American fingerstyle improvising guitarist Duck Baker in a collection of duos and trios recorded from 1993-2004, with Derek Bailey, Cyro Baptista, Roswell Rudd, and John Zorn.
Detailed electro-acoustic improvisation from the trio of Thanos Chrysakis on MaxMSP & electronics, Wade Matthew on synth and field recordings, and Dario Bernal-Villegas on percussion.
The Convergence Quartet (Taylor Ho Bynum, Harris Eisenstadt, Alexander Hawkins and Dominic Lash) in their first FMR CD performing inspired modern jazz live in Oxford.
The quartet of Paul Dunmall on soprano sax and bass clarinet; Philip Gibbs on guitar; Neil Metcalf on flute; and Paul Rogers on 7-string bass; a unique orchestration with impressive improvisational results.
The first release of drummer Eisenstadt's Canada Day quintet with trumpeter Nate Wooley, saxophonist Matt Bauder, vibraphonist Chris Dingman, and bassist Eivind Oipsvik.
The Ensemble Fur Neue Musik Zurich perform the works of modern women composers: Katharina Rosenberger; Ada Gentile; Carmen Maria Carneci; Liza Lim; and Noriko Hisada.
Buenos Aries composer Abel Gilbert's Factor Burzaco is an avant rock band known as the "Argentinian Thinking Plague", embracing rock, electronics and much more in an unusual and fascinating mix.
Free improvising from saxophonist Frode Gjerstad and vibraphonist Kenvin Norton, recording in the same space as their previous duo CD, but with guitarist David Watson as a 3rd voice.
Pianist Bob Gluck in a trio with Joe Giardullo on soprano saxophone and Christopher Dean Sullivan on bass, a delicate album that belies the "quiet" in its title.
Edition Rz's "Parallele" series in a spiral bound catalog and 2 CDs from the 2000 Berliner Festival Neuer Musik with compositions by Francois Donato, Tom Johnson, Christina Kubisch, Alvin Lucier, &c.
Six radio texts by multimedia artist and poet Ferdinand Kriwet in a beautifully designed 3 LP picture discs luxury box with a 20 page 12"x12" book of text and images.
An alternative edit of the soundtrack for Makino Takashi's film In Your Star, an intense electronic work with beautiful microtonal and digital soundscapes.
Originally released in 2008 on Sentient Recognition Archive, "Vloed" is a collection of (slightly edited) live performances, recorded between 2006-08 in Amsterdam and Den Haag.
Three compositions by Luigi Nono, recorded at the Berlin festival "Inventionen", live electronics moving away from clear spatial and timbral assignations rendering the acoustic instruments barely recognizable.
Michael Pisaro's composition consists of the alternation of sedimentary layers of low percussion samples in slow rotation, and clusters of slowly modulating high sine waves pierced by bowed crotales.
An investigation of the sounding properties of pipes and streets interspersed with a duo for bass clarinet and electric guitar in the form of ten three-minute episodes.
This is the 2nd release by Eisenstadt's stable working quintet Canada Day with Nate Wooley, Matt Bauder, Chris Dingman and Eivind Opsvik, named by ex-Torontonian drummer Eisenstadt for playing its first gig on Canada Day 2007.
Reissue of pianist Copland in a trio with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Jochen Rueckert performing ballads including pieces by Coltrane, Waldron, Porter and Sting.
An incredibly informed instant-composing ensemble drawing on free jazz and post rock sensibilities with nods to Indian ragas, jazz-inflected minimalism, Zappa-esque bouts of sonic anarchy, and German rock music from the 1970s, captured live at Toronto, Guelph and Hamilton, Canada in 2012.
A split 7" 45 with radical sonic experimenting quartet Great Architect with Brent Bagwell from Eastern Seaboard; and polyrhythmic experimenting quartet Moenda.
Roman philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus named "Clinamen" the unpredictable (in time and space) swerve of atoms falling in the void, which aptly describes the unexpected directions taken in subtle free improvisation from this French trio, led by bassist Louis-Michel Marion, with Jacques Di Donato on clarinet, and Philippe Berger on viola.
"The jazz is not always subject to their premises. Even the breaks in their future creative. The jazz in the present century, taking the legacy of its past vanguard’stico, welcomes new resources, other parameters as technical and musica...
Live recordings at the 2014 Vancouver International Jazz Festival from drummer Harris Eisenstadt's excellent and lyrical Golden State chamber jazz ensemble, here as a quartet with Michael Moore on clarinet, Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon, and Mark Dresser on bass.
Recorded live at Silence Sounds in Guelph Canada, the duo of Xavier Charles on clarinet and Eric Normand on electric bass & objects eschew idiom in favor of their unique natural language on their instruments, applying patient development of truly idiosyncratic and fascinating command through a single extended work punctuated in seven diverse passages.
A beautiful solo set of 12 improvisations, Michael Attias performing on alto sax with his left hand and piano with his right, captured in the natural reverberation of La Maison en Bois in Abeville-La-Riviere, France; surprisingly his 1st solo album, developed over 12 years yet played in under an hour with no retakes, a wonderful nuanced reflection in tone, melody & color.
A beautifully hypnotic album of saxophone, accompanied by Pan-Ney, Shruti Box and Organ, recorded in overdubs by composer/wind player Werner Durand in this 2nd chapter of his trilogy focused on the Pan-Ney, a self-built instrument for repetitive foundations, as Durand draws on elements of nature, mythology, dance, religion, literature and folklore.
Recording in Toronto, the core trio of drummer Nick Fraser, saxophonist Tony Malaby and pianist Kris Davis are joined on four tracks by tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and trumpeter Lina Allemano, in an album of composed and collective improvisation, merging Toronto, NY and European influences in an accomplished album of diverse approaches and orchestrations.
Recorded in the mid-90s, Livebatts! was a project of John White (Cornelius Cardew, Scratch Orchestra) developed to exploit "toy" keyboards of the 80s--cheap battery-driven instruments that hold tremendous potential for "serious" music-making--used here in a playful quartet with vocalist MJ Coldiron, Andrea Rocca (guitar & samples) and Nancy Ruffer (electrified flute).
An excellent first meeting of two guitarists recording on a February afternoon and released in the sequence recorded with no edits or changes, from Jim McAuley on guitar and Scot Ray on lap steel slide guitar with effects, an innately lyrical blending of styles masking the strong technical skills and long histories of these two superlative players.
Quietly lurking as it prepares to attack, this Kobra is the free improvising quaret of Aurora Nealand on accordion, alto saxophone, voice & objects, Steve Marquette on acoustic & electric guitars, Anton Hatwich on bass, and Paul Thibodeaux on drums, captured live at Chicago's Hungry Brain during the Instigation Festival for a mysterious 2-part "New Omens" and some "Telly Attire".
'Spilla' means 'to play' in the language of Neapolitan musicians, and playing here are NY guitarist and composer Elliott Sharp and Italian guitarist Sergio Sorrentino, presenting world premier recordings of 4 works recorded live in Vercelli, Italy: two improvisations and two graphic scores performed on electric guitar with incredible technique and passion.
Stochastic music for percussion and synthesizers from New York avant conceptualist and keyboardist Charlemagne Palestine, here on piano & electronics, with the Italian duo Trrma' of Giovanni Todisco on percussion and Guiseppe Candiano on synth, in two side-long works of irregular rhythm, complexity and dissonance that build and recede in a suspenseful journey.
A split 7" release between Cremaster (Alfredo Costa Monteiro (electronics) and Ferran Fages (feedback mixing board and electroacoustic devices); and the Komora A trio of Karol Koszniec (electronics), Dominik Kowalczyk (laptop) and Jakub Mikolajczyk (modular synth).
A momentous 2020 concert at London's Cafe OTO, presented in two discs, the 1st with label leader Jean-Marc Foussat in a solo improvisation on synth and voice, the 2nd in a trio with Daunik Lazro on tenor & baritone sax, and Evan Parker on soprano sax, the 2 saxophones weaving and responding to Foussat's remarkable alien soundscapes and vocalization in an immersive extended improvisation.
German saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and Vancouver pianist Kris Davis, both living and working in NY, and having worked together in a variety of groups including Laubrock's Anti-House, a trio with drummer Tyshawn Sorey, Tom Rainey's Obligatto, &c. &c., concentrate their sophisticated playing with this duo album of 7 original compositions and 2 free improvisations.
Trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez merges his Yells at Eel project with bassist Aaron Gonzalez and drummer/percussionist Stefan Gonzalez, with Texas-based experimental rock band Pinkish Black--Daron Beck on keyboards and Jon Teague on drums & synthesizers--for a gripping and masterful hybrid of improvisation, dark synthetic rock and heavy moods; a riveting journey.
Exploring the lineage of the Dukes of Bedford, the Russell lineage in Bedford, England, in groupings of acoustic & electric guitarists John Russell, Ray Russell, and Henry Kaiser along with double bassist Ollie Brice, from duos to quartets, eight Duke "Russells" from 1680 to 2003 are explored through intricate and joyfully creative and technically amazing string improvisations.
Taking his title from a poem by Octavio Paz with titles from translations by Lysander Kemp of other Octavio Paz poems, this solo album from double bassist Damon Smith is his definitive statement on the instrument: 23 tracks from 46 seconds to 5 minutes 50, developed over 15 years and displaying Smith's incredible technique and creative intent; incomparable.
An historical recording of Hermann Scherchen directing the RTSI Orchestra in a rehearsal of Beethoven's 6th Symphony, 1964, one of the works Scherchen is most associated with.