Serbian composer and reedist Boris Kovac leads the Ritual Nova Ensemble through an idiosyncratic chamber music blending Balkan and Pannonian folk inflections, ritual atmosphere, minimalism, jazz, avant-rock and improvisation, with saxophones and clarinets set against piano, strings and double bass in music that moves fluidly between lyrical, ceremonial and sharply contemporary forms.

Collecting performances recorded between 1996 and 1997 in Toronto and at Quebec festivals including Victoriaville, the long-running Canadian collective CCMC — Michael Snow on piano and synthesizer, John Oswald on alto saxophone, and Paul Dutton on voice and harmonica — deliver free-form improvisations that weave jazz-inflected piano, rapid saxophone lines, and Dutton's inventive sound poetry and vocalizations into playful, texturally rich exchanges linked by Oswald's brief collage interludes.

Noted for its live 1999 recording in France, this trio of Michel Doneda (soprano sax), Erik M (turntables, MiniDisc, sampling), and Jean-Marc Montera (guitar, electronics, objects) creates an electrifying mix of acoustic intensity and electroacoustic texture, with Doneda's incisive phrasing pulling guitar noise and manipulated vinyl into agile, unpredictable dialog for sharp collisions and eerie convergences in cutting-edge free improvisation.

The first recorded meeting of the long-running LDP trio, bringing Swiss reedist Urs Leimgruber, pianist Jacques Demierre and bassist Barre Phillips together at Radio DRS in Zurich in 2001 for six entirely acoustic improvisations whose concentrated listening, spacious silences and finely balanced textures move organically between breath-level detail, resonant abstraction and sudden passages of vigorous collective intensity.

Directed by trumpeter John Korsrud, Vancouver's Hard Rubber Orchestra expands the big band tradition with an adventurous blend of avant-funk grooves, sharp ensemble writing, and free-leaning improvisation, the large ensemble of horns, rhythm section, guitar, strings, and guests Marilyn Lerner and Peggy Lee delivering tightly arranged passages, dissonant brass figures, and atmospheric interludes that balance orchestral scope with the raw energy of progressive jazz.

Early live recordings from the 1996 duo of Eugene Chadbourne on steel dobro, electric banjo and eccentric sound devices with German percussionist Paul Lovens on drums and cymbals, balancing fractured song references, dry humor and highly responsive free improvisation in performances that move from near-silence and delicate rhythmic displacement to abrupt, playful bursts of angular interaction.

A live recording from the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in 2009 of extended improvisations between guitarist Fred Frith, French clarinetist Louis Sclavis, and percussionist Jean-Pierre Drouet.

Pairing the idiosyncratic guitar styles of Eugene Chadbourne and René Lussier, this live set recorded in Paris and at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville captures the duo weaving country and folk influences into a playful free improv dialogue, with acoustic and electric guitars and banjo driving a spirited exchange of twang, rapid picking, and irreverent musical wit.

A ferociously precise live duo from the 2002 Victoriaville festival pairing pianist Satoko Fujii with Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, both adding voice to an exhilarating barrage of stop-time exchanges, pounding rhythms, abrupt jump cuts and comic theatricality, racing through free improvisation, metal, boogie-woogie, tango and other stylistic collisions with remarkable speed, control and gleeful unpredictability.

A historic 2002 Victoriaville meeting of pianist Cecil Taylor, trumpeter Bill Dixon and percussionist Tony Oxley, yielding an unusually restrained and atmospheric performance in which Dixon's spacious, electronically colored brass lines anchor Taylor's delicate clusters and Oxley's finely detailed percussion, creating a sparse, suspended and quietly beautiful form of collective improvisation far removed from Taylor's more familiar torrents of sound.

The first release by the Quartet Noir ensemble of Urs Leimgruber on tenor and soprano saxophones, Marilyn Crispell on piano, Joëlle Léandre on double bass and Fritz Hauser on drums and percussion, recorded live at Victoriaville in 1998 as an eight-part collective improvisation whose dark, spacious textures, patient pacing and finely balanced use of silence gradually build toward passages of greater density and intensity.

Directed by composer Miya Masaoka, this expansive orchestra brings together a large ensemble of strings, winds, electronics, and world instruments — including contributions from George Lewis, Hafez Modirzadeh, Liberty Ellman, and Trevor Dunn — for two ambitious works that blend chamber writing, improvisation, tape, and street recordings, exploring themes of nuclear history and urban social conflict through layered textures, shifting styles, and provocative sonic collage.

Intense meeting of saxophone legend Parker and the remarkable Tuvan improvising vocalist Namtchylak performing live at Music Gallery in Toronto, 1996.

Recorded in February 1995, guitarist-composer Rene Lussier leads the massive Now Orchestra through a bold score that blends rock rhythms, free jazz blowouts and cinematic improvisation; across two days the ensemble of saxes, trumpet, cello, guitar, bass and drums navigates abrupt shifts, dense textures and playful detours, confirming a singular large-ensemble statement that remains vivid and unpredictable.

A riotous 1994 Victoriaville meeting of John King on electric guitar and voice, David Moss on drums, electronics and voice, and Otomo Yoshihide on electric guitar, turntables and table games, racing through thirteen compact improvisations that collide noise, fractured rock riffs, samples, vocal theater, parody and sudden flashes of melody with sharp collective reflexes and gleefully unstable stylistic jump cuts.

Live recordings and Derome's first release under his own name, inspired by Japanese magic squares and haikus, and performed in a group including Actuelle collective members Pierre Tanguay and Pierre Cartier.

The first recorded collaboration between Fred Frith and Rene Lussier, originating in a 1986 Victoriaville performance and subsequently expanded in the studio, combining guitars, bass, percussion, violin, piano, rhythm box, tapes and voice into a restless collage of composed and improvised music, with later contributions from Tenko Ueno, Geneviève Letarte and Christoph Anders adding Japanese, French and German vocals to the duo's idiosyncratic, genre-resistant sound world.

Elliott Sharp expands his Carbon ensemble for this seven-movement 1992 work, using strings, bass, drums, electronic percussion and doublebass guitar within an algorithmic framework that guides collective interpretation, balancing dense orchestral textures, extended techniques and volatile improvisation with tightly controlled compositional structure.

Composer and electric harpist Zeena Parkins leads an ensemble including sisters Margaret and Sara Parkins with Chris Cochrane, Ikue Mori, and David Shea in two intricately structured works that blend strings, electric harp, voices, percussion, and electronics, unfolding as a dynamic avant-garde chamber music exploration where collective improvisation, shifting textures, and subtle harmonic interplay shape richly layered sonic environments.

Lindsay Cooper and singer/lyricist Sally Potter lead an exceptional septet at the 1989 Victoriaville Festival, joined by Alfred 23 Harth, Hugh Hopper, Marilyn Mazur, Phil Minton and Elvira Plenar in a politically charged suite combining intricate composition, free improvisation, cabaret and European folk influences, moving from stark ensemble passages and ferocious reed work to Weill-like songs, Balkan inflections and darkly theatrical vocals.

Andre Duchesne's ambitious 1989 Victoriaville work L' Ou 'L, subtitled "Concerto for a Solitary Composer," combines narration, chamber rock, contrapuntal writing and free improvisation in a large ensemble of strings, saxophones, electric guitars, bass, piano and percussion, moving through ten contrasting sections that frame a surreal science-fiction meditation on the life of a composer-pilot.

A 2003 Victoriaville tribute to bassist Peter Kowald bringing together Barre Phillips, Joelle Leandre, William Parker and Tetsu Saitoh on four double basses and voices, uniting musicians shaped by free jazz, European new music, Japanese traditions and free improvisation in a deeply resonant collective performance reflecting Kowald's ideal of cross-cultural communication through improvised music.

A historic 2003 Victoriaville summit joining Evan Parker's trio with Alexander von Schlippenbach and Paul Lytton to Peter Brotzmann's trio with William Parker and Hamid Drake, creating a first-time sextet encounter where two deeply established improvising units collide and interlock through dense reed exchanges, surging rhythm, piano, bass and percussion in a fiercely collective meeting of European and American free improvisation.

Satoko Fujii's Min-Yoh Ensemble brings together Fujii on piano, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, Curtis Hasselbring on trombone and Andrea Parkins on accordion for original music inspired by the directness and emotional force of Japanese folk traditions, reimagining their simple forms, scales and communal spirit through richly expressive contemporary composition and improvisation.

Actuelle turntablist Martin Tetrault meets with radical hip-hop DJ Kid Koala at the 22nd Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in energetic duos filled with humor and instrumental acrobatics.

Braxton's Composition 361 is a staggeringly detailed 70 minute tour-de-force for his 12-tet, a work of shifting layers, counter-structures, quiet tensions and scorching explosions.

The first performance outside Japan by Kikuri, pairing Keiji Haino on electric guitar, drums and voice with Merzbow's Masami Akita on electronics, effects and drums at the 2007 Victoriaville Festival, moving between massive feedback and overdrive, blues-inflected guitar, percussion and unexpected passages of space and restraint in five intense yet remarkably varied improvisations.

Recorded live at Victoriaville in 2008, Rene Lussier, Martin Tetreault, and Otomo Yoshihide collide guitars, turntables, and a spy-mic in a sharp, unpredictable set, shifting between searching interplay and bursts of tightly-locked exchange, their contrasting approaches sparking inventive textures and raw electroacoustic energy.

A delicately powerful 2010 Victoriaville trio bringing together Barre Phillips on double bass, Catherine Jauniaux's extraordinary extended voice and Malcolm Goldstein on violin, creating spacious collective improvisations where bowed strings, vocal gesture, silence and sudden bursts of activity form an intimate, highly responsive chamber language.

The late trumpeter Bill Dixon's final performance at the 2011 Victo Festival, performing with and directing an incredible group including Taylor Ho Bynum, Rob Mazurek, Stephen Haynes, Graham Haynes, &c. &c.

Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq in a bizarre and amazing performance at the Victoriaville Festival in 2010 with Drip Audio director Jesse Zubot on violin and Barnyard boss Jean Martin on drums, computer, trumpophone.

French guitarist Richard Pinhas, Japanese electronics and noise artist Merzbow, and the American trio Wolf Eyes performed together at the 2011 Victo Festival, with this massive recording one result.

Composer/saxophonist Braxton performed "Composition NO 347 + 62'37" " at the 2011 Victo Festival with the "super-group" of Braxton alumni - Mary Halvorson, Taylor Ho Bynum, Jessica Pavone, Jay Rozen, Aaron Siegel, Carl Testa", on their respective instruments + iPods.

EVIYAN is Iva Bittova, Gyan Riley & Evan Ziporyn - 3 unique composer/performers merging into a singular sound, an intimate, acoustic blend of world roots, post-minimalism, jazz, rock, and cabaret.

UK multi-reed master Evan Parker brings an all-star electroacoustic septet to the 2014 Victoriaville Festival for the massive and wonderfully detailed two part composition "Seven", performed with Peter Evans, Okkyung Lee, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Sam Pluta, and Ned Rothenberg.

Two masters who rarely play together--guitarist Fred Frith and saxophonist Evan Parker--performing together as a duo at the 30th Musique Actuelle Festival in Victoriaville, Canada for an amazing exchange of ideas and intensely subtle dialog.

Documenting a reunion of Musica Elettronica Viva's founders Frederic Rzewski (piano and vocals), Richard Teitelbaum (keyboards and computer) and Alvin Curran (keyboards, computer and shofar) at the 32nd International Festival Of Current Music in Victoriaville, Canada in 2016.

Recorded live at the 1987 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, pianist Marilyn Crispell delivers a powerful solo performance that moves between explosive free improvisation and lyrical introspection, weaving dense clusters, driving rhythmic passages, and delicate melodic reflections into a deeply expressive exploration influenced by Cecil Taylor while asserting Crispell's own distinctive voice.

Led by Italian trumpeter Pino Minafra, the Sud Ensemble delivers a theatrical blend of avant-jazz, free improv, and Mediterranean-inflected exuberance, with Minafra joined by Carlo Actis Dato, Lauro Rossi, and Giorgio Occhipinti in a colorful program where brass, reeds, piano, voice, and an array of unusual instruments collide in playful, tightly arranged yet wildly expressive performances.

Captured live at the 1996 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, guitarist Thurston Moore joins drummer Tom Surgal and percussionist William Winant for a continuous performance of evolving free improvisation, the trio shaping dense waves of guitar noise, driving percussion, and textural resonance into a long-form exploration that bridges Moore's experimental rock sensibility with the festival's avant-garde improvising tradition.

Reuniting Montreal reedist Jean Derome with French clarinetist and saxophonist Louis Sclavis alongside bassist Bruno Chevillon and drummer Pierre Tanguay, this live performance from the 2001 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville blends elegant compositions, playful motifs, and adventurous improvisation, the quartet weaving jazz-rooted interplay with inventive textures and spirited rhythmic drive.

On the 30th anniversary of the Victo Festival Anthony Braxton took to the stage for a magnificent solo performance on the alto sax, performing 8 spontaneous compositions and an 8+ minute version of "Body and Soul", seamlessly crossing lyrical and complex approaches to the horn using his unique intervallic, trimbral and diagrammatic language, a stunning and embraceable accomplishment.

Celebrating 40 years as a performing ensemble, the West Coast saxophone quartet ROVA of Bruce Ackley on soprano saxophone, Steve Adams on alto & sopranino saxophones, Jon Raskin on baritone saxophone, and Larry Ochs on tenor saxophone, reworked compositions from all members transversing their past 34 years, in an absolutely impressive and diverse album.

Evan Parker's Electroacoustic Ensemble, merging reeds, strings and percussion with live signal processing to create something indescribably transformative is further amplified with the addition of free improvising vocalist and Tuvan throat singer Sainkho Namtchylak, adding an unearthly layer of interaction and transmogrification to this incredible 1996 FIMAV performance.

This mercurial and impressive 2021 Victoriaville Festival concert brought together improvisers from three duos as a quartet: guitarist Rene Lussier, who has a long running duo with turntablist Martin Tetreault; Erick d'Orion on computer and electronics, who also has a experimental sound duo with Tetrault; and frequently collaborator with Lussier, drummer Robbie Kuster.

A unique concert even by the standards of Victoriaville from The Growlers, a vocal ensemble who interpret heavy metal, known for their epic work "Hate.Machine" and "The Dayking" with participation from poet Fortner Anderson, performed here along with a comprovisation backed by an electronic track originated from electric guitar recordings.

A wild and adventurous concert and one of the highlights of the 39th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville from the electric improvising quartet of Elliott Sharp on electric guitar & electronics, Colin Stetson on bass, alto & tenor saxophones, Billy Martin on drums & percussion and Payton Macdonald on marimba, vibraphone & African xylophone.

The transatlantic trio of UK pianist Alexander Hawkins, NY drummer Kate Gentile and Canadian reedist Francois Houle are heard in four masterful spontaneous improvisations in their live performance at the 39th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, Houle performing on clarinets (sometimes two at a time) including the early, deep-note basset clarinet.

Extraordinary and masterful performers Sophie Agnel (piano) and John Butcher (soprano & tenor saxophones) present a live recording from the 40th International Festival of Current Music in Victoriaville, Canada, featuring five improvised pieces that highlight their exceptional interplay and collective discovery of new musical forms while exploring the boundaries of free improvisation.

Documenting a ferocious live performance from the 2018 Victoriaville Festival with additional recordings from 2025, the trio of Merzbow (electronics), Mats Gustafsson (bass & baritone sax, electronics), and Balázs Pándi (drums) unleash a volatile collision of noise, free jazz intensity, and crushing rhythmic force of towering electronic textures, blistering sax blasts, and wildly inventive percussion.

Across six CDs and more than six hours, Kevin Drumm develops a vast electroacoustic environment of drones, micro-acoustic detail and shifting frequency structures, balancing stasis and motion through gradual transformations in density, resonance and spatial depth, for an immersive study in the physical and perceptual qualities of sound; mastered by Jim O'Rourke.

A massive archive of drone & ambient composer Phill Niblock's films and music, from recordings made between 2013 and 2016 in festivals and studios around the world, orchestrated with primarily acoustic instruments using rich and closely related harmonics, paired with moving images of people from around the world engaged in work; hypnotic and engrossing.

IMJ offshoot label Hitorri presents Sachiko M's minial solo work of dual oscillator eruptions.

Core Anode is Otomo's roaring-sound project, 3 pieces recorded live at concerts in Tokyo (2002), Copenhagen (2006), and London (2006).

Masters of tonality, in their 2nd release the dual clarinets of Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke are heard without any guest musicians, making a rich, gorgeous album of tense timbres.

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 flute, using long tones and repetition that allow the performer decisions on their length, performed by a Berlin-based octet including Catherine Lamb, Johnny Change, Samuel Dunscombe, &c.

Legendary Japanese free jazz reedist Akira Sakata's first release on the Ftarri label, in a concert with sound artist and synthesist Ken Ikeda, recording live at Fatrri's own Tokyo space in two improvised performances of approximately 30 minutes each of subtle, expressive interactions through even-tempered discourse and spacious patience, punctuated by Sakata's bell.

Impeccably recorded inside the Brønshøj Water Tower, in Copenhagen, Denmark, a highly resonant space built 100 years ago, where UK tenor and soprano saxophonist John Butcher continues his investigations into spaces with natural delay and decay, through 11 improvisations of discriminating pacing as he finds incredible beauty in floating and shifting tones and instrument errata; exquisite.

Chris Watson recorded John Butcher on acoustic & amplified sax and Rhodri Davies on acoustic & electric harp in Routing Lynn in Northumberland, then joined them live at a festival in Gateshead where the duo played alongside Watson's reworked recordings.

At the same event in Scotland that John Butcher recorded his excellent "Resonant Spaces" album, he also joined forces with sound artist Akio Suzuki on a variety of objects and sound devices to record the first 5 tracks of this unusual album of very free improv, the last track by the duo recording at the 2015 Ftarri Festival at SuperDeluxe in Tokyo.

Three solo tracks by Zhao Cong, who develops suspenseful sonic environments over which she inventively and patiently adds daily objects, sounds from her mixer, condenser microphone, her voice, a cardpaper tube, no input feedback, contact microphones, and a home ballroom light, each piece evolving with a unique disposition towards certain associative sounds; fascinating.

Assembled in London to improvise music for Stewart Morgan's film Eddie Prevost's Blood, this release adds much more material beyond the soundtrack, in a superb example of free and charged creative improvisation seeking unique combinations of expression, from Jennifer Allum on violin, John Butcher on saxophones, Ute Kanngiesser on cello and Eddie Prevost on percussion.

A singularly beautiful and quirky album of electroacoustic improvisation from long-time collaborators and organizers of Japan's "Meeting at Off Site", Tetuzi Akiyama on acoustic guitar and Toshimaru Nakamura on no-input mixing board, their second duo album since 2009's Semi-Impressionism on the Spekk label, here recording in the studio for five dialogs of lovely eccentricity.

A rich and unusual interpretation of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" recorded in Boswil, Switzerland in 1981 with McPhee, Pierre Favre, Irene Schweizer, Radu Malfatti, Daniel Bourquin, &c., in its first-ever release.

Unreleased for more than 39 years, these remarkably creative live solo performances on trumpet, flugelhorn, flute, steelophone, percussion and gongs from improvisor and composer Wadada Leo Smith were recorded in Los Angeles in 1977, during his visionary Kabell Records years.

Founded in 1967 by pianist Misha Mengelberg, drummer Han Bennink, and saxophonist & clarinetist Willem Breuker, this double CD documents the earliest years of the ICP collective through live & studio recordings from 1966-71, with an impressive cast of jazz and contemporary compositional players creating a delightfully diverse set of approaches to improvisation.

Cornetist Josh Berman's trio with Jason Roebke on bass and Chris Corsano on drums brings Chicago's jazz lineage into sharp contemporary focus, balancing compact composition and expansive interaction through playful, adventurous music that draws on early jazz, AACM-rooted invention, melodic swing, textural abstraction, and volatile rhythmic exchange.

Calling his music jazz and not jazz, bassist Brandon Lopez demands of his listeners to dance, as the quartet of Lopez, Steve Baczkowski on saxophones, Gerald Cleaver on percussion and Cecilia Lopez on synthesizer are heard in this energetic live concert at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, blurring free jazz with experimental sound that never loses its strong grooves.

In 1978 after recording his acclaimed solo album Monoceros, saxophonist Evan Parker embarked on a solo tour of the US and Canada, in New York City performing at the legendary loft space Environ, his first-ever solo performance in NYC and a masterpiece of extended techniques, circular breathing and spectacular control on the soprano and tenor saxophones.

A dynamic trio session from Frode Gjerstad on alto sax & clarinet, Alexander von Schlippenbach on piano, and Dag Magnus Narvesen on drums & percussion, their first collaboration unfolds in seven spontaneous improvisations that balance fierce intensity with lyrical openness, revealing a seasoned interplay that blends deep exploration with collective free jazz sensibility.

Recorded at Nevessa Studio in New York, Camila Nebbia joins Marilyn Crispell and Lesley Mok in a fiercely intuitive trio session blending open scores and full improvisation, where elastic group interplay, textural sensitivity, and eruptive momentum allow the music to breathe as a single organism while leaving space for sharply defined individual voices to emerge.

A fierce, spontaneous duo of Camila Nebbia on tenor saxophone and Chris Corsano on drums, recorded in Berlin in 2025, merging Nebbia's searching lines, breath-driven textures and unstable lyricism with Corsano's explosive, highly detailed percussion language, moving between delicate abrasion, surging intensity, fragmented melody and raw improvised exchange.

The third recording from this group of long-time collaborators, with Golia on soprano, alto and tenor sax, Bobby Bradford on cornet, Ken Filiano on bass and Alex Cline on drums in a set of Golia original compositions.

Collective improvisation from Ho Bynum's Book of Three with bassist John Hebert & drummer Gerald Cleaver, following their RogueArt CD with this exceptional album of original compositions plus works from Bobby Bradford, Salim Washington, and Jim Hobbs.

A tour de force saxophone duo between two masterful New York players--alto saxophonist Tim Berne and drummer Nasheet Waits--recording live at The Sultan Room in Brooklyn NY in 2019, in two impressive dialogs: "Tensile" for nearly 40 minutes of articulate expression and powerful rhythmic interaction; and the more introspective "5See" of impressive technique and intention.

The debut of the advanced and innovative collaboration between improviser and prominent double bassist Barre Phillips, British saxophonist John Butcher and Norwegian drummer, percussionist and improviser, Stale Liavik Solberg, recording at the Blow out Festival in Oslo, Norway in 2019, and at Offene Ohren, Einstein Kultur, in Munchen, Germany in 2018.

The 2nd release from Magda Mayas' Filamental octet of Mayas, Zeena Parkins, Michel Thieke, Christine Abdelnour, Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies, Aimée Theriot and Anthea Caddy, is a fascinating studio composition developed from individual recordings provided by each musician, assembled into two detailed and cohesive works of impressive contours and almost ceremonial beauty.

Using viola, effects, and on one track, voice, New York improviser and Anthony Braxton ensemble member Jessica Pavone presents a uniquely voiced solo album, approaching the instrument through simple means that become increasingly twisted and unforseen as they advance.

The first duo recordings from fellow New York jazz musicians, trombonist Steve Swell and pianist Matthew Shipp, having brushed shoulders together with Whit Dickey, Dom Minasai, Jemeel Moondoc, Allen Lowe &c., they bring a wealth of familiar knowledge and language to their binary concentration, through twelve concise dialogs themed around the dark expanse of space; masterful and intimate.

Recording in the Merkin Concert Hall on a Steinway Grand Piano, New York pianist Matthew Shipp's seventeen numbered tracks of "The Data" takes listeners through a virtual history of jazz and contemporary improvisation, from beautifully lyrical moments to rapidly complex matrices of expression, balancing his approaches into an absorbing and rewarding album.

39 tracks make up this compelling 3-part solo percussion work from Swiss improviser and composer Christian Wolfarth, using a game approach where some sequences are determined by the roll of a dice for note values, rest and tempo, Wolfarth performing on dead wood, a drum or 39 pine cones, augmented with recordings of stones, water, footsteps, church bells, &c.

An extended electroacoustic piece recorded in 2011 and named as an apt description of the bubbling, dense and intense flow of sound Chrysakis generates using electronic devices, acoustic sounds and field recordings, an absorbing work of audio flux and percolation.

A fascinating double album uniting guitarist Gene Torchia on amplified classical guitar and John Stowell on electric guitar, recorded in the studio between 2023 and 2025, blending composed works written for modern classical guitar and flute with Stowell's improvisations to create a rich and stylistically diverse dialogue spanning blues, Latin, Irish, baroque, and avant-garde forms.

After 25 years, saxophonist, flutist, and pianist Sam Rivers reunites his groundbreaking trio of Dave Holland on bass and Barry Altschul on drums for a fully improvised concert at Miller Theatre.

Marc Ribot's highly anticipated debut as a leader in a band with Henry Grimes on bass and Chad Taylor on drums, performing at the iconic Village Vanguard, with material including Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, &c.

Marking 50 years for Chicago's most important and innovative ensembles, formed in 1969 to advance creative musicians as part of the AACM, is this tribute to and based on music written by late members Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors, and Joseph Jarman, performed by 15 innovative musicians young and old, and presented in 2 CDs: one in the studio and one live at the 2018 Edgefest.

Three CDs in a beautifully constructed fold-out cross with liner notes and recording data from NY drummer Kate Gentile, in a set of 41 studio recordings with her working band of Matt Mitchell on piano & keys, Kim Cass on acoustic & electric bass and Jeremy Viner on reeds, each disc exploring a distinct yet connected approach to her fascinating compositions and group interaction.

Great record from Threadgill's Zooid ensemble, an all-acoustic group with guitar, cello, oud, tuba and drums, along with the leaders saxophone and flute. Beautiful compositions, nicely played.

Threadgill's 2nd Volume with Jose Davila, Liberty Ellman, Elliot Humberto Kavee, and Stomu Takeishi, intelligent and cutting-edge music exploring the boundaries of composition & improvisation.

Henry Threadgill and his Zooid band follow up the 2 part "This Bring Us To" series with this exceptional album of NY jazz, abstracting the jazz idiom in persuasive and stunning ways through great writing and playing.

Five years after their debut, co-leaders Anna Webber and Angela Morris return with a 19-piece large ensemble recording that showcases their next-level compositional voices, unfolding through the "Just Intonation Etudes for Big Band" suite and a series of richly orchestrated works that balance drones, contrapuntal density, rhythmic blasts, and lyrical themes in an adventurous exploration of sound and structure.

Blending cellist Miguel Mira's structural premeditation with the spontaneity of free improvisation, the trio of Mira, saxophonist Yedo Gibson, and drummer Felice Furioso crafts a richly textural and architectonically inspired session, recorded in Lisbon, where extended techniques and expressive interplay shape a dynamic sonic vision of figurative expressionism in sound.

An inspired meeting between Portuguese double bassist João Madeira and pioneering violinist Carlos Zingaro, recorded in 2023 in Barreiro, Portugal, their duo exploring a vast sonic terrain of lyrical interplay, textural bow work, and spontaneous counterpoint, moving from delicate introspection to angular abstraction with an intuitive rapport that bridges risk and curiosity.

Two deep basses come together in this recording of a live performance at O'Culto de Ajuda, Lisboa, Portugal between Red Trio double bassist Hernani Faustino and Ensemble MIA/String Theory double bassist Joao Madeira, mixing bowed and plucked styles along with preparations and extended techniques in a three part suite of powerfully imposing improvisation.

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.

Recorded live at Moosham Castle in Austria in 1976, Cecil Taylor's solo piano performance is an unyielding exploration of percussive intensity and harmonic abstraction, unfolding in torrents of kinetic energy, intricate melodic leaps, and structural invention, demanding deep engagement as he fuses free jazz and contemporary classical influences into a towering and uncompromising artistic statement.

Recorded live at the 2023 Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria, this powerhouse quartet of Joe McPhee, Susanna Gartmayer, John Edwards, and Maria Portugal delivers an electrifying set of spontaneous composition, blending fierce improvisation, commanding technique, and bold interplay in a dynamic performance brimming with vitality and creative approaches to improv.

Drawing on a 20-year musical partnership, Chicago-born saxophonist Frank Trompeter joins drummer, percussionist and wood flutist Richard Gilman-Opalsky for an impassioned studio duo of free jazz and creative improvisation, moving from melodic and swinging exchanges to raw, turbulent intensity shaped by deep familiarity, spontaneous interplay and an explicitly antifascist spirit.

An all-star lineup for European free jazz with Evan Parker, Sten Sandell, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten and Paal Nilssen Love on a double CD recorded live at Belleville.

Two pianists dedicate to their instruments at the Gallus Hall of Cankarjev Dom during the 57th Jazz Festival Ljubljana: Paris-based pianist Eve Risser (Umlaut, En-Corps, &c) and Slovenian pianist Kaja Draskler (I/O, Draskler Octet, &c.), to record these inventive duos, weaving their keys together or working inside and out of the piano in incredible sonic approaches.

Recording in the Bay Area at the Mills College Chapel in Oakland, the Drone Trio of Fred Frith on electric guitar, Phillip Greenlief using extended techniques on alto & tenor saxophones, and Evelyn Davis on the Chapel's pipe organ, use the natural resonance of the chapel and their masterful skills as improvisers to evolve fervid and powerfully sonorous environments.

The Empty Cage Quartet in 2 compositions that incorporate improvisational systems based on harmonic palindromes & melodic sequences derived from the cycles of the Mayan calendar

From post/hard bop to African-influenced spiritual jazz, the 2nd release from saxophonist & clarinetist Avram Fefer's quartet with Marc Ribot on guitar, Eric Revis on bass and Chad Taylor on drums swings freely or finds introspective grooves in nine original Fefer compositions of rich melodies around unusual time signatures, yielding extraordinary soloing and group interplay.

The "Inner Landscape" of cellist Daniel Levin's playing in a 6-part solo release of pure improvisation as Levin finds his music in real time through spontaneous play and surprise.

The New York duo of saxophonists Rudresh Mahanthappa and Steve Lehman in their co-led quintet with Liberty Ellman on guitar, Matt Brewer on bass and Damion Reid on drums.

The sixth album as a leader from the Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-based pianist Davis, composing for the inspired working group of Mat Maneri (viola), Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Trevor Dunn (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums & glockenspiel).

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.

For their 3rd album together, the trio of saxophonist Peter Brotzmann, bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble are caught live at the 2013 Ljubljana Jazz Festival for three blistering works of free improvisation.

The debut recording of the NY based trio of London-transplant saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, drummer Tyshawn Sorey and pianist Kris Davis, refreshingly unconventional improvisation.

NY Saxophonist Tony Malaby's Paloma Recio with Ben Monder on guitar, Eivind Opsvik on double bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums in a studio album performing Malaby's 4-part "Incantation Suite", lyrically free improvisation with a shimmering essence invoking dreamlike states.

A live performance from Culturgest in Lisbon, Portugal, 2015 of Portugese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler, presenting six free improvisations that showcase both the technical skills and the strong creative powers of both improvisers.

Drawing from some of NYC's finest - Tim Berne, Tony Malaby, Mary Halvorson and Andrea Parks - drummer Ches Smith's band takes the Downtown NY strategy to bridge experimental rock and avant jazz in unexpected and astonishing ways.