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.

Two monster proponents of noise esthetics, representing two continents whose cultures have often been described as incompatible, meet in the celebration of noise.

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.

Braxton's Diamond Curtain Wall Trio with Mary Halvorson and Taylor Ho Bynum live using laptop and interactive electronics at the 24th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville.

American and London artists Anthony Braxton and Derek Bailey performing as a duo at The Victoriaville Festival in 1986, an amazing exchange between two noted masters of free improvisation.

Compositions 159, 148, 161, 158 and John Coltrane's "Impressions", performed with Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemingway.

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.

Victoriaville celebrated European Free Jazz legend Peter Brotzmann's 70th birthday by presenting two concerts: one solo, and one with the amazing Trio Roma of Massimo Pupillo and Paal Nilssen-Love, both presented on this essential 2 CD release.

Longtime collaborators Dave Burrell and David Murray meet in an intimate duo performance captured at the 1991 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, the pianist's harmonically rich and rhythmically agile playing intertwining with Murray's expressive tenor saxophone in a set that moves fluidly between swinging structures, lyrical balladry, and open-ended free improv shaped by their deeply attuned musical rapport.

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.

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.

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.

Flutist Robert Dick joins pianist John Wolf Brennan and bassist Daniele Patumi in a lively trio program balancing composed pieces and free improvisations, where fluttering flute lines, buoyant piano figures, and agile bass interplay create a light yet adventurous chamber-jazz atmosphere shaped by lyrical melodies, playful rhythms, and exploratory harmonic twists.

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.

1. Aventure Québécoise — Part 1 18:06

2. Aventure Québécoise — Part 2 15:11

3. Aventure Québécoise — Part 3 12:34

4. Aventure Québécoise — Part 4 13:27

Recorded in Brooklyn in 2000, bassist Mark Dresser and hyperpianist Denman Maroney engage in a finely tuned duo of extended techniques and agile interplay, Dresser's resonant arcs meeting Maroney's prepared-keyboard timbres in inventive, exploratory conversations that balance subtle detail with adventurous improvisation.

The Far East Side Band blends Asian and Western musical traditions in a quartet featuring Jason Kao Hwang on electric violin with Yukio Tsuji on shakuhachi and percussion, Sang-Won Park on Korean zithers, and Joe Daley on tuba and electronics, performing extended compositions that weave structured improvisation, delicate string dialogues, breathy flute lines, and deep brass tones into richly textured cross-cultural soundscapes.

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.

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.

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.

Italian saxophonist and vocalist Gianni Gebbia leads the trio Terra Arsa with Vittoria Villa and Miriam Palma in a live performance from the 1997 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, blending soprano and alto saxophone with vocals, didjeridu, percussion, and Mediterranean-inflected motifs in a dynamic mix of jazz phrasing, hypnotic rhythms, and exploratory vocal textures.

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.

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 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.

Italian trumpeter Pino Minafra leads a quartet with Sandro Satta on alto saxophone, Giorgio Occhipinti on piano, and Vincenzo Mazzone on drums in a spirited live performance recorded in Paris, blending Mediterranean lyricism with jazz-rooted improvisation as melodic themes, rhythmic drive, and free-flowing exchanges unfold in a lively dialogue between composition and spontaneous interaction.

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.

Cellist Diedre Murray and bassist Fred Hopkins meet in an intimate duo setting that explores the resonant possibilities of low strings, their bowed textures and agile pizzicato exchanges unfolding through richly layered improvisations where melody, rhythm, and shifting tonal colors emerge from the deeply responsive interplay of two master improvisers.

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.

Recorded between 1989 and 1994, New Winds showcases Ned Rothenberg, J.D. Paran, and Robert Dick in a richly inventive exploration of woodwind timbres, their fluid shifts between reeds and flutes creating agile counterpoint and striking sonorities that blend chamber precision with adventurous free improvisation.

Bringing together six baritone saxophonists from Europe and North America-Bo Van Der Werf, Charles Papasoff, Christian Gavillet, David Mott, Hamiet Bluiett, and Jean Derome-this live performance from the 1995 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville explores the powerful sonic range of the instrument through original compositions and inventive arrangements, the baritone choir blending dense harmonies, swinging rhythms, and bold collective improvisation.

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

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.

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.

Recorded live in 2004, Quartet Noir unites Urs Leimgruber, Marilyn Crispell, Joelle Leandre, and Fritz Hauser in deep long-form improvisations, where vivid detail and patient interaction shape evolving structures, balancing unpredictability with a cohesive, resonant group sound born of longstanding collaboration.

The Rova Saxophone Quartet performing compositions by Lindsay Cooper, Fred Frith, Barry Guy, and Larry Ochs, live in the studio in 1996.

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.

The title to be taken literally, these two solo concerts recorded in Canada by French-based US bassist Barre Phillips, the first recorded at Vancouver Western Front in 1989, the 2nd from the 35th International Festival Music Festival of Victoriaville in 2019, both exemplary concerts showing his masterful skills and ability to captivate then and now.

German trombonist Konrad Bauer presents a solo performance recorded live in Toronto, combining trombone with echo, looping, and electronic processing to create spacious, quietly inventive explorations where blues and jazz hints emerge within fluid improvisations, the instrument's resonant tones unfolding through layered textures and circular structures that subtly reshape the sonic landscape.

Uniting trombonist Konrad Bauer with bassist Peter Kowald and percussionist Günter "Baby" Sommer, this live recording from the 1992 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville presents an inventive acoustic trio performance where spirited improvisations and individual solos weave playful gestures, rhythmic interplay, and exploratory textures into a dynamic example of the German free improv tradition.

A studio collaboration between electro-acoustic harpist Hélène Breschand and avant-rock guitarist Jean-François Pauvros, recorded in France in 2004-2005, merging harp pickups, electronics, and heavily processed guitar into a stark electro-acoustic soundscape where fragile drones, bowed tones, bursts of noise, and quiet resonant spaces intertwine, the duo reshaping each other's sonic language through intense improvisational interplay.

Combining live recordings from Victoriaville and London with studio sessions in England, pianist Chris Burn explores inside-the-piano techniques and prepared textures, shaping cerebral yet inventive improvisations that reveal a wide sonic palette and a focused, exploratory approach to solo performance.

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.

Recorded live at Victoriaville in 2007, banjo maverick Eugene Chadbourne teams with Kevin Blechdom for a wild set that blends roots riffs, fractured songs, satire and playful chaos, their banjos, piano and vocals colliding in irreverent, high-energy improvisation that is as sharp as it is unpredictable.

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.

Recorded live at the 2003 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, this electroacoustic quintet unites Xavier Charles, Diane Labrosse, the Kristoff K. Roll duo, and Martin Tétreault in a spatially conceived improvisation where turntables, samplers, vibrating speaker surfaces, household objects, and electronics generate a finely detailed fabric of quiet sounds, playful gestures, and layered textures within an immersive sound environment.

Recorded live in Toronto and at Victoriaville in 2000, Paul Cram leads a vibrant large ensemble through groove-tinged themes, bold brass writing and energized improvising, blending playful funk elements with adventurous big band strategies for a spirited, contemporary orchestral sound.

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.

Featuring J.A. Deane on trombone, bass flute, lap steel guitar, percussion and sampler, this 1992�93 studio project blends atmospheric grooves, ambient textures and loop-based soundscapes, presenting an accessible electroacoustic journey marked by evocative moods and spacious instrumental color.

Jean Derome's extended Dangereux Zhomes opened the 25th Victo Festival in 2008, adding Joane Hetu, Lori Freedman, Bernard Falaise, &c. for an incredible and expressive orchestra.

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.

Led by bassist Lisle Ellis with a fierce San Francisco contingent, this 1993 studio session brings together saxophonists Christopher Cauley, Joe McPhee, Glenn Spearman, and Larry Ochs with guitarist James Ruthier and drummer Donald Robinson, delivering energetic free jazz rooted in the 1960s tradition but propelled by raw interplay, bold horn lines, and committed group momentum.

Recorded in Montreal during the 1994 Victoriaville Festival, this first solo album from Charles Gayle presents deeply spiritual improvisations for tenor sax, bass clarinet, piano, drums and voice, a raw and passionate outpouring where intense expression and prayerful conviction drive every sound.

Clarinetist Ben Goldberg leads a sextet featuring Larry Ochs, John Schott, Lisle Ellis, Trevor Dunn, and Michael Sarin in a program of composed pieces and improvisation dedicated to a childhood friend, blending klezmer-tinged melodies with avant-jazz structures, dual bass resonance, and dynamic ensemble interplay in a reflective yet spirited exploration of modern creative jazz.

A duo of contrasts and compatabilities from German violinst Gunda Gottschalk and guzheng virtuoso Xu Fengxia, exotic and beautifully textured improvisation live from Victoriaville, 2008.

Directed by trumpeter John Korsrud, Vancouver's Hard Rubber Orchestra assembles a large ensemble of brass, reeds, rhythm section, and strings for a bold program of avant-funk big band compositions, where tightly arranged horn lines, electric guitar textures, and driving rhythms collide with free improvisation to create energetic, groove-driven explorations in contemporary creative orchestral jazz.

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.

Bringing together four adventurous improvisers — guitarists Henry Kaiser and Jim O'Rourke, violinist Mari Kimura, and saxophonist John Oswald — this studio session captures a spontaneous meeting of distinctive voices, where intertwined guitars, expressive violin lines, electronics, and saxophone textures unfold through exploratory collective free improv shaped by shifting timbres, subtle interactions, and open-ended sonic experimentation.

The trio of violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt, bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Matthias Bossi explore the language of memory and dreams through songs, improvisation, and field recordings.

Recorded live in Mexico in 1999, violinist Mari Kimura and multi-instrumentalist Roberto Morales Manzanares create a poetic and emotionally charged set of concise improvisations, shifting between violin, flute, piano, harp and electronics as they blend lyrical expressiveness with bold, exploratory interaction.