The Squid's Ear Magazine
Squidco Summer 20% Sale!
   550+ Albums At 20% Off Until August 2nd!


  Top Lists Sold @ Squidco
Squidco Top 40 by Customer Orders

Tomas Fujiwara
Dream Up
(Out Of Your Head Records)

Recorded at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, drummer and composer Tomas Fujiwara introduces his Percussion Quartet with Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, Tim Keiper on African strings and percussion, and Kaoru Watanabe on Japanese drums and flute, blending global traditions into vivid, imaginative works that traverse groove, texture, and color with striking originality and depth.


Tomeka Reid Quartet (w/ Roebke / Halvorson / Fujiwara)
Dance! Skip! Hop!
(Out Of Your Head Records)

Led by cellist Tomeka Reid, this longstanding quartet with Mary Halvorson on guitar, Jason Roebke on bass, and Tomas Fujiwara on drums delivers a rhythmically propulsive and structurally nimble set that balances grounded low-end drive with agile drumming, incisive guitar textures, and Reid's expressive counterpoint, channeling echoes of 1960s jazz while asserting an exuberant, and yes — danceable — release!


Marta Sanchez
For The Space You Left
(Out Of Your Head Records)

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.


Adam O'Farrill (O'Farrill / Rogers / Stinson / Holzman)
Elephant
(Out Of Your Head Records)

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.


Milton Michaeli / Asaf Shchori / Hamid Drake
Universal Butterfly
(577 Records)

Bridging generations of creative music, pianist Milton Michaeli, double bassist Asaf Shchori, and drummer Hamid Drake form a vividly responsive trio, blending original compositions and improvisation into music shaped by jazz and Latin traditions, deep grooves, bowed textures, lyrical bass movement, spiritual rhythm, and inspirations from Sun Ra and Ras Michael.


Satoko Fujii
Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra [2 CDs]
(Libra)

A rediscovered 2014 live recording captures Satoko Fujii leading a specially assembled Bielefeld orchestra of professionals and young regional musicians through her monumental Shiki and works by Andreas Kaling, Natsuki Tamura, Luise Volkmann, and Fujii, blending conduction, written structure, collective improvisation, electronics, dual drums, and volatile large-ensemble energy.


John Tilbury
At Home [4 CDs]
(Another Timbre)

Spanning home recordings from 2018 to 2026 with selected archival material, this four-CD set closes John Tilbury's recording career through piano, clavichord, organ and voice, joined by Keith Rowe, Klaus Filip and six pianists in music ranging from Elizabethan songbooks and contemporary compositions to quiet improvisation and reflection.


Daniel Carter / Leo Genovese / William Parker / Francisco Mela
Shine Hear Volume 2 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Inspired by a poem Daniel Carter wrote about the transience and motion of modern life, the quartet of Daniel Carter on saxophone, Leo Genovese on piano, William Parker on bass, Gralla & Shakuhachi and Francisco Mela on drums & voice, turn in an ecstatic album of exotic collective improvisation in this second of two volumes from an excellent studio session.


Gebhard Ullmann / Uwe Oberg / Joe Fonda / Dieter Ulrich
New Conference Call
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Reconfiguring the long-running Conference Call quartet with pianist Uwe Oberg alongside tenor saxophonist Gebhard Ullmann, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer/bugler Dieter Ulrich, this first New Conference Call release moves through intricate compositions, spacious collective improvisation and volatile free-jazz exchanges, including tributes to Joe Maneri, Ornette Coleman and Jim Pepper.


Columbia Icefield (Wooley / Alcorn / Mendoza / Sawyer)
A Silence Opens
(Out Of Your Head Records)

A deeply elegiac final statement from Nate Wooley's Columbia Icefield, with Susan Alcorn's pedal steel, Ava Mendoza's guitar and voice, and Ryan Sawyer's drums joining Wooley's trumpet, amplifier, voice, whistling and footwork in music shaped by grief, memory and gratitude, responding to the deaths of Ron Miles and Alcorn through expansive, emotionally weighted improvisation.


Tyshawn Sorey (w / O'Farrill / Shim / Korten / Allen II / Victor)
Members... Don't! [2 CDs]
(Pi Recordings)

Reimagining Max Roach's 1968 call for perseverance through a contemporary lens, drummer and arranger Tyshawn Sorey leads Adam O'Farrill on trumpet and electronics, Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Lex Korten on piano, Tyrone Allen II on bass, and Fay Victor on vocals in an expansive live suite of turbulent intensity, patient development, and shattering release.


Josh Berman Trio
Everybody Else's Life, Too
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)

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.


Charles Downs Quartet (w / Paz / Saft / Morris)
Inner
(ESP Disk)

A long-overdue first sole-leader album from drummer Charles Downs, formerly Rashid Bakr, bringing his deep history with Cecil Taylor, Jemeel Moondoc, Other Dimensions in Music, and the New York avant-garde into a collective quartet with Hery Paz on saxophone, Jamie Saft on piano, and Joe Morris on bass for five improvisations of fire, lyricism, angular reflection, and seasoned rapport.


Evan Parker / John Zorn
Those Landings
(Tzadik)

Longtime friends and saxophone innovators Evan Parker on soprano and John Zorn on alto meet for their first dedicated studio collaboration, layering circular-breathed lines, multiphonics, whispers, cries and volatile gestures into five spacious works that treat the reeds as sources of breath, texture and atmosphere, balancing intimate beauty with finely controlled turbulence.


The Williams Tony Emergency w/ John McLaughlin / Larry Young
Emergency!
(ALAY)

A restored edition of Tony Williams Lifetime's incendiary 1969 trio debut with John McLaughlin on guitar and Larry Young on organ, documenting one of jazz-rock fusion's earliest and most audacious statements, where Williams' radical rhythmic designs, Young's dense harmonic force, and McLaughlin's searing electric vocabulary collide in urgent, psychedelic, genre-defying improvisation.


Quatuor Bozzini
Jurg Frey: String Quartets
(Collection QB)

Montreal-based Quatuor Bozzini records Jurg Frey's Streichquartett (1988) at Radiostudio Zurich, shaping spare scales, measured intervals, and quietly sustained tones into music of unusual clarity and concentration, where seemingly anonymous material reveals its own distinct character through space, duration, resonance, and the tactile presence of sound.


Miles Davis 3rd Quintet
Reference: Bitches Brew Live 1969 In Europe [2 CDs + 2 POSTCARDS]
(ALAY)

Documenting Miles Davis' 1969 "lost" third quintet live in Berlin, Stockholm and Rotterdam with Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, this 2-CD set captures the post-In a Silent Way ensemble reshaping material headed toward Bitches Brew, balancing lyricism and abstraction through open forms, electric-piano clusters, volatile rhythmic invention and Davis' fiercely exploratory trumpet.


Samuel Blaser Quartet
Rosina
(Blaser Music)

Drawing on Italian folk melodies, family memory, and the legacy of Blaser's maternal grandmother, Resistance fighter Rosina Pierina Scarpioni, trombonist Samuel Blaser joins Russ Lossing on piano, Masa Kamaguchi on bass, and Billy Mintz on drums in a deeply personal quartet session of open spaces, raucous interplay, lyrical intimacy, and contemporary improvisation shaped by heritage, song, and identity.


James Lewis Brandon Quartet (Lewis / Ortiz / Jones / Taylor)
Omni
(Intakt)

Advancing James Brandon Lewis' "Molecular Systematic Music" into what he describes as a kind of twelve-tone gospel, this sixth quartet album joins his commanding tenor saxophone and compositions with Aruan Ortiz's incisive piano, Brad Jones' grounded bass and Chad Taylor's responsive drumming in spiritually charged music shaped by rigorous structure, lyrical force and deeply interactive ensemble dialogue.


Joe Morris
Perpetual Frontier The Properties of Free Music [BOOK]
(Riti Publishing)

Joe Morris wrote this book to discuss aspects of free music, including responses to his questionnaire written by Joe McPhee, William Parker, Jamie Saft, Ken Vandermark, Marilyn Crispell, Nate Wooley, Jack Wright, Matthew Shipp, &c.


Daniel Carter / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Gerald Cleaver
Welcome Adventure! Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

After decades playing together, the quartet of Daniel Carter on tenor sax, trumpet & flute, Matthew Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums, release the first of two planned studio albums, with two extended and remarkably warm collective excursions bookending a shorter "Scintillate", in an exceptionally solid album of masterful modern jazz.


Daniel Carter / Leo Genovese / William Parker / Francisco Mela
Shine Hear, Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Inspired by a poem Carter wrote about New York's interminable motion, the quartet of Daniel Carter on saxophone, Leo Genovese on piano, William Parker on bass, Gralla & Shakuhachi and Francisco Mela on drums & voice, turn in an ecstatic album of exotic collective improvisation in this first of two planned volumes from an excellent studio session.


Udo Schindler / Jaap Blonk
Hillside Talks
(Relative Pitch)

Performing in Krailling-Munich at Udo Schindler's Salon fur Klang+Kunst in 2018, Netherland free improvising, brilliantly mad vocalist Jaap Blonk joins the reed master for ten acoustic improvisations with Schindler on a variety of reeds and brass instruments, the dialog authoritatively informed, masterful, slightly deranged, and continuously captivating.


Pat Thomas / Dominic Lash / Tony Orrell
BleySchool [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Referencing the deceptively simple and memorable melodies of pianist Paul Bley, the trio of Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on double bass, and Tony Orrell on drums & percussion pay homage to the late pianist through his own work, plus compositions from Cara Bley, Ornette Coleman, Duke Ellington, and one collective improvisation; a sensitive and lyrical modern jazz album.


Tomas Cabado / Christoph Schiller
Unconscious Collections
(Another Timbre)

Swiss prepared spinet player Christoph Schiller and Argentine guitarist-composer Tomás Cabado, whose work is found on the Wandelweiser label, met in Schiller's studio in Basel to perform compositions from both and to improvise, recording this wonderfully relaxed but compelling music that exists in the fertile grey area between composition and improvisation.


Tomas Fujiwara
Dream Up
(Out Of Your Head Records)

Recorded at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, drummer and composer Tomas Fujiwara introduces his Percussion Quartet with Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, Tim Keiper on African strings and percussion, and Kaoru Watanabe on Japanese drums and flute, blending global traditions into vivid, imaginative works that traverse groove, texture, and color with striking originality and depth.


Marta Sanchez
For The Space You Left
(Out Of Your Head Records)

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.


Adam O'Farrill (O'Farrill / Rogers / Stinson / Holzman)
Elephant
(Out Of Your Head Records)

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.


Milton Michaeli / Asaf Shchori / Hamid Drake
Universal Butterfly
(577 Records)

Bridging generations of creative music, pianist Milton Michaeli, double bassist Asaf Shchori, and drummer Hamid Drake form a vividly responsive trio, blending original compositions and improvisation into music shaped by jazz and Latin traditions, deep grooves, bowed textures, lyrical bass movement, spiritual rhythm, and inspirations from Sun Ra and Ras Michael.


Satoko Fujii
Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra [2 CDs]
(Libra)

A rediscovered 2014 live recording captures Satoko Fujii leading a specially assembled Bielefeld orchestra of professionals and young regional musicians through her monumental Shiki and works by Andreas Kaling, Natsuki Tamura, Luise Volkmann, and Fujii, blending conduction, written structure, collective improvisation, electronics, dual drums, and volatile large-ensemble energy.


John Tilbury
At Home [4 CDs]
(Another Timbre)

Spanning home recordings from 2018 to 2026 with selected archival material, this four-CD set closes John Tilbury's recording career through piano, clavichord, organ and voice, joined by Keith Rowe, Klaus Filip and six pianists in music ranging from Elizabethan songbooks and contemporary compositions to quiet improvisation and reflection.


Gebhard Ullmann / Uwe Oberg / Joe Fonda / Dieter Ulrich
New Conference Call
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Reconfiguring the long-running Conference Call quartet with pianist Uwe Oberg alongside tenor saxophonist Gebhard Ullmann, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer/bugler Dieter Ulrich, this first New Conference Call release moves through intricate compositions, spacious collective improvisation and volatile free-jazz exchanges, including tributes to Joe Maneri, Ornette Coleman and Jim Pepper.


Columbia Icefield (Wooley / Alcorn / Mendoza / Sawyer)
A Silence Opens
(Out Of Your Head Records)

A deeply elegiac final statement from Nate Wooley's Columbia Icefield, with Susan Alcorn's pedal steel, Ava Mendoza's guitar and voice, and Ryan Sawyer's drums joining Wooley's trumpet, amplifier, voice, whistling and footwork in music shaped by grief, memory and gratitude, responding to the deaths of Ron Miles and Alcorn through expansive, emotionally weighted improvisation.


Tyshawn Sorey (w / O'Farrill / Shim / Korten / Allen II / Victor)
Members... Don't! [2 CDs]
(Pi Recordings)

Reimagining Max Roach's 1968 call for perseverance through a contemporary lens, drummer and arranger Tyshawn Sorey leads Adam O'Farrill on trumpet and electronics, Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Lex Korten on piano, Tyrone Allen II on bass, and Fay Victor on vocals in an expansive live suite of turbulent intensity, patient development, and shattering release.


Josh Berman Trio
Everybody Else's Life, Too
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)

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.


Charles Downs Quartet (w / Paz / Saft / Morris)
Inner
(ESP Disk)

A long-overdue first sole-leader album from drummer Charles Downs, formerly Rashid Bakr, bringing his deep history with Cecil Taylor, Jemeel Moondoc, Other Dimensions in Music, and the New York avant-garde into a collective quartet with Hery Paz on saxophone, Jamie Saft on piano, and Joe Morris on bass for five improvisations of fire, lyricism, angular reflection, and seasoned rapport.


Evan Parker / John Zorn
Those Landings
(Tzadik)

Longtime friends and saxophone innovators Evan Parker on soprano and John Zorn on alto meet for their first dedicated studio collaboration, layering circular-breathed lines, multiphonics, whispers, cries and volatile gestures into five spacious works that treat the reeds as sources of breath, texture and atmosphere, balancing intimate beauty with finely controlled turbulence.


The Williams Tony Emergency w/ John McLaughlin / Larry Young
Emergency!
(ALAY)

A restored edition of Tony Williams Lifetime's incendiary 1969 trio debut with John McLaughlin on guitar and Larry Young on organ, documenting one of jazz-rock fusion's earliest and most audacious statements, where Williams' radical rhythmic designs, Young's dense harmonic force, and McLaughlin's searing electric vocabulary collide in urgent, psychedelic, genre-defying improvisation.


Quatuor Bozzini
Jurg Frey: String Quartets
(Collection QB)

Montreal-based Quatuor Bozzini records Jurg Frey's Streichquartett (1988) at Radiostudio Zurich, shaping spare scales, measured intervals, and quietly sustained tones into music of unusual clarity and concentration, where seemingly anonymous material reveals its own distinct character through space, duration, resonance, and the tactile presence of sound.


Miles Davis 3rd Quintet
Reference: Bitches Brew Live 1969 In Europe [2 CDs + 2 POSTCARDS]
(ALAY)

Documenting Miles Davis' 1969 "lost" third quintet live in Berlin, Stockholm and Rotterdam with Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, this 2-CD set captures the post-In a Silent Way ensemble reshaping material headed toward Bitches Brew, balancing lyricism and abstraction through open forms, electric-piano clusters, volatile rhythmic invention and Davis' fiercely exploratory trumpet.


Samuel Blaser Quartet
Rosina
(Blaser Music)

Drawing on Italian folk melodies, family memory, and the legacy of Blaser's maternal grandmother, Resistance fighter Rosina Pierina Scarpioni, trombonist Samuel Blaser joins Russ Lossing on piano, Masa Kamaguchi on bass, and Billy Mintz on drums in a deeply personal quartet session of open spaces, raucous interplay, lyrical intimacy, and contemporary improvisation shaped by heritage, song, and identity.


James Lewis Brandon Quartet (Lewis / Ortiz / Jones / Taylor)
Omni
(Intakt)

Advancing James Brandon Lewis' "Molecular Systematic Music" into what he describes as a kind of twelve-tone gospel, this sixth quartet album joins his commanding tenor saxophone and compositions with Aruan Ortiz's incisive piano, Brad Jones' grounded bass and Chad Taylor's responsive drumming in spiritually charged music shaped by rigorous structure, lyrical force and deeply interactive ensemble dialogue.


Udo Schindler / Jaap Blonk
Hillside Talks
(Relative Pitch)

Performing in Krailling-Munich at Udo Schindler's Salon fur Klang+Kunst in 2018, Netherland free improvising, brilliantly mad vocalist Jaap Blonk joins the reed master for ten acoustic improvisations with Schindler on a variety of reeds and brass instruments, the dialog authoritatively informed, masterful, slightly deranged, and continuously captivating.


Tomas Cabado / Christoph Schiller
Unconscious Collections
(Another Timbre)

Swiss prepared spinet player Christoph Schiller and Argentine guitarist-composer Tomás Cabado, whose work is found on the Wandelweiser label, met in Schiller's studio in Basel to perform compositions from both and to improvise, recording this wonderfully relaxed but compelling music that exists in the fertile grey area between composition and improvisation.


Tim Olive / Kayu Nakada
Kanpu
(845 Audio)

The 2nd album from the duo of Japanese circuit bender Kayu Nakada, using circuit boards from electronic instruments short circuited for new effects, and Japan-based Canadian electronic instrument maker Tim Olive (845 Audio) on shortwave radio, magnetic pickups & undokai, recorded together in Kobe, Japan and then edited and composed into these two intriguing works.


Daniel Carter / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Gerald Cleaver
Welcome Adventure! Vol. 2 [COLOR VINYL]
(577 Records)

The 2nd of two studio albums from the quartet of Daniel Carter on saxophone & flute, Matthew Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums, recordings from the same sessions as the 1st volume with five shorter works, as the long-time collaborators and friends show their nearly telepathic rapport in adventurous and masterful modern jazz.


Theresa Wong
Practicing Sands
(fo'c'sle)

A series of instrumental pieces and songs from Chinese-American composer, cellist, and vocalist Theresa Wong, inspired by the sounds of the natural world and a personal sense of "sonic genetic memory", her works merging composition and improvisation, the album recorded by Wong herself using specific microphone placement to bring out the warmth of her instrument and voice.


John Coltrane Quartet (w/ Tyner / Garrison / Jones)
Impressions From Graz 1962, Revisited [2 CDs]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Expanding and remastering the 2019 single CD of John Coltrane's Quartet from its European tour in the fall of 1962, with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on double bass, and Elvin Jones on drums, performing at Stefaniensaal in Graz, Austria, beautifully recorded by ORF Steiermark and now presented in both volumes, showcasing Coltrane's lyrical roots and growing free inclinations.


AHC (Alexander Cooper)
Lase [2 CDs]
(Bu Lang Tribute Cake)

A meditative and immersive work of sonic abstraction, Alexander Cooper's first solo release in eight years unfolds as a lattice of minimalism-inspired harmonic diffusion, where shifting textures and fluid structures dissolve into ethereal, non-representational spaces, blurring the boundaries between form and perception in a dynamic interplay of sound and air.


Joe Maneri / Tyson Rogers / Jacob Braverman
In The Shadow, First Visit
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Capturing a multidimensional dialogue through breathy microtones, atonal piano fragments, and ambiguous percussion, Joe Maneri on sax and clarinet, Tyson Rogers on piano, and Jacob Braverman on drums craft abstract improvisations exploring the delicate interplay of shadow and light, revealing emotional nuances and identity in richly layered, spontaneous constructions of impressive expressive intensity.


Daniel Carter / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Gerald Cleaver
Welcome Adventure! Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

After decades playing together, the quartet of Daniel Carter on tenor sax, trumpet & flute, Matthew Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums, release the first of two planned studio albums, with two extended and remarkably warm collective excursions bookending a shorter "Scintillate", in an exceptionally solid album of masterful modern jazz.


Daniel Carter / Leo Genovese / William Parker / Francisco Mela
Shine Hear, Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Inspired by a poem Carter wrote about New York's interminable motion, the quartet of Daniel Carter on saxophone, Leo Genovese on piano, William Parker on bass, Gralla & Shakuhachi and Francisco Mela on drums & voice, turn in an ecstatic album of exotic collective improvisation in this first of two planned volumes from an excellent studio session.


Pat Thomas / Dominic Lash / Tony Orrell
BleySchool [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Referencing the deceptively simple and memorable melodies of pianist Paul Bley, the trio of Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on double bass, and Tony Orrell on drums & percussion pay homage to the late pianist through his own work, plus compositions from Cara Bley, Ornette Coleman, Duke Ellington, and one collective improvisation; a sensitive and lyrical modern jazz album.


Zoh Amba / William Parker / Francisco Mela
O Life, O Light Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

New generation New York tenor saxophonist Zoe Amba, a Tennessee transplant whose spirit is illuminated with free styles that harken back to Ayler, recording in the studio with a trio of luminary players--William Parker on bass and Francisco Mela on drums--performing three Amba compositions, one featuring Amba on flute; the CD edition contains one bonus improvisation.


John Butcher / Pat Thomas / Dominic Lash / Steve Noble
Fathom [COLORED VINYL]
(577 Records)

The debut for UK saxophonist John Butcher on 577 Records is this exemplary 2021 live recording at Cafe OTO in London by the quartet of Butcher on tenor and soprano saxophones, Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on double bass and Steve Noble on drums, four of the UK's leading free improvisers demonstrating their prodigious abilities in concentrated conversation.


[ism] (Pat Thomas / Joel Grip / Aontonin Gerbal)
Maua [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Recordings from the Berlin club Au Topsi Pohl where the [ism] piano trio of Pat Thomas on piano, Joel Grip on double bass and Antonin Gerbal on drums played 4 nights in a row, May 18-21, 2022, Thomas performing on a Bösendorfer grand piano, creating an omnipresent and precise sound that drove the band to great heights of interactive, warmly diverse playing.


Mary Halvorson Septet
Illusionary Sea [VINYL 2 LPS]
(Firehouse 12 Records)

Mary Halvorson leads her Septet with Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Jon Irabagon (alto sax), Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone), Jacob Garchik (trombone), John Hebert (bass) & Ches Smith (drums) through 6 original compositions and a Robert Wyatt cover!


Mary Halvorson
Away With You [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Firehouse 12 Records)

Mary Halvorson continues her string of excellent modern jazz albums with this octet release with fellow guitarist Susan Alcorn, Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Jon Irabagon & Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Jacob Garchik (trombone), John Hebert (bass) and Ches Smith (drums).


Rachel Musson / Pat Thomas / Mark Sanders
Shifa: Live at Cafe Oto [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(577 Records)

"Shifa", or "Healing", is the London-based trio of saxophonist Rachel Musson, pianist Pat Thomas, and drummer Mark Sanders, here in a live concert at Cafe Oto in 2018 of two collective improvisations of arching sax lines, rolling and potent drumming, powerful block chords and intricate lines, from dark to joyful moments, an intoxicating tonic for the ears.


Daniel Carter / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Gerald Cleaver
Welcome Adventure! Vol. 2 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

The 2nd of two studio albums from the quartet of Daniel Carter on saxophone & flute, Matthew Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums, recordings from the same sessions as the 1st volume with five shorter works, as the long-time collaborators and friends show their nearly telepathic rapport in adventurous and masterful modern jazz.


John Dikeman / Pat Thomas / John Edwards / Steve Noble
Volume 2 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

The second of two volumes from the quartet of John Dikeman on tenor saxophone, Pat Thomas on piano, John Edwards on bass and Steve Noble on drums, bringing the American saxophonist working throughout Europe together with this nearly telepathic collaborative grouping of UK frequent collaborators, captured in concert at Cafe OTO in 2019 for two absorbing improvisations.


Francisco Mela featuring. Leo Genovese / William Parker
Music Frees Our Souls, Vol. 3 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

The third chapter in Cuban-Born, New York-based drummer Francisco Mela's tribute to his legendary mentor and bandleader Mccoy Tyner, in a trio with William Parker on bass and Leo Genovese on piano, celebrating the avant side of Tyner's work with Coltrane and his own bands, and the influence he had on Mela in encouraging him to push the boundaries of his playing.


William Parker / Cooper-Moore / Hamid Drake
Heart Trio [VINYL]
(Aum Fidelity)

A mesmerizing and organically spiritual album of collective improv from three global travelers based around the NY and Chicago scenes--long-time collaborators William Parker, Cooper-Moore and Hamid Drake--their instrumentation on this beautiful album also uniquely global, including doson ngoni, shakuhachi, bass dudek, Serbian flute, Ney flute, ashimba, hoe-handle harp and frame drum.


[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright)
Sama'a (Audition) [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Otoroku)

Reimagining and transforming Ahmed Abdul-Malik's Jazz Sahara in their first studio session, the [Ahmed] quartet of Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal, and Seymour Wright ignite four compact, single-take explorations that fuse percussive intensity, kaleidoscopic group interplay, and a fearless reshaping of tradition into dizzying, future-leaning improvisation.


Joelle Leandre / Remy Belanger de Beauport
Jeux De Mains [VINYL]
(Tour de Bras)

Joelle Leandre on double bass and Remy Belanger de Beauport on violoncello engage in eight finely attuned live improvisations, moving between visceral arco attacks, percussive pizzicato, string scrape, fragile micro-gestures, resonant drones, and sudden silences, dissolving conventional instrumental roles through an alert, risk-taking dialog that balances raw intensity with spaciousness, textural detail, and quietly unfolding form.


Emmett Williams
Poems 1950-2003 [VINYL]
(Edition Rz)

Fluxus originator & member of the "Darmstadt Circle" of concrete poetry, Emmett Williams in a beatiful picture disc of poems written from 1950-2003 and recorded from 2000-2003.


Szilard Mezei Tubass Quintet
Canons - 2nd Hoisting [VINYL]
(NoBusiness)

Four extended compositions from the Tubass Quintet led by Szilard Mezei (performing on double bass instead of his usual viola) performing with a heavy group of 4 double bassists and tuba.


The Group (Abdullah / Brown / Bang / Sirone / Hopkins / Cyrille)
Live [VINYL]
(NoBusiness)

A previously unreleased concert recording from 1986 of a group of leading out jazz artists (Billy Bang, Fred Hopkins, Andrew Cyrille, &c.) playing original compositions as well as a cover of Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat".


Mary Halvorson
Bending Bridges [2 VINYL LPs]
(Firehouse 12 Records)

Limited edition LP of Brooklyn-based guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson's second recording with her amazing working quintet of trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson, saxophonist Jon Irabagon, bassist John Hebert, and drummer Ches Smith.


Bobby Bradford / Hafez Modirzadeh / Mark Dresser / Alex Cline
Live At The Open Gate [VINYL]
(NoBusiness)

West Coast cornetist Bobby Bradford captured live in 2013 for a superb set at the Center for the Arts in Los Angeles, part of the Open Gate Theatre Sunday evening concert series, in a quartet with Hafez Modirzadeh on alto sax, Mark Dresser on bass, and Alex Cline on drums.


Liudas Mockunas
Hydro [VINYL]
(NoBusiness)

Lithuanian reedist Liudas Mockunas in an unusual record of clarinet and saxophone improvisations, from solo work of powerful technique to pieces using water prepared instruments to create a wealth of bubbling and aberrant sound on the instrument, side A presenting the 7 part "Hydration Suite", Side B the 3 part "Rehydration", and "Dehydration".


Daniel Carter / William Parker / Federico Ughi
The Dream [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(577 Records)

This album was developed to present Daniel Carter, typically a wind/reed/trumpeter player, on an album that included his piano playing, which then advanced by adding the goal of both Carter and long-time collaborator, drummer Federico Ughi, to record with bassist William Parker, who rounds out this excellent trio on bass, tuba and shakuhachi.


Sabir Mateen (w/ Steve Swell / Matt Lavelle / Matthew Heyner / Michael Thompson)
Prophecies Come To Pass [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(577 Records)

Saxophonist Sabir Mateen's NY based Shapes, Textures, and Sound Ensemble with Steve Swell on trombone, Matt Lavelle on trumpet, Matthew Heyner on bass and Michael T.A. Thompson on drums, run though a gamut of post-bop and collective, creative jazz forms with energy, incredible dexterity, and tremendous group interplay, a great example of the modern spirit of jazz.


Daniel Carter / Tobias Wilner / Djibril Toure / Federico Ughi
New York United [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(577 Records)

An excellent blend of electronics and acoustics as saxophonist, flutist and trumpeter Daniel Carter meets sound artist Tobias Wilner from world-renowned electronic pop band Blue Foundation, with Wu-Tang Clan bass player Djibril Toure and drum wiz Federico Ughi rounding out this forward-thinking album of hazy and rhythmic electroacoustic environments.


Daniel Carter / Watson Jennison / William Parker / Federico Ughi
Live! Volume 1: Erie [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Working together in tours and recording since 2005, the NY trio of multi-reedist and wind player Daniel Carter, bassis William Parker and drummer/percussionist Federico Ughi are joined by saxophonist Watson Jennison also on flute, recorder and keyboards for this enlightened album of modern and transcendent jazz in a limited, remastered LP edition with bonus material.


Tomas Fujiwara
Dream Up
(Out Of Your Head Records)

Recorded at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, drummer and composer Tomas Fujiwara introduces his Percussion Quartet with Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, Tim Keiper on African strings and percussion, and Kaoru Watanabe on Japanese drums and flute, blending global traditions into vivid, imaginative works that traverse groove, texture, and color with striking originality and depth.


Marta Sanchez
For The Space You Left
(Out Of Your Head Records)

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.


Adam O'Farrill (O'Farrill / Rogers / Stinson / Holzman)
Elephant
(Out Of Your Head Records)

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.


Milton Michaeli / Asaf Shchori / Hamid Drake
Universal Butterfly
(577 Records)

Bridging generations of creative music, pianist Milton Michaeli, double bassist Asaf Shchori, and drummer Hamid Drake form a vividly responsive trio, blending original compositions and improvisation into music shaped by jazz and Latin traditions, deep grooves, bowed textures, lyrical bass movement, spiritual rhythm, and inspirations from Sun Ra and Ras Michael.


Satoko Fujii
Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra [2 CDs]
(Libra)

A rediscovered 2014 live recording captures Satoko Fujii leading a specially assembled Bielefeld orchestra of professionals and young regional musicians through her monumental Shiki and works by Andreas Kaling, Natsuki Tamura, Luise Volkmann, and Fujii, blending conduction, written structure, collective improvisation, electronics, dual drums, and volatile large-ensemble energy.


Daniel Carter / Leo Genovese / William Parker / Francisco Mela
Shine Hear Volume 2 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Inspired by a poem Daniel Carter wrote about the transience and motion of modern life, the quartet of Daniel Carter on saxophone, Leo Genovese on piano, William Parker on bass, Gralla & Shakuhachi and Francisco Mela on drums & voice, turn in an ecstatic album of exotic collective improvisation in this second of two volumes from an excellent studio session.


Gebhard Ullmann / Uwe Oberg / Joe Fonda / Dieter Ulrich
New Conference Call
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Reconfiguring the long-running Conference Call quartet with pianist Uwe Oberg alongside tenor saxophonist Gebhard Ullmann, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer/bugler Dieter Ulrich, this first New Conference Call release moves through intricate compositions, spacious collective improvisation and volatile free-jazz exchanges, including tributes to Joe Maneri, Ornette Coleman and Jim Pepper.


Columbia Icefield (Wooley / Alcorn / Mendoza / Sawyer)
A Silence Opens
(Out Of Your Head Records)

A deeply elegiac final statement from Nate Wooley's Columbia Icefield, with Susan Alcorn's pedal steel, Ava Mendoza's guitar and voice, and Ryan Sawyer's drums joining Wooley's trumpet, amplifier, voice, whistling and footwork in music shaped by grief, memory and gratitude, responding to the deaths of Ron Miles and Alcorn through expansive, emotionally weighted improvisation.


Tyshawn Sorey (w / O'Farrill / Shim / Korten / Allen II / Victor)
Members... Don't! [2 CDs]
(Pi Recordings)

Reimagining Max Roach's 1968 call for perseverance through a contemporary lens, drummer and arranger Tyshawn Sorey leads Adam O'Farrill on trumpet and electronics, Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Lex Korten on piano, Tyrone Allen II on bass, and Fay Victor on vocals in an expansive live suite of turbulent intensity, patient development, and shattering release.


Josh Berman Trio
Everybody Else's Life, Too
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)

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.


Charles Downs Quartet (w / Paz / Saft / Morris)
Inner
(ESP Disk)

A long-overdue first sole-leader album from drummer Charles Downs, formerly Rashid Bakr, bringing his deep history with Cecil Taylor, Jemeel Moondoc, Other Dimensions in Music, and the New York avant-garde into a collective quartet with Hery Paz on saxophone, Jamie Saft on piano, and Joe Morris on bass for five improvisations of fire, lyricism, angular reflection, and seasoned rapport.


Evan Parker / John Zorn
Those Landings
(Tzadik)

Longtime friends and saxophone innovators Evan Parker on soprano and John Zorn on alto meet for their first dedicated studio collaboration, layering circular-breathed lines, multiphonics, whispers, cries and volatile gestures into five spacious works that treat the reeds as sources of breath, texture and atmosphere, balancing intimate beauty with finely controlled turbulence.


The Williams Tony Emergency w/ John McLaughlin / Larry Young
Emergency!
(ALAY)

A restored edition of Tony Williams Lifetime's incendiary 1969 trio debut with John McLaughlin on guitar and Larry Young on organ, documenting one of jazz-rock fusion's earliest and most audacious statements, where Williams' radical rhythmic designs, Young's dense harmonic force, and McLaughlin's searing electric vocabulary collide in urgent, psychedelic, genre-defying improvisation.


Miles Davis 3rd Quintet
Reference: Bitches Brew Live 1969 In Europe [2 CDs + 2 POSTCARDS]
(ALAY)

Documenting Miles Davis' 1969 "lost" third quintet live in Berlin, Stockholm and Rotterdam with Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, this 2-CD set captures the post-In a Silent Way ensemble reshaping material headed toward Bitches Brew, balancing lyricism and abstraction through open forms, electric-piano clusters, volatile rhythmic invention and Davis' fiercely exploratory trumpet.


Samuel Blaser Quartet
Rosina
(Blaser Music)

Drawing on Italian folk melodies, family memory, and the legacy of Blaser's maternal grandmother, Resistance fighter Rosina Pierina Scarpioni, trombonist Samuel Blaser joins Russ Lossing on piano, Masa Kamaguchi on bass, and Billy Mintz on drums in a deeply personal quartet session of open spaces, raucous interplay, lyrical intimacy, and contemporary improvisation shaped by heritage, song, and identity.


James Lewis Brandon Quartet (Lewis / Ortiz / Jones / Taylor)
Omni
(Intakt)

Advancing James Brandon Lewis' "Molecular Systematic Music" into what he describes as a kind of twelve-tone gospel, this sixth quartet album joins his commanding tenor saxophone and compositions with Aruan Ortiz's incisive piano, Brad Jones' grounded bass and Chad Taylor's responsive drumming in spiritually charged music shaped by rigorous structure, lyrical force and deeply interactive ensemble dialogue.


Daniel Carter / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Gerald Cleaver
Welcome Adventure! Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

After decades playing together, the quartet of Daniel Carter on tenor sax, trumpet & flute, Matthew Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums, release the first of two planned studio albums, with two extended and remarkably warm collective excursions bookending a shorter "Scintillate", in an exceptionally solid album of masterful modern jazz.


Daniel Carter / Leo Genovese / William Parker / Francisco Mela
Shine Hear, Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Inspired by a poem Carter wrote about New York's interminable motion, the quartet of Daniel Carter on saxophone, Leo Genovese on piano, William Parker on bass, Gralla & Shakuhachi and Francisco Mela on drums & voice, turn in an ecstatic album of exotic collective improvisation in this first of two planned volumes from an excellent studio session.


Udo Schindler / Jaap Blonk
Hillside Talks
(Relative Pitch)

Performing in Krailling-Munich at Udo Schindler's Salon fur Klang+Kunst in 2018, Netherland free improvising, brilliantly mad vocalist Jaap Blonk joins the reed master for ten acoustic improvisations with Schindler on a variety of reeds and brass instruments, the dialog authoritatively informed, masterful, slightly deranged, and continuously captivating.


Pat Thomas / Dominic Lash / Tony Orrell
BleySchool [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Referencing the deceptively simple and memorable melodies of pianist Paul Bley, the trio of Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on double bass, and Tony Orrell on drums & percussion pay homage to the late pianist through his own work, plus compositions from Cara Bley, Ornette Coleman, Duke Ellington, and one collective improvisation; a sensitive and lyrical modern jazz album.


Zoh Amba / William Parker / Francisco Mela
O Life, O Light Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

New generation New York tenor saxophonist Zoe Amba, a Tennessee transplant whose spirit is illuminated with free styles that harken back to Ayler, recording in the studio with a trio of luminary players--William Parker on bass and Francisco Mela on drums--performing three Amba compositions, one featuring Amba on flute; the CD edition contains one bonus improvisation.


Daniel Carter / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Gerald Cleaver
Welcome Adventure! Vol. 2 [COLOR VINYL]
(577 Records)

The 2nd of two studio albums from the quartet of Daniel Carter on saxophone & flute, Matthew Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums, recordings from the same sessions as the 1st volume with five shorter works, as the long-time collaborators and friends show their nearly telepathic rapport in adventurous and masterful modern jazz.


Theresa Wong
Practicing Sands
(fo'c'sle)

A series of instrumental pieces and songs from Chinese-American composer, cellist, and vocalist Theresa Wong, inspired by the sounds of the natural world and a personal sense of "sonic genetic memory", her works merging composition and improvisation, the album recorded by Wong herself using specific microphone placement to bring out the warmth of her instrument and voice.


John Butcher / Pat Thomas / Dominic Lash / Steve Noble
Fathom [COLORED VINYL]
(577 Records)

The debut for UK saxophonist John Butcher on 577 Records is this exemplary 2021 live recording at Cafe OTO in London by the quartet of Butcher on tenor and soprano saxophones, Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on double bass and Steve Noble on drums, four of the UK's leading free improvisers demonstrating their prodigious abilities in concentrated conversation.


[ism] (Pat Thomas / Joel Grip / Aontonin Gerbal)
Maua [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Recordings from the Berlin club Au Topsi Pohl where the [ism] piano trio of Pat Thomas on piano, Joel Grip on double bass and Antonin Gerbal on drums played 4 nights in a row, May 18-21, 2022, Thomas performing on a Bösendorfer grand piano, creating an omnipresent and precise sound that drove the band to great heights of interactive, warmly diverse playing.


Tim Olive / Kayu Nakada
Kanpu
(845 Audio)

The 2nd album from the duo of Japanese circuit bender Kayu Nakada, using circuit boards from electronic instruments short circuited for new effects, and Japan-based Canadian electronic instrument maker Tim Olive (845 Audio) on shortwave radio, magnetic pickups & undokai, recorded together in Kobe, Japan and then edited and composed into these two intriguing works.


Zhao Cong
Rotating, Rotating
(Hitorri)

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.


Zeena Parkins / Jeff Kolar
Scale
(Two Rooms Records)

Commissioned by choreographer Jennifer Monson, the collaboration of Downtown NY electric harpist and sound artist Zeena Parkins and Chicago sound artist Jeff Kolar explore the intersection of acoustic phenonema against electronic, synthetic & radio sounds, inspired by the timing of natural phenomena like ocean currents and daylight emergence; fascinating.


Heather Frasch / Ryoko Akama
Linking
(Ftarri / Meenna)

US sound artists Heather Frasch and UK Ryoko Akama, who together run the mumei journal exploring the relationship between text and sound, in works commissioned by Bruno Duplant based on written texts, each interpreted, recorded and edited by the other using objects, field recordings, electronics, cello & voice, with one piece from Frasch and two versions from Akama.


Adrianne Munden-Dixon / Leo Chang
Some Time [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD]
(Notice Recordings)

Unusual interactions between electronically manipulated violin and an AMPIRI--an electronically enhanced Korean double reed instrument--from the Brooklyn duo of Leo Chang and Adrianne Munden Dixon, seven improvisations numbered "Sixteen" to "Twenty-Two", each a uniquely idiosyncratic exchange from quick slippery dialog to raspy dissonance of unexpected directions.


J.A. Deane / Jason Kao Hwang
Uncharted Faith
(Tone Science Music)

The final collaboration of innovative electronic artist J.A. Deane, working remotely with violinist Jason Kao Hwang who sent Deane improvised solo acoustic violin recordings that Deane edited into 57 gestures, mapping them to a keyboard and creating six tracks of morphed electronics which Hwang improvised over with an electric violin to complete this unique and fascinating album.


Caleb Chase
Looking At Bugs Under A Log
(Love Earth Music)

Experimental composer Caleb Chase presents 15 succinct electroacoustic pieces that delve into intricate sound spatialization and panning techniques, crafting immersive auditory environments where layered textures and dynamic movements reveal hidden sonic details, rewarding attentive listening through headphones or stereo speakers.


The Vulture Club
Live Young, Die Fast and Leave an Exquisite Corpse
(Utech Records)


Jay Crocker
Joachim on Eggshells
(Bug Incision Records)

Jay Crockers follows the allure of salvage from six years of recordings, taking sketches and mini-improvs and organizing them into a large and unusual sonic journey.


Alfredo Monteiro Costa
Um Em Um
(Monotype)

An unusual release from the accordion, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, placed microphones in a way to enhance the harmonics and all the particularities of every sound, layering slowly moving tones and their harmonic interaction, allowing unexpected details to emerge.


Jean-Luc Guionnet + Eric La Casa
Reflected Waves [60 pages 21x25 cm + DVD video 1h48mn]
(Passage d'encres)

Eric La Casa and Jean Luc Guionnet recorded this conceptual work in Melbourne, Australia, combining different scales of time, space, & attention, with different working strategies to create a gallery installation, and this book & DVD package exploring the acoustic phenomenon of "standing waves" to engage with the physical relationship between sound and space.


Battus / Gauguet / La Casa
Chantier 4
(Swarming)

Using the building site of the Paris Philharmonie as their source location and inspiration, the trio of Pascal Battus using found objects, Bertrand Gauget on saxophone, and Eric La Casa on microphones, improvise and record the background sounds, machines, and environmental influences, using those recordings to create these three fascinating compositions.


David Myers Lee
Prototype Of The Veil
(pulsewidth)

David Lee Myers began creating feedback music in 1989, originally under the name Arcane Device, developing unique approaches to harnessing feedback between audio devices in ways their manufactures did not intend; since 2014 he has used a set of new devices that allow intense control and beauty through vibrational interactions, as heard in this, his 18th solo album of feedback music.


Klaus Filip / Moe Kamura
Passagein
(Winds Measure)

ppooll sound artist Klaus Filip and Japanese experimental vocalist Moe Kamura (10Tet, Taku Sugimoto) in a two-part improvisation of electronic tones, textures, silence, and minimalist vocalization and utterance, Filip using a dynamic frequency palette inspiring Kamura's wordless expression; lowercase or Onkyo, a meditative and moody work.


Eric La Casa / Jean-Luc Guionnet / Arnau Horta / Seijiro Murayama / Michaele-Andrea Schatt
Installations [CD + 24 page booklet]
(Swarming)

A fascinating set of stereophonic electroacoustic compositions based on the recordings and mixes used for four sound installations in four galleries in France, impeccably captured and creatively edited: Eric La Casa & Jean-Luc Guionnet; Michaële-Andréa Schatt & Eric La Casa; Seijiro Murayama & Eric La Casa; and Arnau Horta & Eric La Casa.


Junji Hirose
SSI-7
(Hitorri)

Known mostly as a saxophonist on the Japanese improvised music scene, Junji Hirose has also released a series of albums using self-made analog noise instruments, here using a device where balls and small objects are placed on a large, shallow, round metal plate and moved by a compressor, here in four tracks with different objects and one with no objects at all.


subterrene
Coercer
(Bad Architect Records)

Subterrene, aka Grant Stewart, is a sound artist developing deep and cloud-like bursts of sound that create textures and aural interactions of an hallucinatory nature, here evoking the coercer--"the inverse of the seducer, using pressure, intimidation, or force to shape the behavior of another" in a journey from initial imposition to self-emancipation.


Chansons du Crepuscule (Helene Breschand / Elliott Sharp)
Aube
(zOaR Records)

A collection of original songs and interpretations inspired by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, from vocalist Hélène Breschand, also performing on harp, electronics & field recordings, in a duo with Elliott Sharp, who creates grooves and instrumental environments on guitar, synth, bass, drum programming & electronics, each song beautifully fractured and rich in detail.


Satoko Fujii
Piano Music
(Libra)

A stunning sound collage made from recorded fragments of Fujii's studio piano, captured inside and out using traditional piano sonorities and preparations that often microscopically detail the instrument, then edited into two electroacoustic compositions of startling and unexpected expansiveness and wonder; a unique and fascinating release in Fujii's large oeuvre.


David Myers Lee
Room In A Moon House
(pulsewidth)

A series of "Rooms" and related electronic environments from New York sound artist David Lee Myers, whose long running Arcane Device project runs parallel to these nearly ambient works that Myers intimates are for intimate environments, developed through deft use of Eurorack electronics, feedback, sampling and other elegant electronic processes.


Mia Zabelka / Glen Hall
The Quantum Violin
(FMR)

The intersection of Austrian violinist, vocalist and sound artist Mia Zabelka and Canadian sound artist and multi-instrumentalist Glen Hall, using recordings of live improvisations, electronics and unusual applications of software to structure fourteen compositions of accomplished playing and startlingly unpredictable sound, a magnificent and often breathtaking journey.


Eric La Casa
Everyday Unknown 4 & 5
(Swarming)

Exploring the details of everyday life as he examines the relationship between his environment and himself, microscopic audio explorer Éric La Casa investigates sounds beyond the threshold of auditory hearing, capturing barely perceptible sonic manifestations with incredible clarity and detail, constructing engaging works from these surprising and intriguing sounds.


Tim Olive
Ribbon [CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(Notice Recordings)

Sonic exploration and studio composition from Kobe, Japan-based, Canadian sound artist Tim Olive, using amplified objects, cast-off electronics and home made instruments including metal teeth, tuning forks, clockwork motors, electromagnets, cassette playback heads and magnetic pickups, recording each and layering them in the studio to create corrosively captivating aural journeys.


David Myers Lee
Intervals / Interludes
(pulsewidth)

Like passages through an electronic corridor, New York electronic artist David Lee Myers (Arcane Device) presents a series of "interludes"--long passages of rich electronic sound--and "intervals" of punctuated rhythms, described by Myers as: "In-between spaces for catching one's breath amid frigid landscapes, existential pauses, and mercurial pools of aboriginal pleadings."


David Myers Lee
Xenography
(pulsewidth)

Xenography is the ability to write in a language which the individual has not learned, an apt description of the rich dialects sculpted from feedback sources and expertly routed through circular circuits of sound processors by New York sound artist David Lee Myers, AKA Arcane Device, captured and layered into these astounding electronic compositions.


Quatuor Bozzini
Jurg Frey: String Quartets
(Collection QB)

Montreal-based Quatuor Bozzini records Jurg Frey's Streichquartett (1988) at Radiostudio Zurich, shaping spare scales, measured intervals, and quietly sustained tones into music of unusual clarity and concentration, where seemingly anonymous material reveals its own distinct character through space, duration, resonance, and the tactile presence of sound.


Tomas Cabado / Christoph Schiller
Unconscious Collections
(Another Timbre)

Swiss prepared spinet player Christoph Schiller and Argentine guitarist-composer Tomás Cabado, whose work is found on the Wandelweiser label, met in Schiller's studio in Basel to perform compositions from both and to improvise, recording this wonderfully relaxed but compelling music that exists in the fertile grey area between composition and improvisation.


Quatuor Bozzini
Owen Underhill: Songs and Quartets
(Collection QB)

Quatuor Bozzini performs works by Canadian composer Owen Underhill, joined by countertenor Daniel Cabena and sackbut player Jeremy Berkman in settings of 17th-century poetry, alongside two string quartets shaped by encounters with John Cage, quoted musical fragments, natural landscapes, specific places, and personal memory, balancing lucid formal design with vocal expression and finely detailed instrumental color.


Transatlantic Swing
Works For Piano
(Hat [now] ART)

American pianist John Snijders performing the music of European composers Christopher Fox, Ivo Van Emmerik, Richard Rijnvos, James Rolfe, and Luca Francesconi.


Katharina Rosenberger
Texturen (2007 - 2011)
(Hat [now] ART)

"Texturen" for seven musicians and eight other works from composer Katharina Rosenberger, blending acoustics, electronics and voice in inventive ways, as performed by the NY Wet Ink Ensemble.


Ernstalbrecht Stiebler
...Im Klang...
(Hat [now] ART)

Composer Ernstalbrecht Stiebler presents three solo pieces, one for accordion (Teodoro Anzellotti) one for piano (Marianne Schroeder) and the third for organ (Huub Ten Hacken).


Haubenstock-Ramati, Roman
Concerto A Tre
(Hat [now] ART)

Ensemble Recherche plays chamber music pieces by Polish composer Roman Haubenstock-Ramati that are dynamically explosive and allow for the free communicating of the musicians.


Wolpe / Feldman / Zimmerman / Seel
Four Generations
(Hat [now] ART)

Pianist and composer Daniel N. Seel plays four pieces from four generations of different composers including Stefan Wolpe, Morton Feldman, Walter Zimmerman, and his own work.


Morton Feldman (Philip Thomas)
Piano [5 CD BOX SET]
(Another Timbre)

Containing the majority of minimalist composer Morton Feldman's compositions for solo piano, 3 CDs of short works and 2 for the magnificent "For Bunita Marcus" and "Triadic Memories", performed by one of the foremost interpreters of Feldman's work, Philip Thomas, and presented in a sturdy 5-CD box set with a 52 page booklet of notes from the performer and artwork.


Jean-Luc Guionnet / Rhodri Davies
Dyslexic Harp (Deciphered In The Dark)
(Amgen Records)

Recording in Brussels, Rhodri Davies performs a composition for pedal harp written for and dedicated to him by composer and saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet, using liberal periods of space that creates hanging anticipation amidst beautiful moments of fragmented string sequence and percussive response using the frame of the harp, leaving the listener in a state of fascinated expectancy.


Quatuor Bozzini
Eliane Radigue : Occam Delta XV
(Collection QB)

Translating her concepts from the electronic realm into acoustic, composer Eliane Radigue used an oral compositional process with the Montreal string quartet Quatuor Bozzini, for whom this work is dedicated, allowing each performance a uniqueness through sustained tones, microbeats and emerging harmonies, creating a profoundly meditative and rich work.


Jurg Frey / Apartment House
Clarinet Quintet
(Another Timbre)

Composed between 2023 and 2025 after Jurg Frey withdrew from clarinet performance, this 54-minute chamber work places Heather Roche's clarinet within the string quartet of Mira Benjamin, Chihiro Ono, Bridget Carey and Anton Lukoszevieze, as Apartment House reveal a quietly extraordinary balance of stillness and motion, warm tonal color, intimate dialogue and a slow, organic passage toward unexpected transformation.


Stefan Wolpe
Enactments
(Hat [now] ART)


Various Artists (Zorn / Johansson / Johnson / de Vroe / Schleirmacher)
Enfants Terribles
(Hat [now] ART)


Christian Wolff
Early Piano Pieces
(Hat [now] ART)

Early works from avant-garde composer Christian Wolff, including pieces for prepared piano influenced by John Cage's ideas for the same instrument.


Horatiu Radulescu
20 Jahre Inventionen
(Edition Rz)

Horatiu Radulescu's String Quartet No 4, opus 33 (1976-87) performed by the Arditti String Quartett at IRCAM/Centre Pompidou Paris in 1996.


Emmett Williams
Poems 1950-2003 [VINYL]
(Edition Rz)

Fluxus originator & member of the "Darmstadt Circle" of concrete poetry, Emmett Williams in a beatiful picture disc of poems written from 1950-2003 and recorded from 2000-2003.


Charles Ives
A Songbook
(Hat [now] ART)

Sebastian Gottschick's adaptations of Ives' songs and short instrumental pieces pay homage to the composer and develop his work further, as conducted by Gottschick with the ensemble fur neue musik zurich.


Counterpoise (Carisi / Sauter / Wolff / Wolfpe)
Counterpoise
(Hat [now] ART)

Four composers - John Carisi, Eddie Sauter, Christian Wolff, and Stefan Wolpe - create a program of works with a measured balance in the interrelated and contrasting material.


Liza Lim
The Heart's Ear
(Hat [now] ART)

Although she has probably become known as one of Australia's best-known composers, Liza Lim's compositions undermine centuries-old Eurocentrism and are largely inspired by Asian culture.


Laurence Crane / Apartment House
Chamber Works 1992-2009 [2 CDs]
(Another Timbre)

A double CD of UK's experimental music ensemble Apartment House performing 14 chamber pieces composed by and under the supervision of Laurence Crane, beautiful and informed minimal work from a unique voice in modern composition.


Clara Iannotta
A Failed Entertainment. Works 2009-2014
(Edition Rz)

Works from Italian composer Clare Iannotta recorded from 2012 - 2014, including a work for string quartet composed for the DAAD artist-in-Berlin program titled "A Failed Entertainment" commissioned by Quaturo Diotima; plus 6 works for contemporary ensembles.


Jurg Frey
Grizzana and other pieces 2009-2014 [2 CDs]
(Another Timbre)

The Ensemble Grizzana (Ryoko Akama, Mira Benjamin, Richard Craig, Emma Richards, Philip Thomas and Seth Woods) performs a series of delicate and beautiful chamber pieces by Swiss composer and clarinetist Jurg Frey, who also performs on clarinet.


Linda Smith Catlin
Drifter [2 CDs]
(Another Timbre)

Ten pieces dating from 1995 to 2015 from Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith, performed by Quatuor Bozzini and Apartment House, the first in Another Timbre's Canadian Composer series, a 2-CD release focusing on Smith's "equal and simultaneous drive toward abstraction and lyricism" in slowly developing, lush and sophisticated compositions.


Jurg Frey
Collection Gustave Roud [2 CDs]
(Another Timbre)

A double CD with five beautiful pieces that engage with the work of the extraordinary French-Swiss poet Gustave Roud, with performers including Dante Boon, Stefan Thut, Andrew McIntosh and Jurg Frey himself, 10 compositions that Frey wrote in the manner that Roud would, roaming with a sketchbook and developing the pieces based on impressions of his surroundings.


Loco Takayanagi Y Les Pobres
El Pulso
(Jinya Disc)

One of the strangest items in the Takayanagi (New Direction Unit) discography:- an acoustic guitar nontet playing covers of South American tango, milonga, vals, rumba, &c.


M (feat. Ben Stapp / Fred Lonberg-Holm / Marco Colonna / Steve Swell)
Broken Songs
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

A set of blues songs of a personal nature, concepts for a broken yet hopeful age, written and sung by improvising guitarist Marcin "M" Olak (Gadt/Osborne/Zakrocki/Olak, Agusti Fernandez) performed and expanded by a set of stellar improvisers: Ben Stapp on tuba, Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello, Marco Colonna on flute and Steve Swell on trombone.


Lars Hollmer Looping Home Orchestra
Live 1992-1993
(Les Disques Victo)


Sax Ruins
Blimmguass [JAPANESE EDITION]
(Magaibutsu)

The second Sax Ruins album with Tatsuya Yoshida (drums) and Ono Ryoko (alto sax) with guest Ryuichi Yoshida on baritone sax, performing new arrangements of Ruins works including "Vrresto", "Refusal Fossil", &c.


Shimizu Kazuto / Yoshida Tatsuya
Whatchamacallits [CD + DOWNLOAD MOVIE LINK]
(Magaibutsu Limited)

A live recording at Koenji Jirokichi in 2022 between Magaibtusu leader Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins, Korekyojinn, Koenji Hyakkei, PYN, &c) and pianist Kazuto Shimizu (Arepos, Chakra, Hikashu, Killing Time, Lars Hollmer's Global Home Project, &c), both on vocals as they unfold a playful and technically incredible set of "Doodads", "Watchamacallits" and other wonderful curiosities.


Henry Kaiser / Kurt Newman
After
(Fractal)

Guitarists Henry Kaiser and Kurt Newman engage in free improvisations inspired by classic songs they love — not covers, but intuitive commentaries recorded after listening to tracks by Pink Floyd ("See Emily Play"), The Who, ZZ Top, Fleetwood Mac, Richard Thompson, &c. — creating spontaneous, exploratory duets that reinterpret familiar sonic memories through raw, imaginative abstraction.


Zoh Amba
Eyes Full
(Matador)

Zoh Amba turns away from the ecstatic saxophone improvisations that first brought them attention, taking up voice and acoustic guitar for a raw singer-songwriter album of blues-tinged Appalachian folk, joined by longtime collaborator Kevin Hyland on electric guitar and Dirty Three drummer Jim White, whose loose, intuitive pulse supports songs of tenderness, hardship, and spiritual searching.


Albert Ayler Quintet
Copenhagen, Bordeaux 1966 & Newport 1967 Live First Release
(ALAY)

Previously unreleased recordings from the Albert Ayler Quintet — captured in Copenhagen and Bordeaux during the 1966 Newport in Europe tour and at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1967 — present Ayler with Donald Ayler, Michel Samson, Bill Folwell, and Beaver Harris/Milford Graves in fiercely expressive performances, newly restored and mastered from rediscovered tapes.


[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright)
Play Monk [2 CDs]
(Otoroku)

After six albums reimagining Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal and Seymour Wright turn their transformative [Ahmed] project toward Thelonious Monk, atomising his compositions across two CDs into volatile, time-bending forms where piano, bass, drums and alto saxophone fracture and reassemble melody, rhythm and space through free jazz intensity, pulse and radical collective invention.


[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright)
Sama'a (Audition) [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Otoroku)

Reimagining and transforming Ahmed Abdul-Malik's Jazz Sahara in their first studio session, the [Ahmed] quartet of Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal, and Seymour Wright ignite four compact, single-take explorations that fuse percussive intensity, kaleidoscopic group interplay, and a fearless reshaping of tradition into dizzying, future-leaning improvisation.


Art Edmaiston / Chad Fowler w/ Bob Moses / Damon Smith / Clifford Jackson
Memphis Mandala
(Mahakala Music)

Recorded live at Crosstown Arts in Memphis in March 2024, this concert brought together Art Edmaiston, Chad Fowler, Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Damon Smith and Clifford "Pee Wee" Jackson for a spiritually charged free jazz session that channels a deep Southern lineage, blending blues-rooted intensity with fearless collective improvisation into a cohesive, dramatic and wholly spontaneous performance.


Tomeka Reid Quartet (w/ Roebke / Halvorson / Fujiwara)
Dance! Skip! Hop!
(Out Of Your Head Records)

Led by cellist Tomeka Reid, this longstanding quartet with Mary Halvorson on guitar, Jason Roebke on bass, and Tomas Fujiwara on drums delivers a rhythmically propulsive and structurally nimble set that balances grounded low-end drive with agile drumming, incisive guitar textures, and Reid's expressive counterpoint, channeling echoes of 1960s jazz while asserting an exuberant, and yes — danceable — release!


Eri Yamamoto / Matthew Shipp
Horizon
(Mahakala Music)

A deeply personal collaboration between pianists Eri Yamamoto and Matthew Shipp, recorded live in the studio with Yamamoto in the left channel and Shipp in the right, as Yamamoto marks thirty years in New York with a set of original compositions for this occasion, their distinctive voices intertwining in an elegant, searching, and harmonically rich conversation of friendship, individuality, and creative life.


Miles Davis 3rd Quintet
Reference: Bitches Brew Live 1969 In Europe [2 CDs + 2 POSTCARDS]
(ALAY)

Documenting Miles Davis' 1969 "lost" third quintet live in Berlin, Stockholm and Rotterdam with Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, this 2-CD set captures the post-In a Silent Way ensemble reshaping material headed toward Bitches Brew, balancing lyricism and abstraction through open forms, electric-piano clusters, volatile rhythmic invention and Davis' fiercely exploratory trumpet.


Manuel Linhares
Atlantico
(577 Records)

Vocalist and composer Manuel Linhares brings together a transatlantic ensemble with Glenn Zaleski, Or Bareket, Keita Ogawa, David Binney, Gil Silva, Hugo Caldeira, Felipe Jose and Antonio Loureiro, shaping jazz-rooted songs that move between New York urgency and Porto melancholy, blending Brazilian rhythmic language, avant-garde texture, folk and pop fragments into a fluid meditation on oceanic distance, memory and change.


AMM (Prevost / Rowe / Tilbury)
Phlegm
(Matchless)

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.


Morton Feldman / GBSR Duo w/ Taylor MacLennan
Trios [6 CD BOX SET]
(Another Timbre)

Spanning Morton Feldman's three expansive trios for flute, piano, and percussion, these performances by the GBSR Duo with Taylor MacLennan immerse the listener in an extended temporal field where quiet intensity, precise timbral balance, and fragile rhythmic relationships unfold with hypnotic patience, transforming duration itself into an expressive element of listening, presence, and sustained attention.


Joe Morris
Perpetual Frontier The Properties of Free Music [BOOK]
(Riti Publishing)

Joe Morris wrote this book to discuss aspects of free music, including responses to his questionnaire written by Joe McPhee, William Parker, Jamie Saft, Ken Vandermark, Marilyn Crispell, Nate Wooley, Jack Wright, Matthew Shipp, &c.


Ivo Perelman (w/ Marc Ribot / Elliott Sharp / Joe Morris)
Trifecta [3 CDs]
(Mahakala Music)

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.


Peter Brotzmann / Steve Hubback
Treforest 82
(FMR)

A previously unreleased duo encounter pairing Peter Brötzmann's ferocious saxophone with Welsh percussionist Steve Hubback's compact and inventive drum setup, captured at the 1982 Treforest festival in the UK in a brief but explosive burst of free improv where probing textures erupt into cathartic climaxes through raw, intensely focused interplay.


Eliane Radigue
Asymptote Versatile (1963-64)
(Amgen Records)

An historic world-premiere recording of Éliane Radigue's earliest surviving work, performed at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, where a stellar ensemble realizes her flexible "sonic proposition" through evolving textures, mathematical spirals and dynamic transformations that foreshadow her later visionary soundworld.


Derek Bailey / John Stevens
The Duke of Wellington
(Confront)

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.


Cecil Taylor Unit (w/ Lyons / Silva / Cooper / Murray)
Live At Fat Tuesday's February 10, 1980 First Visit [CD + POSTCARDS]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

The 2nd night of the superb, extended live performance from 1980 at NYC's Fat Tuesday jazz club, from the outstanding sextet of forward-thinking free improvisers, Jimmy Lyons on alto sax, Ramsey Ameen on violin, Alan Silva on double bass & cello, Jerome Cooper on drums & African Balaphone and Sunny Murray on drums, led by Cecil Taylor on piano in an ecstatic concert never previously released.


Tomas Fujiwara
Dream Up
(Out Of Your Head Records)

Recorded at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, drummer and composer Tomas Fujiwara introduces his Percussion Quartet with Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, Tim Keiper on African strings and percussion, and Kaoru Watanabe on Japanese drums and flute, blending global traditions into vivid, imaginative works that traverse groove, texture, and color with striking originality and depth.


Evan Parker / Joelle Leandre
Long Bright Summer
(RogueArt)

Drawing on decades of fearless improvising, saxophonist Evan Parker and bassist Joëlle Léandre engage in an intense and unfiltered acoustic dialogue recorded live in France, their shared language enabling lightning reactions, extended techniques, surges of density and flow, hushed textural intimacy, and moments where Léandre's wordless voice merges seamlessly into their spontaneous interplay.


Teiku (Harlow / Taylor / Shahid / Formanek / Leafar)
Teiku
(577 Records)

Teiku, a Talmudic acronym that roughly translates to "unanswered question", was co-founded by pianist Josh Harlow and percussionist Jonathan Barahal Taylor to explore each of their family's unique Passover vocal melodies through improvisation and sonic exploration, performed in a quintet with Art Ensemble/Sun Ra bassist Jaribu Shahid and reedists Peter Formanek & Rafael Leafar.


Byron Coley / Mats Gustafsson / Thurston Moore
Now Jazz Now: 100 Essential Free Jazz & Improvisation Recordings (1960-80) [BOOK]
(Ecstatic Peace Library )

Drawing from deeply personal listening histories, this richly illustrated volume assembles 100 essential free jazz and improvisation recordings from 1960-80, presenting album art, notes, and reflections that frame the music as non-hierarchical and interlinked, offering an immersive guide for adventurous listeners interested in the lineage, spirit, and lived culture of creative freedom.


Steve Lacy Three
Live Lugano 1984 - First Visit [CD + 2 POSTCARDS]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Recorded live in Lugano in 1984, Steve Lacy's trio with guitarist Barry Wedgle and bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel reimagines his compositions in an intimate and transparent setting, where Lacy's masterful soprano saxophone carves precise yet expressive lines, drawing on influences from poetry, Monk, and visual art to create a striking balance between structure and improvisation.


Albert Ayler Trio
Prophecy Live, First Visit
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Recorded live at New York City's Cellar Café in June 1964, this essential document captures Albert Ayler, bassist Gary Peacock, and drummer Sunny Murray in a pivotal moment of spiritual free jazz, expressing motifs like 'Ghosts' and 'Spirits' into an ecstatic, ever-evolving language, with this remastered edition offering a refined perspective on a landmark session that shaped Ayler's uncompromising vision.


Albert Ayler with Don Cherry
1964 Recordings First Visit Completed [2 CDs + POSTCARDS]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Four sets of recordings from September, 1964 in Copenhagen, Denmark from a week performing live at Club Montmarte, and a recording in Hilversum, The Netherlands for VARA Radio, collecting and remastering these vital recordings from tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler's most vital free jazz quartet with Don Cherry on cornet, Gary Peacock on double bass and Sunny Murray on drums.


Eri Yamamoto Quadraphonic
Fly With The Wings
(Mahakala Music)

A warm and lyrical new quartet from pianist, vocalist, and melodica player Eri Yamamoto alongside Chad Fowler on alto sax & flute, Kevin Thomas on bass, and longtime collaborator Ikuo Takeuchi on drums, blending groove-driven jazz, free improvisation, and tender balladry with Yamamoto's distinctive touch, highlighted by playful interplay, beautiful melodies, and a soulful, unhurried charm.


Karl Evangelista's Apura + Andrew Cyrille
Bukas
(577 Records)

West Coast Bay Area guitarist Karl Evangelista leads his Apura ensemble — Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), Francis Wong (tenor sax), Rei Scampavia (keys, electronics), and Lewis Jordan (alto sax) — joined by drum legend Andrew Cyrille in a powerful statement of free improvisation, blending expressive intensity and forward-looking vision with deeply rooted passion and creative openness.


Fieldwork (Iyer / Lehman / Sorey)
Thereupon
(Pi Recordings)

Seventeen years after their last recording, the New York trio of Steve Lehman (alto saxophone), Vijay Iyer (piano, Rhodes), and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) reunite with dense, high-impact compositions and fearless interplay, blending complexity with groove as they reaffirm their status as one of the most vital ensembles in contemporary improvised music.


Webber/Morris Big Band
Unseparate
(Out Of Your Head Records)

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.


John Coltrane Quartet (w/ Tyner / Garrison / Jones)
Impressions From Graz 1962, Revisited [2 CDs]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Expanding and remastering the 2019 single CD of John Coltrane's Quartet from its European tour in the fall of 1962, with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on double bass, and Elvin Jones on drums, performing at Stefaniensaal in Graz, Austria, beautifully recorded by ORF Steiermark and now presented in both volumes, showcasing Coltrane's lyrical roots and growing free inclinations.


Angles 11
Tell Them It's The Sound Of Freedom
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

Martin Küchen's Angles returns as an 11-piece — two trumpets, expanded reeds, vibraphone and amplified violin, Fender Rhodes/synth, and a three-drummer engine — lifting songful, anthemic themes into free, melody-rich interplay and propulsive grooves, the ensemble shifting from playful exchanges to surging peaks as its close-knit rapport balances warmth, bite, and momentum.


Davis / Ferrari / Mazza
Things Of This Nature
(Mahakala Music)

The quartet Things Of This Nature — Caylie Davis (trumpet), Chris Ferrari (woodwinds), Shogo Yamagishi (bass), and JJ Mazza (drums) — brings together a young generation of New York improvisers whose tight ensemble interplay, bold free jazz sensibility, and energetic collective approach draw deeply from the tradition while pushing their music toward fresh and expressive terrain.


Pierre Favre Trio (Favre / Schweizer / Mraz)
Bird Food
(Songs)

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.


Marion Brown
Capricorn Moon To Juba Lee, Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Merging and remastering two essential albums from free jazz saxophonist Marion Brown: his 1966 ESP album "Marion Brown Quartet" with trumpeter Alan Shorter, bassist Reggie Johnson and percussionist Rahied Ali; and his 1967 Fontana album "Juba-Lee" in a septet with Reggie Johnson, drummer Beaver Harris, pianist Dave Burrell, trombonist Grachan Moncur III & saxophonist Bennie Maupin.


Joseph Holbrooke (w/ Derek Bailey / Gavin Bryars / Tony Oxley)
Last Live 2001 - In Memoriam Derek Bailey And Tony Oxley [2 CDs]
(Tzadik)

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.


Frode Gjerstad / Alexander von Schlippenbach / Dag Magnus Narvesen
Seven Tracks
(Relative Pitch)

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.


Joe McPhee / Steve Swell / Mark Tokar / Klaus Kuge
Spontaneous Convergence
(Not Two)

Recorded live at the Alchemia Club in Krakow, Joe McPhee (reeds) and Steve Swell (trombone) join Mark Tokar (bass) and Klaus Kugel (drums) for a sharply interactive quartet session that moves from tight, prickling exchanges to wide-open collective surges, anchored by the twenty-eight-minute "Joy And Imagination Are Uncontainable."


Cecil Taylor Unit (w/ Lyons / Silva / Cooper / Murray)
Live At Fat Tuesday's February 9 - First Visit Archive [CD + POSTCARDS]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

A superb and extended live performance from 1980 at NYC's Fat Tuesday jazz club, from the outstanding sextet of forward-thinking free improvisers, Jimmy Lyons on alto sax, Ramsey Ameen on violin, Alan Silva on double bass & cello, Jerome Cooper on drums & African Balaphone and Sunny Murray on drums, led by Cecil Taylor on piano in an ecstatic concert never previously released.


Rob Brown / Brandon Lopez / Juan P. Carletti
Walkabout
(Mahakala Music)

An energetic trio session of collective free improvisation from NY alto saxophonist Rob Brown, bassist Brandon Lopez, and drummer Juan Pablo Carletti, recorded in the studio and driven by an intense energy that maintains a powerful swing, with Brown's incisive phrasing, Lopez's commanding bass, and Carletti's dynamic percussion merging into a spontaneous and deeply expressive musical force.


Peter Brotzmann w/ Peter Uuskyla / Peter Friis Nielsen
Flying Feathers
(FMR)

Blazing through a set of raw, high-intensity free jazz, Peter Brötzmann joins Danish bassist Peter Friis Nielsen and Estonian drummer Peeter Uuskyla for a ferocious trio session where roaring saxophone and tarogato collide with clanking electric bass and trance-like percussion, balancing relentless energy with occasional lyrical openings in this fiercely driven improvisational encounter.


Anthony Braxton
Solo Bern 1984 First Visit
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

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


Henry Threadgill
Listen Ship
(Pi Recordings)

Composer Henry Threadgill conducts a suite for six acoustic guitars and two pianos, bringing together Bill Frisell, Miles Okazaki, Brandon Ross, Gregg Belisle-Chi, Jerome Harris, Stomu Takeishi, Maya Keren, and Rahul Carlberg in an intricately orchestrated work whose intervallic syntax and meticulous counterpoint entwine with unexpected timbres to reveal his singular and sublime vision.


Oliver Lake / Fred Hopkins / Phillip Wilson / Baikida Carroll / Michael Gregory Jackson
Rivbea Live! Series, Volume 4
(NoBusiness)

Recorded during the mid-1970s loft-jazz flowering at Studio Rivbea in New York City, this live session finds Oliver Lake leading a volatile ensemble with Baikida Carroll, Michael Gregory Jackson, Fred Hopkins, and drummers Phillip Wilson and Jerome Cooper, blending post-BAG urgency, searching improvisation, and sharp ensemble interplay into a raw, idealistic document of creative rebirth.


Marty Ehrlich / Julius Hemphill
Circle the Heart [CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)

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.


The Williams Tony Emergency w/ John McLaughlin / Larry Young
Emergency!
(ALAY)

A restored edition of Tony Williams Lifetime's incendiary 1969 trio debut with John McLaughlin on guitar and Larry Young on organ, documenting one of jazz-rock fusion's earliest and most audacious statements, where Williams' radical rhythmic designs, Young's dense harmonic force, and McLaughlin's searing electric vocabulary collide in urgent, psychedelic, genre-defying improvisation.


Ellery Eskelin Trio New York
About (or On), First Visit [2 CDs]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Reuniting for two powerful studio sessions recorded in 2011 and 2013, tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, organist Gary Versace, and drummer Gerald Cleaver form Trio New York, navigating an intuitive path between free improvisation and jazz standards with soulful depth, rich allusions, and a shared language that reimagines the classic organ trio.


Taborn / Cline / Gilmore
Trio of Bloom
(Pyroclastic Records)

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.


Ben Stapp
Uzmic Ro'Samg (Live Solo Tuba)
(577 Records)

A visionary solo exploration from tubist Ben Stapp, merging extreme extended techniques, circular breathing, and multiphonics with a science fiction narrative of consciousness and transformation, unfolding ten pieces that traverse volatile timbres, subterranean drones, and vocal-inflected abstractions in a deeply personal act of world-building beyond mere instrumental prowess.


Borah Bergman / Anthony Braxton / Peter Brotzmann
Eight By Three
(Mixtery)

An extraordinary 1996 Mixtery Studio encounter between pianist Borah Bergman, Anthony Braxton on a wide range of reeds, and Peter Brötzmann on saxophones, clarinet, and tárogató, balancing ferocious torrents of free jazz interplay with moments of surprising lyricism and abstraction, as three titans of improvisation push their individual voices into a thrilling collective dialogue.


Last Dream of the Morning (John Butcher / John Edwards / Marc Sanders)
Sharp Illusion
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

The third release from the trio of John Butcher, John Edwards and Mark Sanders captures a live performance in Lublin that unfolds across four extended improvisations, balancing explosive collective energy and deep listening restraint as saxophones, bass and percussion interweave in a fluid, highly responsive dialogue shaped by decades of shared experience within the UK and European free improv community.


Adam O'Farrill (O'Farrill / Rogers / Stinson / Holzman)
Elephant
(Out Of Your Head Records)

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.


Thelonious Monk with Sonny Rollins
1953 To 1957 Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Restoring and remastering three key sessions documenting the evolving creative relationship between Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, alongside artists including Julius Watkins, Ernie Henry, Oscar Pettiford, and Max Roach, in a vital revisitation of formative collaborations that highlight Monk's unique brilliance and Rollins' early improvisational voice within shifting post-bop ensembles.




The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC