Using field recordings collected around the world, Kim Cascone has constructed a CD which is neither an exploration of inner space nor a meditation on hearing.

Italian saxophonist and composer Daniele Cavallanti and drummer/percussionist Tiziano Tononi produced these two enterprising suites played here by a powerful octet that includes Jenny Scheinman.

Eugene Chadbourne and Kevin Blechdom (aka Kristin Erickson) performing songs from their 2007 Victo performance, warped banjo rock instrumentals and songs.

Steve Coleman and Five Elements with Tim Albright, Tyshawn Sorey, Jen Shyu, &c., in an album incorporating the saxophonist's lifetime of researchg into cycles found in nature and astronomy.

Two CDs and a 90 page hardback book with photos, info and interviews from audio documenter and experimenter Peter Cusak, recording in Chernobyl, The Caspian Oilfields, and various dangerous locations in the UK.

12 compositions from bassist Dahlgren in a quintet including Gebhard Ullman performing works using a compositional matrix system and narrative from critiques written against Bela Bartok.

One part Sonic Youth, one part early Residents, Deluxx is the anomalous output of NY/Boston transplant Mark Peretta, a one-man band of crazy riffs and warped song-spieling.

First recordings of composer Frank Denyer's "Melodies" series from the mid-1970s, arising from his ethnomusicological studies that explored the concept of what makes up a melody, or a note, creating a series of compositions with melodies of one note, then two, building up to a final work of 14- and 15-note melodies; includes a 24 page booklet by Denyer detailing the concept.

A uniquely epic work in 14 parts by composer Frank Denyer, with a large ensemble of 40 musicians, many playing specially built instruments made from discarded materials, with other instrumentation including sitar, mandolin and hammered dulcimer, 4 male vocalists, 4 female vocalists, 4 players of adapted organ pipes, crumhorns, bowed wine glasses, 3 double basses, a contrabassoon, &c. &c.

Phill Niblock's "Baobob", a rich drone work on a massive scale, is realized by the German sound collective The Dorf (German for The Village) augmented as a 35-member orchestra, released in a 2-CD set alongside "Echoes", a compositions from Jan Klare in three parts recorded the same evening with the same large edition of The Dorf ensemble.

A split CD presenting contrasting aspects of 'Berlin reductionism': "Roananax 1999" - from the quartet of Axel Dorner, Robin Hayward, Annette Krebs and Andrea Neumann; and "Obliq 2014" from the current Berlin group of Pierre Borel, Hannes Lingens and Derek Shirley.

A 3 CD set from bassist Benjamin Duboc: a solo disc of low register improv; plus 2 discs in duo and trio settings with Didier Lasserre, Sylvain Guerineau, Jean-Luc Petit, Pascal Battus, Sophie Agnel & Christian Pruvost.

PAL format DVD that documents the history of one of free improvisation's greatest saxophonists, Paul Dunmall, with music clips, interviews, &c.

Univers Zero bassist Guy Seger brought this eclectic group of improvisers into the studio to develop the music on this genre-defying album, informed by a sextet of musicians who have performed and recorded with projects and artists including Vanishing Pictures, X-Legged Sally, Wrong Object, Tony Levin, Tony Bianco, Paul Schutze, Trevor Watts, Zeena Parkins, Jim O'Rourke, &c.

Portugal bassist Ze Eduardo's trio in a set of compositions that includes jazz versions of animated televisions series, including a great cover of The Simpson's theme.

The trio of trumpeter Peter Evans, electric bassist Tim Dahl, and drummer/percussionist Mike Pride have played together since 2010, crossing the boundaries of improvisation, composition and rock in dynamic genre-defying music intended to be played loud.

Recorded in 1996 and first released by Music and Arts, this is perhaps Scott Fields' most important recording session to date: intricate compositions and superior interplay with his Chicago peers of Hamid Drake, Marilyn Crispell, and Hans Sturm.

The long-running trio of alto saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet and drummer Edward Perraud (Hubbub) and bassist Benjamin Duboc in a studio album of intense and expressive free jazz in the Albert Ayler tradition.

Sound and visual installation artists Joakim Forsgren and Andreas Hiroui Larsson use a multiplicity of approaches, both rhythmic and abstract, and a vast set of instruments (flutes, bass, drum machines, saxophone, maracas, sythesizer, &c) and objects (kitchenware, nails in a box, aluminum foil, &c) to create a universe of quirky and embraceable song-like structures.

Using double bass player John Geggie's compositions as a point of departure, this creative trio covers much terrain with its lyrical and sonic landscapes.

Reissuing the 2005 Utech release from the duo of Frode Gjerstad on clarinets and Steve Hubback on hand-made drums, cymbals and gong, performing live at Lille Konsertsal, Stavanger, Norway, in February 2001.

Trumpeter Magnus Broo with pianist Sten Sandell's Trio of bassist Johan Berthling and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, here with Sandell on the Hammond organ.

An alto saxophone quartet conceptualized by Frank Gratkowski based on his desire to blend the four player's sounds into a singular, multiplex voice and to integrate micro intervals with improvisation.

A split 10" vinyl album of two very different works: first French sound artist Jean-Philippe Gross in a sonic assault of garish rhythmic electronic persistence and noise; then the Golden Oriole instrumental rock duo of Kristoffer Riis on guitar and Thore Warland on drums in a compelling work of grooving structure with diverse percussive interaction.

A contemplative solo work of subtle nuance and laden atmospheres, slowly drifting through a virtual landscape of dampened details, from London composer and improviser Sarah Hughes, performing on zither, piano, Hammond organ, sine tones, white noise, electric harpsichord, and objects, using an eBow to draw sustained tones over which delicate progressions advance.

The Little Village Foundation run by keyboardist Jim Pugh assembled this band through Indian blues harmonica player & singer Aki Kumar, who brought drummer June Core and guitarist Rome Yamilov, deciding to make the release a "crazy guitar album" by adding Henry Kaiser; along with vocalist Lisa Leuschnet they hit the mark in an exuberantly diverse set of blues performing the music of J.B. Lenoir.

Following the traditions of the saxophone trio, tenor & baritone player Jonas Kullhammar releases this studio album of irrepressible compositions performed with bassist Tobjorn Zetterberg and drummer Espen Aalberg.

Soprano vocalist Irene Kurka performs two works works by Antoine Beuger, and one each by Christopher Fox, Eva-Maria Houben, and Thomas Stiegler, accompanied by Antoine Beuger on flute for his composition "Chants de Passage"; 5 beautiful, unhurried works that bring the delicate beauty of each compositions, and of Kurka's refined voice, to a resonant foreground.

A diverse set of electronic compositions from hauntingly beautiful to tormented soundscapes, composed by Goh Lee Kwang for a multimedia stage work based on Rashomon, a short story about moral ambiguity written in 1915 and based on a 1000-year-old Japanese tale.

Live recordings from Roundhouse Community Center in Vancouver of the intense and enchanting dialog of bassist Leandres, flautist Nicole Mitchell, and percussionist Dylan van der Schyff.

Originally issued on the Hat Hut label as a 3-LP set, this 1978 recording of Cecil Taylor compatriot, saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, performing live at Collective for Living Cinema in New York in a unique band with Karen Borca (bassoon), Munner Bernard Fennel (cello) and Roger Blank (drums).

Beautifully packaged PAL DVD of 6 films by Elio Martusciello (Taxonomy) including two original texts by Tim Hodgkinson & Sebastiano Giacobello & visual works by Ester Curcio & Ale Sordi.

The 16th release in John Zorn's series "The Book of Angels" reworking the Masada songbook, here with the Masada String Trio of Greg Cohen, Mark Feldman, and Erik Friedlander.

Trumpeter Manuel Mengis 3rd Hat release, 8 original compositions of sophisticated and enjoyable modern jazz from a sextet with dual sax and guitar leads.

Pianist Marco Dalpane and soprano Sabina Meyer create a virtual cabaret of songs using the music of Erik Satie and John Cage, interlacing pieces by each in a delicate set of songs that draw the two composers together through a surprising commonality, the lyrics provided from texts written by J. Peladan, C. Mendes, H. Pacory, J.P. Contamine de Latour, &c.; lovely.

Sean Lennon & Greg Saunier (Mystical Weapons) are joined by multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Shahzad Ismaily for this one-sided, 19.50 minute art LP with an original illustration by Sean Lennon screen-printed on the B side.

Tokyo-based electronics artist Toshimaru Nakamura's 9th album of No-Input Mixing Board music, elucidating sound from the mixing board without any audio sources, showing the amazing evolution of his approach as he turns this "empty" "instrument" into an amazing source of rhythmic and assertive sound that's both surprising and wonderfully musical.

Improvising vocalist Sainkho in a live performance at the Vilnius Jazz Festival with Wolfgang Puschnig on reeds and Paul Urbanek on piano, remarkable jazz vocalisations from this noted throat singer.

Anthony Pateras was commissioned to compose this work by Synergy Percussion for their 40th birthday in 2014, performed with a six piece ensemble including electronic artist Jerome Noetinger, using the same instrumentation as Xenakis' "Pleiades" of more than 100 orchestral percussion instruments, including Xenakis' 17-pitch microtonal metallophones.

In "Urban Landscapes" Irish guitarist and electroacoustic artist Mark O'Leary captures and documents environmental audio associated with Urban Cork City.

The second-ever solo release from Tim Olive and his first since 2008, in a distinctive set of compositions that layer and superimpose multiple, darkly intense recordings of improvisations made with magnetic pickups, metal plates, springs, wire, tuning forks, electromagnets, bow, breath, dental floss, envelope generator, fuzz, spring reverb, and preamplifier.

The electroacoustic duo of singer Andrea Silvia Giordano and drummer Nicholas Remondino, working with Pierre Bastien, E-cor Ensemble, Gianluca Verlingieri, Maria Dybbroe and Torstein Lavik Larsen, create uniquely motioned works of decay, deconstruction and destruction, percussion and voice weaving amid unusual sonic sources both abstract and rhythmic.

Using piano, synthesizer, electronic feedback, field recordings and amplified objects, sound artist Andrea Parkins' long-cycle installation composition explores time and space in an 8-channel, multi-room work designed so that adjacent acoustical spaces respond to each other, creating shifting and unexpected sonic juxtapositions; CD package include a link to "The Third Room".

Compositions by Lasse-Marc Riek of the Gruenrekorder label, created from field recordings of sounds in harbors, recorded between 1999 & 2007 in Finland's Bjorkoby and Ostero harbors, and in Germany in Wismar and Hamburg harbors, rich evocations of the sea.

A massive and rewarding work of organized sound extending ea-improviser, AMM guitarist Keith Rowe's work "The Room" into a massive 4 CD set of compositions, layering work familiar from his recent improvisations with classical compositions, field recordings, &c. &c.

Keith Rowe first met Graham Lambkin at erstwhile's 2007 Amplify 2011 festival in NYC, playing again in 2013, and recording this album at Lambkin's house that same year, creating something unusual and unique from each player's perspective.

A collaboration between composer Michael Pisaro-Liu and AMM guitarist/improviser Keith Rowe, with each bringing scores which they improvised over, creating 13 discrete sections including samples from Shostakovich's 13th String Quartet, balancing activity, space and silence in patient ways that only two such experienced composer/improvisers could.

A first meeting of guitar and electronics artist Keith Rowe with computer and string performer Taku Unami at the Amplify 2008: light festival in Tokyo.

Fiction, folklore and everyday sounds fuel the compositions of NY pianist Angelica Sanchez, with her trio of Michael Formanek on double bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, the band explores concepts of lucid dreaming, backyard birds, novels, mythical creatures and ancient structures, in a magnificent album of inspired free improvisation.

Vocalist Savoldelli in an exquisitely-crafted album of overdubbed vocal work, with help from trumpeter Paolo Fresu and bassist Jimmy Haslip; elaborite harmonies, interlocking rhythms, exultant influences.

San Francisco Bay Area guitarist John Schott (Junk Genius, T.J. Kirk, Tom Waits) in his 3rd release on Tzadik with his trio of Dan Seamans on bass and John Hanes on drums, 8 upbeat compositions including one for James Blood Ulmer; lyrical pieces with tight interplay.

Reedist Louis Sclavis' new cooperative trio with keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Tom Rainey in a mix of studio and live recordings from Casa da Musica, Porto.

The 3rd volume in NY guitarist Elliott Sharp's "Octal" project, using a Koll 8-string guitar/bass, an electroacoustic hollow-bodied guitar with 2 extra bass strings, presenting unedited improvisations of technical and sonic power.

An incredible double CD from trumpeter Leo Smith's Organic with Michael Gregory, Pheeroan AkLaff, Angelica Sanchez, Skuli Sverrisson, Brandon Ross, &c &c... incredible electric and acoustic jazz from the legendary improviser and innovator!

Pianist Takase continues her tributes to great American jazz musicians with a solo album of Ellington interpretations, taken from her unique perspective and style, played with great feeling and insight.

Recorded inside and using the resonance of a large grain silo at the Tablelands Center for Bio-Regional Art in Texas, the trio of vocalist Christina Carter (Charalambides), guitarist Andrew Weathers and bassist David Menestres recorded this haunting, swirling, long-form improvisation, a complement to their Waveform Alphabet release Plays a Word for Sun.

A fun, odd and eccentric album constructed from extracts of hours of tape reels and audio cassettes by Montreal turntablist Martin Tetrault, a mix of plunderphonic sources, unusual turntable technique, and experimental audio collage drawn from an insanely diverse set of sources, in this sequel to his 1992 "Snipettes!" cassette, here with 31 new fascinating miniatures.

A diverse and fascinating release from clarinetist Michael Thieke, also on zither and providing field recordings, with guitarist Martin Siewert, accordionist Luca Venitucci, and two bassists--Christian Weber & Derek Shirley, and two drummers--Steve Heather and Eric Schaefer.

Triac is an electronic music trio from Italy formed in the end of 2011 by Rossano Polidoro, Marco Seracini and Augusto Tatone, using laptop, fisa, electric bass, piano synth to investigate minimal ambient music.

The trio of guitarist Barry Edwards, who has performed with Paul Dunmall; bassist Collin Somervell; and drummer Mark Sanders (Evan Parker, Paul Dunmall, &c. &c.)

Trio Sowari's second recording, subtle interactions using a wide palette of sound and approaches, mixing electronics and acoustics in amazing improvisation.

Tsahar's 9-piece Brass Reeds Ensemble Herb Robertson, Chris Jonas, Rob Brown, Susie Ibarra, &c. is an ambitious and incredible undertaking of group improvisation.

A collection of compositions from drummer/composer Federico Ughi dedicated to the four cities where he's lived: Rome, London, Montreal and New York, performed in a quartet with Darius Jones (sax), Eri Yamamoto (piano) and Ed Schuller (bass).

Recordings of two German trumpeters--Birgit Uhler and Leonel Kaplan--both using extended techniques and modern instrumental language, splitting their recordings between the left and right channels for clarity in their fascinating and unconventional dialogs.

910 Noise presents: Douceur Violente A 14 track compilation of electronic and noise artists from Wilmington, North Carolina.

Four artistic projects concerning historic sound devices from Steve Roden & Martin Riches, Thilges and Frank Bretschneider in a DVD of sound and video performance captured at Tesla in Berlin, 2006.

A split CD from Berlin-based flautist and composer Sabine Vogel: a composition using recordings made at various exterior locations as part of her work with Landscape Quartet; and a recording of a live improvisation as part of the 2012 NOW now festival in Sydney.

Grooves with Energy, or Sandunga Jazz Fusion as guitarist and leader Allen Weber describes his mix of jazz rock fusion infused with Latin, Carribeo, Funk, Blues, R & B and Rock.

Live recordings in 2015 from Bim Huis, and in Quintavant/Audio Rebel in Rio de Janeiro, the first a tribute to the late saxophonist Ornette Coleman in a 3 part suite of fast-paced and insightful improv; the 2nd "Quantum Illusion", an introspective and rich 2-part work.

Tony Wilson Sextet's was formed almost 20 years ago to perform his original compositions and arrangements, here performing Benjamin Britten's Lachrymae and 4 original works.

Composer, improviser, and trumpet player Nate Wooley continues to cement his place as an American iconoclast by releasing the complete recordings of his revolutionary solo [Syllables] compositions as a deluxe 4 CD set consisting of two reissues of out-of-print early works: 8 [Syllables] (2013) and 9 [Syllables] (2014) as well as the premiere recording of his 150 minute epic For Kenneth Gaburo.

German composer Alfred Zimmerlin presents 3 pieces that balance compositional and improvisational approaches, with a 7-part work for strings, a large Klavierstruck work for microtonal piano, and an improvised chamber work, "Klarinettenquintett," with Jurg Frey on clarinet.

Ensemble InterContemporain is viola player Garth Knox's string and percussion performance group, here called upon by John Zorn to present new interpretations of his "Book of Angels" Masada compositions, in nine magnificent recordings of great depth and intimacy.

Simulacrum's 5th CD, with John Medeski on organ, Kenny Grohowski on drums and Matt Hollenberg on guitar, powerful playing that blends heavy rock, blues, funk and jazz with modern classical music, here performing composer John Zorn's 10 part suite on decscending into madness.

John Zorn brings together two of his most admired groups, Bar Kokhba and The Dreamers, for an album of beautiful, melodic, exuberant and dynamic improvisation performed by a masterful set of players including Joey Baron, Trevor Dunn, John Medeski, &c.

Having met in William Parker's Little Huey Orchestra, long-time collaborators Rob Brown (saxophone & flute) and Steve Swell (trombone), along with Brown's longest improvising partner, double bassist Chris Lightcap, join with drummer Chad Taylor for an exemplary album of modern creative jazz through five Brown compositions and 4 collective improvisations.

Part of Relative Pitch's extraordinary solo series, fascinatingly creative improviser from Bogota, Colombia, multi-reedist Maria Valencia, was inspired by old naturalist manuals, imagining these 16 succinct improvisations where each piece reveals moments of nature in locations between the town of Sutatausa (Colombia) and the mountains of Banff (Canada).

An unusual duo of sax, electronics and live processing from New York reedist Ingrid Laubrock on soprano & tenor saxophones, and Cecilia Lopez on electronics and processing Laubrock's playing, releasing an intense yet masterfully controlled set of ten recordings that range from freight trains of powerful disruption to mischievous interactions of alien expression.

Exploring the resonant properties inside a Bb clarinet caused by overtones, overblowing and other unusual reed techniques, Switch~ Ensemble clarinetist Madison Greenstone generates ten studies of extreme yet tremendously controlled anomalies on the single reed, each piece a masterwork of control in the extremities of unexpected sonic expression.

Engaging an expanded version of the ensemble from his Mutual Aid Music, trumpeter Nate Wooley provides scores for his players in various configuration that challenge concepts of group composition, instrumental sound and resonance, idealized tones and the human voice, the development of melody and harmony in compositions, &c.; performers include Wooley, Seymore Wright, John McCowen, Gabby Fluke-Mogul, Cory Smythe, Luke Stewart, Eric Wubbels, &c.

As the availability of venues for free improv have dwindled through New York City, an emerging new "loft scene" has developed, one of them named simply Aron's Place, the home of Aron Namenwirth, whose 2023 series hosted the solid, free-wheeling quartet of Dave Sewelson on baritone saxophone, Stephen Moses on drums, Jochem van Dijk on electric bass and Steve Holtje on electric keyboard.

During cellist and Confront label-leader Mark Wastell's 2022 residency at the East London Hundred Years Gallery he recorded four solo recordings, using his acutely creative approach to the strings in unique ways for each recording, which he then layered in the studio without edits to create this wildly and often psychedelically stochastic orchestral work.

With incredible skill and nuance, using extended and stunning technique, and through intent listening of nearly telepathic communication, the trio of Florian Stoffner on guitar, John Butcher on tenor & soprano saxophones and Chris Corsano on drums & half clarinet, perform seven subtle and detailed improvisations live at Le Singe, in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland in 2022.

Reissuing and remastering both volumes from saxophonist, trumpeter and violinist Ornette Coleman's 1966 Blue Note album of his 1965 performance at the Golden Circle in Stockholm, Sweden in a trio with double bassist David Izenzon and drummer Charles Moffett, two days of exceptional concerts and the first example of Ornette's violin playing on any recording.

Extending the duo of British improvisers, legendary vocalist and leader of London's The Gathering, Maggie Nicols, also performing on taps and percussion, and Confront label-leader, percussionist Mark Wastell performing on cymbals and frame drum, with Swedish percussionist Matilda Rolfsson on bass drum, captured in a captivating concert at All Ears in Oslo in 2023.