John Coltrane:
Favorites Live (Naima / My Favorite Things 1963 / A Love Supreme 1965) Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Well-recorded performances of Coltrane's most noted works--"Naima", "My Favorite Things" and "A Love Supreme"--in superb concerts from Berlin in 1963 and Antibes in 1965 with his classic quartet of pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones, revealing the flexible expansion and freedom these compositions receive by the excitement of a live audience. ... Click to View
George Russell:
Ezz-thetics & The Stratus Seekers, Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Essential to any collection charting the transition from Birth of the Cool era jazz to the modern explosion of harmonic and compositional forms, pianist George Russell's two most essential albums from 1961 & 1962--Ezz-thetics and The Stratus Seekers--in a sextet & septet including Eric Dolphy, Don Elliss, Steve Swallow, &c. are remastered to reveal their vital clarity. ... Click to View
Francois Houle / Marco von Orelli:
Make That Flight (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Canadian improvising clarinets François Houle and Swiss trumpeter Marco von Orelli are heard live at the Bird's Eye Jazz Club, in Basel, Switzerland, 2020 for eleven dialogs reminiscent of the work of John Carter and Bobby Bradford, though uniquely in their own modern language of chamber-oriented jazz through original compositions from both artists. ... Click to View
Rob Brown / Juan Pablo Carletti:
Fertile Garden (NoBusiness)
Two extended dialogs between New York City saxophonist Rob Brown and Argentinian-born NY-based drummer Juan Pablo Carletti, a member of the Rob Brown Quartet and associate with Tony Malaby, Daniel Levin, &c., here in energetic exchangse that bring out the depth of experience and skill from Brown and the quick-witted response from the younger generation drummer. ... Click to View
Daunik Lazro / Jouk Minor / Thierry Madiot / David Chiesa / Louis-Michel Marion:
Sonoris Causa (NoBusiness)
This single extended performs brings together a collective of improvisers playing low range instruments in order to build an acoustic sonic sculpture, from the quintet of Daunik Lazro on baritone saxophone, Jouk Minor on contrabass sarrusophone, Thierry Madiot on bass trombone & telescopic tubes, both David Chiesa and Louis-Michel Marion on 5–string double bass. ... Click to View
Taku Sugimoto:
Octet (Meenna)
Part of Japanese composer Taku Sugimoto's Solo for Strings series, these works focus on bowed stringed instruments played only with natural harmonics, arranged with clarinets and guitar, using long tones and repetition that allow the performer decisions on their length, performed by a Berlin-based Octet include Catherine Lamb, Johnny Change, Samuel Dunscombe, &c. ... Click to View
David Myers Lee:
Xenography (pulsewidth)
Xenography is the ability to write in a language which the individual has not learned, an apt description of the rich dialects sculpted from feedback sources and expertly routed through circular circuits of sound processors by New York sound artist David Lee Myers, AKA Arcane Device, captured and layered into these astounding electronic compositions. ... Click to View
Rutger Zuydervelt / Hugo Dijkstal / Peter Hollo:
BERG (Music for a film by Joke Olthaar) (Machinefabriek)
Two versions of the soundtrack to the Dutch movie BERG composed by Rutger Zuydervelt, the first rearranging the tracks to the piece to create a long-form work that maintains the meditative qualities of the movie; then an early score proposal and more active concept than the final work, developed with recordings of improvisations from cellist Peter Hollo. ... Click to View
Michael Pisaro-Liu / Primoz Sukic :
Mind Is Moving (IX) (Edition FriForma)
The 9th piece in composer Michael Pisaro's "Mind Is Moving" series, which initiated on the Wandelweiser label with Pisaro himself performing on guitar, here with Slovenian guitarist Primož Sukič (ICTUS Ensemble, The Third Guy) rendering this subtle work of slow-moving tones, harmonics and silence, lectric guitar, radio & stones, a work of thoughtful space and intersected playing, slowly unfolding where each gesture and note carries significance to the composition. ... Click to View
Renzoku (Kondo / Kaiser / Goodman / Oswald):
Jump (Metalanguage)
Revealing 40 years of collaborations between late trumpeter Toshinori Kondo and West Coast guitarist Henry Kaiser, in configurations of duos between Kondo & Kaiser--most notably a beautiful and extended 2016 improvisation--then earlier duos from 1978, a 1980 trio with pianist Greg Goodman, a 1979 trio with saxophonist John Oswald, ending with a wonderfully idiosyncratic 2020 duo. ... Click to View
Sture Ericson / Pat Thomas / Raymond Strid:
Bagman LIve at Cafe Oto (577 Records)
The first trio collaboration between London pianist and innovator Pat Thomas and Swedish improvisers, Sture Ericson on saxophones, and Raymond Strid on drums, performing live at Cafe OTO in London in 2019 for four improvised soundscapes about the fictional character "Bagman", using extended and prodigious technique with both disruptive and melodic intentions. ... Click to View
Superimpose: Matthias Muller / Christian Marien (w/ John Butcher / Sofia Jernberg / Nate Wooley) :
With [3 CDs] (Inexhaustible Editions)
A three disc box set of impressive collective improvisations recorded in the studio by the Superimpose duo of Matthias Muller on trombone and Christian Marien on drums& percussion, joined on the first disc by John Butcher on tenor and soprano saxophones, then with improvising vocalist Sofia Jernberg for the 2nd disc, and on disc 3 with trumpeter Nate Wooley. ... Click to View
Quatuor Bozzini:
Michael Oesterle: Quatuors (Collection QB)
German-born Canadian composer living in Deux-Montagnes, Quebec Michael Oesterle has a long relationship with the Quatuor Bozzini beginning with their first commission 25 years ago, here in four works including a tribute to English mathematician Alan Turing, the large-scale "String Quartet No. 4", and a piece inspired by Quebec poet Nicole Brossard book Mecanique jongleuse. ... Click to View
Merzbow / Arcane Device:
Merzbow & Arcane Device (Important Records)
Two innovative sonic luminaries--Japan's Masami Akita, aka Merzbow, and New York City's David Lee Myers, aka Arcane Device--remix each other's work, bringing Myer's unique approach to feedback and ethereal electronics to harness Akita's agressive sounds, and in reverse, Akita's sense of disruptive sonics explode Myer's more contemplative feedback music. ... Click to View
OORT:
Meridian (Tour de Bras)
Each track of the Meridian, or Eastern desert land's traditional noon-time middle of the day, represents various stages, chronologically understood, of the day of an ανθρωπός (human), represented through deep double bass, drums, objects and electronics from Turin, Italy improvisers Michele Anelli and Nicholas Remondino. ... Click to View
Anna Kaluza / Jan Roder:
Am Frankfurter Tor (Relative Pitch)
Collaborating since 2004, Berlin alto saxophonist Anna Kaluza and double bassist Jan Roda--a member of Kaluza's Quartet with trombonist Christof Thewes and drummer Kay Lübke--in a studio album of duo improvisations, documenting their live performances in the same configuration since 2020, through ten succinct dialogs of informed affinity. ... Click to View
Linnea Talp:
Arch Of Motion (thanatosis produktion)
Performed with Stockholm musicians including pianist Alexander Zethson, wind player Martin Küchen and trombonist Mats Äleklint, organist Linnéa Talp explores the areas of sound that emulate breathing, push/pull or back & forth motion, in eight beautifully paced recordings led by the organ's rich and microtonal vibrations & timbre and imbued my the contributor's subtle additions. ... Click to View
Tolimieri / Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Stepanov:
Inner Lines (Creative Sources)
Six "Segments" A to F of powerful restraint and extended technique, recorded at Ausland in Berlin, Germany from the free improvising quartet of Quentin Tolimieri on piano, Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello and Fyodor Stepanov on double bass, the close associations between the Rodrigues' and Tolimieri & Stepanov evident through their shared aesthetic. ... Click to View
Louis-Michel Marion / Francoise Toullec:
Apocalyptic Garden (Creative Sources)
A strangely agitated garden sculpted from melody, dissonance and instrumental abberation through profound technique and unusual approaches to their instrument, by French double basist Louis-Michel Marion and pianist Françoise Toullec, bringing a sense of wonder and turbulent environment through a shared passion balancing ominous space with astute activity. ... Click to View
Erica Dicker / Dennis Sullivan:
Blood Luxury [CASSETTE w/ DOWNOAD] (Tubapede)
Delicate abrasions and corruption of their instruments from the NY duo of Erica Dicker (Till by Turning) on violin and Dennis Sullivan (Radical 2), 9 works of improvised soundscape and avant-raw chamber music through prepared strings, tapes, looped feedback, resonant metals, modified snares and liberally bowed surfaces, richly constrained and luxuriously blood-curdling. ... Click to View
Sam Rivers Trio:
Archive Series. Volume 6 - Caldera (NoBusiness)
Continuing NoBusiness' archive series of late reed & wind player Sam Rivers, this wild and sophisticated concert from 2002 was recorded at the Freeport-McMoRan Theatre in New Orlean's Contemporary Arts Center, by the long-standing Sam Rivers Trio with Doug Matthews on upright & electric bass and bass clarinet, and Anthony Cole on tenor sax & piano. ... Click to View
John Russell / John Butcher / Dominic Lash:
But everything now left before it arrived (Meenna)
A live performance at the 2010 GIO Fest III in Glasgow, UK, from three of the UK's leading free improvisers--late guitarist John Russell, John Butcher on saxophones and Dominic Lash on double bass--a superb concert in five improvisations of incredible technical skill through both energetic and restrained passages, a brilliant example reminding us of the loss of the great guitarist. ... Click to View
Alessandro Bosetti :
Plane / Talea 31-34 [VINYL 2 LPs] (Holidays Records)
An amazing album of vocal interactions from composer Alessandro Bosetti using his archive of samples developed from dozens of recording sessions with vocalists, used in polyphonic constructions of utterances to create textures, counterpoint and juxtapositions offset by spartan use of harpsichord, Ondes Martenot, Cristal Baschet, grand piano, analog synth and Hammond organ. ... Click to View
Novi_sad:
ΚΕΡΑΥΝΟΣ (Raster Music)
Using environmental sounds & field recordings from 5 continents--Oceania: Tarkine Rainforest; Asia: Okinawa; Europe: Ancient Olympia And Iceland; Africa: Uganda, Botswana & Namibia; America: Amazon Rainforest & Niagara Falls--sound artist Thanasis Kaproulias takes listeners on an incredible journey through sound from reflective to cathartic, from ominous danger to awe-inspired beauty. ... Click to View
Jean-Yves Bosseur :
Musiques Vertes [VINYL] (Holidays Records)
French composer Jean-Yves Bosseur, a student of Henri Pousseur and Karlheinz Stockhausen, in an amazingly detailed 1980 work of 11 sonic expeditions, using an instrument developed by Jean-Pierre Armengaud and performed with a collective of local musicians and children, incorporating field recordings from French ornithologist Jean Claude Roché; startlingly original! ... Click to View
Derviche (Borchard / Favriou):
Murs Absurdes (Ayler)
The 2nd Derviche album on Ayler Records from the French electric bass and drum improvising duo of Eric Brochard and Fabrice Favriou, in five sequences of assertive and masterful instrumental improvising rock, ecstatically heavy material of thick detail and ominous overtone, intended to be played as a continuous suite and clearly intended for maximum amplitude! ... Click to View
International Nothing, The:
Just None of Those Things (Ftarri)
Using harmonic intersections and extraneous sonic emanations from two clarinets, the duo of Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke (also of The Magic I.D.) continue their long-standing International Nothing project of composed works through patient interactions of powerfully focused technique, here in their fifth album presenting a 42-minute work of delicate, dark beauty. ... Click to View
Amanda Irarrazabal / Miriam Den Boer Salmon:
Fauces (577 Records)
Using double bass, violin and objects to affect their instruments, Amsterdam violinist Miriam Den Boer Salmón and Chilean double bassist Amanda Irarrazabal present ten succinct sonic landscapes through fully free improvisation, their interactions building and scraping, intersecting and interacting in fascinating and frightening ways. ... Click to View
Wunschmusik (Wunsch / Steyer / Cavenati):
Muss Atonal Eigentlich Witzig Sein? (Creative Sources)
German vocalist Birgit Wunsch leads this improvising trio with Edith Steyer on clarinet & saxophone and Alberto Cavenati on guitar, using abstract and atonal melodies in a chamber improvised setting for freely improvised voice, text and sound, crossing a sense of pop music with non-idiomatic improvisation of great technical and creative intent. ... Click to View
Keiji Haino / Jim O'Rourke / Oren Ambarchi:
Each side has a depth of 5 seconds A polka dot pattern in horizontal array A flickering that moves vertically [VINYL] (Black Truffle)
Focused on powerful sonic environments, the 10th release from the trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi find all three using electronics to create huge canvases over which Ambarchi performs on pedal steel, O'Rourke on synth and Haino on Suona, a Chinese double-reed, capturing this exceptional 4-part improvisation live at SuperDeluxe, in Tokyo, 2017. ... Click to View