A collaboration between the working trio of bass clarinetist Jason Stein, double bassist Damon Smith, and drummer Adam Shead, adding pianist Marilyn Crispell, initiated by Smith & Crispell's admiration of painter Cy Twombly, whose artwork graces this album's cover, recorded live and complete in the studio after two live concerts between the quartet; masterful collective improv!

An album to absorb and get excited over, as Matt Lavelle pursues a long-running dream to bring his 12 Houses Orchestra to record, here in an incredible collection of compositions, just the first set of a larger concept of solid jazz pieces that pivot on astrology and numerology as reflected in time signature, bar lines, melody notes, chords, and intervals; powerful, lyrical, spectacular work!

A split release between two essential duos from the Boston-area Evil Clown collective: first, the core duo of Leap of Faith — David Peck on reeds & percussion and Glynis Lomon on cellos, aquasonic & voice — in a trio with trumpeter John Fugarino; second, the Kane Loggia Hypothesis duo of Bonnie Kane on sax, flute & electronics and John Loggia on drums, in a trio with drummer Ben James.

"Perturbed" by the sonic intervention of sound engineer and performer Joel Simches, who applies various effect processes to the continually morphing free improvisations of Boston collective players David Peck on reeds, percussion and synthetics, Michael Caglianone on soprano, alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet, flute & percussion, and Albey onBass on bass and percussion.

The long-running Silt Trio led by DC bassist and composer Luke Stewart, with Brian Settles on tenor sax and either drummer Trae Crudup or Chad Taylor, in their debut for Pi Recordings with seven Stewart compositions founded around his deep grooves; playful and sophisticated work that leave room for tremendous soloing and support from each trio configuration.

A new book of compositions and four interesting interpretations of Billy Strayhorn songs from trumpeter Dave Douglas' premier of a new quartet with tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and two members of the post-rock trio Son Lux — guitarist Rafiq Bhatia and drummer Ian Chang — in a lyrically embraceable and sophisticated album dedicated to the gifts of life and music we all share.

Improvising collaborators, percussionist Stephen Flinn and cellist Guilherme Rodrigues join with Irish improviser and composer Roy Carroll, a member of Splitter Orchestra and who works with the amplification and signal processing of diverse objects, here the trio performing an extended improvisation of exotic and transformative sonic interaction through unusual, encompassing soundscapes of exotic and transformative sonic interaction.

Two reeds, a cello and a signal processing instrument in this live electroacoustic improvisation session captured at Petersburg Art Space, in Berlin, Germany between cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, saxophonist Harri Sjostrom on soprano & sopranino using selected mutes, clarinetist Floris Floridis and electronic improvising legend Lawrence Casserley.

Quoting Danish painter & sculptor Asgar Jorn--"To get anywhere, one must choose one's mistakes. I chose experimental acts."--the quartet of Udo Schindler on alto sax, bass & double bass clarinets & cornet, Eric Zwang Eriksson on drums, Ardhi Engl on self-invented instruments and Nikolaus Neuser on trumpet, are heard live at Munich's FMZ for 3 masterfully risk-taking sound poems.

Seven studio improvisations from frequent collaborators Ernesto Rodrigues on viola & crackle box, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone and Carlos Santos on digital electronics, quiet conversations of subtle and extended technique that adhere to the session title, emulating electronic impulses and signals through understated and impeccably controlled acoustic and electronic expression.

Frequent collaborators Ernesto Rodrigues on viola & crackle box and Nuno Torres on alto saxophone join with Berlin percussionist Johannes von Buttlar, a member of the Altered Forms Trio who have collaborated with Fred Frith, Raymond McDonald, &c., for four "Cosmic Collisions", highly interactive improvisations with impressive inertia and extraordinary technique.

In four parts this primarily acoustic octet of Lisbon improvisers evolve a deceptive narrative of collective interaction, highly textured through rich combinations that emerge and subside throughout the natural development of their converstations; with Ernesto & Guilherme Rodriguez, João Madeira, Noel Taylor, Bruno Parrinha, Ziv Tuabenfeld, Guilherme Carmelo and Monsieur Trinite.

With the nearly telepathic communication that only a father & son duo could have, Lisbon violist and Creative Sources label leader Ernesto Rodridgues and cellist Guilherme Rodrigues recorded these two string improvisations live at Cossoul in Lisbon during the "Esta Noite Improvisa-se", a melding of remarkable technique, concentration and profound expression.

With an impressive resume in improvised and contemporary forms, French saxophonist Violaíne Gestalder presents three major conceptual works for multiple players, using studio layering to perform all parts herself on soprano sax, voice & effects, a comprehensive, yearning, powerful and often mysteriously beautiful album that draws on her skills as a composer, improviser and experimenter.

A septet of German improvisers recording in Ulrichsberg, embracing both ea- and acoustic instrumentation that borders on free jazz but takes things a bit farther, with free vocals from Mara Kolibri adding unusual asides and narrative around highly intertwining sax, trombone, cello, electric guitar, percussion, glitch and electronics; unique and engaging.

Three configurations of delicately detailed, reductionist electroacoustic improv from the Greek Eventless Plot trio of Vasilis Liolios (inside piano, e-bow piano, objects & psaltiri), Yiannis Tsirikoglou (objects, guitar, MAX/MSP) and Aris Giatas (piano), in one piece as a trio, then with guest Chris Cundy on bass clarinet, and a third with Louis Portal on percussion.

A contemplative and building collection of electroacoustic improvisations from French alto & soprano saxophonist Violaine Gestalder, augmenting her horn with effect pedals, and pianist Loris Binot, using preparations, magnetic bows and electronics to create sustained and percussive elements, recording in the CIM auditorium in Bal-Le-Duc, France for five rich and fascinating dialogs.

Lisbon contemporary flutist and improviser Carlos Bechegas, an associate of Carlos Zingaro and his electroacoustic trio, joins violist Ernesto Rodrigues and long-time collaborator Carlos Santos in a uniquely electronic, chamber-oriented, mysteriously crepuscular improvisation captured live at Casa do Comum, Lisbon, Portugal during the 2024 "SpectraLx" event.

Born in São Paulo, Brazil and working in Amsterdam and Lisbon, and also part of the London Improvisers Orchestra, Yedo Gibson unleashes an album of solo improvisation on the soprano and tenor saxophones, his "conic tubes" which he uses to express the potential to change environment and energy through technically impressive, expressive playing.

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.

Eight distinctive works for electronics and sound from the alter ego of Roger H. Smith, using noise, percussive elements and unusual synthetics, layered around static and arpeggiated rhythms and punctuated with strange asides, the works run from 3:14 to 18:37 and were developed over a year and half; an excellent introduction to the sonic diversity Chefkirk revels in.

An album of dense electronics, drums and gongs from Vermont drummer and experimenter Jabe Ledoux, aka Jo Bled, and Pittsburgh noise artist RJ Myato, co-founder of NNN Coalition and curator of Enforced Existence label, in three works from assertive jumbles of sound, to buzzy drones with muted percussion and ending with an ocean of blurred and swooping harmonics.

Capturing an exciting and cohesive live performance at Krakow's Alchemia club, documenting the first duo encounter between Chicago reedist Ken Vandermark and UK bassist Barry Guy, in nine spontaneous duets and soliloquies; Guy's dynamic bass explorations and Vandermark's versatility converge in an inspired interplay of rhythmic energy, textural innovation, and lyrical intensity.

Reflecting on the slow decay of Roman and Egyptian murals, New York City-based, Puerto Rican-born composer, guitarist, visual artist and No Base Trio member, Gabriel Vicéns, presents a collection of chamber works including two piano trios, a wind quintet performed by Nu Quintet, cello & violin and violin & piano duos, a solo piano work, and a sextet conducted by David Bloom.

A larger ensemble for the Boston-area collective Leap of Faith of David Peck on clarinets, saxophones & flutes, and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice, here extended with two horns, three strings, and drums including Cecil Taylor bassist Albey OnBass, plus John Fugarino on trumpets & brass, Tor Snyder on guitar and Eric Rosenthal on drums & percussion.

The core duet of the Boston collective Leap of Faith Orchestra comprised of David Peck on clarinets, saxophones, double reeds & flutes and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice, are joined by bassist Albey onBass, drummer Eric Rosenthal, guitarist Tor Snyder and brass player John Fugarino, making a strong sextet with a powerful string section in this extended improvisation.

One of the more electronic/ea ensembles from the Boston area collective led by David Peck, Simulacrum is an offshoot of Metal Chaos Ensemble, the core being Peck on reeds, percussion & electronics, Eric Wood on analog synth and Bob Moores on space trumpet & guitar, joined by Michael Caglianone (sax), Faruq Hassan (sampler), and Michael Knoblach (percussion).

Known best for the guitar work on clipping's Rick and Morty song "Stab Him in the Throat", Chicago guitarist Kirsten Carey joins with drummer Aaron Edgcomb (Trigger) for this set of mischievous improvised experiments that explore the relationships between rock, jazz and experimental sound through eleven assertive dialogs of quirky, skronky, and inspired playing.

Revisiting and remastering two essential albums from New York hard bop trumpeter Kenny Dorham, a tremendous musican who died much too young but left a legacy of 20 albums as a leader, here in his 1956 Blue Note album in a sextet that included Bobby Timmons and Kenny Burrell, and his 1963 United Artists Jazz album in a quintet with Jackie McLean, Bobby Timmons, Teddy Smith and JC. Moses.

The long-running quartet of percussionist Heinz Geisser, bassist Fridolin Blumer, pianist Reto Staub and trombonist Robert Morgenthaler have for years extended their 4-tet with a 5th guest, here asking vibraphonist Christopher Dell to join them in the studio after a successful live performance in the spring of 2022, capturing this spectacular, wide-ranging example of collective improvisation.

A complement to the New Braxton House Lorraine box, these live performances of Anthony Braxton's Lorraine system are performed in four European cities by Braxton himself on alto, soprano & sopranino saxophones, James Fei on sopranino & alto saxophones, Chris Jonas on alto & tenor saxophonse, Ingrid Laubrock on soprano & tenor saxophones, and Andre Vida on baritone, tenor and soprano saxophones.

A great set of 11 succinct songs and instrumentals from multi-instrumentalist, prog icon Bob Drake of Thinking Plague, The Science Group, VRIL, and Peter Blegvad fame, vignettes that play with pop formats in insidious ways around recurring Drake themes including a Planet of Dogs, three rustic tales, and a perturbing room in the tower, all noted in a colored foldout poster with lyrics.

A burning album of improvised rock and noise with members from Incapacitants, Keiji Haino + Masataka Fujikake Duo, Zeni Geva, &c., part of a free improv series organized by Doubtmusic and recorded at Tokyo's Knuttle House in 2023, from the quartet of Toshiji Mikawa on electronics, Jun Numata on guitar& electronics, Yusuke Nishimura on bass and Masataka Fujikake on drums.

Breaking from the AMM collective, British percussionist Eddie Prévost's 1996 solo debut showcases six studio-recorded works highlighting expressive momentum and textural nuance through innovative drumming and cymbal techniques, crafting layered and intense sonic landscapes with extraordinary skill and the inventive application of external objects.

A live recording of freely improvised improv captured at All Hallows Church in High Laver, Essex in 2023 from the trio of AMM drummer and Matchless label-leader Eddie Prévost, Zürich and Maastricht trumpeter Silvan Shmid, and London double bassist Tom Wheatley of the group Widdershins, heard in three investigative conversations of great creative drive.

Published on the occasion of Birgit Ulher's exhibition Split Friction at Errant Sound in Berlin from November 24-26, 2023, an interdisciplinary project spanning the intersection between exhibition, video, performance, concert and sound installation, documented in this 96 page full-color book with images from the installation, graphic scores, and essays in English & German.

Known for his band Blacksheep, along with Gatos Meeting, OKHP, Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo, The Silence, and Missing Link, &c., Japanese baritone saxophonist steps out solo for twelve works — eight improvisations and four compositions — blurring the line between approaches, executed with Yoshida's rich tone, multiphonic accents, and powerful sonic pressure on the big reed.

The first meeting between two improvisers also versed in contemporary and avant music - guitarist Barry Chabala and clarinetist and accordionist Claray Byom - recording live at The Jean Cocteau Cinema, in Santa Fe, New Mexico as part of the Sandbox Music Series, for five freely improvised works that include radio, objects, iPhone and toys as part of their expansive dialogs.

The second studio session for the freely improvising electroacoustic trio of Clara Byom, a contemporary classical and improvising clarinetist and accordionist, improvising guitarist Barry Chabala on acoustic, and multi-disciplinary artist David Forlano on electronics, in 11 succinct works to accompany a beautifully unconventional morning of open-ended conversations.

The collaboration between guitarist Barry Chabala and Clara Byom on clarinets and accordion is expanded through Chabala's audio samples and Byom's use of objects, as they join in a trio with Albuquerque violinist Muni Kulasinghe, also performing on objects, for seven distinctive, spaciously paced improvisations recorded live at The Sitting Room in Albuquerque, NM.

An exotic album of improvised music with a wide focus, founded in saxophonist David Leon's interest in Afrocuban folkloric music, expanded through DoYeon Kim's gayagum, a traditional 12-string Korean zither, and punctuated with the exploratory drumming, percussion and glockenspiel of Lesley Mok; assertively unpredictable and continuously intriguing improv.

A wild "Afro-Surrealist Anti-Opera" from composer & bassist Nick Dunston, performed with an ensemble of string players (including JACK Quartet) and vocalists, in a gripping hybrid of acoustic and electronic music, using the studio for post-processing to create Dunston's self-described "warped narrative", an understatement for this incredibly passionate, surreal and absolutely impressive work.

Thirteen years after his breakthrough solo saxophone album For Alto, Anthony Braxton is heard in an inventive solo concert on the same instrument, performing at the Altes Schlachthaus Theatre in Bern, Switzerland for a set of original numbered compositions, the standards "Alone Together" and "I Remember You", and two Coltrane pieces: "Giant Steps" and "Naima".

During a sabbatical in London, Swiss saxophonist Christoph Gallio (Day & Taxi) renewed his friendship with percussionist Roger Turner, with whom he had performed in a trio with Urs Leimgruber; meeting at Turner's London flat, they developed the spontaneous language heard on this freely improvised album, Gallio on soprano, alto & C-melody saxophones and Turner on drums & distinctive percussive devices.

Unabashedly lyrical and focused on jazz tradition, the Swiss trio of Alex Hendriksen on tenor saxophone, Fabian Gisler on double bass and Paul Amereller on drums present an album of standards, including pieces by Tadd Dameron, Billy Strayhorn, Jerome Kern, Thelonious Monk and Benny Golson, warmly interpreted with extraordinary band interplay and individual soloing.

Five years after their extraordinary debut album Illuminated Silence, the trio of pianist Izumi Kimura, bassist Barry Guy and drummer Gerry Hemingway present four compositions for free improv, two pieces reflecting on the current state of warfare, with two from pieces Kimura and one each from Guy and Hemingway, the liner notes from each artist explaining the impetus for their work.

Following their recordings of improvisations for the abstract film "Triangulated Waves", the long-running collaboration of guitarist Marcia Bassette (Yew Recordings, Heavy Conversation, Heavy Blossom) and violinist Samara Lubelski (Fiery Furnaces, White Magic, Thurston Moore, God Is My Co-Pilot) join for two extended sonic adventures of intertwining, effected strings.

Exploring tuning systems and the extremes of harmonicity and dissonance through compositions that employ prime numbers of players in solo, trio, quintet, septet, and undectet (11) configurations, violinist Modney takes listeners into transcendent and turbulent spaces spanning improvisation and composition, detailed in a 24-page booklet with collages from Ellsworth Kelly.

Composer and pianist Simon Nabatov sets to music two major works of modern Russian literature — Mikhail Bulgakov's The Fatal Eggs and Heart of a Dog — each interpretation spanning an album's worth of material and performed with an extraordinary septet of chamber jazz performers through piano, sax, trombone, viola, cellos, bass and drums.

The project of Korean-American guitarist, improviser and composer Han-earl Park, Gonggong 225088 is his trio with Argentinian saxophonist, composer and visual artist Camila Nebbia, and Greek drummer, improviser and sound artist Yorgos Dimitriadis, in an album of collective improvisation that expands its percolating jazz roots with spacious moments of electronics and extended expression.

A standout in the many collaborations between New York pianist Matthew Shipp and Brazil-born, NY-based tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman, recording in the studio for eight elegantly lyrical improvisations that invoke both devotional and decisive dialogs, from an introspective "Prayer" to a dissipated "Lustihood", a spellbinding set of fraternal invocations.

The first album from the trio of Denmark-based pianist Kamil Piotrowicz, a classically trained improviser of exceptional technical and creative power, with Copenhagen trumpeter Erik Kimestad and Norwegian drummer based in Copenhagen Simon Albertsen (Espen Berg Trio), for thirteen wonderfully intricate and exuberant pieces developed in the studio.

Berlin-based, Buenos Aires-born saxophonist Sofia Savlo takes listeners on a tour of eight improvisations performed on the low pitched baritone saxophone, using great control & tone augmented by multiphonics and extended techniques, "rotating" through unusual approaches while engaging listeners through expressive narratives, including emulating a drunken revery.

CORNER CUT ON SLEEVE

Berlin-based, Buenos Aires-born saxophonist Sofia Savlo takes listeners on a tour of eight improvisations performed on the low pitched baritone saxophone, using great control & tone augmented by multiphonics and extended techniques, "rotating" through unusual approaches while engaging listeners through expressive narratives, including emulating a drunken revery.

Improvising collaborators, percussionist Stephen Flinn and cellist Guilherme Rodrigues join with Irish improviser and composer Roy Carroll, a member of Splitter Orchestra and who works with the amplification and signal processing of diverse objects, here the trio performing an extended improvisation of exotic and transformative sonic interaction through unusual, encompassing soundscapes of exotic and transformative sonic interaction.

If maps serve us well, this studio recording between the trio of New York & Boston masterful collective free improvisers Jerome Deupree on drums, Matthew Shipp on piano and Joe Morris on guitar, references locations by track title in South Hamilton, MA; Nevilles Cross, UK; Yosemite, CA; San Jose, CA; New Hampshire/Maine coast; Buenos Aires.

PROMO w/ CORNER CUT FRONT SLEEVE

A great set of 11 succinct songs and instrumentals from multi-instrumentalist, prog icon Bob Drake of Thinking Plague, The Science Group, VRIL, and Peter Blegvad fame, vignettes that play with pop formats in insidious ways around recurring Drake themes including a Planet of Dogs, three rustic tales, and a perturbing room in the tower, all noted in a colored foldout poster with lyrics.