The first release from the trio of Nels Cline, Gerald Cleaver, and Larry Ochs in a 2016 concert at Gallery5 Arts, in Richmond, Virginia, captured as part of the trio's series touring around the Northeast each December since 2015, playing what Larry Ochs describes as music that "seeks sonically to soothe, to inspire, and to conspire", in three urgent and powerful improvisations.

Saxophonist Jorgen Mathisen (The Core) composes for and leads his quartet with fellow Norwegian players Erlend Slettevoll on piano, Trygve Waldemar Fiske on double bass, and Dag Erik Knedal Andersen on drums, through six lyrical free jazz compositions, often in a Coltrane mode, his music influenced by sci-fi, Sun Ra, and Philip K. Dick; a solid record of modern jazz.

Red Trio pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro joins Polish free improvisers, drummer Kuba Suchar from the European band Robotobibok (which became Mikrokolektyw), and double bassist Zbigniew Kozera from Sundogs and LEM, for five collective improvisations, diverse and dynamic dialogs of profound technique and creative intention.

A tribute to pianist and composer Bernardo Sassetti from a trio that includes two members of Sassetti's Trio--bassist Carlos Barretto and drummer Alexandre Frazao--along with pianist Alberto Conde and violist Jose Valente, as they interpret Sassetti compositions, a Federico Mompou piece Sassetti played frequently, along with original compositions from all members.

Portuguese guitarist Jose Dias steps away from his quartet and trio, and from the many scores for theatre, contemporary dance and animation film that he's composed, to focus on his solo electric guitar work, in this album that applies subtle affects and a warm, ethereal ambiance to expressive and passionate pieces, each conveying a sense of narrative and purpose.

A collaborative French instrumental rock band led by and with compositions from the core quartet of Anthony Belguise (drums), Jean-Loup Faurat (guitar), Regis Laugier (bass) and Nico Morcillo (guitar), with a list of 22 international guests across 8 songs and instrumentals, including Rafael Toral, Maria Radich, Paulo Furtado, Carlos Zingaro, Rui Carvalho, &c.

The longstanding relationship between US alto saxophonist living in the Phillipines, Rick Countryman, and legendary free improvising Japanese percussionist Sabu Toyozumi, heard in two previous albums, is here captured live in concert in the Phillipines in 2018, revealing active and thoughtful dialog of great expression and skill, an inspired encounter of free playing.

Drawn from 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland alongside their American variants, anthologised by Francis James Child during the second half of the nineteenth century, are here sung by Ed Pettersen in the fascinating intersection of traditional lyrics and experimental interpretations of melodies, performed by the 11-piece London Experimental Ensemble.

Composer & violinist Jason Kao Hwang wrote "Blood" as he meditated upon the traumas of war retained within the body as unspoken vibrations that reverberate across community and generations, performed in an incredible east/west octet with Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Joseph Daley (tuba), Andrew Drury (drums), Ken Filiano (bass), Sun Li (pipa), Steve Swell (trombone), & Wang Guowei (erh).

The core trio of the Boston collective Leap of Faith Orchestra of improvisers, approaching large work using unique compositional techniques and an arsenal of traditional and unusual instruments and percussive devices, here joined by Elinor Spiers on violin, log drums, glockenspiel, metal, wood, crotales, and cymbells, for a uniquely detailed and immense improvisation.

The Leap of Faith string-heavy grouping in a concert at Outpost 186 in Cambridge, 2018 with PEK on bamboo saxophones, reeds, tarota, contrabassoon, sheng, melodica, aquasonic & bells; Glynis Lomon on cello & aquasonic; Grant Beale on guitar; Lukasz Pavlikovsky on cello & aquasonic; Albey onBass on electric bass; Silvain Castellano and Adrienne Schoenfeld on double bass.

Austrian drummer percussionist Rudi Fischerlehner (RM, Xenofox, Parrot Feathers, &c) in his first solo album of energetic, polyrhythmic construction, titled for a chance proximity to a note on 15/8 rhythms and Rene Pollesch's book "www-slums", apt for the blend of precise playing and creative abstractions heard in this engaging and propulsive album.

Retrospective of Terry Rusling, a Canadian composer of electronic music working for the CBC in the 60's, who was introduced to the Electronic Music Studio at the University of Toronto, where he was awarded the title of Research Associate, receiving a Canada Council Grant to travel and work in Belgium, Utrecht, Paris, &c.; 2 of his graphic scores are part of John Cage's "Notations" project.

The first release on Japan's Armageddon Nova, now reissued as a limited 180gm double vinyl LP, presenting a 2012 concert at Performing Arts Center, in Japan in 2012 by the duo of free improvising alto saxophonist Aishi Oyauchi, a peer of Karou Abe in the 60s, and contrabassist Deku, a member of the 70s free improvising group New Jazz Syndicate.

Boston's Evil Clown collective led by reedist/multi-instrumentalist David Peck introduces a new ensemble, Axioms, a quartet with Peck, Jane, Alby onBass, and Joel Simches, in a mammoth work of mysterious intent and rich sonorities, orchestrated with reeds, brass, daxophones, percussion, bells and chimes, electric bass, keys, spoken word, and real-time signal processing.

A 2019 performance in Cambridge, MA of this intertwining quintet of unique instrumentation, with PEK on bamboo & bass saxophones, clarinets, contrabassoon, tarota, melodica, sheng, aquasonic, wood, metal, wind siren, crank siren, & chimes; Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic, & chimes; Eric Zinman on piano; Syd Smart on percussion; and Yuri Zbitnov on drums, gong, wood, metal, wind siren, & chimes.

Each of these Boston-area improvisers handles an arsenal of equipment in the Metal Chaos Ensemble of David Peck (PEK) on reeds, synth, & daxophone, Bob Moores on synths & laptop, Eric Woods on synth, metal & wood, Abby on bass & electronics, and Yuri Zbitnoff on drums & percussion, in a massive work of detailed and passionate electroacoustics over PEK's large synthetic mix.

Metal Chaos Ensemble, formed in 2015 as a working project to explore rhythms on metallic instruments guided by rules-based chaotic systems of a very large number of small components, in a quintet studio recording using three dedicated drummers, reeds, electronics, and accompanying "tape" mixes, resulting in epic, inspired and wonderfully unpredictable improvisation.

The 3rd Clean Feed album from this Portuguese band of unusual orchestration and intentions that cross jazz and rock idioms, from the trio of Sergio Carolino on tuba, Mario Delgado on guitar, and Alexandre Frazao on drums, with rapid fire attacks and tight compositional moments balanced by wonderful open, sonic moments, surprising with a cover of King Crimson's "Starless".

A larger than previous Boston collective's Turbulence ensemble with 6 of the regular horn players from Leap of Faith Orchestra, performing multi-reedist and instrumentalist PEK's extended framework, with drummer percussionist Yui Zbitnoff; the ensembe breaks down to three duos and guest saxophonist Bob O'Brien, captured live at Outpost 186, in Cambridge, MA in August 2018.

Focusing on melody, rhythm, harmony, and texture, violinist/composer Jason Kao Hwang's Sing House employs a perceptive and swinging blend of Western and Eastern influences as his impressive band with Andrew Drury on drums, Ken Filiano on bass, Chris Forbes on piano, and Steve Swell on trombone present four lyrical, propulsive and wonderfully embraceable "songs".

Austrian drummer percussionist Rudi Fischerlehner (RM, Xenofox, Parrot Feathers, &c) in his first solo album of energetic, polyrhythmic construction, titled for a chance proximity to a note on 15/8 rhythms and Rene Pollesch's book "www-slums", apt for the blend of precise playing and creative abstractions heard in this engaging and propulsive album.

Swiss drummer & percussionist Fritz Hauser's solo album creates a fictional percussion center that he uses as as springboard to compose solo works for spaces within the [non-existent] environment, depicted in both spacious and active sound work, generating open-air locations with bird sounds and cymbals and areas of quick-paced activity; absolutely impressive.

The improvising string duo of stalwart London improvisers, Daniel Thompson on acoustic guitar and Phil Durrant on the octave mandola, are heard in two settings of texturally rich, intricate interactions, first at Cafe OTO in 2022 for an extended improvisation, then at Cable Street Studios two months later for six succint, impressively diverse dialogs.