan Quartet, in a set of original compositions and one standard performed with Joe Morris (guitar), Giacomo Merega (electric bass) & Jason Nazary (drums, electronics).

Reuniting pianist Pandelis Karayorgis with bassist Nate McBride and drummer Randy Peterson, and featuring composer-pianist Eric Moe, this microtonal project bridges jazz and contemporary composition through Werntz's Capricious Nocturnal Variations, as Karayorgis' trio expands its themes with richly textured interplay and fluid explorations of the uniquely tuned Werntz Nocturne Scale.

An unusual and deeply personal work from trombonist Sam Kulik, blending field recordings, voice, and layered acoustic and pre-recorded elements in a quirky, eccentric, and heartfelt conversation across time, presenting an imaginative and intimate meditation on life, death, and transformation through a uniquely expressive trombone-centered soundscape.

Inspired by Maggie Nelson's reflections on freedom, this intuitive and boundary-defying quintet — featuring saxophonists Simona Castria and Angelo Manicone, Carlo Mascolo on no-input trombone, Valerio Metteo on organismic synthesizers, and João Pedro Viegas on bass clarinet — explores collective improvisation as a form of resistance, creating a deeply expressive tapestry untethered from ego or hierarchy.

A 26-member, non-hierarchical improvising ensemble recorded live over three days in Le Volcan in April 2021, where individual instrumental voices — from saxophone and guitar to rotating surfaces and electronics — merge into a shifting mass of acoustic and electric event, preserving each performer's singular identity even as the group spins into turbulent collective invention.

Boston-based trumpeter Lemuel Marc's solo album explores the physicality of breath and the mechanics of the trumpet in ten free improvisations recorded in New York between 2023 and 2024, embracing buzzing, flutter tonguing, and whisper tones in a non-idiomatic approach inspired by Wadada Leo Smith's notion that the trumpet is "really made out of air."

With longtime collaborators Jason Lindner, Ben Monder, Tim Lefebvre, Zach Danziger, Nate Wood, Ryan Dahle, and Jonathan Maron, visionary saxophonist Donny McCaslin channels the raw intensity of improvised jams into a cinematic, high-energy sound world, blending jazz with rock, electronica, and soulful urgency, a fierce and timeless statement.

Recording live in Palermo, Sicilia at Sala Perriera, Thollem McDonas' performance reflects a lifelong, genre-bending exploration of music, influenced by classical training, cultural diversity, and global experiences, blending classical, jazz, and punk into an omni-idiomatic dialogue; honoring the revolutionary spirit of the past while responding to the dynamics of our time.

More typically a solo performer, Japanese bluesman Kan Mikami has created a distinctive path for his voice, guitar and poetic lyrics; here he is propelled in an improvisational setting with two powerful UK players--John Edwards on bass and Alex Neilson on drums--captured live at London's Cafe Oto for a growling concert of finesse and brusque attitude.

This duo release pairs bassist Kelsey Mines and saxophonist Erin Rogers in a deeply interactive exploration of free improvisation, where resonant low-end textures and expressive reeds weave concise, atmospheric vignettes shaped by bold contrasts, emotional clarity, and an immersive sense of motion that balances raw energy with carefully sculpted space.

Distilling their work from the Chamber Quintet, this intimate duo recording pairs Vinny Golia's varied woodwinds with Kelsey Mines' resonant bass and subtle vocalizations, unfolding a carefully balanced exchange of gentle and sharp gestures shaped by classical-leaning abstractions, where attentive interplay allows fluid musical forms to emerge with clarity inside open improvisational space.

Recorded at Hackney Road Studios in London, vocalist, composer, and movement artist Elaine Mitchener presents her first solo LP, drawing on the works of African-American and African-Caribbean poets Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Aimé Césaire, Una Marson, and N.H. Pritchard, creating twelve vocal compositions that disrupt semantic sense through phonetic freedom, silence, and multiphonics.

A powerful meeting of guitar luminaries Joe Morris and Elliott Sharp, recorded at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, where the duo delve into an intricate and exploratory dialogue of free improvisation and expanded sonic vocabulary, blending effects, electronics, and their singular guitar languages in a session that bridges avant-garde jazz, experimentalism, and raw creative spontaneity.

Following a string of successful live recordings on the Utech label, flutist and reedist Ras Moshe took his quartet with Dave Ross on guitar, Shayna Dulberger on bass, and Rashid Bakr on drums & percussion into the studio to record these six original compositions bridging traditional and modern aspects of free jazz and improvisation.

Poet and theorist Fred Moten joins bassist Brandon Lopez in their first duo recording, a powerful and searching dialog of voice, text, and bass, recorded at Greyfade Studios, where Moten's incisive spoken word and Lopez's deeply expressive playing fuse into an evocative exploration of Black cultural production, resistance, and creative solidarity.

Poet and theorist Fred Moten joins bassist Brandon Lopez in their first duo recording, a powerful and searching dialog of voice, text, and bass, recorded at Greyfade Studios, where Moten's incisive spoken word and Lopez's deeply expressive playing fuse into an evocative exploration of Black cultural production, resistance, and creative solidarity.

The ever-chameleonic Australian trio The Necks — featuring Chris Abrahams on piano and keyboards, Tony Buck on drums & guitar, and Lloyd Swanton on bass — explore electronic stillness in this 42-minute, single-track composition, evolving from a meditative opening through rich textures and sonic spaces to a beautifully structured conclusion, offering a rewarding and captivating journey.

A debut solo album of eight songs for voice and guitar from Japanese singer-songwriter Shoko Numao, blending poetic introspection, translucent vocal timbres, and quietly expressive melodies shaped through years of performance, as she crafts intimate, subtly shifting pieces that balance lyrical clarity with a gentle, atmospheric sense of stillness.

Bringing together a remarkable ensemble of Bay Area experimentalists rooted in the Mills College lineage, this debut by the Oakland Reductionist Orchestra merges live and studio explorations of reductionist improvisation, transforming acoustic sound into richly textured, electronically inflected sonic environments of deep focus and collective restraint.

A one-track electroacoustic work composed and mixed by Lance Austin Olsen, combining amplified copper plate, shruti box, guitar, flute, found tapes, and processed objects with extended voice and sampler, forming a dynamic and unpredictable narrative that shifts between silence, tension, and resonance in a rich, scored soundscape of urban unease.

Marking the closing of Mills College and the end of Zeena Parkins' long association with its experimental community, this solo release presents three commissioned works alongside the ongoing acoustic piece berlin bedroom, unfolding a deeply reflective exploration of harp and electronics that honors artistic lineage, collective devotion, and the Bay Area's enduring spirit of experimental music-making.

Nine investigations on the violin and two on the viola from Berlin composer and improviser Maria I.J. Reich, developed during research into solo improvisation, yielding a unique set of timbres, textures and impetus between the musician and the body & bow of the instrument, influenced by the different locations recorded at and presented as captured; a truly fascinating exploration.

A four-part work for two pianos, clarinets, bass clarinets, violas, cello, and double bass, unfolding through quietly repeated dyads, chance-shaped harmonies, and sparse, non-directional gestures, as Reinhard's ensemble traces near-silent textures that accumulate, recede, and hover in a state of delicate, slowly evolving stillness.

A 2020 Berlin recording uniting British baritone saxophonist Simon Rose and German guitarist/electronic musician Nicola L. Hein in a richly textural duo of sustained microtonal guitar, gravelly saxophone rumbles, layered drones, and shifting intensities, balancing intense and sometimes corrosive abstraction with earthy, lyrical interplay.

Recorded in Switzerland in 2021, Argentinian cellist and interdisciplinary artist Paula Sanchez pushes the cello to its sonic limits through six radical performances that merge acoustic and processed sound, combining cello, cellophane, and ring modulation to evoke a visceral, poetic, and at times merciless exploration of embodied sound and ephemeral transformation.

A remarkable first meeting between legendary Japanese pianist Masahiko Satoh and Greek guitarist Giotis Damianidis, recorded live in Chiba, Japan, where their distinct musical voices — acoustic piano steeped in classical and post-bop cadences and effects-laden electric guitar with rock overtones — intertwine in a boundary-erasing, expressive free improv set of intensity, elegance, and mutual discovery.

Blending lush harmonies, rhythmic twists, and inspired interplay, alto saxophonist and composer Beth Schenck leads a Bay Area quintet of Cory Wright, Matt Wrobel, Lisa Mezzacappa, and Jordan Glenn in a set of fiercely original compositions that traverse ethereal soundscapes and propulsive forms, reflecting deep musical relationships, artistic nuance, and a richly personal voice.

In an incisive Munich set, multi-reedist Udo Schindler and pianist Katharina Weber transform breath, wood and wire into tensile, reductionist improvisations that pivot from hushed, inside-piano timbres to bristling polyphony, their acute listening and timbral agility forging a vivid, moment-to-moment architecture of detail, momentum and quietly luminous intensity.

A fiercely expressive and genre-defying second release from Matt Hollenberg's Shardik, blending avant-garde classical, math metal, free jazz, and world music in a searing and politically charged statement performed with virtuosic intensity by Hollenberg, Nagano, Jost, and Sher, delivering complex forms, daring harmonies, and relentless creative fire.

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.

A fierce live collision of Jaap Blonk's phonetic vocal and electronic inventions and Jasper Stadhouders' raw guitar improvisation, forging a surreal language of sputtered syllables, scraped strings, and disruptive humor, where meaning dissolves into texture and every gesture feels simultaneously unhinged and meticulously alive.

An exploration of tonal interplay and contrasting rhythms from nine electric guitars, bass, and drums by West Coast percussionist and composer Moe! Staiano (formerly of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum), a work in three movements that features assertive rhythmic structures and intertwining string structures, balanced by beautifully ringing moments of introspection.

A live album at Kunstraum Walcheturm from Swiss double bassist Daniel Studer's quintet of strings and piano, with Harald Kimmig on violin, Frantz Loriot on viola, Alfred Zimmerlin on violoncello, and Philip Zoubek on piano, performing an inventive set of Studer compositions extending string improvisation to extremes through unorthodox structures and techniques.

Recorded live at the Bimhuis, Ziv Taubenfeld's Full Sun gathers Michael Moore, Joost Buis, Yung-Tuan Ku, Nico Chientaroli, Rozemarie Heggen, and Onno Govaert for a slow-unfolding suite steeped in polyphonic colors, lyrical interplay, and spirited homage to Jimmy Lyons, Duke Ellington, Sun Ra, and Misha Mengelberg, shaping a warm, exploratory, and deeply communal sonic journey.

Reimagining sounds from his past collaborations with Nels Cline, Pauline Oliveros, William Parker, Terry Riley, and Michael Wimberly, Thollem transforms their performances into new sonic landscapes through real-time improvisation using samples from their improvisations, blending organic and electronic textures into a kaleidoscopic exploration of memory, transformation, and infinite creative possibility.

An extraordinary solo piano album from UK pianist Pat Thomas, recorded at London's Fish Factory Studio, presenting eight deeply focused improvisations and compositions reflecting Thomas's lifelong engagement with Sufism and spiritual expression through sound; a luminous, exploratory work that unites the traditions of jazz and mysticism into a transcendent, profoundly human statement.

Composer Henry Threadgill conducts a suite for six acoustic guitars and two pianos, bringing together Bill Frisell, Miles Okazaki, Brandon Ross, Gregg Belisle-Chi, Jerome Harris, Stomu Takeishi, Maya Keren, and Rahul Carlberg in an intricately orchestrated work whose intervallic syntax and meticulous counterpoint entwine with unexpected timbres to reveal his singular and sublime vision.

An epic collaboration between saxophone and real-time electronics recorded at La Muse en Circuit in France, where Bertrand Gauguet's breath, multiphonics, and shifting overtones are continuously transformed by Kasper T. Toeplitz into evolving timbral landscapes that erode instrumental identity and build an expansive, immersive sound-mass through slow, majestic transformation.

UK drummer/percussionist Roger Turner in his first meeting with Japanese Noh flutist Yukihiro Isso, an accomplished improviser who has performed with Cecil Taylor, Peter Brotzmann, John Zorn, &c., for a unique and fascinating conversation bridging two traditions.

Asked to rethink the solo sax format, Adia Vanheerentals transforms this release into a series of site-responsive improvisations, engaging the soprano sax in active dialogue with surrounding environments — echoing spaces, incidental sounds, and ambient noise — using extended techniques, breath & texture to shape concise statements where location is a partner in an open improvisational framework.

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Recorded at the neo-gothic Church of St. James of Escholzmatt in Luzern, Switzerland, the Leocantor Trio of Marcello Magliocchi on drums & percussion, Martin Walter on pipe organ and Matthias Boss on violin provide moments of subtle reverence through Walter's resonant environment while providing Magliocchi & Boss space for impressive technique and sometimes tumultuous expression.

Through preparations, computers, contact microphones, gongs, feedback and other tools, Swiss pianist, composer & improviser Judith Wegmann's work transform the sound of the piano into an otherworldly instrument, set against more traditional acoustic pieces of a reflective nature, together creating a conceptual set of ten pieces in a uniquely flexible approach.

Drummer and composer Dan Weiss brings together Peter Evans (trumpet), Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), and Miles Okazaki (guitar) in a set of compositions written for their distinct voices, shifting from meditative calm to intense peaks, weaving intricate contrapuntal textures and improvisations into a mysterious and transcendent collective sound.

Guitarist John Welsh presents a deeply personal solo performance captured live at Solar Myth in Philadelphia in October 2024, bridging free improvisation with the creative tradition of Great Black Music, including an interpretation of the standard "Just Friends" alongside spontaneous explorations shaped by his ties to the NYC improv scene.

Reuniting after more than a decade, the Chicago-rooted trio of Dave Rempis (saxophones), Jason Adasiewicz (vibes), and Nate McBride (bass) rekindle their distinctive free-improvising chamber aesthetic in this live recording, blending texture-rich interplay and deep personal history into a resonant, nuanced return that reflects years of evolution, distance, and reconnection.

The third volume in John Zorn's Bagatelles series features the explosive trio Trigger — Aaron Edgcomb on drums, Will Greene on guitar, and Simon Hanes on bass — tearing through Zorn's intricate compositions with fierce precision and raw energy, delivering a searing and radical interpretation of these works drawn from Zorn's expansive 2015 collection of 300 pieces.

The third release from John Zorn�s jazz piano trio with Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, and Ches Smith — following Ballades, Homenaje A Remedios Varo, The Fourth Way, and Suite for Piano — presents nine free-flowing works of boundless imagination, blending classical form and jazz interplay through telepathic communication, daring improvisation, and an ever-deepening creative rapport.

A rich all-vocal rendering of the Bible's sensual Song of Solomon, featuring five distinguished female voices with narration by Barbara Hannigan and Mathieu Amalric, and guided by Jeremy Fogel's new translation, this lush limited-edition CD book highlights one of Zorn's most evocative and beautifully realized creations in a single extended work.