[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright):
Sama'a (Audition) [2 LPs] (Otoroku)

Reimagining and transforming Ahmed Abdul-Malik's Jazz Sahara in their first studio session, the [Ahmed] quartet of Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal, and Seymour Wright ignite four compact, single-take explorations that fuse percussive intensity, kaleidoscopic group interplay, and a fearless reshaping of tradition into dizzying, future-leaning improvisation. ... Click to View

Fred Frith & The Gravity Band :
s/t (Klanggalerie)

... Click to View

Elliott Sharp:
Mare Crisium (zOaR Records)

Elliott Sharp unites six electric guitarists in a powerful, overtone-rich work built from droning harmonies, graphic scores, shifting rhythms, and open improvisation, transforming his long-running compositional ideas into a vibrant, resonant soundscape that channels the tension of our present moment into bold, electrifying musical energy. ... Click to View

Anthony Coleman :
Sounding Board (zOaR Records)

Alone with his newly acquired 1947 Steinway Model M, Downtown New York pianist Anthony Coleman crafts an intimate set of solo explorations that probe touch, resonance, and the piano's physical poetry, transforming his long-fraught relationship with the instrument into a deeply personal study of sound, nuance, and the possibilities revealed by playing at home. ... Click to View

Nels Cline / Elliott Sharp :
Open The Door (Public Eyesore)

Recorded across two sessions eight years apart, Nels Cline and Elliott Sharp forge a vivid acoustic-guitar dialogue that blends crisp articulation, percussive attack, spectral overtones, and patient, boundary-pushing interplay, creating a set of inventive, empathetic improvisations that expand the guitar-duo tradition with wit, texture, and fearless curiosity. ... Click to View

Mike Osborne / Stan Tracey:
Original (Cadillac Records)

A powerful 1972 duo performance from alto saxophonist Mike Osborne and pianist Stan Tracey, and the 2nd release on Cadillac Records, recorded live at Surrey Hall and unfolding as a nearly 47-minute continuous improvisation, blending Osborne’s fierce, vocal intensity with Tracey’s harmonically adventurous, percussive drive in a richly inventive and compelling exchange. ... Click to View

Incapacitants:
Chwalfa (Otoroku)

Capturing their first UK appearance since 2016, the duo of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai unleash two blistering sets of "hard noise" at Cafe Oto, forging scorched-earth tape loops, feedback vortices, and pedal-chain eruptions into a ferocious, fire-music-level onslaught that channels pure chaos into a gripping, cathartic sonic upheaval. ... Click to View

Sarah Hennies:
SOVT (elsewhere)

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. ... Click to View

What Is Music:
Volume 1 Liquid Metal Dreaming (MusicNow)

Duo music from Robert Evans and Laurie Scott Baker for crwth, tambura, lyre, fiddle, double and electric bass and metal percussion, four slowly evolving pieces rooted in the harmonic series and Pythagorean tuning, weaving airy but focused textures of resonant strings and shimmering overtones into quietly luminous, immersive soundscapes. ... Click to View

Ivo Perelman / Nate Wooley:
Polarity 4 (Burning Ambulance Music)

Continuing their ever-evolving duo series, tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and trumpeter Nate Wooley expand their intuitive, exploratory language with a bold new dimension, including the duo's first-ever use of overdubbing to create layered, prismatic improvisations that push their Polarity collaboration into strikingly multidirectional terrain. ... Click to View

Joe McPhee :
Defiant Jazz: a Joe McPhee Taster [VINYL] (Corbett vs. Dempsey)

A vinyl-only sampler spanning 1970-2007, showcasing Joe McPhee's fiercely inventive spirit through funk-driven grooves, spiritual jazz depth, fiery collaborations with Cato Salsa Experience and The Thing, and intimate duo interplay with Paal Nilssen-Love - a defiant, time-jumping portrait of one of improvised music's most dynamic voices. ... Click to View

Eliane Radigue:
Asymptote Versatile (1963-64) (Amgen Records)

An historic world-premiere recording of Éliane Radigue's earliest surviving work, performed at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, where a stellar ensemble realizes her flexible "sonic proposition" through evolving textures, mathematical spirals and dynamic transformations that foreshadow her later visionary soundworld. ... Click to View

Dan Banks / Trevor Taylor / Jose Canha:
UpsideDown | InsideOut (FMR)

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. ... Click to View

Daniel Levin:
Living (Smeraldina-Rima)

A compelling and distinctive live solo recording from cellist Daniel Levin at Firehouse 12 in 2015, using extended bowing, percussive techniques, and resonant microtonal detail to explore the cello's outer limits, presented in Smeraldina-Rima's distinctive packaging with a handmade screen-printed fold-out poster and heavy-duty printed sleeve. ... Click to View

Daniel Carter / Patrick Holmes / Matthew Putman / Hilliard Greene / Federico Ughi:
Telepathic Mysteries, Vol. 2 (577 Records)

Longtime collaborators Daniel Carter, Patrick Holmes, Matthew Putman, Hilliard Greene, and Federico Ughi deepen their singular "telepathic" language in extended, impressionistic improvisations that merge chamber-like clarity, eerie lyricism, and freely shifting rhythms, creating one of the ensemble's darkest and most atmospheric explorations to date. ... Click to View

Jacobo Vega-Albela :
Un-Belonging (577 Records)

Drawing on a cross-continental journey of change and discovery, drummer and composer Jacobo Vega-Albela debuts with an expressive set of trio, quartet, and quintet pieces blending contemporary jazz with post-bop, rock, Latin, and modern classical influences, offering a vivid and deeply personal statement shaped by close collaborators and heartfelt narrative drive. ... Click to View

Satoko Fujii Quartet (Fujii / Tamura / Yoshida / Takeharu):
Burning Wick (Libra)

Founded in 2001 and reunited after their last album in 2007, the quartet of Satoko Fujii (piano), Natsuki Tamura (trumpet), Hayakawa Takeharu (bass), and Tatsuya Yoshida (drums) unleashes a high-energy blend of avant jazz-rock, shifting from atmospheric fragments to dense, electric-edged turbulence, driven by sharp contrasts, ferocious rhythms, and the group's volatile, genre-bending interaction. ... Click to View

Armaroli / Piccolo / Sharp:
Imaginary Songbook [2 CDs] (Dodicilune)

Through 64 succinct works, the trio of Sergio Armaroli (vibraphone), Steve Piccolo (electric bass, voices, electronics), and Elliott Sharp (guitars, soprano saxophone) unravels and reimagines the jazz tradition in fascinating fragments where familiar melodies, riffs, and harmonic cues flicker through an inventive, experimental interplay that blurs memory, abstraction, and improvisational wit. ... Click to View

Ayako Kanda / Elliott Sharp:
Hi-Gengo (Erototox Decodings)

Exploring a vivid spectrum of sound, the duo of Ayako Kanda (voice) and Elliott Sharp (baritone guitar, electronics) pairs Kanda's kaleidoscopic shifts between linguistic and nonverbal expression with Sharp's baritone guitar textures and electronic detail in an improvisational dialogue that moves fluidly between abstraction, color, and visceral intensity. ... Click to View

Henry Threadgill :
Listen Ship (Pi Recordings)

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. ... Click to View

Henry Threadgill (Ross / Frisell / Besile-Che / Okazaki / Harris / Takeishi / Keren / Carlberg):
Listen Ship [VINYL] (Pi Recordings)

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. ... Click to View

Fieldwork (Iyer / Lehman / Sorey):
Thereupon (Pi Recordings)

Seventeen years after their last recording, the New York trio of Steve Lehman (alto saxophone), Vijay Iyer (piano, Rhodes), and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) reunite with dense, high-impact compositions and fearless interplay, blending complexity with groove as they reaffirm their status as one of the most vital ensembles in contemporary improvised music. ... Click to View

Fieldwork (Iyer / Lehman / Sorey):
Thereupon [VINYL] (Pi Recordings)

Seventeen years after their last recording, the New York trio of Steve Lehman (alto saxophone), Vijay Iyer (piano, Rhodes), and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) reunite with dense, high-impact compositions and fearless interplay, blending complexity with groove as they reaffirm their status as one of the most vital ensembles in contemporary improvised music. ... Click to View

Dan Weiss (w/ Evans / Okazaki / Brennan):
Unclassified Affections (Pi Recordings)

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. ... Click to View

Dan Weiss (w/ Evans / Okazaki / Brennan):
Unclassified Affections [VINYL 2 LPs] (Pi Recordings)

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. ... Click to View

Eva Novoa Trio (w/ Daniel Carter / Francisco Mela):
The Freedom Suite, Vol. 2 (577 Records)

Brooklyn pianist Eva Novoa joins saxophonist Daniel Carter and drummer Francisco Mela for the second volume of The Freedom Suite, a set of twelve pieces blending piano, Rhodes, harpsichord, gongs, and vocals with Carter's multi-reed brilliance and Mela's Cuban-inflected drumming, creating an urgent, intimate, and fluidly improvised dialogue of words, sound, and fearless imagination. ... Click to View

Eva Novoa Trio (w/ Carter / Mela):
The Freedom Suite, Vol. 2 [VINYL] (577 Records)

Brooklyn pianist Eva Novoa joins saxophonist Daniel Carter and drummer Francisco Mela for the second volume of The Freedom Suite, a set of twelve pieces blending piano, Rhodes, harpsichord, gongs, and vocals with Carter's multi-reed brilliance and Mela's Cuban-inflected drumming, creating an urgent, intimate, and fluidly improvised dialogue of words, sound, and fearless imagination. ... Click to View

Ken Vandermark:
October Flowers for Joe McPhee (Corbett vs. Dempsey)

A profoundly personal solo recording from Ken Vandermark on tenor and baritone saxophones and clarinets, captured live at Corbett vs. Dempsey in Chicago in March 2025, performing a suite dedicated to Joe McPhee that interlaces composed and freely improvised works — each named for symbolic flowers — into a deeply expressive tribute of melody, emotion, and inventive clarity. ... Click to View

Pat Thomas:
Hikmah (Tao Forms)

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. ... Click to View

Pat Thomas:
Hikmah [VINYL w/ DOWNLOAD] (Tao Forms)

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. ... Click to View