Frequent collaborators, pianist Dave Burrell and tuba player Bob Stewart take on the early jazz music of Jelly Roll Morton alongside original compositions from Burrell, performed live at the Kolner Stadtgarten in Cologne, Germany in 1994 for a joyful look forward and back.

Live recordings from Alchemia Jazz Klub in Krakow, Poland in 2015 of the freely improvising trio of Francois Carrier on sax and Chinese oboe, Michel Lambert on drums, and Rafal Mazur on acoustic bass guitar, uniquely intertwining interchanges of joyful dialog.

The quartet of saxophonist Albert Cirera, pianist Agusti Fernandez, Hernani Faustino on bass and Gabriel Ferrandini on drums recording during the Voll Damm Festival Jazz Vic in Barcelona in 2015 for a set of four expansive, collective improvisations of intense interaction.

Live recordings from Salao, Brazil in 2016 by the quartet of John Dikeman on tenor saxophone, Luis Vicente on trumpet, Hugo Antunes on double bass, and Gabriel Ferrandini on drums, for two sets of exploratory and often explosive free jazz.

A live recording from the Vilnius Jazz and Music of Silent Film Festival in 2016, performing for an adaptation of the silent film "The Lost World" by Arturas Jevdokimovas, by the trio of Martin Kuchen on sax & flute, Mark Tokar on bass, and Arkadijus Goesmanas on drums.

Pianist Howard Riley in a 5 CD box of absolutely impressive solo piano never before released on CD, including festival recordings in Paris & Debrecen, a 1987 cassette-only release, and three new albums from 2014, 15 & 16 titled as "Longer Story" "One", "Two" & "Three"; esssential!

Bringing together the core of the Gebhard Ullmann / Steve Swell Quartet in sax and trombone with Chicago mainstay improvisers Fred Longberg-Holm on cello & electronics and Michael Zerang on drums for an album that embraces free jazz, world rhythms, and experimental sound.

Downtown NY scene pioneering bassist, currently on the West Coast, Mark Dresser presents an album of original compositions performed with an amazing septet including Marty Ehrlich, Jim Black, Joshua White, Michael Dessen, David Morales Borof, and Nicole Mitchell.

Following jazz traditions blending lyrical and free approaches with unexpected twists and turns from the Norwegian quintet of Andree Roligheten on sax, Thomas Johansson on trumpet, Oscar Gronberg on piano, Jon Rune Strom on double bass, and Tollef Ostvang on drums.

An expansive album blending acoustic and electronic instruments in unique ways, creating a tapestry of sound as a framework for creative improvisation, composed by drummer Dre Hocevar & performed in an ensemble that includes some of New York's finest young improvisers.

Since 1999 the Norwegian Motif band has surprised listeners with their energetic, intelligent approach to experimental jazz, bridging free, structured, and collective approaches to improvised music, here as a sextet of trumpet/sax/clarinet/piano/bass/drums.

1995 recordings of the superb saxophone trio of Evan Paker on tenor & soprano, Daunik Lazro on alto & baritone, and Joe McPhee on alto & soprano, plus alto clarinet and pocket trumpet, a group that went undocumented until this live concert tape at Willisau was discovered.

Pianist and composer Eve Risser wrote this work after a mystical experience in Bryce Canyon, Utah, adding a choir to her 10-piece orchestra, balancing big band and chamber orchestra through instrumentation and approach, creating a complex and fulfilling journey in sound.

Long time collaborators and friends, part of the original Downtown NY scene, mutli-reedist and shakuhachi player Ned Rothenberg joins violinist Mark Feldman and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier to record a beautifully insightful album of commanding improvisation.

A live performance at the Loft in Cologne, Germany, 2015 from the recording and performing trio of Carl Ludwig Hubsch on tuba & objects, Pierre Yves Martel on viola da Gamba & harmonica, and Philip Zoubek on the prepared piano, restrained yet highly active playing.

Documenting a reunion of Musica Elettronica Viva's founders Frederic Rzewski (piano and vocals), Richard Teitelbaum (keyboards and computer) and Alvin Curran (keyboards, computer and shofar) at the 32nd International Festival Of Current Music in Victoriaville, Canada in 2016.

Layered and manipulated sound created in the studio and captured through live improvisation to create these rich, resonant compositions from Grant Stewart, a member of Machine Language, Daedal, A Perfect Mirror, The Eschaton Manifest, and The Inference Engine.

Using principles similar to Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening, the quartet of Thanos Chrysakis, Christian Kobi, Christian Skjodt, and Zsolt Sores use acoustic and electronic instruments in carefully developed improvisations based around dynamics, densities & textures.

Swiss saxophonist Christoph Gallio has led the Day & Taxi group for more than 25 years, here as a trio with Silvan Jeger on double bass and David Meier on drums for a double LP of creative jazz blending unique contemporary composition with melodic approaches.

Frequent side-man to Bill Frisell, Dave Douglas, &c., drummer Rudy Royston leads a "chord-less" trio of Mostly Other People Do the Killing/Talibam! saxophonist Jon Irabagon and bassist Yasushi Nakamura through a strong, lyrical set of 13 original jazz compositions.

Drummer Bobby Previte's "Mass" is based on heavy electrified rearrangements of 15th century composer Guillaume Dufay's "Missa Sancti Jacobi", performed by The Rose Ensemble, Stephen O'Malley, Don McGreevy, Mike Gamble and Jamie Saft, Marco Benevento, and Reed Mathis.

First recorded meeting of Chris Corsano (drums), Sylvie Courvoisier (piano), and Nate Wooley (trumpet) in the studio in Brooklyn, 2015, for a completely open, sensitive set of improvisations that are constantly on the edge, at times explosive, and always in a focused dialog.

Downtown NY saxophonist John Zorn started his "Classic Guide to Strategy" in 1983, slowly releasing volumes up to this 4th, showing the depth of his conceptual underpinnings and superb playing style, technique, and truly unique approach to the saxophone.

Two performers who have stretched the boundaries of their instruments--Miya Masaoka on 12-string koto and Anthony Braxton on saxophones and software-based electronics--in subtle and unusual environments where each player fills the phrases of the other in unforseen ways.

French flutist Michel Edelin leads this 6-piece band named in honor of Jeremy Steig, with 4 flutists including Sylvaine Helary, Ludivine Issambourg, and Nicole Mitchell, plus John Betsch (drums) and Peter Giron (bass) in exceptional, unexpected and inclusive approaches to improv.

A massive and rewarding work of organized sound extending ea-improviser, AMM guitarist Keith Rowe's work "The Room" into a massive 4 CD set of compositions, layering work familiar from his recent improvisations with classical compositions, field recordings, &c. &c.

The Saint Francis Duo of Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))), KTL) and Steve Noble (Rip, Rig and Panic, Brotzmann, Parker, Edwards ...) present a tour-de-force of darkly improvised drone and doom in a studio album of violently dark guitar work and ferocious drumming.

Three beautifully delicate works for Jurg Frey's clarinet, composed by the Amsterdam-based Wandelweiser composer/pianist Dante Boon, who has collaborated with Frey for several years and who accompanies Jurg on two of the pieces.

Six chamber works by the Paris-based Italian composer Giuliano d Angiolini, following his Edition Rz release by presenting more examples of Giuliano's careful and particular use of indeterminate elements in a series of compositions that are musically exquisite.

A composition for solo 'modified guitar' from Swiss composer d'incise peformed by guitarist Cristian Alvear, music "at the confluence of sound, melody and rhythm. Something quiet but somehow driven by a pulse, existing somewhere between the electroacoustic and the tonal conceptions of music."

Acoustic instruments and feedback devices in old stone spaces, rich multi-layered music recorded during a residency in the Czech Republic by the trio of George Cremaschi (double bass and electronics), Irene Kepl (violin and electronics) and Petr Vrba (trumpet, clarinet and electronics).

Saxophonist Quentin Biardeau and cellist Valentin Ceccalid, also on percussion, are Durio Zibethinus, a duo from Orleans, France using traditional and unusual instruments to present unique free improvisations balancing powerful technique and just plain creative fun.

An excellent instrumental 7-inch from the trio of Ava Mendoza on guitar, Maxime Petit on bass and Will Guthrie on drums, recording in the studio in France, four rocking pieces showing the band's chops, quirky asides, and aggressive yet clean playing style.

A strange and bizarrely beautiful "fanzine" of three CDs, one each from hurdy gurdy drone artist Yann Gourdon, bass guitarist Maxime Petite, and Jean Luc Guionnet on organ, with illustration by artists Fredox, Celine Guichard, and 38Fillette; an odd and absorbing package.

The Norwegian & Danish freejazz-noise-rock trio Yes Deer of Anders Vestergaard on drums, Karl Bjora on guitar and Signe Dahlgreen on sax, in their second album of high energy, cacophonous and brutally joyful (they say "enthusiastic despair") collective improvisation.

The 3rd recorded trio collaboration of pianist Thollem McDonas and guitarist Nels Cline, each changing the 3rd partner, this time with legendary accordionist, conceptualist and electronic artist Pauline Oliveros in a set of beautifully intertwining conversations.

NY vocalist Kosi (Akosua Gyebi) recorded this album to accompany a theater production called Ghosts Appearing through the Sound: a tribute to Abbey Lincoln, paying homage to the great vocalist with a 4-piece band performing works by Lincoln, Coltrane, Monk, &c.

Portuguese stoner rock band Black Bombaim and German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brotzmann recorded this album live at Estudios Sa Da Bandeira in Portugal, a power trio + 1 of uncompromising and burning improvisation, a less common but completely rewarding setting for Brotzmann.

Originally released in a limited edition of forty copies for a solo/duo show with Jason Lescalleet in 2013, this 10" release remasters the original album; a disorienting and melodic album of tape loops and dark ambient drone.

Sonic explorer Jason Kahn & Asher Thal-Nir in a 2008 concert at Boston's Axiom Gallery for a performance that creates inspired sound worlds by layering Kahn's planes of sound with Asher's environmental processing.

Sound explorer Olivia Block reflects upon human "webs of significance" and the way electronic communication and recording technologies both improve and complicate those webs, in a remarkably detailed set of layered recordings contrasting clear and fragmented sound.

An essential part of the late 70's influential Downtown NY scene, the trio of Arto Lindsay (guitar and voice), Ikue Mori (drums), and Tim Wright (bass), released few albums, but this 1981 EP captures the essence of their tightly controlled manic approach to wildly improvised rock.

A masterful fountain of melodic ideas, intriguing rhythms, and exceptional technical skill from the duo of Hamid Drake on drums and frame drum, and Sylvain Kassap on clarinets and chalumeau, recording live at the France Musique at Studio Theatre dÕAlfortville and in the studio.

A live performance at Judson Church in Manhattan as part of the 20th Vision Festival from the NY/France free improvising trio of Joelle Leandre on double bass, Mat Maneri on viola, and Gerald Cleaver on drums and percussion, two tracks of steadily building, incredibly compatible dialog.

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 Swedish duo of percussionist Andreas Pollak and prepared pianist Johan Graden (Adam & Alma) in an album of references and innuendo, clandestine and furtive sounds that evoke great mystery and drama in beautifully shaped sound; evocative music that deceives to emerge from the electronic realm while in actuality coming from all acoustic sources.

The second volume of the project heard in the previous Creative Sources album, "Suspensao", here in a 9-piece electroacoust ensemble with viola, cello, doublebass, alto sax, trombone, piano, electric guitar, computer and percussion, suspenseful lowercase music that unfolds in mysterious, beautiful and rewarding ways.

Live recordings at LOFT in Cologne, Germany from the trio of George Wissel on prepared saxophone, Achim Tang on doublebass, and Simon Camatta on drums & percussion, performing seven "Movements" that use prodigious technique with reserve and direction, revealing the structure of their work as the pieces build and recede in fascinating ways.

Two basses and a lower-end saxophone from the trio of Damon Smith on double bass, Andrew Durham on electric bass, and Danny Kamins on baritone sax, Durham also adding effects and "Radio Manipulation" to their deep sound, Durham & Kamins the core of CARL with Damon Smith adding extra underpinnings to their slowly developing, sometimes pensive, sometimes cantankerous, profound improvisation.

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.

From 2008-16 until drummer Frank Rosaly moved to Amsterdam, alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella's Trio was an active part of Chicago's creative jazz scene; in early 2018 Rosaly returned for a visit and Mazzarella composed a suite of 6 new pieces to commemorate the trio's tenth anniversary, the exuberant result this excellent concert recorded at Co-Prosperity Sphere!

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.

The 5th release from the trio of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Keiji Haino, guitarist Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi on wineglass and percussion is an introspective and beautifully developed set recorded live at their March 2013 concert at SuperDeluxe.

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).

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).

While both improvisers were in New York City for the 2019 Vision Festival, multi-reedist and European Free Improv legend Peter Brötzmann met Chicago cellist and electronics artist Fred Lonberg-Holm to record their 3rd album together, their 1st album in the studio a diverse set of incredible concentration, with Brötzmann performing on tenor saxophone, woodwind, and clarinet.

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.