Reconnecting generations of European free improv, legendary saxophonist Trevor Watts joins longtime collaborator Barry Guy and percussionist Ramon Lopez for a fiercely interactive trio session balancing ecstatic energy, disciplined abstraction, and deeply responsive interplay, as decades of shared musical history erupt into vivid collective expression, explosive rhythmic momentum, and emotionally charged spontaneity.

Pianist and composer Simon Nabatov leads two extraordinary ensembles featuring Frank Gratkowski, Angelika Niescier, Ina Stock, and Lucia Mense through deeply personal compositions balancing chamber-jazz lyricism, contemporary classical textures, and adventurous free improv, transforming introspective and emotionally charged themes into richly layered collective expression.

Through exchanged realtime recordings rather than direct performance, multi-instrumentalist Udo Schindler and vibraphonist/percussionist Sergio Armaroli create an intimate two-CD session of exploratory free improv, with Schindler responding on soprano saxophone, clarinets, flutes, and cornet to Armaroli's vibraphone pieces in a fluid virtual dialog inspired by the alpine passage between Munich and Milan.

The duo of pianist Christine Wodrascka and bassist Bernard Santacruz create an intricate and mercurial dialog of free improv, balancing lyrical abstraction, percussive tension, and elastic interplay as the two musicians continuously reshape parallel narratives through intimate exchanges, textural contrasts, and restless sonic transformations that drift between delirious energy, shadowy atmospheres, and moments of fragile silence.

Bassist Pascal Niggenkemper leads Ensemble Tuvalu in an immersive CD+DVD work inspired by the climate-threatened Pacific island nation, uniting brass, reeds, accordions, strings, voices, and resonant sound installations in a genre-crossing meditation on ecology, displacement, and community, with the audience surrounded by the ensemble in performance and the DVD capturing a live concert realization.

Reuniting more than a decade after their explosive 2011 debut, guitarist Sandy Ewen, bassist Damon Smith, and percussionist Weasel Walter deliver a fiercely focused free improv session recorded with vivid clarity, balancing dense collective eruptions, microscopic textural detail, and deeply evolved ensemble interplay shaped in part through years performing together in Roscoe Mitchell's quartet.

Documenting the expansive collective practice of the French improvising ensemble Le UN across three CDs recorded between 2021 and 2022, this large-scale set brings together 25 performers working in shifting formations through free improv unconstrained by score or direction, exploring acoustics, public spaces, environmental interaction, and richly textural electro-acoustic interplay.

Led by Headhunters drummer Mike Clark and bassist Henry Franklin, this richly orchestrated large-ensemble session blends jazz, funk, fusion, Afro-Latin rhythm, and chamber textures through ten original compositions featuring vibrant arrangements, fluid improvisation, and an expansive Bay Area ensemble including violin, cello, trombone, saxophone, guitar, piano, percussion, and French horn.

Gathering seven horn players, bass, percussion, electronics, with real-time signal processing, David Peck's Turbulence Orchestra delivers a large-ensemble free improv performance balancing dense brass and reed eruptions with richly varied percussion, electronics, and found-sound textures, evolving through steadily transforming sonorities and broad-spectrum collective interplay.

Commissioned for Ensemble Klang's Musical Utopias festival, Matthew Wright leads a twelve-piece ensemble with Sofia Jernberg and Spheric Totemic in a large-scale work structured around a slowly descending tonal "spine," where notated layers and timed frameworks intersect with free improv, while live sampling and post-production deepen the shifting interplay between form, texture, and sonic perspective.

A Norwegian quintet led by Håvard Wiik, bringing together Eivind Lønning, Espen Reinertsen, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and Hans Hulbækmo in a dynamic set that balances composed structures with free improv, blending post-bop lyricism, intricate ensemble interplay, and spacious, timbre-focused passages into a fluid and contemporary jazz expression.

Captured in 1968 in Zurich and long shelved before its recent discovery, this early trio session brings Pierre Favre, Irene Schweizer, and George Mraz together in a concise, fiery set of attentive free jazz, balancing Ornette Coleman's title piece with Schweizer's compositions, where dynamic interplay and acute listening reveal a nascent yet fully engaged collective voice.

A 1984 live recording from Carla Bley captures her ten-piece ensemble in a vibrant NDR Jazzworkshop performance, blending sly humor, unconventional harmonies, and inventive orchestration, as a stellar lineup channels tightly focused interplay and exuberant energy into a richly expressive, witty, and dynamically charged large ensemble set.

A wide-ranging solo and collaborative release from Amy Denio, this eclectic set blends voice, accordion, clarinet, guitars, bass, percussion, electronics, and field recordings across composed, improvised, and live performances, weaving jazz, avant-garde, and global influences into a playful, genre-blurring sonic journey rich in texture, storytelling, and inventive ensemble interplay.

Commissioned for the for/with series, Eva-Maria Houben presents a long-form work for Nate Wooley's trumpet, voice, and whistling, where sparse, precisely placed tones unfold in a meditative arc, expanding from an early performance into a deeply considered exploration of pure timbre, attentive listening, and the subtle interplay between composition and free improv.

A site-responsive duo recording from trumpeter Matthew Langford and saxophonist Andrew Weathers, using an emptied pool's reflective acoustics to shape a restrained and textural free improv of breath, resonance, and ambient detail, where sustained tones and environmental sound merge into a focused exploration of space, duration, and the physical limits of performance.

An electronic project from Phillip Klampe following his album The Contaminist, this 16-track release assembles cerebral atmospheres and surreal soundscapes from layered textures and abstract tonal fragments, where familiar and obscure elements blur into shifting, otherworldly environments that invite immersive listening and subtle psychological dislocation.

A solo work from D. Petri assembling three cassette-based recordings from 2016-2017, blending abstract guitar voicings with prepared tapes across partially and fully improvised performances, where lo-fi textures and fragmented structures reflect memory reconsolidation, reshaping emotional resonance through layered, obscured, and reassembled sonic material.

Marking her return to Chicago, German alto saxophonist Angelika Niescier reunites with a powerhouse sextet of the city's improvisers, including Nicole Mitchell, Dave Rempis, and Jason Adasiewicz, for a high-velocity session of free improv, where fierce interplay, shifting textures, and spontaneous structures bridge European and AACM-informed traditions with raw, contemporary energy.

Expanding their earlier duo work into a live setting, pianist Chris Abrahams and percussionist Mark Wastell engage in a patient, textural session of free improv, where rippling piano figures and resonant cymbal washes unfold in a deeply attentive dialog, shaping a meditative, slowly evolving sound world defined by subtle interplay, spatial awareness, and restrained, ritual-like intensity.

Bringing together two prolific figures in the UK's improvised music community, guitarist Dominic Lash and drummer/percussionist Mark Wastell explore a stripped yet expansive duo format that nods toward free jazz, where a seemingly conventional setup gives way to a language rooted in texture, gesture, and sonic detail rather than pulse or harmonic progression.

Leading his new quartet Elephant, trumpeter Adam O'Farrill presents a forward-looking jazz session of original compositions that shift fluidly between rhythmic drive and abstraction, where contrasting textures, layered structures, and expressive interplay animate a dynamic ensemble sound shaped by subtle electronic elements and a contemporary, cross-genre sensibility.

Leading his new quartet Elephant, trumpeter Adam O'Farrill presents a forward-looking jazz session of original compositions that shift fluidly between rhythmic drive and abstraction, where contrasting textures, layered structures, and expressive interplay animate a dynamic ensemble sound shaped by subtle electronic elements and a contemporary, cross-genre sensibility.

Drawing from periods of isolation spanning a 2017 residency and the early pandemic, pianist Marta Sanchez presents a solo prepared piano work that transforms the instrument into a layered, multi-voiced sound world, where interlocking rhythms, fragile textures, and introspective passages of free improv reflect contrasting emotional states shaped by solitude, vulnerability, and a deeply internal creative process.

Drawing from periods of isolation spanning a 2017 residency and the early pandemic, pianist Marta Sanchez presents a solo prepared piano work that transforms the instrument into a layered, multi-voiced sound world, where interlocking rhythms, fragile textures, and introspective passages of free improv reflect contrasting emotional states shaped by solitude, vulnerability, and a deeply internal creative process.

Expanding her Amaryllis ensemble with the addition of saxophonists Immanuel Wilkins and Brian Settles, guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson presents eight new works, balancing spectral beauty and sly unease as vibraphone, layered brass, flexible grooves, and her singular harmonic distortions cohere into a richly orchestrated and restlessly inventive large-ensemble statement.

A late-period live recording from AMM — Eddie Prévost, Keith Rowe, and John Tilbury — capturing their refined electroacoustic free improv language of near-silence, where percussion, electronics, and piano dissolve into a shared sonic field shaped by extreme restraint, microscopic detail, and a collective focus on texture, duration, and deep listening.

Captured during a European tour, the trio of pianist Sylvie Courvoisier with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen presents a finely honed language shaped through deep trust and evolving interplay, where Courvoisier's compositions unfold with precision and openness, balancing intricate detail, shifting textures, and spontaneous free improv with subtle complexity and vivid expressiveness.

A powerful quartet session led by James Brandon Lewis on tenor sax with Aruán Ortiz, Brad Jones, and Chad Taylor, blending lyrical melodic clarity with dynamic, responsive interplay, where rich tonal expression and groove-sensitive improvisation draw from the lineage of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and David S. Ware while forging a deeply personal, contemporary voice.

Accordionist Luciano Biondini, tubist and serpent player Michel Godard, and percussionist Lucas Niggli weave composition and free improv into a richly expressive dialogue drawing on Mediterranean lyricism, early music, and contemporary jazz, where original pieces, Radiohead and Monteverdi reinterpretations, and spontaneous interplay unfold with poetic depth, wit, and an ever-shifting sense of narrative.

An overlooked 1976 session led by Marion Brown on alto sax with a rhythmically driven ensemble including Ambrose Jackson, Billy Patterson, Rene Arlain, Fred Hopkins, Ed Blackwell, Jumma Santos, and Chris Henderson, merging funk and Afro-Caribbean grooves with free jazz principles through layered rhythms, collective improvisation, and Brown's distinctive, lyrical tone.

A 1962 quartet session on Candid — then directed by Nat Hentoff — featuring Steve Lacy on soprano sax with Charles Davis on baritone sax, John Ore on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums, interpreting two pieces by Cecil Taylor, three by Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee" in a focused, where incisive lines and lyrical restraint reveal a forward-thinking voice of free improv.

Two days across 2 CDs capture trio sessions featuring Pauline Oliveros on Roland V-accordion, Miya Masaoka on 21-string koto, and Issui Minegishi on ichigenkin (a single-string koto), in a richly textured and immersive dialogue of cross-cultural instrumentation unfolding with patient sensitivity and Deep Listening, where expressive interplay balances tradition, experimentation, and sonic intimacy.

An active trio session at EMPAC from Jonas Braasch on soprano saxophone, Pauline Oliveros on V-accordion, and Doug Van Nort on GREIS electronics engage in a free improv dialog where acoustic, physically modeled, and electronic sound sources continuously merge and diverge, Van Nort's real-time processing reshaping the ensemble's output as Oliveros bends timbral models and Braasch explores extended techniques.

A Berlin-recorded trio of violin, viola, and cello with voice, where Gerhard Uebele, Ernesto Rodrigues, and Guilherme Rodrigues shape twelve concise movements of hushed, textural free improv, blending extended string techniques and subtle vocalizations into a fragile, reductionist sound world of intimate interplay, suspended time, and finely detailed sonic nuance.

Uniting the long-running trio Harriet Tubman with vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Georgia Anne Muldrow, this expansive set channels collective, largely spontaneous composition into a powerful blend of jazz, funk, rock, and electronics, where incantatory vocals and dynamic interplay drive a deeply expressive free-flowing exploration of texture, groove, and emotional resonance.

Uniting the long-running trio Harriet Tubman with vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Georgia Anne Muldrow, this expansive set channels collective, largely spontaneous composition into a powerful blend of jazz, funk, rock, and electronics, where incantatory vocals and dynamic interplay drive a deeply expressive free-flowing exploration of texture, groove, and emotional resonance.

Blending the raw energy of New York's loft jazz lineage with a transatlantic avant-garde sensibility, drummer Sam Ospovat leads a fiery ensemble through polyrhythmic intensity and expansive improvisation, where searing guitars, layered horns, and driving rhythms converge in a volatile and immersive session that channels historical influence into a bold, unfiltered contemporary expression.

Recorded live in London, this electroacoustic quartet unites Lawrence Casserley's real-time signal processing with bass, reeds, and percussion in a fluid free improv setting, where subtle textures, shifting densities, and collective listening guide an evolving dialogue that blurs acoustic and electronic boundaries into a richly detailed and dynamically responsive sonic environment.

Bringing together seven landmark 1960s sessions, this 4-CD set captures Joe Henderson at the height of his early career, leading stellar ensembles through a compelling range of post-bop expression, from hard-driving grooves to exploratory improvisation, showcasing his commanding tone, compositional strength, and enduring influence on modern jazz.

Blending a core duet with an expanded ensemble, this richly orchestrated free improv performance weaves three-horn front lines with contrasting string approaches, dense percussion, and a vast electroacoustic palette, unfolding as a continuous transformation of texture and form where acoustic interplay and subtle signal processing shape an immersive, multidimensional sonic environment.

Formed from an unexpected shift in personnel, this agile quartet channels a tightly honed horn section, layered electronics, and Joel Simches' real-time signal processing into a richly textured free improv set, where fluid interplay and rapid adaptation drive an evolving, high-density sonic environment shaped by both precision and spontaneity.

Emerging from a shifting lineup, this iteration of the ensemble trades its usual rock-driven intensity for a more restrained, electroacoustic chamber feel, as layered horns, dense metallic percussion, and evolving electronics intertwine with spoken narration, shaping a fluid free improv performance that navigates a wide spectrum of textures and timbral transformations.

A powerful chamber work from Ukrainian pianist and composer Vadim Neselovskyi, this release blends classical composition and improvisation, as piano and string trio merge structured writing with spontaneous expression, aligning his lyrical, introspective voice with modular, improvisation-driven aesthetics shaped by the tensions and resilience of his homeland.

With a title translating to The Die is Cast, this formidable piano concerto from composer John Zorn unfolds through abrupt shifts in mood, tempo, and texture, as Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, and Ches Smith navigate its exacting, volatile structures with precision and intensity, joined by Sae Hashimoto on vibraphone, adding a resonant counterpoint to this complex, dynamically shifting work.

A fierce interpretation of John Zorn's Bagatelles by the organ trio of John Medeski with guitarist David Fiuczynski and drummer Grant Calvin Weston, this release channels funk, jazz, and psychedelic rock into explosive, high-energy performances, transforming Zorn's concise compositions into a dynamic, groove-driven and sonically adventurous set.

A powerful free improv statement from saxophonist Paul Dunmall and his quartet with Sophia Domancich, James Owston, and Miles Levin, blending composed themes — including a rendition of "Spiritual" by John Coltrane — with collective improvisation, as the ensemble's masterful interplay unfolds with fluid cohesion, balancing explosive energy and introspective nuance in a deeply expressive album.

Birgit Ulher and Jaap Blonk engage in an eccentric duo of trumpet, radio, electronics, and voice, where drifting textures, interference, and extended techniques shape a spacious, volatile improvisation balancing delicate detail with sudden, fractured gestures, recorded at the artist-run collective, gallery, and cultural venue Westwerk in Hamburg, Germany.

A duo of breath and air, recorded in Bogotá in 2025, Colombian sound artist Ricardo Arias and vocalist Jaap Blonk explore microscopic improvisations using balloons, fragments, and extended voice, where fragile textures, elastic tones, and near-silence merge human and object into a tactile, minimal, subtly uncanny, and occasionally absurdist sonic dialogue.

Expanding the definitive collection from British avant-garde pioneers Henry Cow, this expanded edition compiles the complete 40th anniversary box with remastered studio and live recordings, rare material including Cabinet of Curiosities and Glastonbury and Elsewhere, plus a DVD and three extensive booklets totaling 250 pages, presenting a comprehensive and rigorously documented portrait of the band's uncompromising, genre-defying work.

"Masayo Koketsu and Nava Dunkelman met for the first time in this studio session. Koketsu's inventive use of extended techniques and breath-infused wails filled the space with an experimental intensity. Dunkelman responded with a finely...

A 4-CD/8 album survey of Kenny Dorham's early-1960s output, compiling sessions from Show Boat through Una Mas, where his warm, lyrical trumpet leads shifting ensembles including Joe Henderson and Herbie Hancock, bridging hard bop, modal jazz, and Latin-tinged explorations with refined compositional clarity.

Blending acoustic guitars, clarinets, accordion, voice and found objects, Barry Chabala and Clara Byom craft a deeply intuitive duo session that moves between unedited studio improvs and expanded "extractions," weaving folk-inflected fragments, graphic score realizations and haunting textures into a raw yet lyrical free improv language shaped by trust, contrast and evolving interplay.

Performing thirteen selections from John Zorn's 2015 Bagatelles collection, pianist Brian Marsella delivers a dynamic solo recital that navigates angular, atonal forms and moments of striking lyricism, blending classical precision with jazz spontaneity to create an intimate, virtuosic, and emotionally resonant interpretation of Zorn's expansive compositional language.

Reuniting Bill Frisell, Kenny Wollesen, and Carol Emanuel as The Gnostic Trio, John Zorn presents a refined set of compositions that blend chamber minimalism, early music influences, and ambient textures, where delicate interplay, spacious forms, and a touch of electronics from Ikue Mori yield a serene, introspective, and subtly cinematic exploration of tone and atmosphere.

Recorded live at the Archipel Festival, this quintet of Nicolas Field, Thomas Florin, Jerome Noetinger, Fritz Welch, and Nate Wooley delivers an intense electroacoustic performance where composed frameworks erupt into explosive, immersive interactions, as voice, trumpet, piano, percussion, and electronics collide in dense, mutating textures that are disorienting, consuming, often volatile, yet consistently exhilarating.

The quartet of Floros Floridis, Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues, and Michael Vorfeld crafts a sparse and texturally open electroacoustic performance where pointillistic percussion replaces bass grounding, allowing clarinet-centered lines, subtle string interplay, and crackling electronics to unfold in shifting, time-dilated continuities in a refined, contemporary approach to free improv.

Bringing together an octet of long-associated improvisers led by violist Ernesto Rodrigues, this single extended work unfolds as a fluid, introspective collective statement of shifting timbres and spectral harmonies with moments of tension and release, forging a deeply personal and evolving free improv narrative shaped by continuity, interaction and shared intuition.

The Simulacrum ensemble expands its electroacoustic palette on Modeling Personas, bringing together a fluid septet of winds, strings, percussion, and extensive electronics in a dense and highly textural session where layered improvisations, shifting instrumental permutations, and rich sonic experimentation create a dynamic and immersive exploration of timbre, form, and collective interplay.

Expanding the Evil Clown universe with a humor-driven electroacoustic improvisation, the Neurodivergent Orchestra blends dense ensemble interplay, electronics, and an extraordinary array of instruments with fully improvised spoken-word banter, where playful, absurdist narrative threads intertwine with dynamic sonic exploration to create a richly textured, unpredictable, and engaging collective performance.

Expanding from the long-running Leap of Faith core duet, bringing together a sextet of reeds, brass, cello, bass, percussion, and electronics in a fluid electroacoustic improvisation where shifting instrumental doublings, richly varied global percussion, and evolving textures drive a continuous transformation of sonority, creating a deeply immersive and dynamically unfolding exploration of collective free improv.

On her first solo piano recording, Brooklyn-based pianist and composer Eva Novoa explores an intimate and adventurous sonic palette across six original pieces, combining grand piano with Fender Rhodes, electric harpsichord, gongs, percussion, voice, and whistling, creating a rhythmically charged and cinematic performance that expands the expressive possibilities of the solo format.

Presenting two extended solo performances recorded at Cafe Oto, cellist Hannah Marshall draws on classical training, theatre, and jazz to shape a deeply immersive free improv work, where patient explorations of tone evolve into tense constellations of harmonics and release through propulsive bowing, balancing immediacy, physicality, and a thoughtfully unfolding sonic narrative.

A debut release from New York-based duo Goal Weight, bassist Maggie Cox and violinist Jennifer Gersten deliver a wildly inventive session of acoustic string free improv, merging gut-strung resonance and prepared violin textures into a raw, playful, and sharply expressive dialog that balances abrasive sonorities with lyrical interplay and a mischievous, genre-defying spirit.

Inspired by Georges Perec's Espèces d'espaces, this quartet with Fie Schouten, Vincent Courtois, Sofia Borges, and Pierre Baux merges spoken voice, clarinet, cello, and percussion in a fluid free improv framework, shaping text into a sonic architecture where silence, gesture, and sound interact in a richly textured, theatrical exploration of space and narrative.

Recorded in Copenhagen studio and live settings, the trio of Anne Efternøler, Maria Laurette Friis, and Johanna Borchert craft an intimate free improv dialogue where voice, trumpet, flute, and prepared piano transform personal reflections on relationships and daily life into fluid, emotionally resonant textures, balancing vulnerability, abstraction, and a quietly life-affirming poetic interplay.

Framed as a shifting, dreamlike improvisation, this electroacoustic quartet led by violist Ernesto Rodrigues, with cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, Carlos Santos on electronics, and percussionist Monsieur Trinité, unfolds a fluid free improv session that dissolves into evolving textures, balancing tension, restraint, and collective interplay within an immersive sonic landscape.

Recorded live in Lisbon, violist Ernesto Rodrigues joins vocalist Maria Radich and violinist Maria do Mar in a free improv trio where close-range string interplay and crackle box electronics create high-register tension, while voice moves within the texture through whispers and cries, shaping an intimate, spatially focused performance balancing density, restraint, and evolving interaction.

Blending solo and ensemble free improv, percussionist Vasco Trilla joins Vilhelm Bromander, Alex Zethson, and Martin Kuchen in a Stockholm session where drones, elastic bass textures, and intricate percussive detail evolve through responsive interplay, culminating in a resonant solo performance that reflects a dynamic exploration of texture, tension, and transformation.

Blending avant-garde sensibilities with groove-driven electric jazz, guitarist John Bruschini leads a New York quintet through compositions that shift from soulful ballads to funk-infused energy, balancing expressive lyricism and dynamic interplay with a flexible ensemble that bridges fusion, improvisation, and melodic depth.

Uniting tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman with three distinct guitar voices — Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, and Joe Morris — this 3-CD set presents three separate duo encounters recorded at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, highlighting contrasting improvisational languages while exploring timbre, interaction, and the expressive possibilities of the guitar in free improv contexts.

Recorded live at the 2025 Konfrontationen #45 in Nickelsdorf, this quintet of viola, cello, alto saxophone, piano, and percussion unites frequent Creative Sources players Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues, and Nuno Torres with legendary free jazz pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and drummer Willi Kellers, in a dynamic convergence of textural string abstraction and energetic free jazz interplay.

Recorded live at Kaleidophon Festival in Ulrichsberg, Austria, the trio of Urs Leimgruber on soprano saxophone, Jacques Demierre on amplified spinet, and Thomas Lehn on analogue synthesizer engages in a tense, hyper-attentive electroacoustic exchange, where dense textures, volatile interactions, and precise collective listening shape an ever-shifting dialog rooted in European free improv.

Blending Afro-Puerto Rican rhythms with modern jazz and exploratory improvisation, guitarist Gabriel Vicens leads a sextet of guitar, saxophone, piano, bass, drums, and percussion — performing lyrical and sophisticated compositions that move through propulsive, textural, and meditative passages, balancing ancestral pulse, temporal reflection, and avant-garde expression.

Centering the lyrical interplay of piano and violin, Marc Copland and Mark Feldman lead two rhythm sections with Drew Gress (bass), the late Anthony Pinciotti (drums) or Felix Henkelhausen (bass), and Jonas Burgwinkel (drums), through intimate, textural performances balancing standards and originals with subtle, exploratory improvisation.

Uniting legendary tenor saxophonist Don Dietrich with cellist Camille Dietrich, this fierce duo performance surges with overwhelming intensity, as lung-shaking sax eruptions collide with raw, textural cello force to engulf the sonic space in dense, high-velocity, noise-driven free improv, captured live at the 2025 Ear We Are festival in Biel, Switzerland.

A compelling issue of Musicworks spotlights Montreal artist Quinton Barnes and his hybrid of free jazz, drone, and experimental R&B, alongside features on composer Corie Rose Soumah and writer/musician DeForrest Brown, Jr., with additional artist profiles, festival coverage, and reviews of contemporary experimental music.

A tribute to NY reedist & wind player Mark Whitecage, who passed away in March 2021, in a concert at Rochester's BopShop in 2018 by the band he is probably best known for: Nu Band, with trumpeter Thomas Heberer taking Roy Campbell's original seat, plus Lou Grassi on drums and Joe Fonda on bass, a great concert blending modern creative jazz with passionate playing and a bit of hard bop.

Reuniting after years apart, saxophonist Dave Rempis, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and drummer Frank Rosaly revive The Outskirts with a dynamic balance of modular compositions and open-ended improvisation, joined on one disc by pianist Marta Warelis, resulting in two contrasting live sets that move fluidly between structured ideas and spontaneous interplay in an expansive program of ensemble-driven free improv.

Exploring the fluid coordination and shifting forms of collective motion, pianist Magda Mayas leads her octet Filamental — featuring Zeena Parkins, Rhodri Davies, Aimée Theriot, Anthea Caddy, Angharad Davies, Christine Abdelnour, and Michael Thieke — in an intricate program of ensemble-driven free improv where shared memory, evolving textures, and intuitive interplay coalesce into dynamic, murmuration-like structures.

Bringing together Fred Frith's extended electric guitar vocabulary with Karen Stackpole's richly resonant world of gongs and metals, this intimate duo session unfolds as a deeply textural dialogue where harmonic overtones, shimmering percussion, and transformed string sonorities intertwine, blurring the boundaries between instrument and resonance in a fluid, exploratory program of free improv.

Recorded in Chicago between 1925 and 1928, these seminal Hot Five and Hot Seven sessions led by Louis Armstrong capture a transformative moment in early jazz, where his virtuosic phrasing, rhythmic innovation, and charismatic presence redefine the music's expressive scope, presented here with exceptional restoration and mastering, and accompanied by two postcards detailing recording sessions and personnel.

Recorded across three continents and completed in New York, this double-disc work led by Bill Laswell and conceptualist P.ST draws on René Daumal's unfinished allegorical novel to shape a richly textured electroacoustic narrative, where voice and instrumentation unfold alongside layered improvisation and cinematic abstraction, as Henry Kaiser contributes extended solo guitar meditations.

Recorded across three continents and completed in New York, this double-disc work led by Bill Laswell and conceptualist P.ST draws on René Daumal's unfinished allegorical novel to shape a richly textured electroacoustic narrative, where voice and instrumentation unfold alongside layered improvisation and cinematic abstraction, as Henry Kaiser contributes extended solo guitar meditations.

Recorded live at Rote Fabrik, in Zurich, this 2-CD set from Pat Thomas with XT — Seymour Wright and Paul Abbott — reimagines free improv through a fluid integration of acoustic and electronic sound, where real and "imaginary" instruments dissolve boundaries of form and timbre, unfolding as a complex, evolving suite that draws on ea traditions while pushing toward a synthetic, genre-defying future.