Recording in two locations in Seoul by Taku Unami, electronic, sound and noise artists Choi Joonyong and Jin Sangtae present a series of unusual interactions using sonic events, concrete and acousmatic interjections and aberrant expression, patiently conveying each event with clarity and intention and an almost theatrical sense of drama and narrative.

While contrabass player Matija Schellander was performing a residency at the 2017 music Festival Artacts in Austria, this quartet formed with Paris saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet, percussionist Seijiro Murayama and Beijing-based vocalist Yan Jun, developing this work of quiet tension and sudden release, here from one of four performances, recorded live at Ljubljana in Slovenia.

An intimate and unique collaboration between two far-ranging Japanese performers--Yoshino, also known for her work in Japanese underground rock, here on biwa (a short-necked fretted lute) and voice; and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, Satoko Fujii collaborator and Gato Libre leader--presenting exotic narratives in song using instrumental intervention of ardent improvisation.

The trio of pianist Aki Takase, guitarist/daxophonist Kazuhisa Uchihashi, and trumpeter Axel Dorner in an exploration of informed and exquisite dialog in acoustic and electric improvisation.

Evoking the passionate free improvisation of Kaoru Abe and influenced by Austrian poet Georg Trakl's "Nocturnal Song", the trio of Makoto Kawashima and Harutaka Mochizuki on alto saxophone and Michel Henritzi on lap steel & feedback recorded these three crepuscular works in separate locations, assembled by Henritzi into richly dreamlike and cathartic compositions.

A wild solo performance recorded at GOKsound in Tokyo by Japanese alto saxophonist Makoto Kawashima, whose intense and introspective improvisations balance fierce tonal expression with fragile silences, drawing from the lineage of Abe and Shiraishi while establishing his own haunting and highly individual voice in the realm of free improvisation.

A joyful and unpredictable meeting of Japanese quartet Kaze — pianist Satoko Fujii, trumpeters Natsuki Tamura and Christian Pruvost, and drummer Peter Orins — with avant-rock icon Koichi Makigami, recorded live in Lille in a kaleidoscopic blend of free improv, surreal humor, textural exploration, and exuberant interplay that celebrates spontaneity and sonic invention.

The cooperative quartet Kaze of Satoko Fujii on piano, Peter Orins on drums, Christian Pruvost on trumpet, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, joins with elextroacoustic improviser Ikue Mori for seven exploratory pieces recorded in the studio after a one-week tour in Austria, France, and Russia, their enthusiasm for their extraordinarily unique group sound clearly evident.

The Kaze quartet of trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, pianist Satoko Fujii, trumpeter & flugelhorn player Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins, continues its avant-embracing and uniquely voiced project with this live performance at Lille, France, an episodic and spontaneously diverse set of three collective improvisations of intuitive, adventurous interaction.

The cooperative Japanese/French quartet Kaze of pianist Satoko Fujii, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins are expanded for a second time with New York electronic artist Ikue Mori, embracing pandemic restrictions by creating this album through file exchange, adding complex layers of profound interaction to the virtual improvisations.

Emulating the Korean river Taedong through it's undulating flows, uproar, flux and treachery in eleven succinct chamber-oriented improvisations from the quartet of South Korean tenor saxophonist Jung-Jae Kim, French-born South Korean-based drummer Quentin Cholet, with the Portuguese father/son duo of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello.

Picking up from their 2018 album Bright Force, the quartet of Libra label leaders Satoko Fujii on piano and Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, with Australian improviser Alister Spence on Fender Rhodes electric piano, and now with Magaibutsu/Ruins legend Tatsuya Yoshida on drums, are heard in two wildly powerful 2024 concerts at Koendori Classics in Tokyo and at Jazz Inn Lovely, Nagoya, with compositions from each member.

Active as a drum soloist since 2003, Ryosuke Kiyasu (Fushitsusha, SETE STAR SEPT, Kiyasu Orchestra) performs solo in a live performance split between two extended improvisations, captured at Tokyo Arts and Space in 2022, using a snare drum and a table in a forceful demonstration of rhythm and punctuation that is affected by the ambiance of the space.

A first-time meeting in the studio for alto saxophonists Tim Berne and Masayo Koketsu with percussionist Nava Dunkelman, captured in a dynamic session of collective free improvisation where contrasting approaches — Berne's grounded tone, Koketsu's extended techniques, and Dunkelman's textural percussion — intertwine with clarity and spontaneous expression.

An extended monologue on the alto saxophone from Tokyo-based Masayo Koketsu (Carrier/Koketsu/Fuwa/Itani), driven by an innate sense of timing to introduce assertive utterances, growls, throttling and intense interaction offset with long pauses, digressive asides and reflective moments, a remarkable album of modern free jazz in the Japanese tradition.

Three "nonsensical" musical conversations between Malaysian experimental musician and Herbal International label founder Goh Lee Kwang, and Norwegian bass player and Nakama label leader Christian Meeas Svendsen; a first encounter between two different mindsets, nationalities and generations, packaged with a pencil to let you draw your own cover.

A double CD of experimental composition from Malaysian sound artist Goh Lee Kwang, hypnotic works of strangely repeating glitch that bookend shorter works of rich percussive abstractions, including a work with processed voice and an extended percussive "Ritual", singular pieces reflecting Kwang's curious mind and long experience merging aberrant and subtle sound.

Following their 2009 release of the same title, this album of primarily free improvisation is a well-paced presentation of two 3-movement works between Japanese percussionist Seijiro Murayama providing precise rhythmic abstractions, and French sound artist Eric La Casa using field recordings of recurring and curious sound sources plus objects to expand Muriyama's punctuations.

A unique and fascinating edition of the Leap of Faith Orchestra, bringing special guests Jimmy Zhao, Yazhi Gao, Jiaxin Winky Wan, Ziya Gao, and Kaixin Hou performing on Chinese instruments to join with the core duo of David Peck on clarinets, saxophones, clarinets & flutes, Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice, along with percussionist/drummer Michael Knoblach and bassist Scott Samenfeld.

Cellist Okkyung Lee explores her Korean roots in an amazing long-form composition combining electronics, improvisation, composed melodies and noise with Korean traditional music, performed with the superb ensemble of John Edwards (bass), Ches Smith (drums), John Butcher (sax), Jae Hyo Chang (Korean percussion), Song Hee Kwon (Pansori singing), and Lasse Marhaug (electronics).

One of the strangest items in the Takayanagi (New Direction Unit) discography:- an acoustic guitar nontet playing covers of South American tango, milonga, vals, rumba, &c.

A confluence of contrasting strings recorded in the studio in NYC, bringing bassist Brandon Lopez and gayageum master DoYeon Kim together in an acoustic dialogue of free improvisation, blending Lopez's explosive intuition with Kim's dynamic reinterpretation of tradition, resulting in a fascinating sonic journey that bridges ancient melodies and avant-garde exploration.

Continuing the celebration of pianist Satoko Fujii's 60th birtday by releasing one CD each month, this quartet brings an excellent set of electroacoustic improvisation to the collection in a quartet with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, New York saxophonist Lotte Anker, and New York electronic artist and former DNA drummer Ikue Mori, performing live at Tokyo's Big Apple in 2018.

An extraordinary and powerful concert at the 2009 Jazz in Luz Festival recorded at Marquee of Luz-Saint-Sauveur when Japanese improvising guitarist and vocalist Keiji Haino joined the electroacoustic improvising trio Marteau Rouge of Jean-Francois Pauvros on electric guitar, Makoto Sato on drums and Jean-Marc Foussat on analog synthesizer & voice.

Previously unreleased, this remarkable 2000 duo performance from Dutch pianist Misha Mengelberg and Japanese drummer Sabu Toyozumi captures their playful and philosophical interplay in two extended improvisations, a Monk tribute, and a touching solo dedicated to Mengelberg's wife, blending wit, dynamic textures, and deep mutual respect in a session Toyozumi calls a personal tribute to his "guru."

With two guitarists split between the left and right sides of the head--Kazuhide Yamaji and Mitsuru Tabata, also on vocals--in a trio aTwo guitarists split between the left and right sides of the head--Kazuhide Yamaji and Mitsuru Tabata, also on vocals--in a trio with Ruins drummer and Magaibutsu label-leader Tatsuya Yoshida, for a an energetic album of mostly instrumental post-prog "no-wave" improvisations, nine wild tracks captured live from four 2024 concerts in Japan.with Ruins drummer and Magaibutsu label-leader Tatsuya Yoshida, for a an energetic album of mostly instrumental post-prog "no-wave" improvisations, nine wild tracks captured live from four 2024 concerts in Japan.

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

A burning album of improvised rock and noise with members from Incapacitants, Keiji Haino + Masataka Fujikake Duo, Zeni Geva, &c., part of a free improv series organized by Doubtmusic and recorded at Tokyo's Knuttle House in 2023, from the quartet of Toshiji Mikawa on electronics, Jun Numata on guitar& electronics, Yusuke Nishimura on bass and Masataka Fujikake on drums.

While in a residency in 2018 at the Yokohama, Japan jazz club Bitches Brew, Lithuanian saxophonist Liudas Mockunas had the opportunity to perform in duos and trios with some of Japan's most famous improvising reed players--Kazutoki Umezu, Masayo Koketsu, Akira Sakata and Eiichi Hayashi--and also in a trio with Kazutoki Umezu and Otomo Yoshihide performing on electric guitar.

During their 2019 Japan Tour, the collaboration of the Norwegian experimental rock band MoE and alto sax virtuoso Mette Rasmussen extended their trio with legendary drummer Ikuru Takahashi to record this energetic, rough and tumble album exploring the boundaries between free improvisation, skronky rock, and other confrontational, conceptual crossover forms.

Extending their previous collaborations during the time of pandemic, NY electronic improviser Ikue Mori and Japanese improvisers Natsuki Tamura on trumpet and Satoko Fujii on piano developed this extraordinary ea-improv album via file exchange, starting with Fujii's piano improvisations to which Mori & Tamura added their layers, with Mori mixing the final, startling results.

A live recording of a concert at Ftarri in 2018, performed by Yasumune Morishige (cello), Yoko Ikeda (viola), and Takashi Masubuchi (guitar), three improvisers active mainly in Tokyo, in an entrancing confluence of strings building from delicate weaving of languorous tones with pizzicato interventions to an assertive second section, that then furtively dissolves; spellbinding.

Percussionist Seijiro Murayama and Saxophonist Stephane Rives focus on creating drone music while exploring the many subtle variations of texture sounds.

Paris-based musician Seijiro Murayama (percussion, voice) and French alto sax and organ player Jean-Luc Guionnet continue their collaboration with this 2023 recording of a 50-minute performance at the Taborkirche church in Berlin, using the resonance of the space to expand Murayama's snare drum, cymbal and voice in tandem with Guionnet's improvisation on the pipe organ.

Eight improvised performances on percussion from Paris-based drummer/percussionist Seijiro Murayama recorded in 2019 using acoustic sources from snare drums, mallets, brushes, voice, steel tables, gong and voice, captured in four locations around France and in Mishima City, Japan, each exploring new compositional methods and ways to improvise within them.

Three female saxophonist from around the world--Rachel Musson (UK), Naoko Saito (Japan) and Audrey Lauro (Belgium)--in a compilation of solo saxophone works, two extended pieces from Musson and Satio, and four shorter works from Laura, with a CD insert with English Braille characters, and a QR code that, when scanned, plays the audio information for the album.

Working with sculpture and objects in sound installations and live performance, Rie Nakajima captured this appealing set of kinetic performances named for the objects featured in each: a handle of a Japanese sliding door (fusuma), Japanese rice bowls, coils, jars, shells, flower pots, plastic bags, tin foil, tin cans, chopsticks, a bamboo pot, stones, cups, &c.

The second recorded collaboration of Japanese no-input mixing board player Toshimaru Nakamura with London-based electronic artist Ken Ikeda and Japanese sound artist Tomoyoshi Date, a large, rich and detailed work of slowly evolving sonic environments, showing masterful control in developing sumptuous sound and then subtly deflecting it with unusual excursions.

A singularly beautiful and quirky album of electroacoustic improvisation from long-time collaborators and organizers of Japan's "Meeting at Off Site", Tetuzi Akiyama on acoustic guitar and Toshimaru Nakamura on no-input mixing board, their second duo album since 2009's Semi-Impressionism on the Spekk label, here recording in the studio for five dialogs of lovely eccentricity.

The 10th release in Japanese experimental sound artist Toshimaru Nakamura's No Input Mixing Board (NIMB) instrument series, composing from the ephemeral and extraneous sounds of a mixing board with nothing connected, these assertive pieces composed in his home studio while reflecting on the changes and obscuring of many of Tokyo's small streams and rivers.

Four live recordings from Tokyo performances during 2021 & 2022 by No-Input Mixing Board performer Toshimaru Nakamura, the 11th in his series of albums featuring his unique approach to cross-wiring a mixer to harness the unexpected (and manufacturer's ill-advised) sounds of feedback & distortion, structuring the results into surprising and riveting sonic soundscapes.

A full scale concert of Tatsuya Nakatani's Gong Orchestra with 15 performers bowing and striking Nakatani's collection large gongs under the conduction of Nakatani, recorded at the Silo City performance space in Buffalo, NY in 2017 in a rich, deep and mysterious album of large tones using the natural resonance of the Marine A Grain Elevator.

Recording at percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani's studio Nakatani-Kobo in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico and at Acid Mother's Temple guitarist Kawabata Makoto's studio in Asuka, Nara, Japan, the duo continue their collaborations honed through live touring and various improv configurations, generating incredible seismic sonics through unusual use of their instruments.

As much a solo percussion album as a collection of large-scale compositions, Tatsuya Nakatani created hundreds of recordings of his collection of gongs, meticulously capturing each instrument's voice and arranging them into seven large works, maintaining the character of each instrument as material for these wonderfully dramatic and resonant works of silence, space and texture.

Recorded in his home state of New Mexico, Japanese percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani presents a 46 minute continuous improvisation of acoustic percussion, a perfect reflection of his solo performance sets, Nakatani alternating between extremely rapid interactions and reflective and atmospheric environments, always creative and quick-witted through staggeringly impressive playing.

Late Japanese free jazz trumpeter and flute player Itaru Oki--one of the significant and early free jazz players in Japan in the 1970s, moving to France in the mid-70s to seek more opportunities to play--recorded this concert at Jazz Spot Combon as part of his farewell tour, performing with winds player Yoshiaki Fujikawa, bassist Keiki Midorikawa ad drummer Hozumi Tanaka.

Late Japanese free jazz trumpeter and flute player Itaru Oki--one of the significant and early free jazz players in Japan in the 1970s, moving to France in the mid-70s to seek more opportunities to play--recorded this concert at Jazz Spot Combon as part of his farewell tour, performing with winds player Yoshiaki Fujikawa, bassist Keiki Midorikawa ad drummer Hozumi Tanaka.

Applying techniques similar to those of the prepared piano, Japanese experimental artist Kayu Nakada uses circuit bending--circuit boards from electronic instruments short circuited for new effects--joining forces with Japan-based Canadian electronic instrument maker Tim Olive (845 Audio) for four works of intriguingly interactive glitch, hum, static and sonic inexplicables.

The 2nd album from the duo of Japanese circuit bender Kayu Nakada, using circuit boards from electronic instruments short circuited for new effects, and Japan-based Canadian electronic instrument maker Tim Olive (845 Audio) on shortwave radio, magnetic pickups & undokai, recorded together in Kobe, Japan and then edited and composed into these two intriguing works.

NYC performer Aki Onda and Yokohama sound artist Nao Nishihara began collaborating in 2015 while Nishihara was residing in NY on an Asian Cultural Council grant, returning in 2016 for this live performance exploring the architecture and acoustics of ISSUE's 22 Boerum Place theater, installing handmade instruments and analog equipment within a visually arranged set-up.

As part of a 2004 performance series at Fabrique in Brisbane, Australia, Lawrence English invited experimental cassette and field recording artrist Aki Onda to present his unique approach to reusing and rupturing recordings using cassettes, Walkmans, delay pedals and fender twin amps, improvising this extended work & its coda, blurring concrete and inexplicable sources in remarkable ways.

NY sound artist Aki Onda pays tribute to multi-media pioneer Nam June Paik (1923-2006), a work inspired after Onda's series of performances at Nam June Paik Art Center in South Korea, here using submerged and anonymous radio signals as a shamanic invocation of Paik's work; includes a 20-page booklet with photos & a remembrance of Paik plus 2 essays on radio-wave phenomena.

Known for her ensemble Ryorchestra and as half of SaxRuins with Yoshida Tatsuya, Nagoya-based saxophonist, flutist, and composer Ryoko Ono steps out on her own with a solo album featuring saxophone, mouthpiece, duck whistle, and voice, capturing the dramatic contrasts of life through her dynamic, genre-defying improvisations and emotionally resonant compositions.

The excellent quartet of Gunter Muller on minidiscs, percussion and electronics, Norbert Moslang and Andy Guhl (Voice Crack) on cracked everyday-electronics and Erik M on minidiscs, sampler and fx.

Franz Hautzinger formed the orchestra in 1995 as an ensemble for experimental music, developing into an advanced improvising band that incorporates a shifting and diverse set of styles, heard here at Klangspuren Festival in 2019 with Hautzinger on trumpet, Christian Fennesz on guitar & laptop, Otomo Yoshihide on guitar & turntables, Luc Ex on bass, and Tony Buck on drums.

Revealing 40 years of collaborations between late trumpeter Toshinori Kondo and West Coast guitarist Henry Kaiser, in configurations of duos between Kondo & Kaiser--most notably a beautiful and extended 2016 improvisation--then earlier duos from 1978, a 1980 trio with pianist Greg Goodman, a 1979 trio with saxophonist John Oswald, ending with a wonderfully idiosyncratic 2020 duo.

Evoking images of Indigenous Filipinos through free improvisation, with titles referencing the rivers, rains and environment that define them, the multi-national River People quartet of Christian Bucher on drums, Johnny Alegre on guitar, Tetsuro Hori on bass and Rick Countryman on alto saxophone are captured in the studio in Manila for seven superb collective conversations.

While touring Europe in the autumn of 2017, Minami Saeki (voice), Wakana Ikeda (flute), Yoko Ikeda (viola), and Taku Sugimoto (guitar) visited Switzerland and met up with Swiss musicians Stefan Thut (cello) and Manfred Werder (glockenspiel & typewriter), recording these five minimal improvisations in a recording session at the concert venue Theater Delly.

Legendary Japanese free jazz reedist Akira Sakata's first release on the Ftarri label, in a concert with sound artist and synthesist Ken Ikeda, recording live at Fatrri's own Tokyo space in two improvised performances of approximately 30 minutes each of subtle, expressive interactions through even-tempered discourse and spacious patience, punctuated by Sakata's bell.

The long-running collaboration of Japanese saxophonist Akira Sakata, also on clarinet and voice, in a concert at Cave12 in Geneva, Switzerland with Swiss drummer Nicolas Field, for 4 recordings of intense and dynamic free improvisation with unusual moments from Sakata's vocalizing, extended and thoughtful drum soloing, and introspective moments on clarinet.

Legendary Japanese free jazz saxophonist Akira Sakata joins with frequent collaborator, younger generation sound and installation artist Rie Nakajima, for a live concert at Ftarri's Tokyo venue in 2023, Sakata performing on alto sax, clarinet, bells, singing bowl and vocals, Nakajima on objects and motor, capturing two sets of unique detail and expressive restraint.

An absolutely intense sax drum duo recorded in Chiba Prefecture, Japan at Kashiwa Church in 1986 between free improvising saxophonist Akira Sakata and drummer Takeo Moriyama, two influential performers whose work began in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio in the early 70's, here in concentrated form for 18 improvisations, including a burning version of Albert Ayler's "Ghosts".

An absolutely intense sax & drum duo recorded in Chiba Prefecture, Japan at Kashiwa Church in 1986 between free improvising saxophonist Akira Sakata and drummer Takeo Moriyama, two influential performers whose work began in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio in the early 70's, here in concentrated form for 18 improvisations, including a burning version of Albert Ayler's "Ghosts".

A wild live improvisation at Apollo, in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo from legendary Japanese reedist Akira Sakata on alto sax and clarinet, Raiga Hayashi on drums, and Toshimaru Nakamura on no-input mixing board, the latter adding unusual electronic elements to otherwise characteristically energetic free jazz from the Tokyo scene, making this a wonderfully unique album.

Recording in Kobe, Japan in 2014, the duo of Jin Sangtae, organizer of Seoul's long-running dotolim concert series and who gainfully employs cast-off computer hard drives as sound sources, and Tim Olive, who uses electro-magnetic pickups to give voice to consumer/post-consumer objects, for three tracks of recycled and unorthodox sound.

A duo improvisation by American-based, Japanese percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and pianist sara(.es), recorded by Yasushi Utsunomiya in Osaka, Japan as part of a series of duo recordings, bringing out the subtleties of their interaction as each improviser approaches their instrument in unique ways, creating a virtual universe of sounds that intersect and contrast in captivating ways.

A remarkable first meeting between legendary Japanese pianist Masahiko Satoh and Greek guitarist Giotis Damianidis, recorded live in Chiba, Japan, where their distinct musical voices — acoustic piano steeped in classical and post-bop cadences and effects-laden electric guitar with rock overtones — intertwine in a boundary-erasing, expressive free improv set of intensity, elegance, and mutual discovery.

After their Doubtmusic CD "Live at Hall Egg Farm", capturing the trio of Masahiko Satoh on piano, Otomo Yoshihide on electric guitar & whistle, and Roger Turner on drums & percussion in Fukaya City, this new chapter in the trio's activities finds them live at Shinjuku Pit Inn, in Tokyo the following year, for two energetically active and captivating conversations.

Working together often over decades, free improvising drummer Sabu Toyozumi and composer/improvising pianist Masahiko Satoh are heard here in a 1997 duo concert at C S Aka-Renga, in Yamaguchi City, Japan, for an engaging concert of energetic interaction, emphasizing Satoh's percussive approach to the keys and Sabu's inherent melodicism in his approach to drumming.

Working together often over decades, free improvising drummer Sabu Toyozumi and composer/improvising pianist Masahiko Satoh are heard here in a 1997 duo concert at C S Aka-Renga, in Yamaguchi City, Japan, for an engaging concert of energetic interaction, emphasizing Satoh's percussive approach to the keys and Sabu's inherent melodicism in his approach to drumming.

Tokyo pianist Masako Ohta, who works in both compositional and improvisation fields and here perform inside and out of the piano, met mutli-instrumentalist Udo Schindler, here on clarinets and alto horn, as part of the art exhibition by Philp Fischer Ulrich: "monitorobjekte" at Salon fur Klang+Kunst, in Krailling/Munich, Germany in 2019.

The fifth collaboration between composer-performers Eiko Ishibashi and Jim O'Rourke, reshaping material from their 2023 European tour into a vivid electroacoustic dialogue, layering live improvisations, acoustic fragments, and evolving digital textures into a kaleidoscopic sound world of subtle juxtapositions and fluid, unpredictable structures of color, resonance, and playfully reimagined form.

Known for his resonant solo alto saxophone work, often recording with the New York City subways, this album presents ten unusual duos between Tamio Shiraishi and improvisers on piano, voice, cello, electronics, bass, guitar and sax, with Tim Dahl, Steve Baczkowski, Mico, Mike Sidnam, Austin Sley Julian, Nina Dante, Tara Fenamore, Leila Bordreuil, Chris Libutti, and Ami Yamasaki.

Japanese saxophonist living in NYC Tamio Shiraishi, an associate of Keiji Haino, has a unique approach to his solo work, often playing outdoors in concert with nature, or using the natural resonance of his performance space, recreating the sounds of wind, birds, water, and any other natural "noise" sounds, here in a live performance at Issue Project Room & 6 studio recordings.

Recorded live in Paris in 2019 as a celebration of improvising keyboardist Alan Silva's 80th birthday, and released with a dedication to the memory of trumpeter Itaru Oki, the quartet completed with guitarist Richard Comte and drummer Makoto Sato, in a 3-part improvisation that is sadly the final recording for Oki, standing as a great example of his voice.

Describing their improvisation as a chemical reaction of positive and negative ions, the central trio of the ensemble Skein--Achim Kaufmann (piano), Frank Gratkowski (winds) and Wilbert de Joode (bass)--are heard in this incredible 2018 concert at Konfrontationen Festival as a septet with Tony Buck (drums), Richard Barrett (electronics), Liz Allbee (trumpet) and Uchihashi Kazuhisa (guitar).

Sound of the Mountain is an independent label led by Montreal-area improvisers Elizabeth Millar (clarinet) and Craig Pedersen (trumpet), who traveled to Tokyo in 2017 for several concerts and this spectacular and unique recording session at GOK studio in Kichijoji with ea-improvisers Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar) and Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board).

Australian composer Alister Spence wrote this in five parts composed for an improvising orchestra, which was first premiered in 2016 by Satoko Fujii's orchestras in Kobe, Nagoya and Tokyo, and the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra; this recordings in 2017 at Big Apple Jazz Club in Kobe revisits the work with Fujii's Orchestra Kobe, conducted by the composer.

Two performers related by Wandelweiser--guitarist Taku Sugimoto and cellist Stefan Thut--met at oslo10 in Switzerland to perform two concerts with one composition from each: Stefan Thut uses chance operations changing the music's direction at the prompt of rolled dice; Sugimoto use sustained notes and ebow in a subtle but effective sound work.

Two extremely compatible guitarists are heard in two live recordings in Tokyo, Japan, at OTOOTO and at Permian, in 2017 & 2018, using unusual tunings, extended techniques and a patient sense of space and momentum that allows each of their contributions to resonate distinctively while maintaining a confident dialog of connected abstraction and exploration.

Exotic improvisation from Korean musician based in Berlin, You Jin Sung, performing on the gayageum, a large traditional Korean plucked zither sometimes augmented with electronics, in a duo with French cellist Vincent Laju, both performers using tension and space contrasted with moments of intensity through six improvisations of cross-cultural, contemporary conversation.