The Squid's Ear Magazine
The Squid's Ear Magazine
  Top Lists Sold @ Squidco
Squidco Top 40 by Customer Orders

Chad Fowler / Eri Yamamoto
Polkadots & Moonbeams
(Mahakala Music)

Alto saxophonist and flutist Chad Fowler joins pianist Eri Yamamoto for an intimate duo session balancing composed material with spontaneous song forms, moving between grief, memory, tenderness and celebration through deeply lyrical improvisation, including Fowler's elegiac "Ash" and the standard "Polkadots and Moonbeams," recorded by Jim Clouse at Park West Studios.


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.


Golding / Brice / Prevost
High Laver Levitations Vol 4: Sound-Out - jazz is dead, long live jazz
(Matchless)

Binker Golding, Olie Brice and Eddie Prévost reduce their earlier Secret Handshake with Danger collaboration to an elemental saxophone, bass and drums trio, bringing contemporary London jazz into Prévost's High Laver Levitations series through vigorous free improvisation where pulse, melody, resonance and abstraction continually test and renew the boundaries of jazz.


Joe Morris / Rob Brown / Anna Webber / Matthew Rousseaux
Counter Spectacle
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

Joe Morris leads alto saxophonist Rob Brown, tenor saxophonist/flutist Anna Webber and drummer Matthew Rousseau in a quartet balancing composed structure with spontaneous free improvisation, recorded live at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, where Morris's idea of a "continuous beginning" drives music shaped by collective interaction, change, freedom, hope and possibility.


Barry Guy / Roberto Ottaviano
Synantisi
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

A first recorded meeting between British bassist Barry Guy and Italian soprano saxophonist Roberto Ottaviano, bringing two master improvisers into a highly exposed duo setting where Guy's orchestral range of bowed, plucked and percussive bass techniques meets Ottaviano's agile soprano and voice in thirteen alert, rapidly evolving exchanges shaped by instantaneous response, restraint, lyricism and playful confrontation.


Angles 4 (Kuchen / Haker-Flaten / Stahl / Nordeson)
Angles 4 [CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)

Martin Küchen reunites the Håker Flaten/Nordeson core of Angles 3 with longtime Angles 6/8/9 vibraphonist Mattias Ståhl, revisiting older compositions in a lean quartet setting where volatile bass-and-drum momentum meets metallic resonance around Küchen's stark saxophone themes, distilling the larger ensemble's power into a clearer, more spacious and sharply focused form.


[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.


B:A:N:S BAND (Sophie Agnel / John Butcher / Pascal Niggenkemper / Stale Liavik Solberg)
Foam & Mesh
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

The debut recording from B:A:N:S Band brings Sophie Agnel's radically extended piano together with John Butcher's exploratory saxophones, Pascal Niggenkemper's highly physical double bass and Ståle Liavik Solberg's responsive percussion in two long-form collective improvisations of texture, resonance, density and silence, captured live at Austria's 2024 Artacts Festival.


Henry Grimes / Marzette Watts (w/ Robinson / Lancaster / Sharrock / Thornton / Berger / Moses &c)
The Call
(ALAY)

Reissuing Henry Grimes' concise, darkly lyrical 1965 trio album with clarinetist Perry Robinson and drummer Tom Price alongside Marzette Watts' turbulent 1966 octet session, this remastered edition contrasts free improvisation with a dense collective of Byard Lancaster, Clifford Thornton, Sonny Sharrock, Karl Berger, Juini Booth and J. C. Moses, Grimes the link between two vital expressions of 1960s freedom


Frank Gratkowski / Sebi Tramontana / Steve Beresford
Almost This
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

Frank Gratkowski's reeds, Sebi Tramontana's trombone and Steve Beresford's piano meet in freely improvised music built on decades of individual experience and mutual trust, moving between playful exchange, dissonance, lyricism and near-organization in a Köln studio session that reveals three instantly recognizable voices continually reshaping their collective language.


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.


Glass Triangle (Parkins / Rasmussen / Sawyer)
3 X 1 [CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)

Zeena Parkins, Mette Rasmussen and Ryan Sawyer return for Glass Triangle's third album, expanding the electric harp, alto saxophone and percussion language of their earlier releases with voice, preparations and bells, while distilling their volatile free improvisation into shorter, sharply focused pieces balancing texture, space, momentum and spontaneous collective change.


Francisco Mela feat. Matthew Shipp / William Parker
Music Frees Our Souls, Vol. 1
(577 Records)

A member of pianist McCoy Tyner's Trio and Joe Lavano's Quartet, New York drummer Francisco Mela's own career as a leader is heard in this energetic trio album with two of NY's finest--pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker--recording in the studio in Brooklyn in 2020 for two extended and powerful collective improvisations and a brief "Dark Light".


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.


Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe
After the Storm
(Libra)

Satoko Fujii conducts her 14-piece Orchestra Kobe through a four-part work composed during the pandemic as an optimistic vision of shared humanity, joining layered reeds and brass with Takumi Seino's volatile guitar, Keishiro Saito's bass and dual drummers Yoshikazu Isaki and Hiromasa Sadaoka in a sweeping progression from stately melody and intimate subgroups to dissonant mass, fiery improvisation and a jubilant final theme.


Laura Strobl / Georg Graewe / Mark Sanders
Acutance
(Random Acoustics)

Bringing violist Laura Strobl together with pianist Georg Graewe and drummer Mark Sanders, this 2025 Vienna session presents eleven freely improvised chamber pieces in which fleeting melodies, abstract gestures, and sharply contrasted textures coalesce into poised, intricate forms, highlighting the trio's acute responsiveness and the viola's distinctive role within the ensemble.


Sonic Fiction Special (Gratkowski / Strobl / Graewe / Hemingway) feat. Earl Howard
Banding Patterns
(Random Acoustics)

Reducing Georg Graewe's Sonic Fiction concept to an agile chamber group with Frank Gratkowski, Laura Strobl and Gerry Hemingway, joined by Earl Howard on electronics and alto saxophone, this 2025 Cologne session unfolds through nine intricate improvisations where acoustic counterpoint, extended timbres and electronic transformation continually reshape the ensemble's shifting sonic relationships.


Sei Miguel
Viva! O Carro de Fogo de Sei Miguel [2 CDs]
(Clean Feed)

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.


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.


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.


Francisco Mela feat. Matthew Shipp / William Parker
Music Frees Our Souls, Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

A member of pianist McCoy Tyner's Trio and Joe Lavano's Quartet, New York drummer Francisco Mela's own career as a leader is heard in this energetic trio album with two of NY's finest--pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker--recording in the studio in Brooklyn in 2020 for two extended and powerful collective improvisations and a brief "Dark Light".


Lao Dan Chicago Quartet
Klotski
(Trost Records)

Bringing Chicago-based Chinese multi-instrumentalist Lao Dan together with pianist Mabel Kwan, bassist Joshua Abrams, and percussionist Michael Zerang, this 2024 quartet set moves through volatile collective improvisation, contrasting Dan's searing tenor saxophone with the crystalline colors of Chinese flute and suona amid dense, responsive ensemble interplay.


Duke Ellington Orchestra
From Fargo Live 1940
(ALAY)

A legendary 1940 live document of Duke Ellington's Blanton-Webster orchestra, captured in Fargo by Jack Towers and Richard Burris, with Ellington on piano, Johnny Hodges and Otto Hardwick on alto saxophones, Ben Webster on tenor, Harry Carney on baritone, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Rex Stewart, Ray Nance and Wallace Jones in the brass, Jimmy Blanton on bass, Sonny Greer on drums, and Ivie Anderson and Herb Jeffries on vocals.


Joanna Mattrey / Camila Nebbia / Camilo �ngeles / Violeta Garcia
Heavy Handed
(Relative Pitch)

An international quartet of Joanna Mattrey on viola, Camila Nebbia on tenor saxophone, Camilo Angeles on flute and effects, and Violeta Garcia on cello and effects, developing seven volatile collective improvisations where breath, bowed resonance, abrasive attacks and subtle electronics move between fragile chamber textures, urgent counterpoint and dense, rhythmically charged eruptions.


Otomo Yoshihide / Kei Matsumaru
Shutsumin
(Trost Records)

Uniting Otomo Yoshihide on guitar and turntable with alto/soprano saxophonist and electronic musician Kei Matsumaru, this live Tokyo duo moves fluidly between free jazz, noise and electroacoustic abstraction, their quicksilver exchanges, abrasive textures and sudden shifts of density evoking the album's theme of the unstable, hallucinatory passage between sleep and wakefulness.


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.


Golding / Brice / Prevost
High Laver Levitations Vol 4: Sound-Out - jazz is dead, long live jazz
(Matchless)

Binker Golding, Olie Brice and Eddie Prévost reduce their earlier Secret Handshake with Danger collaboration to an elemental saxophone, bass and drums trio, bringing contemporary London jazz into Prévost's High Laver Levitations series through vigorous free improvisation where pulse, melody, resonance and abstraction continually test and renew the boundaries of jazz.


Joe Morris / Rob Brown / Anna Webber / Matthew Rousseaux
Counter Spectacle
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

Joe Morris leads alto saxophonist Rob Brown, tenor saxophonist/flutist Anna Webber and drummer Matthew Rousseau in a quartet balancing composed structure with spontaneous free improvisation, recorded live at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, where Morris's idea of a "continuous beginning" drives music shaped by collective interaction, change, freedom, hope and possibility.


Barry Guy / Roberto Ottaviano
Synantisi
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

A first recorded meeting between British bassist Barry Guy and Italian soprano saxophonist Roberto Ottaviano, bringing two master improvisers into a highly exposed duo setting where Guy's orchestral range of bowed, plucked and percussive bass techniques meets Ottaviano's agile soprano and voice in thirteen alert, rapidly evolving exchanges shaped by instantaneous response, restraint, lyricism and playful confrontation.


Angles 4 (Kuchen / Haker-Flaten / Stahl / Nordeson)
Angles 4 [CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)

Martin Küchen reunites the Håker Flaten/Nordeson core of Angles 3 with longtime Angles 6/8/9 vibraphonist Mattias Ståhl, revisiting older compositions in a lean quartet setting where volatile bass-and-drum momentum meets metallic resonance around Küchen's stark saxophone themes, distilling the larger ensemble's power into a clearer, more spacious and sharply focused form.


[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.


B:A:N:S BAND (Sophie Agnel / John Butcher / Pascal Niggenkemper / Stale Liavik Solberg)
Foam & Mesh
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

The debut recording from B:A:N:S Band brings Sophie Agnel's radically extended piano together with John Butcher's exploratory saxophones, Pascal Niggenkemper's highly physical double bass and Ståle Liavik Solberg's responsive percussion in two long-form collective improvisations of texture, resonance, density and silence, captured live at Austria's 2024 Artacts Festival.


Henry Grimes / Marzette Watts (w/ Robinson / Lancaster / Sharrock / Thornton / Berger / Moses &c)
The Call
(ALAY)

Reissuing Henry Grimes' concise, darkly lyrical 1965 trio album with clarinetist Perry Robinson and drummer Tom Price alongside Marzette Watts' turbulent 1966 octet session, this remastered edition contrasts free improvisation with a dense collective of Byard Lancaster, Clifford Thornton, Sonny Sharrock, Karl Berger, Juini Booth and J. C. Moses, Grimes the link between two vital expressions of 1960s freedom


Frank Gratkowski / Sebi Tramontana / Steve Beresford
Almost This
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

Frank Gratkowski's reeds, Sebi Tramontana's trombone and Steve Beresford's piano meet in freely improvised music built on decades of individual experience and mutual trust, moving between playful exchange, dissonance, lyricism and near-organization in a Köln studio session that reveals three instantly recognizable voices continually reshaping their collective language.


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.


Glass Triangle (Parkins / Rasmussen / Sawyer)
3 X 1 [CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)

Zeena Parkins, Mette Rasmussen and Ryan Sawyer return for Glass Triangle's third album, expanding the electric harp, alto saxophone and percussion language of their earlier releases with voice, preparations and bells, while distilling their volatile free improvisation into shorter, sharply focused pieces balancing texture, space, momentum and spontaneous collective change.


Francisco Mela feat. Matthew Shipp / William Parker
Music Frees Our Souls, Vol. 1
(577 Records)

A member of pianist McCoy Tyner's Trio and Joe Lavano's Quartet, New York drummer Francisco Mela's own career as a leader is heard in this energetic trio album with two of NY's finest--pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker--recording in the studio in Brooklyn in 2020 for two extended and powerful collective improvisations and a brief "Dark Light".


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.


Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe
After the Storm
(Libra)

Satoko Fujii conducts her 14-piece Orchestra Kobe through a four-part work composed during the pandemic as an optimistic vision of shared humanity, joining layered reeds and brass with Takumi Seino's volatile guitar, Keishiro Saito's bass and dual drummers Yoshikazu Isaki and Hiromasa Sadaoka in a sweeping progression from stately melody and intimate subgroups to dissonant mass, fiery improvisation and a jubilant final theme.


Laura Strobl / Georg Graewe / Mark Sanders
Acutance
(Random Acoustics)

Bringing violist Laura Strobl together with pianist Georg Graewe and drummer Mark Sanders, this 2025 Vienna session presents eleven freely improvised chamber pieces in which fleeting melodies, abstract gestures, and sharply contrasted textures coalesce into poised, intricate forms, highlighting the trio's acute responsiveness and the viola's distinctive role within the ensemble.


Sonic Fiction Special (Gratkowski / Strobl / Graewe / Hemingway) feat. Earl Howard
Banding Patterns
(Random Acoustics)

Reducing Georg Graewe's Sonic Fiction concept to an agile chamber group with Frank Gratkowski, Laura Strobl and Gerry Hemingway, joined by Earl Howard on electronics and alto saxophone, this 2025 Cologne session unfolds through nine intricate improvisations where acoustic counterpoint, extended timbres and electronic transformation continually reshape the ensemble's shifting sonic relationships.


Sei Miguel
Viva! O Carro de Fogo de Sei Miguel [2 CDs]
(Clean Feed)

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.


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.


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.


Lao Dan Chicago Quartet
Klotski
(Trost Records)

Bringing Chicago-based Chinese multi-instrumentalist Lao Dan together with pianist Mabel Kwan, bassist Joshua Abrams, and percussionist Michael Zerang, this 2024 quartet set moves through volatile collective improvisation, contrasting Dan's searing tenor saxophone with the crystalline colors of Chinese flute and suona amid dense, responsive ensemble interplay.


Duke Ellington Orchestra
From Fargo Live 1940
(ALAY)

A legendary 1940 live document of Duke Ellington's Blanton-Webster orchestra, captured in Fargo by Jack Towers and Richard Burris, with Ellington on piano, Johnny Hodges and Otto Hardwick on alto saxophones, Ben Webster on tenor, Harry Carney on baritone, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Rex Stewart, Ray Nance and Wallace Jones in the brass, Jimmy Blanton on bass, Sonny Greer on drums, and Ivie Anderson and Herb Jeffries on vocals.


Joanna Mattrey / Camila Nebbia / Camilo �ngeles / Violeta Garcia
Heavy Handed
(Relative Pitch)

An international quartet of Joanna Mattrey on viola, Camila Nebbia on tenor saxophone, Camilo Angeles on flute and effects, and Violeta Garcia on cello and effects, developing seven volatile collective improvisations where breath, bowed resonance, abrasive attacks and subtle electronics move between fragile chamber textures, urgent counterpoint and dense, rhythmically charged eruptions.


Otomo Yoshihide / Kei Matsumaru
Shutsumin
(Trost Records)

Uniting Otomo Yoshihide on guitar and turntable with alto/soprano saxophonist and electronic musician Kei Matsumaru, this live Tokyo duo moves fluidly between free jazz, noise and electroacoustic abstraction, their quicksilver exchanges, abrasive textures and sudden shifts of density evoking the album's theme of the unstable, hallucinatory passage between sleep and wakefulness.


Verona Sextet (Armaroli / Buck / Gemmo / Mayas / Piccolo / Sharp)
Leap And Bounds
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

The Verona Sextet develops fluid stream-of-consciousness improvised music of shifting textures, fractured rhythms, resonant percussion and electroacoustic detail, merging Sergio Armaroli's vibraphone, Tony Buck's drums, Francesca Gemmo and Magda Mayas on piano and prepared piano, Steve Piccolo's electronics and voice, and Elliott Sharp on guitar and soprano saxophone.


Enso (Benjamin Dwyer / Rafal Mazur / Ramon Lopez)
Rhizoming
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

Irish guitarist Benjamin Dwyer, Polish bass guitarist Rafal Mazur and Spanish percussionist Ramon Lopez form Enso, a trio devoted to spontaneous collective improvisation, drawing on the idea of the single unbroken gesture to create fluid, continuously transforming music in which guitar, bass, drums and tabla interweave through close listening, shifting relationships and a kinetic sense of motion.


Francisco Mela feat. Matthew Shipp / William Parker
Music Frees Our Souls, Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

A member of pianist McCoy Tyner's Trio and Joe Lavano's Quartet, New York drummer Francisco Mela's own career as a leader is heard in this energetic trio album with two of NY's finest--pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker--recording in the studio in Brooklyn in 2020 for two extended and powerful collective improvisations and a brief "Dark Light".


Schlippenbach Trio
Elf Bagatellen [DOUBLE VINYL]
(Cien Fuegos)

Capturing the Schlippenbach Trio, one of European free jazz's foundational ensembles, in a more distilled and compositionally focused mode, this 1990 session with Evan Parker on soprano & tenor saxophones, von Schlippenbach on piano, and Paul Lovens on drums and cymbals unfolds through eleven concise improvisations of taut interplay, fractured lyricism, and chamber-like precision.


[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.


Horatiu Radulescu
Clepsydra / Astray [VINYL]
(Edition Rz)

Romanian-French composer Horatiu Radulescu with 2 works from 1983: "Clepsydra" for 16 Sound Icons played on a sideway piano, and the 1984 work "Astray" for 6 saxophones and Sound Icons.


Sei Miguel
O Carro De Fogo De Sei Miguel [VINYL]
(Clean Feed)

Recording live in the Namouche Studios in Lisbon in 2018, trumpeter Sei Miguel's octet performs a large work translating to "Fire Car", inspired by William Blake's "Jerusalem" (Chariot of Fire), reminding of early 70's Miles/fusion work as organist Andre Goncalves creates an atmospheric backbone over which the band introduces repetition and variation; mysterious and singular.


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.


Lao Dan Chicago Quartet
Klotski [VINYL]
(Trost Records)

Bringing Chicago-based Chinese multi-instrumentalist Lao Dan together with pianist Mabel Kwan, bassist Joshua Abrams, and percussionist Michael Zerang, this 2024 quartet set moves through volatile collective improvisation, contrasting Dan's searing tenor saxophone with the crystalline colors of Chinese flute and suona amid dense, responsive ensemble interplay.


Bobby Bradford / Frode Gjerstad Quartet
The Delaware River [VINYL]
(NoBusiness)

The longstanding collaboration of cornetist Bobby Bradford and reedist Frode Gjerstad (together since '86) with bassist Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten on bass and Frank Rosaly on drums, recording at Philadelphia Art Alliance in 2014, a powerful lineup of modern free players.


Fake Humans (Fisher / Didur)
Exegesis [VINYL]
(Shhpuma)

The Toronto-based duo of Colin Fisher on woodwinds and percussion and Carl Didur on keyboards and bass bridge acoustic and electronic improv with science fiction sensibilities in their two part "Exegesis", a critical exposition of un-genred music that borrows from global sources in service to their unusual and exotic tale; a wonderfully perplexing album.


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.


Daniel Carter / Patrick Holmes / Matthew Putman / Hilliard Greene / Federico Ughi
Electric Telepathy, Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter's Telepathic Band with Patrick Holmes (clarinet), Matthew Putman (keyboards), Hilliard Greene (bass) and Federico Ughi (drums) present their first volume of "psych-jazz", in actively mesmerizing music that explores the border between the "default world" and the "dream world", a meditation on electricity through profound playing.


Sabir Mateen / Patrick Holmes / Federico Ughi
Survival Situation [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(577 Records)

Having played together in a variety of settings, but never as a trio, saxophonist Sabir Mateen, clarinetist Patrick Holmes and drummer Federico Ughi met in a recording studio in Tuscany, Italy to record this album of wide-ranging free improvisation, Mateen's Farfisa playing and vocal declamations bringing a Sun Ra element to the vehement and profound dialog.


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.


Mary Halvorson's Code Girl
Artlessly Falling [VINYL WHITE 2 LPs]
(Firehouse 12 Records)

The 2nd Code Girl release from guitarist Mary Halvorson presents an embraceable and ambitious set of songs from 8 poetic forms for which Halvorson composed words & music, 3 of which are sung by Robert Wyatt, the others by Amirtha Kidambi, in a band with Thumbscrew members Michael Formanek (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), plus Maria Grand (sax) and Adam O'Farrill (trumpet).


Evan Parker
Six of One [VINYL]
(Otoroku)

London's Otoroku label keeps this magnificent album in print with a 2021 reissue of the 1982 Incus release featuring Evan Parker performing solo on soprano saxophone, using the natural resonance of the Church Of St. Jude-on-the-Hill, in Hampstead London as he explores upper tones and high frequency split tones in a technically brilliant display.


Daniel Carter / Tobias Wilner / Djibril Toure / Federico Ughi
New York United Volume 2 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

The second volume of this rich and exotic quartet in a sublime merging of jazz, electronics and compositional approaches yielding melodically dream-like music and environments, from reedist, flutist && trumpeter Daniel Carter, Tobias Wilner (Blue Foundation) on synth and keys, Wu-Tang Clan bassist Djibril Toure and Italian/NY drummer Federico Ughi.


Daniel Carter / Patrick Holmes / Matthew Putman / Hilliard Greene / Federico Ughi
Telepatica [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Named for the long history of collaboration over decades, the NY free jazz Telepathic Band of Daniel Carter on saxophones, clarinet & trumpet, Patrick Holmes on clarinet, Matthew Putman on piano, Rhodes, Hilliard Greene on bass and Federico Ughi on drums are heard live at the 2018 Forward Festival in Brooklyn, NY for four outstandingly informed improvisations.


Art Ensemble Of Chicago
The Sixth Decade: From Paris To Paris [VINYL 2 LPs]
(RogueArt)

Celebrating 50 years since formed as a quintet in Paris, original Art Ensemble members saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and percussionist Famoudou Don Moye present this live concert at Maison des Arts de Creteil in France with an oustanding chamber jazz ensemble including trumpeter Hugh Ragin, flutist Nicole Mitchell, bassist Jaribu Shahid, cellist Tomeka Reid and violinist Jean Cook.


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.


Mats Gustafsson / Joachim Nordwall
Their Power Reached Across Space And Time-To Defy Them Was Death-Or Worse [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(Thrill Jockey)

Black Vinyl - Expanding on their decade-long collaboration with albums on Astral Spirits, Bocian and Confront (Ensemble Var), and both members of Fire! Orchestra, sound artist Joachim Nordwall on analog synth and tapes and reed & wind player Mats Gustafsson use extended approaches to their instruments through effects and close mic-ing to create powerful and hallucinatory sound worlds.


Zoh Amba / William Parker / Francisco Mela
O Life, O Light Vol. 2 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

The second volume from the trio of Tennessee-to-NYC transplant Zoe Amba on tenor saxophone & flute, legendary double bassist William Parker and Francisco Mela on drums, performing three compositions by Amba recorded in the studio in NYC; emphatic free jazz with a powerful rhythm section elucidating Amba's spiritually fueled approach to compelling, lyrical improvisation.


John Dikeman / Pat Thomas / John Edwards / Steve Noble
Volume 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

The first of two planned 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.


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.


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.


Eva Novoa Trio
Novoa / Gress / Gray Trio Vol.1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

Spanish pianist Eva Novoa leads the trio of Drew Gress on bass and Devon Gray on drums in her second 577 album, and the first of two volumes with this trio, in a solid and lyrical traditional piano trio album of melodic themes, masterly trio interplay, swinging touches and strong grooves, augmented at times with a subtle electronic tapestry of modular synthesis provided by Gress.


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.


Golding / Brice / Prevost
High Laver Levitations Vol 4: Sound-Out - jazz is dead, long live jazz
(Matchless)

Binker Golding, Olie Brice and Eddie Prévost reduce their earlier Secret Handshake with Danger collaboration to an elemental saxophone, bass and drums trio, bringing contemporary London jazz into Prévost's High Laver Levitations series through vigorous free improvisation where pulse, melody, resonance and abstraction continually test and renew the boundaries of jazz.


Joe Morris / Rob Brown / Anna Webber / Matthew Rousseaux
Counter Spectacle
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

Joe Morris leads alto saxophonist Rob Brown, tenor saxophonist/flutist Anna Webber and drummer Matthew Rousseau in a quartet balancing composed structure with spontaneous free improvisation, recorded live at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, where Morris's idea of a "continuous beginning" drives music shaped by collective interaction, change, freedom, hope and possibility.


Barry Guy / Roberto Ottaviano
Synantisi
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

A first recorded meeting between British bassist Barry Guy and Italian soprano saxophonist Roberto Ottaviano, bringing two master improvisers into a highly exposed duo setting where Guy's orchestral range of bowed, plucked and percussive bass techniques meets Ottaviano's agile soprano and voice in thirteen alert, rapidly evolving exchanges shaped by instantaneous response, restraint, lyricism and playful confrontation.


Angles 4 (Kuchen / Haker-Flaten / Stahl / Nordeson)
Angles 4 [CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)

Martin Küchen reunites the Håker Flaten/Nordeson core of Angles 3 with longtime Angles 6/8/9 vibraphonist Mattias Ståhl, revisiting older compositions in a lean quartet setting where volatile bass-and-drum momentum meets metallic resonance around Küchen's stark saxophone themes, distilling the larger ensemble's power into a clearer, more spacious and sharply focused form.


[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.


B:A:N:S BAND (Sophie Agnel / John Butcher / Pascal Niggenkemper / Stale Liavik Solberg)
Foam & Mesh
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

The debut recording from B:A:N:S Band brings Sophie Agnel's radically extended piano together with John Butcher's exploratory saxophones, Pascal Niggenkemper's highly physical double bass and Ståle Liavik Solberg's responsive percussion in two long-form collective improvisations of texture, resonance, density and silence, captured live at Austria's 2024 Artacts Festival.


Henry Grimes / Marzette Watts (w/ Robinson / Lancaster / Sharrock / Thornton / Berger / Moses &c)
The Call
(ALAY)

Reissuing Henry Grimes' concise, darkly lyrical 1965 trio album with clarinetist Perry Robinson and drummer Tom Price alongside Marzette Watts' turbulent 1966 octet session, this remastered edition contrasts free improvisation with a dense collective of Byard Lancaster, Clifford Thornton, Sonny Sharrock, Karl Berger, Juini Booth and J. C. Moses, Grimes the link between two vital expressions of 1960s freedom


Frank Gratkowski / Sebi Tramontana / Steve Beresford
Almost This
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

Frank Gratkowski's reeds, Sebi Tramontana's trombone and Steve Beresford's piano meet in freely improvised music built on decades of individual experience and mutual trust, moving between playful exchange, dissonance, lyricism and near-organization in a Köln studio session that reveals three instantly recognizable voices continually reshaping their collective language.


Glass Triangle (Parkins / Rasmussen / Sawyer)
3 X 1 [CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)

Zeena Parkins, Mette Rasmussen and Ryan Sawyer return for Glass Triangle's third album, expanding the electric harp, alto saxophone and percussion language of their earlier releases with voice, preparations and bells, while distilling their volatile free improvisation into shorter, sharply focused pieces balancing texture, space, momentum and spontaneous collective change.


Francisco Mela feat. Matthew Shipp / William Parker
Music Frees Our Souls, Vol. 1
(577 Records)

A member of pianist McCoy Tyner's Trio and Joe Lavano's Quartet, New York drummer Francisco Mela's own career as a leader is heard in this energetic trio album with two of NY's finest--pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker--recording in the studio in Brooklyn in 2020 for two extended and powerful collective improvisations and a brief "Dark Light".


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.


Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe
After the Storm
(Libra)

Satoko Fujii conducts her 14-piece Orchestra Kobe through a four-part work composed during the pandemic as an optimistic vision of shared humanity, joining layered reeds and brass with Takumi Seino's volatile guitar, Keishiro Saito's bass and dual drummers Yoshikazu Isaki and Hiromasa Sadaoka in a sweeping progression from stately melody and intimate subgroups to dissonant mass, fiery improvisation and a jubilant final theme.


Laura Strobl / Georg Graewe / Mark Sanders
Acutance
(Random Acoustics)

Bringing violist Laura Strobl together with pianist Georg Graewe and drummer Mark Sanders, this 2025 Vienna session presents eleven freely improvised chamber pieces in which fleeting melodies, abstract gestures, and sharply contrasted textures coalesce into poised, intricate forms, highlighting the trio's acute responsiveness and the viola's distinctive role within the ensemble.


Sonic Fiction Special (Gratkowski / Strobl / Graewe / Hemingway) feat. Earl Howard
Banding Patterns
(Random Acoustics)

Reducing Georg Graewe's Sonic Fiction concept to an agile chamber group with Frank Gratkowski, Laura Strobl and Gerry Hemingway, joined by Earl Howard on electronics and alto saxophone, this 2025 Cologne session unfolds through nine intricate improvisations where acoustic counterpoint, extended timbres and electronic transformation continually reshape the ensemble's shifting sonic relationships.


Sei Miguel
Viva! O Carro de Fogo de Sei Miguel [2 CDs]
(Clean Feed)

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.


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.


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.


Francisco Mela feat. Matthew Shipp / William Parker
Music Frees Our Souls, Vol. 1 [VINYL]
(577 Records)

A member of pianist McCoy Tyner's Trio and Joe Lavano's Quartet, New York drummer Francisco Mela's own career as a leader is heard in this energetic trio album with two of NY's finest--pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker--recording in the studio in Brooklyn in 2020 for two extended and powerful collective improvisations and a brief "Dark Light".


Lao Dan Chicago Quartet
Klotski
(Trost Records)

Bringing Chicago-based Chinese multi-instrumentalist Lao Dan together with pianist Mabel Kwan, bassist Joshua Abrams, and percussionist Michael Zerang, this 2024 quartet set moves through volatile collective improvisation, contrasting Dan's searing tenor saxophone with the crystalline colors of Chinese flute and suona amid dense, responsive ensemble interplay.


Duke Ellington Orchestra
From Fargo Live 1940
(ALAY)

A legendary 1940 live document of Duke Ellington's Blanton-Webster orchestra, captured in Fargo by Jack Towers and Richard Burris, with Ellington on piano, Johnny Hodges and Otto Hardwick on alto saxophones, Ben Webster on tenor, Harry Carney on baritone, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Rex Stewart, Ray Nance and Wallace Jones in the brass, Jimmy Blanton on bass, Sonny Greer on drums, and Ivie Anderson and Herb Jeffries on vocals.


Joanna Mattrey / Camila Nebbia / Camilo �ngeles / Violeta Garcia
Heavy Handed
(Relative Pitch)

An international quartet of Joanna Mattrey on viola, Camila Nebbia on tenor saxophone, Camilo Angeles on flute and effects, and Violeta Garcia on cello and effects, developing seven volatile collective improvisations where breath, bowed resonance, abrasive attacks and subtle electronics move between fragile chamber textures, urgent counterpoint and dense, rhythmically charged eruptions.


Otomo Yoshihide / Kei Matsumaru
Shutsumin
(Trost Records)

Uniting Otomo Yoshihide on guitar and turntable with alto/soprano saxophonist and electronic musician Kei Matsumaru, this live Tokyo duo moves fluidly between free jazz, noise and electroacoustic abstraction, their quicksilver exchanges, abrasive textures and sudden shifts of density evoking the album's theme of the unstable, hallucinatory passage between sleep and wakefulness.


Verona Sextet (Armaroli / Buck / Gemmo / Mayas / Piccolo / Sharp)
Leap And Bounds
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

The Verona Sextet develops fluid stream-of-consciousness improvised music of shifting textures, fractured rhythms, resonant percussion and electroacoustic detail, merging Sergio Armaroli's vibraphone, Tony Buck's drums, Francesca Gemmo and Magda Mayas on piano and prepared piano, Steve Piccolo's electronics and voice, and Elliott Sharp on guitar and soprano saxophone.


Enso (Benjamin Dwyer / Rafal Mazur / Ramon Lopez)
Rhizoming
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)

Irish guitarist Benjamin Dwyer, Polish bass guitarist Rafal Mazur and Spanish percussionist Ramon Lopez form Enso, a trio devoted to spontaneous collective improvisation, drawing on the idea of the single unbroken gesture to create fluid, continuously transforming music in which guitar, bass, drums and tabla interweave through close listening, shifting relationships and a kinetic sense of motion.


Kevin Drumm
The Mild Temper [6 CD BOX SET]
(Sonoris)

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.


Christof Migone / Alexandre St-Onge
undoundone
(Ambiances Magnetiques)

Since 1997 the duo of Montreal sonic experimenters Christof Migone and Alexandre St-Onge, both members of Klaxon Gueule, have performed under the name "Undo", here declaring themselves "undone", presenting nine tracks of of live & studio recordings from 1997-2013 of often bizarre yet ever innovative cracked electronics, acoustics, voice, and inexplicable sound; weird and wonderful!


Diane Labrosse
Face cachee des choses
(Ambiances Magnetiques)

Diane Labrosse's first solo CD on Ambiances Magnetiques is a collection of digital samples of various objects undergoing mysterious electronic treatments.


Antoine Berthiaume / Elliott Sharp
BASE
(Ambiances Magnetiques)

Two guitarists from New York's Downtown and Montreal's Actuelle scenes in 11 guitar improvisations, experimental sounds constructed and deconstructed.


Machinefabriek
Duotoon
(Machinefabriek)

Machinefabriek (Rutger Zuydervelt) in an EP of a long sine save compositions that creates a minimally moving piece of consonance and dissonance using beautifully recorded tones.


Tyto Alba: Michal Libera w/ Martin Kuchen and Ralf Meinz
13 Portraits Of Melancholics, Birds And Their Co-Hearing
(Bolt)

Sound essay, horspiel, reading, electroacoustic music, plunderphonics, sound portraits, collection of songs: a sonic exposition of melancholia from Tyto Alba, (Michal Libera and Ralf Meinz) accompanied by samples from classical music, birds, and saxophone playing by Martin Kuchen.


15 Corners of the World / Eugeniusz Rudnik
Motion Picture Sound Essay
(Bolt)

Eugeniusz Rudnik composes a tour-de-force of electroacoustic audio in a sound essay based on the soundtrack to Zuzanna Solakiewicz's award-winning movie "15 Corners of the World", reworked to stand alone as a stunning and thought-provoking audio work.


Wilmington Sound Orchestra
Play Russolo
(Bad At Raving Foundation)

Two interpretations of Luigi Russolo's 1914 Futurist noise composition "Risveglio Di Uns Citta" ("The Awakening Of A City"), performed forwards and backwards, from a live performance at Squidco headquarters in Wilmington, NC.


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.


Refusenik (Arturas Bumsteinas)
Musikaliszer Pinkos
(Bolt)

A collection of more than two hundred Hebrew religious chants compiled and published by cantor Abraham Berenstein in 1927 in Vilna, Poland (today Vilnius, Lithuania), re-composed by Arturas Bumsteinas using fragments of melodies found found in the Berenstein's book, with electronics recorded on the old Russian analogue synthezier Polyvox then mixed in EMS.


Jerome Noetinger & SEC_
La Cave Des Etendards
(Mikroton Recordings)

Titled from the two venues where these concerts were recorded, the duo of Jerome Noetinger and Mimmo Napolitano both use revox reel to reel recorders, plus feedback systems, laptop and other electroacoustic devices to create strange and gripping aural narratives built of abstract elements yet creating deceptively concrete, compelling stories; exceptional.


Fake Humans (Fisher / Didur)
Exegesis [VINYL]
(Shhpuma)

The Toronto-based duo of Colin Fisher on woodwinds and percussion and Carl Didur on keyboards and bass bridge acoustic and electronic improv with science fiction sensibilities in their two part "Exegesis", a critical exposition of un-genred music that borrows from global sources in service to their unusual and exotic tale; a wonderfully perplexing album.


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.


Ken Ganfield x Kurt Liedwart x Petr Vrba
Something Wrong There
(Mikroton Recordings)

Two compositions--"Unbearable" and "Nauseating"�-from the synth & electronics trio of Ken Ganfield, Kurt Liedwart and Petr Vrba, starting with improvisations on three synthesizers and electronics brought to the extreme edge, the results remixed by Liedwart to create these outer limit tracks of sci-fi psychedelia and Gameboy nightmare; truly unique and disquieting 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.


The Remote Viewers
Let the City Sleep
(Remote Viewers)

Restricted by pandemic, bassist John Edwards took compositions for Remote Viewers written by Dave Petts along with recordings from himself and saxophonists Caroline Kraabel, Sue Lynch, Adrian Northover & David Petts, using digital compositional methods to maintain Petts' concepts while manipulating and inverting each piece in wonderfully riotous and unexpected ways.


Aaron Dilloway / Jeph Jerman
Casual Collisions
(White Centipede Noise / New Forces)

Originally released in 2013 on CDR, this meeting of sound artists Jeph Jerman and Aaron Dilloway show the skill, subtlety, and disruptive sonic skills of two innovators, using objects, damaged electronics, electronic loops and live acoustic sound to create large tapestries: 4 pieces that defy characterization through diverse approaches to impactful sound.


Mats Gustafsson / Joachim Nordwall
Their Power Reached Across Space And Time-To Defy Them Was Death-Or Worse [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(Thrill Jockey)

Black Vinyl - Expanding on their decade-long collaboration with albums on Astral Spirits, Bocian and Confront (Ensemble Var), and both members of Fire! Orchestra, sound artist Joachim Nordwall on analog synth and tapes and reed & wind player Mats Gustafsson use extended approaches to their instruments through effects and close mic-ing to create powerful and hallucinatory sound worlds.


Guro Skumsnes Moe / Philippe Petit
Guro Skumsnes Moe & Philippe Petit
(Public Eyesore)

Bringing together two noise improvisers and experimenters, Guro Skumsnes Moe from Sult and MoE performing on octabass & electric bass, and Philippe Petit (who has albums on Aural Terrains, Monotype and Bolt) performing on synthesizer and turntables, both also providing vocal utterance, for two thick journeys of twisted, diverse and often deep sonics bridged by an abstract interlude.


T. Mikawa x Victoria Shen
Personality Chrysler
(Love Earth Music)

A duo recorded in Tokyo in 2019 as a live performance, and through remote collaboration on the internet, between NY sound artist Victoria Shen, who focuses her work on extreme textures and gestural tones, using "chaotic sound" to oppose signal and information to elude traditionally embedded meaning, and Japanese noisician Toshiji Mikawa of Hijokaidan & Incapacitants fame.


ErikM / vrrrbitch
L'Horizon des Evenements
(Tour de Bras)

Like aberrant robots chattering, French sound artist ErikM and Czech multi-instrumentalist Petr Vrba aka vrrrbitch developed these compositions to function like vocal conversations of extreme discourse, set over effected synthetics, disruptions, dark rhythmic pulses and inexplicable sonic digressions, in seven powerfully compulsive quasi-conversations.


Gerald Cleaver
The Process
(Positive Elevation / 577 Records)

Taking his cues from the electronic music of his Detroit roots, free jazz drummer Gerald Cleaver presents an album of synthetic rhythms and sonic landscapes, each piece composed in detailed arrangements of compelling and adventurous structures, from propulsive grooves to sinuous soundscapes, a surprising and exciting twist showing Cleaver's strong compositional skills.


Ikue Mori
Of Ghosts And Goblins
(Tzadik)

Electronic innovator Ikue Mori presents a captivating 9-part work drawing inspiration from Lafcadio Hearn's chronicles of Japanese folklore, through intricate laptop electronics and synthesizer work, conjuring a series of instrumental miniatures that evoke the ethereal presence of fox spirits, phantoms, and other spectral entities, a mysteriously enchanting and seductive work.


Money
Money 2 [2 CDs]
(Love Earth Music)

An enigmatic 2-CD release of glacial dark ambient and pulsing glitch from the elusive project Money, where each track-titled simply "money" — unfolds like a slow-moving tectonic shift, sculpting ominous, hollow textures with unsettling momentum; a minimalist package and a deeply immersive sonic enigma of brooding presence and uneasy stillness.


MNE (Mikawa / Numata / Escalante)
MNE Is Not NME
(Love Earth Music)

The trio of Toshiji Mikawa on electronics, Jun Numata (Doubtmusic) on guitar & electronics and Martin Escalante on saxophone for a superbly noisy and chaotic attack captured in Tokyo at Bar Isshee in 2023, two all-out assaults of clear electronic mayhem that would sit shoulder-to-shoulder with Borbetomagus and their kind; terrifyingly awesome!


Nicolas Gombert / James Weeks
G O M B E R T
(Another Timbre)

Reinterpreting the intricate polyphony of Renaissance composer Nicolas Gombert through the lens of contemporary music, composer James Weeks and the ensemble Apartment House replace choral voices with a varied instrumental ensemble to reveal the interwoven textures of these works, interspersed with new compositions that reflect on history, interpretation, and the evolving role of early music in a modern context.


Horatiu Radulescu
Clepsydra / Astray [VINYL]
(Edition Rz)

Romanian-French composer Horatiu Radulescu with 2 works from 1983: "Clepsydra" for 16 Sound Icons played on a sideway piano, and the 1984 work "Astray" for 6 saxophones and Sound Icons.


Jani Christou
Enantiodromie / Praxis / Epicycle / Anaparastasis III / Mysterion / Anaparastasis I / Praxis For 12
(Edition Rz)

7 works by Greek composer Jani Christou performed by the Oakland Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunkorchester Hanover, NDR, Ensemble "musik unserer zeit", and Christou himself.


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.


Gabriel Dharmoo
Quelques fictions
(Ambiances Magnetiques)

Stunningly unusual vocal music from composer, music researcher and vocalist based in Montreal, Gabriel Dharmoo, collecting works from 2012 to 2019, performed with small and large ensembles using almost completely wordless voice, utterance, guttural sound, swoops and, melodic flights, augmented with physical percussion like stamping and clamping; brilliant and enthralling.


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.


Ryan Scott
21st-Century Canadian Snare Drum [2 CDs]
(Collection QB)

Toronto percussionist Ryan Scott premieres fourteen commissioned works by Canadian composers, revealing the snare drum's remarkable range through traditional and extended techniques, electronics, objects, cymbal, bass drum, metal plates, and voice, while presenting a vivid survey of contemporary Canadian percussion writing and expanding the instrument's solo repertoire.


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


Giacinto Scelsi
Giacinto Scelsi
(Edition Rz)

Six works by composer Giacinto Scelsi performed by groups including the Ensemble 2E2M, collected and remastered from the original recordings.


Various Artists
20 Jahre Inventionen II
(Edition Rz)

Volume 2 documenting the Berlin festival "Inventionen", a retrospective sampler with recordings of works by: Westerkamp, Sciarrino, Cage, Namtchylak, Jones, Scelsi, Fujita, Driscoll.


Harley Gaber
The Winds Rise In The North
(Edition Rz)

Composer Harley Gaber wrote this piece for strings as an emotional examination of the questions posed by Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu, here performed by a quintet including violinist Malcolm Goldstein.


Quartetski Does Stravinsky
Le Sacre du printemps
(Ambiances Magnetiques)

Quartetski Does Stravinsky with drummer Isaiah Ceccarelli, guitarist Bernard Falaise, reedist Phillipe Lauzier, viole de gamaba player Pierre-Yves Martel and violinist Joshua Zubot reinterpret Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in honor of its 100th anniversary.


Jean Derome
Chamber Music 1992-2012
(Ambiances Magnetiques)

25 chamber works composed by Montreal composer, multi-instrumentalist and improviser Jean Derome, presenting pieces from the wealth of projects he's involved in, including Dangereux Zhoms, Ensemble de flutes Alize, duos with Lori Freedmam, Quasar, quatuor de saxophones, &c.


Joana Gama / Luis Fernandez
Quest
(Shhpuma)

Classical pianist Joana Gama and live electronic processing artist Luis Fernandes bridge compositional and experimental forms in this lyrical work, where Fernandes transforms, dissects, loops and otherwise mutates the Gama's playing in unexpected and elegant ways.


Manfred Werder
2003 [3 CDs]
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)

Pushing the envelope on minimalism, Manfred Werder's 3 scores for "2003" present just 6 tones, the instructions telling 3, 2 or 1 performers to play a pitch or sound for 3-7 seconds twice during the performance; realized by Erik Carlson, Stephanie Richards, and D. Edward Davis.


Luigi Nono / Jurg Frey
Works For Violin Duos
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)

Two works from two distinctive composers from different periods--Jurg Frey and Luigi Nono--both for two violins, Frey using the two violins in parallel to emphasize their distinction; Nono using powerful gestures of divergence and contrast in a dream-like duo.


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.


Chiyoko Szlavnics
During a Lifetime
(Another Timbre)

Three works from Canadian composer Chiyoko Szlavnics, two electroacoustic compositions incorporating sinewaves, one with a saxophone quartet and the other with two accordions, two flutes and two percussionists; and a string trio of long sustained tones and slow glissandi.


Lambinet / Palosz / Sokolowski / Szuszkiewicz / Ziporyn
Musiquette. Improvisations on Gorecki
(Bolt)

Recording in the Polish Radio studio, the quintet of Evan Ziporyn on clarinets, Adrien Lambinet on trombone, Mikolaj Palosz on cello, Kuba Sokolowski on piano and Kamil Szuszkiewica on trumpet improvise on the compositions "Musiquette IV op. 28" and "Lerchenmusick op. 53" by H. M. Gorecki using conceptual approaches to his scores.


Jurg Frey / Magnus Granberg
Early to Late
(Another Timbre)

New ensemble pieces by Jurg Frey and Magnus Granberg played by Ensemble Grizzana, commissioned by Another Timbre with the request that both start from the same two fragments of early music, one by Johannes Ockeghem, the other by William Byrd, each composer producing fascinatingly different pieces that both contain echoes of the source material.


Linda Smith Catlin
Wanderer
(Another Timbre)

Eight sophisticated chamber pieces composed by Linda Catlin Smith and realized by the Canadian Apartment House ensemble, including a solo piano performed by Philip Thomas, a piano duo with Thomas and Mark Knoop, and works for percussion & cello, 2 quintet pieces for strings, percussion and winds, and two 7-piece conducted works with two percussionists, strings and brass.


Satoko Fujii / Yuko Yamaoka
Diary 2005-2015: Tuko Yamaoka plays the music of Satoko Fujii [2 CDs]
(Libra)

A double CD of Satoko Fujii compositions, 56 short compositions from a series she started around 2005 to expand her skills as a composer, many of which fueled her many band's repertoires; in 2018 she asked respected classical pianist and educator Yuko Yamaoka to record this set of compositions as part of her 60th birthday monthly album set.


Judith Wegmann
Le Souffle Du Temps II - Reflexion
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Through preparations, computers, contact microphones, gongs, feedback and other tools, Swiss pianist, composer & improviser Judith Wegmann's work transform the sound of the piano into an otherworldly instrument, set against more traditional acoustic pieces of a reflective nature, together creating a conceptual set of ten pieces in a uniquely flexible approach.


Morton Feldman (Judith Wegmann)
Triadic Memories [2 CDs]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

The second of four connected solo piano works by Morton Feldman, Triadic Memories is about that reality, the acoustic space created by the piano's strings and soundboard, as Feldman attempted to expand the temporal frame of his music, heard here in Judith Wegmann's 2019 recording, where thThe second of four connected solo piano works by Morton Feldman, Triadic Memories is about the acoustic space created by the piano's strings and soundboard, as Feldman worked to expand the temporal frame of his music, heard her in Judith Wegmann's 2019 studio recording where that space is revealed by a magnificent Bosendorfer 280VC piano.at space is revealed by a magnificent Bosendorfer 280VC piano.


Gerard Grisey / Iancu Dumitrescu / Niels Christian Rasmussen / Thanos Chrysakis / Salvatore Sciarrino / Lori Freedman / Tim Hodgkinson
Music for Violas, Bass Clarinets & Flutes
(Aural Terrains)

Compositions for violas, bass clarinets and flutes performed by Vincent Royer, Jill Valentine, Jason Alder, Chris Cundy, Tim Hodgkinson, Yoni Silver, Lori Freedman, Carla Rees, Karin de Fleyt, Thanos Chrysakis, Katrina Lauder, with compositions from Gerard Grisey, Iancu Dumitrescu, Thanos Chrysakis, Niels Rasmussen, Salvatore Sciarrino, Lori Freedman, and Tim Hodgkinson.


Skeleton Crew (Frith / Cora / Parkins)
Free Dirt (Live) [2 CDs]
(Klanggalerie)

One of the most intense and unusual of the 80s Downtown NY groups merging rock and improvisation with strong attitudes and incredible musical concepts, these live recordings, including songs never before released, are taken from American and European concerts by the trio of guitarist Fred Frith, cellist Tom Cora, and either electric harpist Zeena Parkins or reedist Dave Newhouse.


Pierre-Yves Martel
Engagement & Confrontation
(Ambiances Magnetiques)

A solo session of Pierre-Yves Martel on prepared double bass with no over-dubs or post-processing.


Fred Frith / Hardy Fox
A Day Hanging Dead Between Heaven And Earth
(Klanggalerie)

Fred Frith's solo career started on the West Coast Ralph Records label, home of The Residents; Frith met Residents front man Hardy Fox in passing in 1991, making recordings on a Pacific beach using Fox's Walkman, which they brought to a multi-track studio to record the basis for an ultimately unreleased album, now revived decades later as Fox rediscovered this fascinating material.


Charles Hayward
Crossfade Estate
(Klanggalerie)

Recorded in 2005 with an ensemble of like-minded instrumentalists and then edited and collaged for the next year and a half, this was a project of Charles Hayward during his time at The Albany in Deptford, London, using their digital recording suite to create a large work using a variety of strategies and developed in a dramatic story form, issued here for the 1st time.


Das Rad
Veer
(Discus)

Adding bassist Jon Short to their lineup, the 4th album from Das Rad continues the band's genre-merging approach of rock & improv forms rooted in prog, kosmiche, and jazz rock, this post-pandemic album bringing the band back together for live interaction, their enthusiasm evident in their energetic intercourse, particularly in the extended suite "Expergefactor".


Cosa Brava (Frith / Parkins / Kihlstedt / Bossi / Ismaily)
Z Sides
(Klanggalerie)

Guitarist & vocalist Fred Frith leads the highly creative quintet of Zeena Parkins on keys & voice, Carla Kihlstedt on violin & voice, Mathias Bossi on drums and Shahzad Ismaily on bass, merging free improv, rock and experimental forms; drawn from live performances recorded by The Normal Conquest, this set of compositions captures the group's dynamic interplay and remarkable inventiveness.


Sopa Boba
That Moment
(Sub Rosa)

Blending spoken word, modern classical strings, and harsh modular synths, Belgian/Dutch ensemble Sopa Boba crafts a striking electronic-orchestral oratorio based on Moldavian writer Nicoleta Esinencu's That Moment, unraveling a dark, satirical narrative of capitalist excess through seven gripping movements that merge caustic irony with haunting sonic textures.


Mehead
One Good Eye [REISSUE]
(Taut Recordings)

Originally released in 1991, this remastered edition of Mehead's sole album presents the South London quartet's inventive blend of experimental rock, tape collage, and off-kilter rhythms, with trumpet, guitar, bass, drums, and vocals shaping spacious, intuitively composed pieces that balance live studio spontaneity with layered textures and quietly subversive sonic exploration.


Rabbit Rabbit Radio (Carla Kihlstedt / Matthias Bossi)
Volume 4: The Animal I Am
(Klanggalerie)

Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi's Rabbit Rabbit Radio return for their 4th volume of music poised between art rock, folk, chamber music, industrial texture and improvisation, joined by Jeremy Flower and Jon Evans as voice, strings, drums, electronics, guitars and bass shape finely crafted pieces on the border between popular music and art song, balancing experimental detail with direct emotional impact.


Lenny Bruce
Comedy & Controversy: The Original Albums 1958-61 [2 CDs]
(Acrobat)

Collecting most of Lenny Bruce's first four Fantasy albums from 1958-61, this 2-CD set captures the comedian's freewheeling blend of satire, social criticism, and taboo-breaking language as he targets religion, politics, show business, sexuality, and American hypocrisy, documenting the fearless improv style that reshaped stand-up comedy and made his obscenity battles a landmark in the history of free expression.


Elephant9
Mythical River [VINYL]
(Rune Grammofon)

Wearing the cloak of 60's pyschedelic organ trios modernized in approach and maturity, this is the 8th album from the Swedish improvising, prog-oriented rock band Elephant9, presenting six new compositions from keyboardist Stale Storlokken (Supersilent, Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns) performed with Nikolai Haengsle on electric bass and Torstein Lofthus on drums.


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.


Cecil Taylor New Unit (Tony Oxley / Hari Sjostrom / Okkyung Lee / Jackson Krall)
Words & Music (The Last Bandstand)
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

Reviving Cecil Taylor's legendary Unit concept, this searing New Unit performance with Okkyung Lee (cello), Tony Oxley (electronics), Harri Sjostrom (soprano and sopranino saxophones), and Jackson Krall (drums) documents the final concert of Taylor's life in a nearly eighty-minute fusion of music and spoken word, recorded live on April 23, 2016, at the Whitney Museum in New York City.


[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.


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.


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!


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


Chad Fowler / Eri Yamamoto
Polkadots & Moonbeams
(Mahakala Music)

Alto saxophonist and flutist Chad Fowler joins pianist Eri Yamamoto for an intimate duo session balancing composed material with spontaneous song forms, moving between grief, memory, tenderness and celebration through deeply lyrical improvisation, including Fowler's elegiac "Ash" and the standard "Polkadots and Moonbeams," recorded by Jim Clouse at Park West Studios.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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."


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


Camila Nebbia (feat/ Marilyn Crispell / Lesley Mok)
A Reflection Distorts Over Water [CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)

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


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.


Henry Grimes / Marzette Watts (w/ Robinson / Lancaster / Sharrock / Thornton / Berger / Moses &c)
The Call
(ALAY)

Reissuing Henry Grimes' concise, darkly lyrical 1965 trio album with clarinetist Perry Robinson and drummer Tom Price alongside Marzette Watts' turbulent 1966 octet session, this remastered edition contrasts free improvisation with a dense collective of Byard Lancaster, Clifford Thornton, Sonny Sharrock, Karl Berger, Juini Booth and J. C. Moses, Grimes the link between two vital expressions of 1960s freedom


Rodrigo Amado's The Bridge (Amado / Schlippenbach / Haker-Flaten / Hemingway)
Further Beyond
(Trost Records)

Portuguese tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado leads his cross-generational quartet The Bridge — with pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and drummer Gerry Hemingway — in three expansive performances that fuse the deep traditions of free jazz with spontaneous collective improvisation, balancing melodic soulfulness, structural interplay, and decades of shared creative experience.




The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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