Extraordinary and masterful performers Sophie Agnel (piano) and John Butcher (soprano & tenor saxophones) present a live recording from the 40th International Festival of Current Music in Victoriaville, Canada, featuring five improvised pieces that highlight their exceptional interplay and collective discovery of new musical forms while exploring the boundaries of free improvisation.

EVIYAN is Iva Bittova, Gyan Riley & Evan Ziporyn - 3 unique composer/performers merging into a singular sound, an intimate, acoustic blend of world roots, post-minimalism, jazz, rock, and cabaret.

Braxton's Composition 361 is a staggeringly detailed 70 minute tour-de-force for his 12-tet, a work of shifting layers, counter-structures, quiet tensions and scorching explosions.

On the 30th anniversary of the Victo Festival Anthony Braxton took to the stage for a magnificent solo performance on the alto sax, performing 8 spontaneous compositions and an 8+ minute version of "Body and Soul", seamlessly crossing lyrical and complex approaches to the horn using his unique intervallic, trimbral and diagrammatic language, a stunning and embraceable accomplishment.

Composer/saxophonist Braxton performed "Composition NO 347 + 62'37" " at the 2011 Victo Festival with the "super-group" of Braxton alumni - Mary Halvorson, Taylor Ho Bynum, Jessica Pavone, Jay Rozen, Aaron Siegel, Carl Testa", on their respective instruments + iPods.

Collecting performances recorded between 1996 and 1997 in Toronto and at Quebec festivals including Victoriaville, the long-running Canadian collective CCMC — Michael Snow on piano and synthesizer, John Oswald on alto saxophone, and Paul Dutton on voice and harmonica — deliver free-form improvisations that weave jazz-inflected piano, rapid saxophone lines, and Dutton's inventive sound poetry and vocalizations into playful, texturally rich exchanges linked by Oswald's brief collage interludes.

Early live recordings from the 1996 duo of Eugene Chadbourne on steel dobro, electric banjo and eccentric sound devices with German percussionist Paul Lovens on drums and cymbals, balancing fractured song references, dry humor and highly responsive free improvisation in performances that move from near-silence and delicate rhythmic displacement to abrupt, playful bursts of angular interaction.

Pairing the idiosyncratic guitar styles of Eugene Chadbourne and René Lussier, this live set recorded in Paris and at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville captures the duo weaving country and folk influences into a playful free improv dialogue, with acoustic and electric guitars and banjo driving a spirited exchange of twang, rapid picking, and irreverent musical wit.

Lindsay Cooper and singer/lyricist Sally Potter lead an exceptional septet at the 1989 Victoriaville Festival, joined by Alfred 23 Harth, Hugh Hopper, Marilyn Mazur, Phil Minton and Elvira Plenar in a politically charged suite combining intricate composition, free improvisation, cabaret and European folk influences, moving from stark ensemble passages and ferocious reed work to Weill-like songs, Balkan inflections and darkly theatrical vocals.

Recorded live at the 1987 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, pianist Marilyn Crispell delivers a powerful solo performance that moves between explosive free improvisation and lyrical introspection, weaving dense clusters, driving rhythmic passages, and delicate melodic reflections into a deeply expressive exploration influenced by Cecil Taylor while asserting Crispell's own distinctive voice.

Reuniting Montreal reedist Jean Derome with French clarinetist and saxophonist Louis Sclavis alongside bassist Bruno Chevillon and drummer Pierre Tanguay, this live performance from the 2001 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville blends elegant compositions, playful motifs, and adventurous improvisation, the quartet weaving jazz-rooted interplay with inventive textures and spirited rhythmic drive.

Live recordings and Derome's first release under his own name, inspired by Japanese magic squares and haikus, and performed in a group including Actuelle collective members Pierre Tanguay and Pierre Cartier.

The late trumpeter Bill Dixon's final performance at the 2011 Victo Festival, performing with and directing an incredible group including Taylor Ho Bynum, Rob Mazurek, Stephen Haynes, Graham Haynes, &c. &c.

Noted for its live 1999 recording in France, this trio of Michel Doneda (soprano sax), Erik M (turntables, MiniDisc, sampling), and Jean-Marc Montera (guitar, electronics, objects) creates an electrifying mix of acoustic intensity and electroacoustic texture, with Doneda's incisive phrasing pulling guitar noise and manipulated vinyl into agile, unpredictable dialog for sharp collisions and eerie convergences in cutting-edge free improvisation.

Andre Duchesne's ambitious 1989 Victoriaville work L' Ou 'L, subtitled "Concerto for a Solitary Composer," combines narration, chamber rock, contrapuntal writing and free improvisation in a large ensemble of strings, saxophones, electric guitars, bass, piano and percussion, moving through ten contrasting sections that frame a surreal science-fiction meditation on the life of a composer-pilot.

Two masters who rarely play together--guitarist Fred Frith and saxophonist Evan Parker--performing together as a duo at the 30th Musique Actuelle Festival in Victoriaville, Canada for an amazing exchange of ideas and intensely subtle dialog.

A live recording from the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in 2009 of extended improvisations between guitarist Fred Frith, French clarinetist Louis Sclavis, and percussionist Jean-Pierre Drouet.

The first recorded collaboration between Fred Frith and Rene Lussier, originating in a 1986 Victoriaville performance and subsequently expanded in the studio, combining guitars, bass, percussion, violin, piano, rhythm box, tapes and voice into a restless collage of composed and improvised music, with later contributions from Tenko Ueno, Geneviève Letarte and Christoph Anders adding Japanese, French and German vocals to the duo's idiosyncratic, genre-resistant sound world.

Satoko Fujii's Min-Yoh Ensemble brings together Fujii on piano, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, Curtis Hasselbring on trombone and Andrea Parkins on accordion for original music inspired by the directness and emotional force of Japanese folk traditions, reimagining their simple forms, scales and communal spirit through richly expressive contemporary composition and improvisation.

A ferociously precise live duo from the 2002 Victoriaville festival pairing pianist Satoko Fujii with Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, both adding voice to an exhilarating barrage of stop-time exchanges, pounding rhythms, abrupt jump cuts and comic theatricality, racing through free improvisation, metal, boogie-woogie, tango and other stylistic collisions with remarkable speed, control and gleeful unpredictability.

A unique concert even by the standards of Victoriaville from The Growlers, a vocal ensemble who interpret heavy metal, known for their epic work "Hate.Machine" and "The Dayking" with participation from poet Fortner Anderson, performed here along with a comprovisation backed by an electronic track originated from electric guitar recordings.

The first performance outside Japan by Kikuri, pairing Keiji Haino on electric guitar, drums and voice with Merzbow's Masami Akita on electronics, effects and drums at the 2007 Victoriaville Festival, moving between massive feedback and overdrive, blues-inflected guitar, percussion and unexpected passages of space and restraint in five intense yet remarkably varied improvisations.

Directed by trumpeter John Korsrud, Vancouver's Hard Rubber Orchestra expands the big band tradition with an adventurous blend of avant-funk grooves, sharp ensemble writing, and free-leaning improvisation, the large ensemble of horns, rhythm section, guitar, strings, and guests Marilyn Lerner and Peggy Lee delivering tightly arranged passages, dissonant brass figures, and atmospheric interludes that balance orchestral scope with the raw energy of progressive jazz.

The transatlantic trio of UK pianist Alexander Hawkins, NY drummer Kate Gentile and Canadian reedist Francois Houle are heard in four masterful spontaneous improvisations in their live performance at the 39th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, Houle performing on clarinets (sometimes two at a time) including the early, deep-note basset clarinet.

A riotous 1994 Victoriaville meeting of John King on electric guitar and voice, David Moss on drums, electronics and voice, and Otomo Yoshihide on electric guitar, turntables and table games, racing through thirteen compact improvisations that collide noise, fractured rock riffs, samples, vocal theater, parody and sudden flashes of melody with sharp collective reflexes and gleefully unstable stylistic jump cuts.

Serbian composer and reedist Boris Kovac leads the Ritual Nova Ensemble through an idiosyncratic chamber music blending Balkan and Pannonian folk inflections, ritual atmosphere, minimalism, jazz, avant-rock and improvisation, with saxophones and clarinets set against piano, strings and double bass in music that moves fluidly between lyrical, ceremonial and sharply contemporary forms.

The first recorded meeting of the long-running LDP trio, bringing Swiss reedist Urs Leimgruber, pianist Jacques Demierre and bassist Barre Phillips together at Radio DRS in Zurich in 2001 for six entirely acoustic improvisations whose concentrated listening, spacious silences and finely balanced textures move organically between breath-level detail, resonant abstraction and sudden passages of vigorous collective intensity.

The first release by the Quartet Noir ensemble of Urs Leimgruber on tenor and soprano saxophones, Marilyn Crispell on piano, Joëlle Léandre on double bass and Fritz Hauser on drums and percussion, recorded live at Victoriaville in 1998 as an eight-part collective improvisation whose dark, spacious textures, patient pacing and finely balanced use of silence gradually build toward passages of greater density and intensity.

This mercurial and impressive 2021 Victoriaville Festival concert brought together improvisers from three duos as a quartet: guitarist Rene Lussier, who has a long running duo with turntablist Martin Tetreault; Erick d'Orion on computer and electronics, who also has a experimental sound duo with Tetrault; and frequently collaborator with Lussier, drummer Robbie Kuster.

Recorded live at Victoriaville in 2008, Rene Lussier, Martin Tetreault, and Otomo Yoshihide collide guitars, turntables, and a spy-mic in a sharp, unpredictable set, shifting between searching interplay and bursts of tightly-locked exchange, their contrasting approaches sparking inventive textures and raw electroacoustic energy.

Recorded in February 1995, guitarist-composer Rene Lussier leads the massive Now Orchestra through a bold score that blends rock rhythms, free jazz blowouts and cinematic improvisation; across two days the ensemble of saxes, trumpet, cello, guitar, bass and drums navigates abrupt shifts, dense textures and playful detours, confirming a singular large-ensemble statement that remains vivid and unpredictable.

Directed by composer Miya Masaoka, this expansive orchestra brings together a large ensemble of strings, winds, electronics, and world instruments — including contributions from George Lewis, Hafez Modirzadeh, Liberty Ellman, and Trevor Dunn — for two ambitious works that blend chamber writing, improvisation, tape, and street recordings, exploring themes of nuclear history and urban social conflict through layered textures, shifting styles, and provocative sonic collage.

Documenting a ferocious live performance from the 2018 Victoriaville Festival with additional recordings from 2025, the trio of Merzbow (electronics), Mats Gustafsson (bass & baritone sax, electronics), and Balázs Pándi (drums) unleash a volatile collision of noise, free jazz intensity, and crushing rhythmic force of towering electronic textures, blistering sax blasts, and wildly inventive percussion.

Led by Italian trumpeter Pino Minafra, the Sud Ensemble delivers a theatrical blend of avant-jazz, free improv, and Mediterranean-inflected exuberance, with Minafra joined by Carlo Actis Dato, Lauro Rossi, and Giorgio Occhipinti in a colorful program where brass, reeds, piano, voice, and an array of unusual instruments collide in playful, tightly arranged yet wildly expressive performances.

Captured live at the 1996 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, guitarist Thurston Moore joins drummer Tom Surgal and percussionist William Winant for a continuous performance of evolving free improvisation, the trio shaping dense waves of guitar noise, driving percussion, and textural resonance into a long-form exploration that bridges Moore's experimental rock sensibility with the festival's avant-garde improvising tradition.

Documenting a reunion of Musica Elettronica Viva's founders Frederic Rzewski (piano and vocals), Richard Teitelbaum (keyboards and computer) and Alvin Curran (keyboards, computer and shofar) at the 32nd International Festival Of Current Music in Victoriaville, Canada in 2016.

Intense meeting of saxophone legend Parker and the remarkable Tuvan improvising vocalist Namtchylak performing live at Music Gallery in Toronto, 1996.

Evan Parker's Electroacoustic Ensemble, merging reeds, strings and percussion with live signal processing to create something indescribably transformative is further amplified with the addition of free improvising vocalist and Tuvan throat singer Sainkho Namtchylak, adding an unearthly layer of interaction and transmogrification to this incredible 1996 FIMAV performance.

UK multi-reed master Evan Parker brings an all-star electroacoustic septet to the 2014 Victoriaville Festival for the massive and wonderfully detailed two part composition "Seven", performed with Peter Evans, Okkyung Lee, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Sam Pluta, and Ned Rothenberg.

A historic 2003 Victoriaville summit joining Evan Parker's trio with Alexander von Schlippenbach and Paul Lytton to Peter Brotzmann's trio with William Parker and Hamid Drake, creating a first-time sextet encounter where two deeply established improvising units collide and interlock through dense reed exchanges, surging rhythm, piano, bass and percussion in a fiercely collective meeting of European and American free improvisation.

Composer and electric harpist Zeena Parkins leads an ensemble including sisters Margaret and Sara Parkins with Chris Cochrane, Ikue Mori, and David Shea in two intricately structured works that blend strings, electric harp, voices, percussion, and electronics, unfolding as a dynamic avant-garde chamber music exploration where collective improvisation, shifting textures, and subtle harmonic interplay shape richly layered sonic environments.

A delicately powerful 2010 Victoriaville trio bringing together Barre Phillips on double bass, Catherine Jauniaux's extraordinary extended voice and Malcolm Goldstein on violin, creating spacious collective improvisations where bowed strings, vocal gesture, silence and sudden bursts of activity form an intimate, highly responsive chamber language.

A 2003 Victoriaville tribute to bassist Peter Kowald bringing together Barre Phillips, Joelle Leandre, William Parker and Tetsu Saitoh on four double basses and voices, uniting musicians shaped by free jazz, European new music, Japanese traditions and free improvisation in a deeply resonant collective performance reflecting Kowald's ideal of cross-cultural communication through improvised music.

French guitarist Richard Pinhas, Japanese electronics and noise artist Merzbow, and the American trio Wolf Eyes performed together at the 2011 Victo Festival, with this massive recording one result.

Celebrating 40 years as a performing ensemble, the West Coast saxophone quartet ROVA of Bruce Ackley on soprano saxophone, Steve Adams on alto & sopranino saxophones, Jon Raskin on baritone saxophone, and Larry Ochs on tenor saxophone, reworked compositions from all members transversing their past 34 years, in an absolutely impressive and diverse album.

Elliott Sharp expands his Carbon ensemble for this seven-movement 1992 work, using strings, bass, drums, electronic percussion and doublebass guitar within an algorithmic framework that guides collective interpretation, balancing dense orchestral textures, extended techniques and volatile improvisation with tightly controlled compositional structure.

Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq in a bizarre and amazing performance at the Victoriaville Festival in 2010 with Drip Audio director Jesse Zubot on violin and Barnyard boss Jean Martin on drums, computer, trumpophone.

A historic 2002 Victoriaville meeting of pianist Cecil Taylor, trumpeter Bill Dixon and percussionist Tony Oxley, yielding an unusually restrained and atmospheric performance in which Dixon's spacious, electronically colored brass lines anchor Taylor's delicate clusters and Oxley's finely detailed percussion, creating a sparse, suspended and quietly beautiful form of collective improvisation far removed from Taylor's more familiar torrents of sound.

Actuelle turntablist Martin Tetrault meets with radical hip-hop DJ Kid Koala at the 22nd Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in energetic duos filled with humor and instrumental acrobatics.

A wild and adventurous concert and one of the highlights of the 39th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville from the electric improvising quartet of Elliott Sharp on electric guitar & electronics, Colin Stetson on bass, alto & tenor saxophones, Billy Martin on drums & percussion and Payton Macdonald on marimba, vibraphone & African xylophone.