"Battle Pieces" uses trumpeter Nate Wooley's "social music" system, where each piece is constructed for a soloist who improvises with no score while the remaining player choose at will from over 75 compositions over which the soloist must find their path; here at Roulette in NYC with Nate Wooley, Sylvie Courvoisier, Ingrid Laubrock, & Matt Moran.

With an extensive discography of collaboration together in a wealth of groupings, New York bassist Formanek and alto saxophonist Tim Berne are heard in this 1991 live duo performance at The Parlour in Providence, Rhode Island, a powerfully confident concert of informed dialogs captured seven years before their only other duo album from 1998, Ornery People.

Recorded live in Berlin, the debut from Camila Nebbia's working trio with Kit Downes and Andrew Lisle captures six dynamic, unrestrained pieces that navigate shifting textures and rhythms, fractured lyricism, and tightly woven interplay, avoiding individual soloing as the group explores contrast and transformation through raw energy, deep listening, and collective momentum.

The second outing for trumpeter and composer Nate Wooley's Columbia Icefield band with Mary Halvorson on guitar, Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar, Ryan Sawyer on drums, plus violist Mat Maneri and bassist Trevor Dunn joining for one track; an album of sublime and subtly complex sondscapes in beautiful abstractions that evolve to exceptional group and solo interplay.

Three drummer/percussionists and bass make up vibraphonist, marimbist, improviser and composer Patricia Brennan's sophomore album, reimagining the percussion quartet through jazz, new music and latin influences including Mexican folkloric roots, working with deceptively relaxed, highly interactive grooves that turn angular melodies into warmly irresistible music.

Assembling a masterful set of New York jazz luminaries including Michael Attias, Ben Goldberg, John Hebert, Thomas Heberer, Sam Ospovat, Chris Speed, Omar Tamez and Kenny Warren, pianist Angelic Sanchez tailors her compositions to these players through nine original compositions, along with Ellington's "Lady of the Lavender Mist" and "Tristeza" by Amarndo Carvajal.

For her third album as a leader, NY vibraphonist and composer Patricia Brennan expands her band to a septet with bassist Kim Cass, drummer Marcus Gilmore, percussionist Mauricio Herrera, saxophonists Jon Irabagon and Mark Shim and trumpeter Adam O'Farrill also on electronics, for an exciting, widely embracing and fully modern album of compelling modern jazz, bound to be a 2024 top 10!

A formidable first meeting between keyboardist Craig Taborn, guitarist Nels Cline, and drummer Marcus Gilmore, where three singular voices of modern creative music converge in assertive, Downtown-NY-steeped, genre-defying interplay — originals, reimagined works, and spontaneous improvisations blooming into a vibrant, exploratory dialogue of texture, rhythm, and imagination.

A chamber-like duo meeting clarinetist François Houle with pianist/composer Georg Graewe in ten concise pieces that balance compositional form and spontaneous interaction, moving between lyrical passages, angular exchanges, and playful references to historical dance forms in an intimate dialogue between clarinet and piano.

Relative Pitch Records debuts with the excellent duo of bassist Joelle Leandre and Bay Area woodwind improviser Phil Greenlief in 11 variations for contrabass and woodwinds.

Merging different sub-genre of NYC's rich jazz and creative music scene, drummer Tomas Fujiwara's trio with Brandon Seabrook on guitar and Ralph Alessi on trumpet furtively builds into a free jazz album of contrasting dynamics and superb playing.

A limited edition release of guitarist Joe Morri's new NY-area aggressive improvising trio with younger players Dave Parmelle on drums and Chris Cretella on electric bass, shredding with awesome technical skill and intense harmonic and melodic force, really powerful stuff!

Crossing Netherland and New York players, Ab Baars on reeds, Ig Henneman on viola, Ingrid Laubrcok on sax and Tom Rainey on drums present an album of insightful improv that borrows approaches to sound from natural world, performed live at Tampere Jazz Happening, Finland in 2014.

After their 2016 tour of the US West Coast, husband and wife free improvising duo Ingrid Laubrock (tenor & soprano sax) and Tom Rainey (drums) entered a Brooklyn studio with a set of co-written compositions, which they weave together with free improv, relying on cues that can trigger a given composition at any time, adding a unique layer of communication to their exuberant playing.

An album of brutal improvisation in the Borbetomagus mold as the longstanding Maranata duo of Dag Stiberg on alto and baritone saxophones and Jon Wesseltoft on electronics join forces with Mexican saxophonist Martín Escalante, creating an unrelenting sonic assault of frenzied saxophone interplay and harsh electronics, fueled by a visceral intensity and high-pressure chaotic energy.

An archival recording from 1982 at The Piedmont Center For The Arts in Worcester, MA captures visionary saxophonist Julius Hemphill and multi-reedist Marty Ehrlich in a deeply intuitive exchange across soprano and alto saxophones, flute, and bass clarinet, blending open exploration with blues-rooted lyricism as their long-standing creative dialogue unfolds in richly expressive improvisation.

A five-CD survey of Jon Rose's Rosenberg Museum, the violinist's decades-long Gesamtkunstwerk of invented, altered and repurposed string instruments, documenting a practice that treats the violin as a limitless field for acoustic experiment, cultural critique and sonic invention, with John Oswald contributing to this expansive archive of new instruments, new sounds and unstable musical histories.

Seminal figures in the evolution of free or nonidiomatic improvisation, guitarist Derek Bailey and percussionist/pocket trumpeter John Stevens are heard in a 1989 London performance vividly captured by Michael Gerzon at The Duke of Wellington, their restless and enthusiastic interplay shifting from angular invention to lyrical reflection in a compelling document of their remarkable rapport.

A comprehensive album of live performances from IST (Rhodri Davies: harp, preparations; Simon H. Fell: double bass, preparations; Mark Wastell: violoncello, preparations) between 1996 and 2000, beginning with their concert at Club Orange in London and including concerts in London, Billericay, Norwich and Cambridge, with a 20 page booklet of photos and text from the band & collaborators.

Featuring Sei Miguel on trumpet and direction with Fala Mariam, Nuno Torres, Pedro Lourenco, Bruno Silva, Andre Goncalves, Raphael Soares and Luis Desirat, documenting the final performances of O Carro de Fogo in two 2023 Portuguese concerts, where spacious ensemble architecture, microtonal phrasing and tightly controlled collective interplay affirm Miguel's singular late-period vision.

Cortex propels their persuasive, groove oriented approach to jazz with this swinging album that blends free jazz styles with great hard bop, in line with a band like The Thing, this Scandinavian group wants to make your body move without indulging in excess or pandering, instead following a muse that's solidly in the exuberant free jazz tradition.

Viola improviser and composer Mat Maneri leads this trio with British UK legend Evan Parker on soprano and tenor saxophone and Romanian ex-patriot and frequent collaborator Lucian Ban on piano, for ten compositions blending tradition, song, and improvisational tactics, recalling 20th century modern classical music in addition to jazz.

Four unique compositions from Portuguese trumpeter Sei Miguel, whose work embraces jazz history while incorporating his own music systems, here each piece varying the size of each grouping with one constant, his frequent sideman, alto trombonist Fala Mariam; plus luminaries including Rodrigo Amado, Ernesto Rodridgues, Helena Espvall, Nuno Torres, Rafel Toral, Paulo Curado, &c.

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.

Bay Area trumpeter Darren Johnston meets improvising guitar legend Fred Frith for an incredibly well-paced series of duos, remarkable improv that uses space, skill, extended techniques and unexpected approaches to both instruments in vivid and beautiful discourse.

The 2nd release on Clean Feed by drummer Joao Lencastre's Communion, a shape-shifting ensemble here configured with 2 New York improvisers from Lencastre's associations over 15 years in NYC--pianist Jakob Sacks and bassist Eivind Opsvik--for 10 studio recordings which include the 4-part "Magnetic Frequency", blurring lyrical avant jazz and chamber forms; beautiful.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Diverse aspects of the 2011 disaster at the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant brought on by a tsunami orchestrated in sound by composer/pianist Satoko Fujii and rendered in remarkable ways from some of New York finest improvisers, including Tony Malaby, Ellery Eskelin, Oscar Noriega, Herb Roberts, Joe Fiedler, Stomu Takeishi, Nels Cline, &c &c.

Satoko Fujii leads her 13-piece big band through 5 thrilling and insightful compositions with a who's-who of NY improvisation: Nels Cline (guitar), Ches Smith (drums), Joe Fiedler & Curt Hasselbring (drums), Oscar Noriega, Ellery Eskelin, Briggan Krauss, Andy Laster & Tony Malaby (sax), Herb Robertson, Natsuki Tamura & Dave Ballou (trumpet) & bassist Stomu Takeishi; wow!

Recorded live at Cafe Oto, this first-time quartet of percussionists Paul Lytton and Eddie Prevost, trumpeter Nate Wooley and saxophonist Seymour Wright brings together overlapping histories of long-standing, renewed and entirely new collaborations, using those contrasting degrees of familiarity to shape a freely improvised performance of shifting alliances, layered interaction and distinct individual voices.

The mystifying duo of Axel Dorner (trumpet, electronics) and Mark Sanders (drums, percussion) blurs the line between electronic and acoustic in this enthralling album.

New York-based trumpeter Nate Wooley and London-based saxophonist Seymour Wright in a series of 9 duos using the fringes of their instruments in exploratory and introspective dialog of great depth and intensity.

Two live sets of exemplary improvisation: the first revelatory encounter of pianist Sebastian Lexer and drummer/percussionist Steve Noble from 2011, and a more considered and spacious meeting in 2014, both from London's Cafe OTO.

A meeting between two accomplished saxophonists recorded live at Kernel Brewery, in London in 2014, and at The Studio in Derby, with Seymour Wright on alto saxophone and Evan Parker on both alto and soprano, criss-crossing and combining in exuberant and astonishing ways.

Three superb London improvisers, two from the new generation of free improv--bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders--in a trio with legendary pianist John Tilbury in a two part work of tension and release, performed live at Cafe Oto in 2013.

Recorded for the release concert of their 2013 album Exta, the trio of John Butcher on saxophones, Thomas Lehn on analog synthesizer and John Tilbury on piano captured this extraordinary live concert at Cafe Oto in London, only the second time the group had performed together, recording in two extended sets but segmented into four exceptional and dramatic improvisations.

After "Exta", where saxophonist John Butcher and electronics artist Thomas Lehn met with pianist John Tilbury, the duo now meet with New York pianist Matthew Shipp for a distinct improvisational entanglement of Butcher's dense streams, Lehn's rich sound floor, and Shipp's thick repetitions.

Guitarist Jon Madof leads bassist Yoshie Fruchter and drummer Nate Rappaport, with percussionist Moshe Sobol, in a powerful trio blending Jewish melodic traditions, surf guitar, jazz improvisation, post-rock, punk and metal, balancing lyrical passages, heavy riffs and open improvisation in a compact extension of Madof's work with Rashanim and Zion80.

Marking their 39th year together, pianist Chris Abrahams, drummer Tony Buck, and bassist Lloyd Swanton expand their immersive approach to improv across three discs of evolving intensity, recording in the studio in Australia, where four long-form pieces unfold with hypnotic patience, microscopic detail, and The Necks' hallmark balance of restraint, texture, and boundless improvisational discovery.

The legendary trio Joseph Holbrooke — guitarist Derek Bailey, bassist Gavin Bryars, and drummer Tony Oxley — reunited after decades for one final performance in 2001, captured in this historic live recording that highlights their uncompromising commitment to free improvisation, the set resonating with both the radical spirit of their 1960s origins and the profound artistry of three pioneering voices in avant-garde music.

Following their acclaimed 2024 album Samsara, Painkiller returns with Mick Harris (beats, electronics), Bill Laswell (bass), and John Zorn (alto saxophone) delivering six intense and genre-blurring tracks that fuse jazz, grindcore, metal, noise, and techno into an exhilarating, multilayered sonic journey inspired by the magickal practices of Aleister Crowley.

Featuring some of composer John Zorn's most lyrical work, the duo of guitarists Gyan Riley and Julian Lage continue their collaboration in the series that started in 2015 with The Bagatelles and continues through Midsummer Moons (2017), Book Beri'ah (2019), and Quatrain (2023), as they render Zorn's beautiful merging of eclectic forms inspired by William Shakespeare.

Two spontaneously composed original improvisation from the collaborative partnership of Ike Levin on tenor saxophone and Joel Futterman on piano & Indian flute, their long history together allowing great depth of connection, passionate expression and periods of reflective contemplation, weaving their playing with meticulous detail inside an impressive and masterful journey.

Drawing on live and studio recordings made in Switzerland in 2005 and 2006 and rediscovered nearly two decades later, Antoine Chessex and Dave Phillips reshape archival material into two extended works of musique concrete, noise and dense electronics, threaded with spectral voices from the Swiss Silvesterchlausen tradition and transformed through layering, decomposition and temporal dislocation.

Composer Amanda Feery, with guitarist/electronic musician Declan Synnott, builds a 43-minute electroacoustic "Mass for the Tenant" from organ recordings made at St. Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork, choral recordings by 4 in a Bar, electronics, tin whistle and guitar, examining home as sanctuary and contested space through themes of displacement, occupation and belonging.

Percussionists Ted Byrnes and Jeph Jerman follow their 2023 collaboration Passenger with ten entirely acoustic drum-set improvisations created through iterative file exchange, exploiting heads, rims, shells, hardware and resonant surfaces for dense collisions of impact, scrape, rattle, fractured pulse and finely detailed interaction, dedicated to their friend and inspiration Tim Barnes.

Lance Austin Olsen and Pierre Gerard construct three extended variations from guitars, voices, MIDI organ, shruti box, field recordings, sho and amplified objects, shaping sparse electroacoustic environments where speech, sustained tones and tactile sounds drift through layered edits, including material from Olsen's *Shadow Worlds*, in a study of texture, memory and transformation.

Berlin-based singer, guitarist and composer Margareth Kammerer gathers nine songs recorded between 2007 and 2019 with Chris Abrahams, Werner Dafeldecker, Axel Dörner, Steve Heather, Bernd Jestram, Big Daddy Mugglestone, Valerio Tricoli and Bo Wiget, blending intimate song form, restrained improvisation and electroacoustic detail across music originally developed in part for film.

Italian sound artist Marie Rose Sarri and French composer Bruno Duplant shape two extended electroacoustic studies from analog and digital sources, field recordings and acoustic/electronic devices, building dense but fluid environments where layered textures, shifting resonances and circulating sound events create a lively, continuously transforming sense of space.

Reuniting for their first Japanese performances together since 2019, Martin Taxt on tuba, Tetuzi Akiyama on guitar and Toshimaru Nakamura on no-input mixing board present two extended 2024 live improvisations from Tokyo and Kamogawa, balancing low brass resonance, tactile guitar detail and unstable electronic feedback through patient, spacious interaction shaped by a collaboration dating to 2006.

Reuniting after a nine-year hiatus, Marteau Rouge — Jean-Francois Pauvros, Jean-Marc Foussat and Makoto Sato — joins longtime associate Daunik Lazro on tenor saxophone for a live Montreuil performance of seven compact improvisations, merging distorted guitar, Synthi AKS electronics, percussion, voices and toys with Lazro's incisive tenor in a volatile mix of free jazz, noise and free rock.

Referencing the collective NY Loft scene of the 1980's, the trio of Jean-Jacques Avenel on bass, Siegfried Kessler on piano, keys & ring modulator and Daunik Lazro on alto sax & tuba sax, are heard in a Béziers Jazz Action concert recorded in the crypt of a Franciscan theater, in two suites of collective improvisation, the 2nd adding unusual electronics from Kessler.

Recordings from 2000 at Instants Chavires in Montreuil, France from the free improvising trio of Peter Kowald on double bass, Daunik Lazro on alto & baritone sax, and Annick Nozati on voice, in a uniquely informed dialog representing the only time this masterful trio performed.

Four free players from the assertive history of French free jazz--Jean Querlier on alto saxophone & soprano oboe, Jouk Minor on baritone & sopranino saxophones, Rachid Houari (the original drummer for Gong) on drums and Joseph Traindl on trombone--are heard in this exceptional and determined set performing two compositions by Jouk Minor at the 1st Massy Independent Festival in 1975.

The duo of bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel and alto saxophonist Daunik Lazro are captured live in 1980 at the Massy Library in France in an essential document of French free music, a marvel of liberated improvisation where Lazro's uncompromising voice meets Avenel's inspired and multifaceted playing, captured with clarity by engineer Jean-Marc Foussat in a performance both intense and deeply authentic.

Reissuing the 2002 Potlatch release of this exceptional free improvising quartet of Daunik Lazro on alto & baritone saxophones, Carlos Alves "Zingaro" on violin, Joëlle Léandre on double bass and Paul Lovens on percussion & musical saw, some of the most notable of European improvisers captured live during the 2001 "Banlieues Bleues" Festival.

Four journeys in passionately rich sound merging synthetics, acousmatic sources, field recordings and acoustic violin from the duo of Anne Foucher, who has worked with the Acousmaki collective, on violin and electronics, and Jean-Marc Foussat on Synthi AKS, piano, toys and voice, captured live in 2022 at rue Floreal, in Montpellier and at rue de Genac, in Bignac, France.

Bringing together two masterful and legendary players from the European Free Improv scene -- French double bassist and vocalist Joëlle Léandre and UK drummer & percussionist Paul Lovens -- heard in this live performance at Les Temps du Corps, in Paris, free playing in two parts with an incredible sense of communication, timing, humor, virtuosity and finesse.

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.

Legendary Japanese guitarist Keiji Haino and London drummer/percussionist Steve Noble meet live at Cafe OTO in 2012 for a volatile duo performance moving between near-silence, blues-tinged reflection, dense feedback and explosive free improvisation, with Haino on electric guitar, electronics and wooden flute against Noble's expansive percussion setup, balancing raw intensity with spacious, highly responsive interplay.

Seoul-born gayageum virtuoso and vocalist DoYeon Kim makes a striking bandleader debut with a quartet of Tyshawn Sorey on drums, Mat Maneri on viola and Henry Fraser on bass, merging Korean string and storytelling traditions with contemporary improvisation in a forceful, deeply expressive set of compositions and group interactions that move from bristling acoustic intensity to communal, humanist resonance.

Drummer Chris Corsano and guitarist Tashi Dorji unleash a volatile live duo set recorded in Asheville, North Carolina, moving between polyrhythmic free-jazz eruptions, fractured rock grooves, angular riffing, feedback, and psychedelic noise in a fiercely interactive performance that captures both players at their most restless, physical, and responsive.

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.

French electronic music pioneer Eliane Radigue performs her three-part composition Triptych, recorded in her Paris studio and inspired by Tibetan Buddhism and the elemental forces of water, air, fire, and earth, presenting a patient, immersive work of sustained electronic tones and subtle transformation, here issued as a double LP with the complete pieces preserved without editing or cuts.

Four major electroacoustic improvisers — Bryan Eubanks on soprano saxophone, electronics and modular synthesizer, Gert-Jan Prins on electronics and percussion, Tetuzi Akiyama on guitar, and Toshimaru Nakamura on no-input mixing board — each recorded separate solo performances, assembled by Prins, Eubanks and Nakamura into four distinct collective works of shifting textures and sonic interplay.

On their sixth album, FEN — Otomo Yoshihide, Ryu Hankil, Yuen Chee Wai, and Yan Jun — present four 15-minute works originally devised for the 2018 Gwangju Biennale, combining guitar, electronics, Max/MSP, and field recordings through a blind process of cutting, rearranging, and chance-based assembly that turns separation, chance, and juxtaposition into the music's organizing principles.

Japanese improviser Junji Hirose documents two 2024 solo sessions at Tokyo's Pool using his evolving self-made SSI sound instruments � including bicycle-wheel and metal-tray constructions � plus a final piece directing compressed air onto microphones, producing five works that move between metallic resonance, white noise, subtle textures and explosive acoustic force.

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.