Francisco Mela
Carnaval De Oriente
(577 Records)
On his first solo recording, Cuban-born drummer and composer Francisco Mela transforms memories of Santiago de Cuba's annual carnival, Carnaval De Oriente, into an intimate meditation on family, place, joy and loss, performing drums, voice, glockenspiel, percussion and guitar in a fluid blend of vocal improvisation, original songs, spontaneous invention and ritual.

Wadada Smith Leo (Courvoisier / Laswell / Gibbs / akLaff / &c.)
Constellations And Hemispheres
(Burning Ambulance Music)
Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith assembles recordings from 2017-2022 with Sylvie Courvoisier, Marcus Gilmore, Bobby Naughton, Lamar Smith, Bill Laswell, Melvin Gibbs, Pheeroan akLaff, and percussionists, moving between intimate acoustic improvisation and electrified ensemble exploration, with layered bass, distorted guitar, and expansive rhythms shaped through inventive studio composition.

Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet (w/ Vandermark / Wilkerson / Baker / Ra)
In The Air And On The Ground
(RogueArt)
Bringing together DC double bassist Luke Stewart with Chicago mainstays Edward Wilkerson Jr., Ken Vandermark, Jim Baker and Avreeayl Ra, the Exposure Quintet blends collective improvisation with field recordings and samples, creating spacious, exploratory music combining saxophones, clarinets, strings, keyboards, bass and percussion with a strong sense of place.

Mikolaj Trzaska / John Edwards / Mark Sanders
Because It Happens / Not So Late
(gusstaff records)
Polish saxophonist and bass clarinetist Mikołaj Trzaska joins UK improvisers John Edwards on double bass and Mark Sanders on drums for a dynamic live performance at London's Cafe OTO, moving between explosive free jazz, intricate rhythmic exchanges, and lyrical passages across 9 spontaneous compositions marked by intense collective interaction, shifting textures, and masterful improvisational dialogue.

Sophie Hassfurther
Kaleidoscope - Empathy
(ezz-thetics now)
Viennese saxophonist Sophie Hassfurther leads an octet blending contemporary jazz, chamber music, and free improv across ten original compositions inspired by ideas of empathy, identity, and transformation, weaving intricate horn arrangements, shifting rhythmic patterns, and expressive solos into richly layered ensemble passages that balance composed structures with spontaneous and collective exploration.

Satoko Fujii Orchestra Berlin
Second Attempt
(Libra)
Satoko Fujii's Orchestra Berlin with saxophones, trumpets, trombone, synthesizer, bass and dual drums builds a five-part suite from cued fragments, collective improvisation and open-form structures, balancing composed materials with spontaneous ensemble invention, including a striking section performed with newspapers that extends Fujii's ongoing exploration of freedom within large-ensemble composition.

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.

Sonelius Smith / Adam Kahan
We'll Let You Know When We Find Out [VINYL]
(577 Records)
A deeply personal collaboration between pianist Sonelius Smith and bassist Adam Kahan, bringing together recordings from 2023-2026 that move between intimate jazz trio explorations and expanded ensembles with tenor saxophone, trumpet, and flute, combining original compositions and spontaneous improvisation with inventive interpretations of jazz standards by Wayne Shorter, George Gershwin, and Sidney Bechet.

Alexander Schlippenbach Von
Main Lines/1967
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
A remarkable 1967 Radio Bremen session uniting leading figures of emerging European free improvisation, with Alexander von Schlippenbach, Irène Schweizer and Fred van Hove on piano; Peter Brötzmann and Gerd Dudek on saxophones; Manfred Schoof and Manfred Miller on brass; three bassists; and Sven-Åke Johansson, Jaki Liebezeit and Mani Neumeier on drums and percussion.

Cecil Taylor Unit
Live at the KiMo Theater Albuquerque 1979 [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Black Editions Archives)
An extraordinary 1979 recording of Cecil Taylor's Unit performing live with Jimmy Lyons on alto saxophone, Ramsey Ameen on violin, Alan Silva on bass and cello, and Jerome Cooper on drums, capturing a rare quintet configuration in a powerful exploration of free jazz, collective improv, and expansive compositional structures, previously unissued and originally intended for NPR's Jazz Alive program.

Fridolin Blumer / Christopher Dell / Heinz Geisser / Robert Morgenthaler
Live At Loft Koln
(ezz-thetics now)
Recorded live at Cologne's Loft in 2025, the quartet of trombonist Robert Morgenthaler, vibraphonist Christopher Dell, bassist Fridolin Blumer, and percussionist Heinz Geisser delivers six adventurous improvisations, blending their individual voices into a richly interactive acoustic dialogue shaped by collective listening, spontaneous structure, and an evolving sense of musical connection.

Albert Ayler Quartet
Reference: Goin' Home 1964
(ALAY)
A strikingly restrained side of Albert Ayler emerges on this 1964 session of spirituals and devotional songs, with his tenor and soprano saxophones joined by Call Cobbs Jr. on piano, Henry Grimes on double bass and Sunny Murray on drums, emphasizing melody, blues-inflected tone and deep vibrato while revealing the gospel and New Orleans roots underlying his more radical later language.

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.

Thomas Rohrer / Abdul Moimeme
Outras Margens
(ezz-thetics now)
Exploring the transformation of traditional instruments into unconventional sound sources, Swiss-Brazilian rabeca player Thomas Rohrer and Portuguese guitarist Abdul Moimême collaborate on four extended improvisations, merging prepared strings, objects, and live electronics into intricate electroacoustic environments of shifting textures, mechanical rhythms, and unexpected resonances.

Joe Hertenstein / Anthony Coleman / Jon Irabagon
Future Drone
(ezz-thetics now)

Airlift (Diehl / Lowery / Lawson / Levin / Lavelle / Hotep / Marquez / Dennis)
Spatial Recognition [2 CDs]
(577 Records)
An eight-member Philadelphia ensemble led by percussionist Kevin Diehl brings together tenor saxophones, flute, trumpet, clarinets, guitars, bass, and Afro-Cuban percussion in a double album of adventurous collective improvisation, blending graphic scores, structured compositions, free jazz, and layered rhythmic exploration into an expansive dialogue between form and spontaneity.

Nathan Hanson / Steve Hirsh
Memory Is Subjective
(Mahakala Music)
Saxophonist Nathan Hanson on tenor and soprano joins drummer Steve Hirsh for three spontaneously composed improvisations recorded in Sandstone, Minnesota, developing an intuitive dialogue of lyrical and fractured reed lines, shifting rhythmic momentum, texture, and silence as the two allow form to emerge entirely through attentive, moment-to-moment interaction.

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

Joel Futterman / Ike Levin
Liberation
(CLM)
Pianist Joel Futterman and tenor saxophonist Ike Levin mark their 16th recording collaboration in 25 years with three spontaneously created works balancing intensity and reflection, density and space, drawing on their long-developed improvisational rapport to move fluidly through free jazz, lyrical exchange, rhythmic momentum and layered interaction.

Satoko Fujii Orchestra Nagoya
Korekara
(Libra)
Composed by Satoko Fujii to celebrate the 20th anniversary of a beloved Nagoya arts cafe, this four-part suite for her 16-member Orchestra Nagoya combines adventurous arrangements, expressive solo improvisations, and powerful brass and reed passages, blending free jazz with infectious rhythmic grooves in a joyful, forward-looking celebration of community and creative collaboration.

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.

Magnus Granberg / Skogen
The Willow Bends And So Do I
(Another Timbre)
Composed from four pools of material inspired by Johnny Mandel's A Time for Love, Magnus Granberg's 2024 work for his Swedish ensemble Skogen unfolds in ten slow cycles where delicate fragments, melodic shadings, and restrained improvisation interlace across strings, harp, guitar, percussion, and prepared piano, creating a quietly luminous meditation on fragility and motion.

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.

Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet
Sure Grand Out
(RogueArt)
Pianist Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet with Mary Halvorson on guitar, Ingrid Laubrock on tenor and soprano saxophones, Tomeka Reid on cello, and Lesley Mok on drums, continuing Melford's Cy Twombly-inspired balance of cellular composition, collective improvisation, lyricism, counterpoint, and rhythmic momentum in a richly interactive studio recording.

Threadgill Zooid, Henry
Cut You Where You Was
(Pi Recordings)
Composer and reedist Henry Threadgill reconvenes his long-running Zooid quintet with Liberty Ellman on acoustic guitar, Jose Davila on tuba and trombone, Christopher Hoffman on cello, and Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums, extending his interval-based language through shifting meters, compact forms, and non-hierarchical interplay in music that balances structural rigor with elastic, conversational improvisation.

Francisco Mela
Carnaval De Oriente
(577 Records)
On his first solo recording, Cuban-born drummer and composer Francisco Mela transforms memories of Santiago de Cuba's annual carnival, Carnaval De Oriente, into an intimate meditation on family, place, joy and loss, performing drums, voice, glockenspiel, percussion and guitar in a fluid blend of vocal improvisation, original songs, spontaneous invention and ritual.

Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet (w/ Vandermark / Wilkerson / Baker / Ra)
In The Air And On The Ground
(RogueArt)
Bringing together DC double bassist Luke Stewart with Chicago mainstays Edward Wilkerson Jr., Ken Vandermark, Jim Baker and Avreeayl Ra, the Exposure Quintet blends collective improvisation with field recordings and samples, creating spacious, exploratory music combining saxophones, clarinets, strings, keyboards, bass and percussion with a strong sense of place.

Mikolaj Trzaska / John Edwards / Mark Sanders
Because It Happens / Not So Late
(gusstaff records)
Polish saxophonist and bass clarinetist Mikołaj Trzaska joins UK improvisers John Edwards on double bass and Mark Sanders on drums for a dynamic live performance at London's Cafe OTO, moving between explosive free jazz, intricate rhythmic exchanges, and lyrical passages across 9 spontaneous compositions marked by intense collective interaction, shifting textures, and masterful improvisational dialogue.

Sophie Hassfurther
Kaleidoscope - Empathy
(ezz-thetics now)
Viennese saxophonist Sophie Hassfurther leads an octet blending contemporary jazz, chamber music, and free improv across ten original compositions inspired by ideas of empathy, identity, and transformation, weaving intricate horn arrangements, shifting rhythmic patterns, and expressive solos into richly layered ensemble passages that balance composed structures with spontaneous and collective exploration.

Satoko Fujii Orchestra Berlin
Second Attempt
(Libra)
Satoko Fujii's Orchestra Berlin with saxophones, trumpets, trombone, synthesizer, bass and dual drums builds a five-part suite from cued fragments, collective improvisation and open-form structures, balancing composed materials with spontaneous ensemble invention, including a striking section performed with newspapers that extends Fujii's ongoing exploration of freedom within large-ensemble composition.

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.

Alexander Schlippenbach Von
Main Lines/1967
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
A remarkable 1967 Radio Bremen session uniting leading figures of emerging European free improvisation, with Alexander von Schlippenbach, Irène Schweizer and Fred van Hove on piano; Peter Brötzmann and Gerd Dudek on saxophones; Manfred Schoof and Manfred Miller on brass; three bassists; and Sven-Åke Johansson, Jaki Liebezeit and Mani Neumeier on drums and percussion.

Fridolin Blumer / Christopher Dell / Heinz Geisser / Robert Morgenthaler
Live At Loft Koln
(ezz-thetics now)
Recorded live at Cologne's Loft in 2025, the quartet of trombonist Robert Morgenthaler, vibraphonist Christopher Dell, bassist Fridolin Blumer, and percussionist Heinz Geisser delivers six adventurous improvisations, blending their individual voices into a richly interactive acoustic dialogue shaped by collective listening, spontaneous structure, and an evolving sense of musical connection.

Albert Ayler Quartet
Reference: Goin' Home 1964
(ALAY)
A strikingly restrained side of Albert Ayler emerges on this 1964 session of spirituals and devotional songs, with his tenor and soprano saxophones joined by Call Cobbs Jr. on piano, Henry Grimes on double bass and Sunny Murray on drums, emphasizing melody, blues-inflected tone and deep vibrato while revealing the gospel and New Orleans roots underlying his more radical later language.

Thomas Rohrer / Abdul Moimeme
Outras Margens
(ezz-thetics now)
Exploring the transformation of traditional instruments into unconventional sound sources, Swiss-Brazilian rabeca player Thomas Rohrer and Portuguese guitarist Abdul Moimême collaborate on four extended improvisations, merging prepared strings, objects, and live electronics into intricate electroacoustic environments of shifting textures, mechanical rhythms, and unexpected resonances.

Joe Hertenstein / Anthony Coleman / Jon Irabagon
Future Drone
(ezz-thetics now)

Airlift (Diehl / Lowery / Lawson / Levin / Lavelle / Hotep / Marquez / Dennis)
Spatial Recognition [2 CDs]
(577 Records)
An eight-member Philadelphia ensemble led by percussionist Kevin Diehl brings together tenor saxophones, flute, trumpet, clarinets, guitars, bass, and Afro-Cuban percussion in a double album of adventurous collective improvisation, blending graphic scores, structured compositions, free jazz, and layered rhythmic exploration into an expansive dialogue between form and spontaneity.

Nathan Hanson / Steve Hirsh
Memory Is Subjective
(Mahakala Music)
Saxophonist Nathan Hanson on tenor and soprano joins drummer Steve Hirsh for three spontaneously composed improvisations recorded in Sandstone, Minnesota, developing an intuitive dialogue of lyrical and fractured reed lines, shifting rhythmic momentum, texture, and silence as the two allow form to emerge entirely through attentive, moment-to-moment interaction.

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

Joel Futterman / Ike Levin
Liberation
(CLM)
Pianist Joel Futterman and tenor saxophonist Ike Levin mark their 16th recording collaboration in 25 years with three spontaneously created works balancing intensity and reflection, density and space, drawing on their long-developed improvisational rapport to move fluidly through free jazz, lyrical exchange, rhythmic momentum and layered interaction.

Satoko Fujii Orchestra Nagoya
Korekara
(Libra)
Composed by Satoko Fujii to celebrate the 20th anniversary of a beloved Nagoya arts cafe, this four-part suite for her 16-member Orchestra Nagoya combines adventurous arrangements, expressive solo improvisations, and powerful brass and reed passages, blending free jazz with infectious rhythmic grooves in a joyful, forward-looking celebration of community and creative collaboration.

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.

Magnus Granberg / Skogen
The Willow Bends And So Do I
(Another Timbre)
Composed from four pools of material inspired by Johnny Mandel's A Time for Love, Magnus Granberg's 2024 work for his Swedish ensemble Skogen unfolds in ten slow cycles where delicate fragments, melodic shadings, and restrained improvisation interlace across strings, harp, guitar, percussion, and prepared piano, creating a quietly luminous meditation on fragility and motion.

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.

Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet
Sure Grand Out
(RogueArt)
Pianist Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet with Mary Halvorson on guitar, Ingrid Laubrock on tenor and soprano saxophones, Tomeka Reid on cello, and Lesley Mok on drums, continuing Melford's Cy Twombly-inspired balance of cellular composition, collective improvisation, lyricism, counterpoint, and rhythmic momentum in a richly interactive studio recording.

Threadgill Zooid, Henry
Cut You Where You Was
(Pi Recordings)
Composer and reedist Henry Threadgill reconvenes his long-running Zooid quintet with Liberty Ellman on acoustic guitar, Jose Davila on tuba and trombone, Christopher Hoffman on cello, and Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums, extending his interval-based language through shifting meters, compact forms, and non-hierarchical interplay in music that balances structural rigor with elastic, conversational improvisation.

Gon Muruaga
Lines In The Sky
(577 Records)
A live Helsinki performance bringing together Lithuanian saxophonist Liudas Mockunas, Argentinian electric guitarist Gon Muruaga, and Finnish drummer Teemu Mustonen for seven collective improvisations, balancing lyrical passages, abstract textures, and shifting rhythmic interplay through attentive listening and spontaneous interaction, including a reflection on Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman."

Gottliche Skizzen (Delazer / Delius / Obleser)
Ringi Ringd Coint
(ezz-thetics now)
Drummer Jonathan Delazer leads the Göttliche Skizzen trio with Tobias Delius on tenor saxophone and clarinet and Jakob Obleser on double bass in eight original compositions that intertwine microtonal experimentation, free improvisation, and contemporary chamber jazz, drawing on medieval musical traditions, European folk rhythms, and glissando techniques in a fluid exploration of melody, texture, and rhythmic form.

Ten-Toh-Maru (Fujii / Nakamura / Tenko)
The One Who Walks Through The Night
(Meenna)
Vocalist Tenko, pianist Satoko Fujii and no-input mixing-board pioneer Toshimaru Nakamura form Ten-Toh-Maru for three extended free improvisations balancing wordless vocal expression, resonant and percussive piano textures, and finely controlled electronic feedback, unfolding through patient collective listening into sparse, ritualistic, abrasive and dreamlike sound environments.

Pierre Gerard / Bruno Duplant
Support Surface
(Ftarri)
Inspired by the French Supports/Surfaces art movement, Belgian improviser Pierre Gerard on guitar, voice, and electronics joins French experimental musician Bruno Duplant on electroacoustic devices for 11 restrained compositions that balance sparse gestures, electronic textures, and carefully placed silences, creating delicate sound environments that emphasize subtle variations in resonance, texture, and space.

Sonelius Smith / Adam Kahan
We'll Let You Know When We Find Out [VINYL]
(577 Records)
A deeply personal collaboration between pianist Sonelius Smith and bassist Adam Kahan, bringing together recordings from 2023-2026 that move between intimate jazz trio explorations and expanded ensembles with tenor saxophone, trumpet, and flute, combining original compositions and spontaneous improvisation with inventive interpretations of jazz standards by Wayne Shorter, George Gershwin, and Sidney Bechet.

Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin
Ghosted III [VINYL]
(Drag City)
Guitarist Oren Ambarchi, bassist Johan Berthling, and drummer Andreas Werliin return for their third ghost, expanding their collective language with looser and more immediate performances, their intricate focus and rhythmic precision balanced by playful excursions through ambient neo-jazz, post-kraut, minimal funk, and prog-like energy through an ever-evolving sonic architecture.

Alvin Curran / Andrea Centazzo / Evan Parker
Real Time Two [VINYL]
(Ictus Remastered Collection)
Recorded on December 14, 1977 in Pistoia's cavernous, half-empty sports pavilion, the Curran/Centazzo/Parker trio plays with surprising translucence as piano and synth glint, trumpet flashes, sax lines braid into overtones, and percussion radiates in airy space, the room's unlikely acoustics giving the music an ethereal transparency that makes every attack, shimmer and sudden silence feel magnified.

These Things Happen (Jackson / Hoogland / Roebke / Avery)
A Gentle Reminder [VINYL]
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
The 2nd release from the transatlantic quartet of Oscar Jan Hoogland, Keefe Jackson, Jason Roebke and Mikel Patrick Avery blends witty originals with nods to Misha Mengelberg and Thelonious Monk, channeling the playful Amsterdam instant composition scene with Chicago's creative music community, recorded live at the 2022 Hyde Park Jazz Festival and at WNUR Studio.

Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns
Bitches Blues [VINYL]
(Rune Grammofon)
Guitarist Hedvig Mollestad joins Stale Storlokken on organ and synth and Ole Mofjell on drums for six wide-ranging instrumental pieces balancing riff-driven rock weight, free improvisation, lyrical rubato passages and explosive ensemble interplay, extending Weejuns' chemistry through shifting dynamics, disciplined structures and moments of cathartic chaos.

Billy Bang Survival Ensemble
Black Man's Blues [VINYL]
(NoBusiness)
Never before released material from 1977 of Billy Bang's seminal NY loft band, Survival Ensemble: 1 LP and a 40 page booklet of essays, images and flyers - essential!

The Group (Abdullah / Brown / Bang / Sirone / Hopkins / Cyrille)
Live [VINYL]
(NoBusiness)
A previously unreleased concert recording from 1986 of a group of leading out jazz artists (Billy Bang, Fred Hopkins, Andrew Cyrille, &c.) playing original compositions as well as a cover of Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat".

Ted Daniel's Energy Module (feat. Oliver Lake and Daniel Carter)
Innerconnection [VINYL 2 LPs]
(NoBusiness)
Trumpeter Ted Daniel's Energy Module with Daniel Carter, Oliver Lake, Richard Pierce and Tatsuya Nakamura, a post-bop free improvising quintet from the mid-70s, here in an unreleased studio session showing raw power and superb playing.

Daniel Carter / Tobias Wilner / Djibril Toure / Federico Ughi
New York United [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(577 Records)
An excellent blend of electronics and acoustics as saxophonist, flutist and trumpeter Daniel Carter meets sound artist Tobias Wilner from world-renowned electronic pop band Blue Foundation, with Wu-Tang Clan bass player Djibril Toure and drum wiz Federico Ughi rounding out this forward-thinking album of hazy and rhythmic electroacoustic environments.

Daniel Carter / Stelios Mihas / Irma Nejando / Federico Ughi
Radical Invisibility [VINYL]
(577 Records)
Debut of this group named by NY multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter, with Stelios Mihas on guitar, Federico Ughi on drums, and (mysterious) Irma Nejando on bass, presenting this studio album of free, well-matched and interactive collective improvisations of acoustic and electric instrumentation, each track dedicated to artists who inspired the members of the quartet.

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.

RedGreenBlue (Paul Giallorenzo / Charlie Kirchen / Ryan Packard / Ben LaMar Gay)
The End and The Beginning [VINYL]
(Astral Spirits)
After a 4-week residency in 2018 at The Burlington in Chicago, the quartet of Paul Giallorenzo (keys & electronics), Charlie Kirchen (bass), Ryan Packard (drums, electronics) and Ben LaMar Gay (cornet & electronics) workshopped their exploratory approach to free electric improv for 6 months before recording this mesmerizing version live at Chicago's Hungry Brain.

Ouat (Simon Sieger / Joel Grip / Michael Griener)
The Strange Adventures of Jesper Klint [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Umlaut Records)
Focusing on the compositions of Swedish pianist Per Henrik Wallin, the energetic piano trio of Simon Sieger on piano, Joel Grip on double bass and Michael Griener on drums puts new life into Wallin's 1998 trio album Coyote with the intention of putting Wallin's music in front of a new audience while clearly reveling in his compositions amid their own impressive mastery.

Torbjorn Zetterberg (Zetterberg / Agnas / Hogberg)
Opinions [VINYL]
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Known as a jazz bassist, Torbjörn Zetterberg mostly steps away from the big strings for a series of multitrack studio compositions on a variety of instruments electronic & acoustic, plus samples and voice, all performed by Zetterberg himself (with Konrad Agnas and Anna Hogberg adding input on a couple of tracks); powerful, urgent, impressive works from a truly well-rounded musician.

Mali Obomsawin (Harris / Elhajli / Burik / Campbell / Ho Bynum)
Sweet Tooth [VINYL]
(Out Of Your Head Records)
Wabanaki bassist, composer and songwriter Mali Obomsawin presents a compositional suite that highlights the art and culture of her people, binding together blues, jazz, hymns and folk songs with an ensemble of exceptional NY improvisers: Savannah Harris (drums), Miriam Elhajli (guitars, voice), Allison Burik (reeds), Noah Campbell (sax) and Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet & flugelhorn).

Jason Adasiewicz
Roy's World [VINYL]
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Titled for the film by Rob Christopher — Roy's World: Barry Gifford's Chicago, — whose soundtrack includes segments of this album, vibraphonist and composer Jason Adasiewicz's lyrically upbeat album is performed in a quintet with Chicago mainstays, Jonathan Doyle on saxophones, Josh Berman on cornet, Joshua Abrams on bass and Hamid Drake on drums.

Mali Obomsawin
Sweet Tooth [VINYL SILVER]
(Out Of Your Head Records)
Wabanaki bassist, composer and songwriter Mali Obomsawin presents a compositional suite that highlights the art and culture of her people, binding together blues, jazz, hymns and folk songs with an ensemble of exceptional NY improvisers: Savannah Harris (drums), Miriam Elhajli (guitars, voice), Allison Burik (reeds), Noah Campbell (sax) and Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet & flugelhorn).

Elaine Mitchener
Solo Throat [VINYL]
(Otoroku)
Recorded at Hackney Road Studios in London, vocalist, composer, and movement artist Elaine Mitchener presents her first solo LP, drawing on the works of African-American and African-Caribbean poets Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Aimé Césaire, Una Marson, and N.H. Pritchard, creating twelve vocal compositions that disrupt semantic sense through phonetic freedom, silence, and multiphonics.

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

Jason Stein (Stein / Abrams / Cleaver / Boon)
Anchors [VINYL]
(Tao Forms)
Chicago-based bass clarinetist-composer Jason Stein returns from a six-year hiatus as bandleader with a beautifully personal, nuanced, and expansive album, created with bassist Joshua Abrams (Natural Information Society), drummer Gerald Cleaver, and guitarist and co-producer Boon, in a suite of seven Stein compositions ranging from meditative calm to gripping intensity.

Darius Jones
Legend of e'Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(Aum Fidelity)
The seventh chapter in Darius Jones' visionary Man'ish Boy series, this powerful trio recording with Gerald Cleaver and Chris Lightcap presents five new compositions and a Lomax-arranged spiritual, confronting themes of Black mental health, trauma, and healing through richly expressive alto saxophone, deep rhythmic interplay, and emotional resonance.

The Necks
Bleed [VINYL GREEN + DOWNLOAD]
(Northern Spy)
The ever-chameleonic Australian trio The Necks — featuring Chris Abrahams on piano and keyboards, Tony Buck on drums & guitar, and Lloyd Swanton on bass — explore electronic stillness in this 42-minute, single-track composition, evolving from a meditative opening through rich textures and sonic spaces to a beautifully structured conclusion, offering a rewarding and captivating journey.

Burkhard Beins (w/ Dorner / Elieh / Ermke / Neumann / Renkel / Tuerlinckx / Zapparoli)
Eight Duos [3 LPs]
(NI-VU-NI-CONNU)
Showcasing Burkhard Beins's versatile approach to collaboration, this 3-LP set recorded at Morphine Raum presents eight duo performances featuring partners such as Andrea Neumann, Axel Dörner, and Marta Zapparoli, blending acoustic and electronic instruments in conceptual explorations that range from the percussive "Expansion" to the dynamic "Transmission," reflecting Beins's broad artistic spectrum.

Kai Fagaschinski / Yan Jun
Graveyard Processions [VINYL w/ DOWNLOAD]
(NI-VU-NI-CONNU)
Recorded in Berlin during the summer of 2022, this first collaboration between clarinetist Kai Fagaschinski and Beijing-based sound artist Yan Jun, blends clarinet, voice, and field recordings with objects and inventive sound sources in four pieces that dissolve boundaries between improvisation, composition, and experimental sound design, creating a dizzying, multilayered auditory experience.

Bang / Duch / Honore / Toop / Wastell
Wunderkammer [VINYL]
(Confront)
A collaborative tribute to Nordic poet Nils Christian Moe-Repstad (1972-2022), Wunderkammer blends live recordings from Punkt Festival 2023 with Moe-Repstad's 2014 voice recordings, as Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Michael Francis Duch, David Toop, and Mark Wastell weave a spectral and meditative ea-improv work of minimalism, poetic tension, and reverent sonic exploration.

Francisco Mela
Carnaval De Oriente
(577 Records)
On his first solo recording, Cuban-born drummer and composer Francisco Mela transforms memories of Santiago de Cuba's annual carnival, Carnaval De Oriente, into an intimate meditation on family, place, joy and loss, performing drums, voice, glockenspiel, percussion and guitar in a fluid blend of vocal improvisation, original songs, spontaneous invention and ritual.

Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet (w/ Vandermark / Wilkerson / Baker / Ra)
In The Air And On The Ground
(RogueArt)
Bringing together DC double bassist Luke Stewart with Chicago mainstays Edward Wilkerson Jr., Ken Vandermark, Jim Baker and Avreeayl Ra, the Exposure Quintet blends collective improvisation with field recordings and samples, creating spacious, exploratory music combining saxophones, clarinets, strings, keyboards, bass and percussion with a strong sense of place.

Mikolaj Trzaska / John Edwards / Mark Sanders
Because It Happens / Not So Late
(gusstaff records)
Polish saxophonist and bass clarinetist Mikołaj Trzaska joins UK improvisers John Edwards on double bass and Mark Sanders on drums for a dynamic live performance at London's Cafe OTO, moving between explosive free jazz, intricate rhythmic exchanges, and lyrical passages across 9 spontaneous compositions marked by intense collective interaction, shifting textures, and masterful improvisational dialogue.

Sophie Hassfurther
Kaleidoscope - Empathy
(ezz-thetics now)
Viennese saxophonist Sophie Hassfurther leads an octet blending contemporary jazz, chamber music, and free improv across ten original compositions inspired by ideas of empathy, identity, and transformation, weaving intricate horn arrangements, shifting rhythmic patterns, and expressive solos into richly layered ensemble passages that balance composed structures with spontaneous and collective exploration.

Satoko Fujii Orchestra Berlin
Second Attempt
(Libra)
Satoko Fujii's Orchestra Berlin with saxophones, trumpets, trombone, synthesizer, bass and dual drums builds a five-part suite from cued fragments, collective improvisation and open-form structures, balancing composed materials with spontaneous ensemble invention, including a striking section performed with newspapers that extends Fujii's ongoing exploration of freedom within large-ensemble composition.

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.

Sonelius Smith / Adam Kahan
We'll Let You Know When We Find Out [VINYL]
(577 Records)
A deeply personal collaboration between pianist Sonelius Smith and bassist Adam Kahan, bringing together recordings from 2023-2026 that move between intimate jazz trio explorations and expanded ensembles with tenor saxophone, trumpet, and flute, combining original compositions and spontaneous improvisation with inventive interpretations of jazz standards by Wayne Shorter, George Gershwin, and Sidney Bechet.

Alexander Schlippenbach Von
Main Lines/1967
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
A remarkable 1967 Radio Bremen session uniting leading figures of emerging European free improvisation, with Alexander von Schlippenbach, Irène Schweizer and Fred van Hove on piano; Peter Brötzmann and Gerd Dudek on saxophones; Manfred Schoof and Manfred Miller on brass; three bassists; and Sven-Åke Johansson, Jaki Liebezeit and Mani Neumeier on drums and percussion.

Cecil Taylor Unit
Live at the KiMo Theater Albuquerque 1979 [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Black Editions Archives)
An extraordinary 1979 recording of Cecil Taylor's Unit performing live with Jimmy Lyons on alto saxophone, Ramsey Ameen on violin, Alan Silva on bass and cello, and Jerome Cooper on drums, capturing a rare quintet configuration in a powerful exploration of free jazz, collective improv, and expansive compositional structures, previously unissued and originally intended for NPR's Jazz Alive program.

Fridolin Blumer / Christopher Dell / Heinz Geisser / Robert Morgenthaler
Live At Loft Koln
(ezz-thetics now)
Recorded live at Cologne's Loft in 2025, the quartet of trombonist Robert Morgenthaler, vibraphonist Christopher Dell, bassist Fridolin Blumer, and percussionist Heinz Geisser delivers six adventurous improvisations, blending their individual voices into a richly interactive acoustic dialogue shaped by collective listening, spontaneous structure, and an evolving sense of musical connection.

Albert Ayler Quartet
Reference: Goin' Home 1964
(ALAY)
A strikingly restrained side of Albert Ayler emerges on this 1964 session of spirituals and devotional songs, with his tenor and soprano saxophones joined by Call Cobbs Jr. on piano, Henry Grimes on double bass and Sunny Murray on drums, emphasizing melody, blues-inflected tone and deep vibrato while revealing the gospel and New Orleans roots underlying his more radical later language.

Thomas Rohrer / Abdul Moimeme
Outras Margens
(ezz-thetics now)
Exploring the transformation of traditional instruments into unconventional sound sources, Swiss-Brazilian rabeca player Thomas Rohrer and Portuguese guitarist Abdul Moimême collaborate on four extended improvisations, merging prepared strings, objects, and live electronics into intricate electroacoustic environments of shifting textures, mechanical rhythms, and unexpected resonances.

Joe Hertenstein / Anthony Coleman / Jon Irabagon
Future Drone
(ezz-thetics now)

Airlift (Diehl / Lowery / Lawson / Levin / Lavelle / Hotep / Marquez / Dennis)
Spatial Recognition [2 CDs]
(577 Records)
An eight-member Philadelphia ensemble led by percussionist Kevin Diehl brings together tenor saxophones, flute, trumpet, clarinets, guitars, bass, and Afro-Cuban percussion in a double album of adventurous collective improvisation, blending graphic scores, structured compositions, free jazz, and layered rhythmic exploration into an expansive dialogue between form and spontaneity.

Nathan Hanson / Steve Hirsh
Memory Is Subjective
(Mahakala Music)
Saxophonist Nathan Hanson on tenor and soprano joins drummer Steve Hirsh for three spontaneously composed improvisations recorded in Sandstone, Minnesota, developing an intuitive dialogue of lyrical and fractured reed lines, shifting rhythmic momentum, texture, and silence as the two allow form to emerge entirely through attentive, moment-to-moment interaction.

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

Joel Futterman / Ike Levin
Liberation
(CLM)
Pianist Joel Futterman and tenor saxophonist Ike Levin mark their 16th recording collaboration in 25 years with three spontaneously created works balancing intensity and reflection, density and space, drawing on their long-developed improvisational rapport to move fluidly through free jazz, lyrical exchange, rhythmic momentum and layered interaction.

Satoko Fujii Orchestra Nagoya
Korekara
(Libra)
Composed by Satoko Fujii to celebrate the 20th anniversary of a beloved Nagoya arts cafe, this four-part suite for her 16-member Orchestra Nagoya combines adventurous arrangements, expressive solo improvisations, and powerful brass and reed passages, blending free jazz with infectious rhythmic grooves in a joyful, forward-looking celebration of community and creative collaboration.

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

Cecil Taylor 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.

Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet
Sure Grand Out
(RogueArt)
Pianist Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet with Mary Halvorson on guitar, Ingrid Laubrock on tenor and soprano saxophones, Tomeka Reid on cello, and Lesley Mok on drums, continuing Melford's Cy Twombly-inspired balance of cellular composition, collective improvisation, lyricism, counterpoint, and rhythmic momentum in a richly interactive studio recording.

Threadgill Zooid, Henry
Cut You Where You Was
(Pi Recordings)
Composer and reedist Henry Threadgill reconvenes his long-running Zooid quintet with Liberty Ellman on acoustic guitar, Jose Davila on tuba and trombone, Christopher Hoffman on cello, and Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums, extending his interval-based language through shifting meters, compact forms, and non-hierarchical interplay in music that balances structural rigor with elastic, conversational improvisation.

Gon Muruaga
Lines In The Sky
(577 Records)
A live Helsinki performance bringing together Lithuanian saxophonist Liudas Mockunas, Argentinian electric guitarist Gon Muruaga, and Finnish drummer Teemu Mustonen for seven collective improvisations, balancing lyrical passages, abstract textures, and shifting rhythmic interplay through attentive listening and spontaneous interaction, including a reflection on Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman."

Gottliche Skizzen (Delazer / Delius / Obleser)
Ringi Ringd Coint
(ezz-thetics now)
Drummer Jonathan Delazer leads the Göttliche Skizzen trio with Tobias Delius on tenor saxophone and clarinet and Jakob Obleser on double bass in eight original compositions that intertwine microtonal experimentation, free improvisation, and contemporary chamber jazz, drawing on medieval musical traditions, European folk rhythms, and glissando techniques in a fluid exploration of melody, texture, and rhythmic form.

Ten-Toh-Maru (Fujii / Nakamura / Tenko)
The One Who Walks Through The Night
(Meenna)
Vocalist Tenko, pianist Satoko Fujii and no-input mixing-board pioneer Toshimaru Nakamura form Ten-Toh-Maru for three extended free improvisations balancing wordless vocal expression, resonant and percussive piano textures, and finely controlled electronic feedback, unfolding through patient collective listening into sparse, ritualistic, abrasive and dreamlike sound environments.

David Myers Lee
Partikelrauschen
(pulsewidth)
Referring to the music on this album from New York feedback and electronic pioneer David Lee Myers as "firmly rooted in the electronic music of the 1950s-1960s", over nine tracks we are taken on an otherworldly journey of detailed particulate electronic adventures, sometimes swooping, vertiginous, monstrous and unpredictable, each track captured live in Myer's Pulsewidth studio.

David Myers Lee
Oculus [2 CDs]
(pulsewidth)
A double CD of rich ambient work from New York City-based sound artist David Lee Myers, presenting four expansive compositions that blend electronics, lamellophone, feedback matrices, and hardware and software processing, evoking the ocular opening of the eye and architectural forms through immersive soundscapes that explore the interplay between organic and electronic elements.

Mnemonist Orchestra
Mnemonist Orchestra
(Klanggalerie)
Reissuing the 1979 debut from the Colorado collective that evolved through Mnemonists into Biota, four extended improvisations place Hugh Ragin, William Sharp, John Herdt and a large ensemble amid brass, reeds, prepared piano, electric instruments, voices, found percussion and tapes mixed live into volatile intersections of free jazz, musique concrète, sound poetry and industrial texture.

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

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

Amalgamated / Odd Person
Anthropodermic Ixii [CASSETTE]
(Bicephalic)
Part of a series of 8 split release cassettes, all hand-painted & numbered; this release presents the collaborative long-form improvisation noise project Amalgamated backed with Odd Person, the ongoing project of Bicephalic label leader August Traeger.

Baby Rap
Voice Performance By Babies
(Amorfon)
Amorfon continues their exploration of the "voice" of babies, started with "Kindermusik: Improvised Music by Babies" and expanded here as 14 babies are recorded in a single take, expressing themselves before the learning of language, volume, timbre and speech intervals.

Rutger Zuydervelt
Sileen II
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
An adaptation from "Sileen", a composition commissioned by Musica For The Festival Oortreders at Neerpelt, Belgium, 2016 performed with 50 members of a local music school; "Sileen II" was realized with only Gareth Davis on bass clarinet plus sounds from Machinefabriek, recorded in the same pitch and tempo as "Sileen', then slowed to half its speed and one octave lower.

Bruno Duplant / Pierre Gerard
Soleil Clandestin
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Five "Soleil Clandestin" soundscapes using abstract voice, guitar, electronics, field recordings & percussion from sound artists Bruno Duplant and Pierre Gerard, on the surface peaceful, minimal and using space and silence, but buried inside are disquieting additions through vocal abstractions placed in unusual position to the sound; curious and captivating.

Pisaura (Michael Pisaro / Zizia)
Asteraceae
(Sedimental)
A work composed from field recordings of performances around Los Angeles during the winter of 2018-19, the Pisaura trio of Michael Pisaro, Amber Wolfe Rounds & Jarrod Fowler (Zizia) used astrological charts to determine patterns of composing, performing, recording, and producing music with celestial and terrestrial rhythms; a mysteriously detailed and almost reverent work in sound.

Pierre Gerard
Imprevu Visible Inverse
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Using guitars, violin, electronics, field recordings, abstract voice, and a "sound knife in the sand", Pierre Gerard recorded this set of 13 works in Liege, Belgium, and Wimereux, France, in 2019, using intuitive approaches to his minimalist electroacoustic compositions as he assembles his elements to convey human gesture and architectural form in sound.

Torbjorn Zetterberg (Zetterberg / Agnas / Hogberg)
Opinions [VINYL]
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Known as a jazz bassist, Torbjörn Zetterberg mostly steps away from the big strings for a series of multitrack studio compositions on a variety of instruments electronic & acoustic, plus samples and voice, all performed by Zetterberg himself (with Konrad Agnas and Anna Hogberg adding input on a couple of tracks); powerful, urgent, impressive works from a truly well-rounded musician.

Brasilia Laptop Orchestra
BSBL0rk: 10 yEars aLive
(Public Eyesore)
For more than 10 years since its inception as a spin-off from founder and principal programmer Eufrasio Prates's doctorate research in 2012, the Brasilia Laptop Orquestra has become a regular institution on the Brasiliense experimental and electronic scene, the orchestra an ever-changing collaboration of musicians, heard in 11 recordings captured live between 2013-2020.

Ruben Turba / Minami Saeki
The Gift
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Thirteen realizations of sound artist Rubén Turba and violist Minami Saeki's concept for two musicians or more, where each performer chooses five sounds as a "gift" to one of the others, played up to three times during the realization before moving to the next sound; these recordings were made independently in Tokyo & Madrid and then combined without editing.

Jon Rose
Aeolian Tendency
(Room40)
Aeolian instruments, which create sound by the action of wind, have been an occupation of Australian violinist Jon Rose since 1979, using central Australia's winds to exite vibrations on self-invented instrumented using piano wire and fishing line, here presenting beautifully exotic recordings from two instruments he created in 2021 (The Monolith) and in 2022 (The Tube).

Tungu
Successful Utilization of Elements
(Public Eyesore)
A series of 19 wide-ranging duets between Sergey Senchuk, aka Tungu, who performs on voice, acoustic bass, field recording & sampling, and an impressive set of international improvisers, including Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello), Jaap Blonk (voice), Gunda Gottschalk (violin), Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar), Sainkho Namtchylak (voice), Xavier Charles (clarinet & processing), &c.

Kai Fagaschinski / Yan Jun
Graveyard Processions [VINYL w/ DOWNLOAD]
(NI-VU-NI-CONNU)
Recorded in Berlin during the summer of 2022, this first collaboration between clarinetist Kai Fagaschinski and Beijing-based sound artist Yan Jun, blends clarinet, voice, and field recordings with objects and inventive sound sources in four pieces that dissolve boundaries between improvisation, composition, and experimental sound design, creating a dizzying, multilayered auditory experience.

111 (Michelle / Villamil)
Live at Opus 40 [CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(Notice Recordings)
The duo of Chantal Michelle and Grace Villamil transform the monumental land sculpture of Opus 40 into a resonant instrument, layering voice and electronics with field recordings and audience interactions to create an immersive, spatially dynamic performance of ambient tension and sonic obliteration, masterfully teetering between composed sound, environmental resonance, and blooming noise.

Marc Baron / Eric La Casa
Contrefacons
(Swarming)
Exploring the fragility of recorded memory and the processes of cinematic restoration, Marc Baron and Eric La Casa capture, manipulate, and recontextualize sounds from the Hiventy film laboratories, transforming them through analogue treatments and dynamic re-recording into a compelling meditation on representation, decay, and the shifting nature of perception.

Eric La Casa / Seijiro Murayama
Paris Public Spaces 2
(Swarming)
Recorded across various public spaces in Paris, this collaborative work extends the practice of Eric La Casa and Seijiro Murayama as they document subtle vocal interventions and field recordings that explore attentive listening, bodily presence, and sonic autonomy, positioning sound-making as a quiet, animist act of witness within complex urban environments.

Adam Bohman / Gen Ken
Improvised Music
(Tribe Tapes)
A trans-continental mail collaboration between sound artists Adam Bohman and Gen Ken Montgomery, channeling their respective roots in experimental acoustic improvisation and sound art into a single continuous electroacoustic dialogue, blending tactile textures, violin, off-kilter spoken word and electronics in a fluid, open-ended exploration of experimental sound.

Jordan Paul Topiel / Bryan Eubanks
Pushovers
(Sacred Realism)
Exploring the volatile meeting point of acoustic percussion and electronics, Jordan Topiel Paul uses amplified snare drum to generate rattling friction, taut rhythmic fragments, and metallic resonance while Bryan Eubanks' modular synthesis answers with unstable pulses and evolving textures, the duo constructing a tense and detailed electroacoustic dialog where rhythm, noise, and timbre continually blur and reform.

Jeph Jerman / Ted Byrnes
Muir [CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(Tsss Tapes)
A tactile 12-part acoustic-object improvisation from Jeph Jerman and Ted Byrnes, using kalimba, snares, bells, broken cymbal, cans, concrete floor, pinecones, bowls, pot lids, water, hands and other found or homemade materials to build a restless sound world of rustle, scrape, metallic resonance, loose pulse and strange-beat movement, extending Jerman's found-sound practice through Byrnes' free percussion language.

Secondson
Turn Back
(Aural Terrains)
Welsh composer Secondson reduces his electroacoustic palette to tape recorder and turntable for two extended works exploring repetition, degradation, vinyl surface noise and analogue resonance, creating slowly evolving environments between musique concrete, drone and minimalism from a 2023 session at Sail Loft Studios in Cardiff, UK.

Knurl
Obtain By Sacrifice
(Krim Kram)
Canadian harsh noise veteran Alan Bloor, recording as Knurl since 1994, delivers seven abrasive compositions built from amplified scrap metal, grinding textures, and industrial resonance, transforming the physical sounds of scraping, striking, and vibrating metal into dense, fiercely textured noise works rooted in his decades of experimentation with found objects and unconventional sound sources.

Teresa Riemann
Can I Stare At You Publicly?
(577 Records)

Marc Sabat
Harmony
(Another Timbre)
The fifth CD in the Canadian Composers Series is also the debut appearance on Another Timbre by the Jack Quartet, performing works by composer Marc Sabat--two string quartets and a violin/cello duo--all combining an exploration of the soundworld of Just Intonation with a strong underlying lyricism.

Quatuor Bozzini
Jurg Frey: String Quartet No. 4
(Collection QB)
The third string quartet that Swiss composer Jürg Frey has written for the Montreal string quartet Quatuor Bozzini of Alissa Cheung on violin, Clemens Merkel on violin, Stephanie Bozzini on viola and Isabelle Bozzini on cello, a beautiful work in five movements of illusory motion, slowly evolving through furtive and seemingly feigned momentum.

Ingrid Laubrock
Purposing The Air [2 CDs]
(Pyroclastic Records)
Drawing on poet Erica Hunt's sixty-part "Mood Librarian," composer Ingrid Laubrock presents a stunning 2-CD song cycle of miniature vocal duets — performed by an extraordinary ensemble including Fay Victor, Theo Bleckmann, Sara Serpa, and others — each piece a poetic and sonic fragment brought vividly to life with precision, emotion, and profound collaboration.

John Cage (Wegmann / Debacker)
Two2 (1989) for 2 Pianos
(ezz-thetics now)
Judith Wegmann and Marlies Debacker perform John Cage's 1989 Two2, a late work for two pianos whose thirty-six short lines unfold through independent tempi, shared pauses and resonant decay, allowing the duo's deep experience in composed and improvised music to shape a live performance of patient asymmetry, concentrated listening and quietly radical spaciousness.

Quatuor Bozzini
Steve Reich: Different Trains
(Collection QB)
Quatuor Bozzini interprets Steve Reich's landmark three-part work for live quartet and prerecorded strings and voices, interweaving tightly pulsed patterns with documentary recollections of American rail travel and the Holocaust, contrasting Reich's childhood journeys between New York and Los Angeles with the radically different trains carrying European Jews during World War II.

John McGuire
Works For Instruments [2 CDs]
(Edition Rz)
Instrumental compositions by "post-minimalist" John McGuire who took classes with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig, among others.

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.

Arnold Schonberg
Works For Piano
(Hat [now] ART)
Pi-hsien Chen performs Arnold Schonbgergs, a small part of his oeuvre, yet significant in that they reflect the evolution and development of this great composer's compositional powers.

Quatuor Bozzini
Sens(e) Absence
(Collection QB)
Premiered by the Bozzini Quartet at Berlin's Ballhaus Naunynstrasze, this haunting work was composed for temporal and architechtural space using unusual tuning systems producing natural harmonics.

Michael Pisaro / Greg Stuart
ricefall (2)
(Gravity Wave)
Ricefall (2), the 2nd is a 72-minute piece for 64 separate tracks of rice falling on objects, performed with percussionist Greg Stuart, a composition of unusual dynamics and pacing.

Skuggorna Och Ljuset / Magnus Granberg
Would Fall From The Sky, Would Wither And Die
(Another Timbre)
A new composition by clarinetist and composer Magnus Granberg, the leader of the highly acclaimed ensemble Skogen, this time with a new, smaller group that includes percussionist Erik Carlsson, performing his beautiful, melancholic music.

Bardeau / Couratier / Lecinte / Lemaire
Quaturo Machaut
(Ayler)
Taking their name from composer Guillaume de Machaut, Quentin Biardeau directs his saxophone quartet as they reinterpret his 1365 polyphonic mass "Messe de Nostre Dame", using the resonance of the the Abbey of Noirlac, France to enhance these beautifully paced compositions.

Antoine Beuger
Silent Harmonies In Discrete Continuity
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Antoine Beuger's minimalist work for American painter Marcia Hafif, known for her monochrome paintings, in 24 tonal works each 3 minutes long using stationary waves of eight frequencies from a different octave and punctuated by silence.

Antoine Beuger
Two . Too (For Erwin-Josef Speckmann) [2 CDs]
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Jurg Frey on clarinet and Irene Kurka on soprano vocals perform Wandelweiser composer Antoine Beuger's extended composition "Two"; then the duo of Rhodri Davies on harp and Ko Ishikawa on sho are layered on the first recording, creating a refreshingly new take on the piece.

Beuger Frey / Duo Contour
Duos
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
The duo Contour of Stephen Altoff (trumpet) & Lee Forrest Ferguson (percussion) perform Antoine Beuger's "dedekind duos" dedicated to mathematician Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind; and Jurg Frey's "22 Sachelchen" or "small things", 22 focused miniature compositions.

Christoph Schiller
Spinet, 2016
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Christoph Schiller performs on the spinet, often improvising with electronics and objects; here he uses the spinet alone in patiently developing compositions that emphasize the individual tones and harmonics of the instrument played on the keys and inside the instrument.

Morton Feldman
For John Cage
(Hat [now] ART)
Morton Feldman was a friend, flatmate and student of John Cage's innovative approaches to composition; he wrote this 3 part work for violin and piano in 1982 as a 70th birthday present for Cage, here performed by violinist Josje Fosie Ter Haar and pianist John Snijders.

Maria de Alvear / Antoine Beuger
Besando El Tiempo [2 CDs]
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Antoine Beuger performs composer Maria De Alvear's 1995 contemplative work "Besando El Tiempo" (Kissing The Time) written using an automatic script and originally composed for the flautist Caren Levine; after hearing Beuger's interpretation she requested that he record it, the result this rendition that takes the composition on an introspective journey.

Cyril Bondi
Euhesma, 2017
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Swiss composer and percussionist Cyril Bondi, recording with d'incise, renders his piece "euhesma" (a genus within the bee family in Australia), a work performed on indian harmonium, melodica, harmonica, pitch pipes, and electric organ that slowly introduces and overlaps tones, varying the pitch, harmony, and amplitude to create rich aural environments.

Magnus Granberg
Es Schwindelt Mir, Es Brennt Mein Eingweide
(Another Timbre)
An hour-long work for an ensemble of six musicians by Swedish composer Magnus Granberg performed by Anna Lindal on baroque violin, d incise on vibraphonen electronics, Cyril Bondi on percussion, Anna Kaisa Meklin on viola da gamba, Christoph Schiller on spinet, and Magnus Granberg himself on prepared piano, transforming material from a song by Franz Schubert.

Beuger.Boon.Susam

(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Pianist and composer Dante Boon performs his own work "Years, Numbers", alongside Antoine Beuguer's "Pour Etre Seul(e), Sans Reserve" and Taylan Susam's "Tombeau", and Bueger's "Nov. (piano)", four works of graceful and introspective beauty using minimal approaches to tone, chord, or spaciousness, recorded live at University Of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2014.

John Cage / Guy Vandromme
Number Pieces (Piano)
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
John Cage wrote his "Number Pieces" in the last years of his life, using his time bracket technique of short fragments allowing the performer flexibility in interpretation; each piece is titled for the number of performers and its ordinal position in the series, and most pieces are dedicated to a musician; here pianist Guy Vandromme performs three of the "One", or solo, series.

Ferran Fages
Detuning Series For Guitar
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
The 2nd part of a trilogy for guitar and sinetones composed between 2015-18, alongside "What Might Occur (Rereadings of Triadic Memories by Morton Feldman for guitar and sinewaves)" (2015-17) and "Un Lloc Entre Dos Records" (2017); this work, originally written in 2016, and revised in 2018, is heard in a recording at GMEA, France, with guitarist Benjamin Maumus.

Magnus Granberg / Skogen
Nun, es wird nicht weit mehr gehn
(Another Timbre)
Composer Magnus Granberg took influences from Schubert's song cycle "Die Winterreise", extracting tonal material, which he merged with rhythmic influences from medieval English folk music and a song by Dowland, merging them into a temporal framework for this large and subtle composition, executed by a setpet including Angharad Davies, Erik Carlsson, Henrik Olsson, d'incise, &c.

Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns
Bitches Blues [VINYL]
(Rune Grammofon)
Guitarist Hedvig Mollestad joins Stale Storlokken on organ and synth and Ole Mofjell on drums for six wide-ranging instrumental pieces balancing riff-driven rock weight, free improvisation, lyrical rubato passages and explosive ensemble interplay, extending Weejuns' chemistry through shifting dynamics, disciplined structures and moments of cathartic chaos.

Blue Sausage Infant
Flight of the Solstice Queens
(Zeromoon)
Chester Hawkins' long-running BSI project now based in DC, layering groove based (kraut)rock with unearthly sound sources, plundered samples, and all form of unmentionable sound.

Electric Bird Noise
The Silber Sessions
(Silber Media)
A collection of southeast darkwave & post rock band Electric Bird Noise (Brian Lea McKenzie) from 2000-2010, cinematic, richly eclectic, and absorbing instrumental music.

Electric Bird Noise
Desert Jelly
(Silber Records)
Frequent Squidco in-store performer Electric Bird Noise returns defying expectation with an album of new wave dance & 1970s synth experiments, taking influence from bands like New Order, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, & Gary Numan

Brio
Acid Cock
(Long Song Records)
The Zagreb, Croatia free jazz/noise rock guitar-drums duo of Gordan Krajacic on guitar and Neven Krajacic on drums and vocals in their 3rd release, a suite blending melody with brutal atonality, hard groove and guitar-riffs with free playing.

Derviche (Borchard / Favriou)
Murs Absurdes
(Ayler Records)
The 2nd Derviche album on Ayler Records from the French electric bass and drum improvising duo of Eric Brochard and Fabrice Favriou, in five sequences of assertive and masterful instrumental improvising rock, ecstatically heavy material of thick detail and ominous overtone, intended to be played as a continuous suite and clearly intended for maximum amplitude!

Bonner Kramer / Thurston Moore
They Came Like Swallows: Seven Requiems for the Children of Gaza
(Silver Current)
The first full-length collaboration between Bonner Kramer and Thurston Moore, presenting seven requiems for the children of Gaza through a somber mix of improvised guitar, bass, keyboards, sampler and voices, moving between outsider rock, ambient drift, noise and abstraction with an elegiac, often haunted atmosphere shaped by spontaneous interaction and spacious electronic textures.

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.

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.

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.

[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.

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.

[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.

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.

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!

Nathan Hanson / Steve Hirsh
Memory Is Subjective
(Mahakala Music)
Saxophonist Nathan Hanson on tenor and soprano joins drummer Steve Hirsh for three spontaneously composed improvisations recorded in Sandstone, Minnesota, developing an intuitive dialogue of lyrical and fractured reed lines, shifting rhythmic momentum, texture, and silence as the two allow form to emerge entirely through attentive, moment-to-moment interaction.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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."

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.

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.

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

Tyshawn Sorey / Pat Thomas
Red Sulphur
(Otoroku)
In their first meeting, drummer Tyshawn Sorey and pianist Pat Thomas deliver a fiercely dynamic live improvisation at Cafe OTO, moving through dense clusters, inside-piano resonance, metallic percussion, brushes, string slides and sudden silences with remarkable precision, building a volatile dialogue that shifts between thunderous rhythmic density, delicate texture and sharply focused spontaneous interplay.

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.

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.

Gerry Hemingway / Izumi Kimura / Frank Gratkowski / Christian Weber
Live At Bau 4
(ezz-thetics now)
Gerry Hemingway leads a site-specific quartet with pianist Izumi Kimura, multi-reedist Frank Gratkowski and bassist Christian Weber, weaving composed structures, extended techniques, improvisational formations and wood-scrap percussion from Bau 4 itself into a tribute to the venue's founders, balancing melodic fragments, rhythmic propulsion, microtonal color and vivid ensemble transformation.

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.

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.

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.

Francisco Mela
Carnaval De Oriente
(577 Records)
On his first solo recording, Cuban-born drummer and composer Francisco Mela transforms memories of Santiago de Cuba's annual carnival, Carnaval De Oriente, into an intimate meditation on family, place, joy and loss, performing drums, voice, glockenspiel, percussion and guitar in a fluid blend of vocal improvisation, original songs, spontaneous invention and ritual.

Kenny Wheeler Sextet
What Was
(False Walls)
Produced by Evan Parker and drawn from a shelved 1995 studio date, this first full release of the Kenny Wheeler Sextet captures the flugelhorn master at 65 balancing post-bop sophistication with open-ended improvisation alongside Ray Warleigh, Stan Sulzmann, John Parricelli, Chris Laurence and Tony Levin, in harmonically rich compositions that favor nuance, collective trust, and deeply lyricism.

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

Marion Brown (Brown / Hampel / Phillips / McCall)
Live in Europe 1968 & 1972
(NoBusiness)
Alto saxophonist Marion Brown leads a remarkable quartet with Gunter Hampel on vibraphone, Barre Phillips on bass and Steve McCall on drums, revealing two rare European performances from 1968 and 1972 in which lyrical free jazz, chamber-like openness, shimmering percussion, bass mobility and Brown's searching melodic voice converge with quiet intensity.

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

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.

Max Ridley / Eleanor Elektra / Nat Mugavero
Playing, Praying
(577 Records)
The trio of Max Ridley (double bass, voice), Eleanor Elektra (guitar, voice), and Nat Mugavero (drums, voice) create an intimate and spiritually charged improvisation that weaves deep listening, expressive interplay, and moments of resonant silence into a continuous musical communion, recorded live in Cambridge as a heartfelt exploration of sound, stillness, and collective devotion.

Joel Futterman / William Parker
Transcendent Universe
(Burning Ambulance Music)
Joel Futterman and William Parker continue a collaboration of more than forty years in an hour of spontaneous composition, the pianist's heavy, high-energy approach meeting Parker's deeply grounded bass in two extended movements and a brief coda that balance ecstatic force, romantic beauty, collective listening and a rapturous sense of spiritual, improvised communion.

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.

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

Derek Bailey / Han Bennink / Evan Parker
Topographie Parisienne (Dunois, April 2nd, 3d & 4th, 1981) [4 CDs]
(Fou Records)
The second edition of this essential box set corrects the recording date and resequences the performances, as the trio of guitarist Derek Bailey, saxophonist Evan Parker, and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Han Bennink are heard in an amazing evening of performance at 28 rue Dunois, in Paris, France, in duo and trio configurations, exploring material similar to Parker's "Topography of the Lungs".