NYC trumpeter Peter Evans and bassist Tom Blancarte play very experimental improvisation pushing the boundries, density and speed of free improv interaction.

NY trumpeter Evans' 1st recording as a leader with guitarist Brandon Seabrook, bassist Tom Blancarte & drummer Kevin Shea, mixing 50-60's jazz and noise in wild and kinetic free improv.

Trumpeter Evan's Quartet with Ricardo Gallo, Tom Blancarte and Kevin Shea at the 2009 Jazz em Agosto Festival brilliantly restructuring jazz standards into collective compositions.

Free improvisation from a trio of New Yorkers working in abstract territory but maintaining the pieces in compact works that are succint and spontaneously focused.

Tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler's pseudo-drone piece for the ensemble of Pierre-Antoine Badaroux (alto sax), Fidel Fourneyron (trombone) and Luis Laurain (trumpet) where the players keep the sound alive while moving in a small, pre-established musical perimeter.

The Montreal duo of trumpeter Ellwood Epps and Josh Zubot on violin and low octave violin for 9 upbeat, technically superb and intricate instant improvisations, what they refer to as "foot-tapping for ghosts, seeing the northern lights from underwater".

Nate Wooley and Paul Lytton continue their collaborations, extending their new duo recordings with live tracks from The Stone in NYC with Ikue Mori, and at Chicago's Hideout with Ken Vandermark.

An incredible trio of two New York improvisers - Joe Morris on guitar and trumpeter Nate Wooley - with European free improv legend pianist Augusti Fernandez, for 7 remarkable free improvisations of astounding skill.

Guitarist Joe Morris continues his duet parternships on Clean Feed, here with the innovative and amazing trumpeter Nate Wooley in an album of brilliant spontaneous improv.

The classic European Free Improv trio of Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Pual Lytton is joined by New York trumpeter Peter Evans for an incredible live concert at Casa de Musica, Portugal.

NY trumpeter Nate Wooley and Portugal's Red Trio (Rodrigo Pinheiro, Hernani Faustino & Gabriel Ferrandini), recorded after their live performance at the 2010 Clean Feed Festival in NYC; powerful and thought-provoking modern improvisation.

New York's Transit with Jeff Arnal, Seth Misterka, Reuben Radding and Nate Wooley, intelligently designed, unpredictable static and the hyper active free-jazz!

Recordings of two German trumpeters--Birgit Uhler and Leonel Kaplan--both using extended techniques and modern instrumental language, splitting their recordings between the left and right channels for clarity in their fascinating and unconventional dialogs.

Cantankerous and brilliantly executed improvisation continuing the partnership of percussionist/live electronician Lytton and trumpet/amplifier player Nate Wooley.

Two trumpeters 20 years apart, Germany's Axel Dorner and Japan's Itaru Oki are both known for their versatile approach to jazz, from traditional to the freest forms using extended techniques, in a unique dialog challenging the limits of the horn with fascinating results.

The quartet of Cosottini, Melano, Pisani, Miano (EAQuartet Electroacoustic) in compositions referring to the 4 cardinal map points using graphic scores, games, open readings, &c.

Baltimore brass player and composer Dave Ballou, know for Either/Orchestra, Meridian Art Ensemble, John Hollenbeck's Large Ensemble, Satoko Fujii ensembles, &c, in an intimate, diverse, and informed solo album performed on Bb trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet, and mutes.

A reissue of Emanem 3305 (3403) with extra material from the same sessions from free improvising trombonist Paul Rutherford recorded in 1974, presenting a then-rare example of the instrument and approaches that were avant, humorous, technical, and amazingly inventive.

Two slowly unfolding improvisations from trumpeter Leonel Kaplan using extended and unconventional techniques, and electronic artist Klaus Filip performing on sine waves, in a two part extended piece recorded in Buenos Aires after the two met in live performance.

The long-standing duo of trumpeter Birgit Uhler, also on radio, speaker & objects, and free improvising vocalist Ute Wasserman, in an album of 8 unbelievable improvisations of a unique and sometimes bizarre character, holding one's attention from its outlandish nature--superb!

Bay Area trumpeter Darren Johnston meets improvising guitar legend Fred Frith for an incredibly well-paced series of duos, remarkable improv that uses space, skill, extended techniques and unexpected approaches to both instruments in vivid and beautiful discourse.

The 3rd collaboration between guitarist Chris Forsyth and trumpeter Nate Wooley following "The Duchess of Oysterville" and "Chocolate Monk", here recording live in concert in Philadelphia for the two part "Evening Rage", creating rich sonic palettes of unexpected sound.

Co-founder of the Association of Improvising Musicians in Toronto (AIMToronto) and a member of The Rent, Scott Thomson presents a solo trombone release of explorative approaches to the instrument, masterful work from one of Canada's leading improvisers.

A diverse and engrossing solo album from NY-based, global travelling trombonist Steve Swell, showing vast creative and technical skills through unusual techniques that balance with inventive and lyrical approaches to the horn, a tour-de-force of modern playing.

Recorded at an exhibition of visual works by Chicago trumpeter Rob Mazurek in Texas, this was the first meeting with pianist Thollem McDonas, in an ardent session of explorative improvisation using electric and analog piano, sythn, samplers, cornet, voice, bells and effects; inquisitive and cathartic music of great drive.

Using Gato Libre's music as the direction for his first solo album since 2004, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura releases an album of powerful and personal playing with a surreal flow of ideas, impish humor, and restrained joy.

The 2007 solo debut of New York free improvising trumpeter Matt Lavelle, here performing on the hybrid instruments, the Bass-Trumpinet and Bass-Clarumpet, introduced and punctuated with spoken word insight and declarations, and using overdubs on selected tracks, making for an intimate and accomplished album of modern free jazz.

A unique take on this large brass instrument from Italian trombonist and Free Flow Festival director Carlo Mascolo, using preparations, focusing on components of the instrument, and using extreme techniques to create a startlingly diverse set of sounds, vocalisations, microtonal output and simply bizarre utterances as Mascolo brings new language to horn.

An extremely balanced group of electroacoustic improvisers, Kai Fagaschinski on clarinet and Liz Allbee on trumpet make up the acoustic side, though sounding as electronic and other-worldly as Billy Roisz on e-bass and electronics and Marta Zapparoli on reel-to-reel tapes and tape machines, creating incredibly wide-ranging and psychedelic sonic environments.

An intimate album of solo trumpet from Wadada Leo Smith, performing compositions by Thelonious Monk, Smith professing in an essay in the accompanying booklet that he was motivated to become a composer by Monk above other contemporaries for his ideas of composition and bands; his admiration and love of Monk's work is clear in this beautifully lyrical album.

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Portuguese guitarist Manolo Rodriguez chose these 9 pieces from about 8 hours of improvised music, recorded on a Gibson acoustic guitar with piezo microphones on various parts of the guitar, passed through effects and finally controlled by a mixer, intended as a tribute to "the sense of sight as an intermediary of thought, and to artists who, with their eyes, have changed the world."

Two women in a duo of voice and amplified objects, Lali Barrier using a variety of devices that are clearly micro-amplifed and mixed in performance, as Marta Sainz intones vocal sounds, never speaking but creating innuendo and drama at a cautious pace, allowing Barrier's objects to interact, creating an unusual sonic environment of unpredictable and interesting discourse.

Trombonist Jeb Bishop and North Carolina-based Out & Gone Collective member, violist Dan Ruccia, after touring and performing with Eugene Chadbourne, Dan Lilley, and David Menestres, found their sound so compatible that they recorded this duo album using the languages of free jazz, chamber music, and extended improvisations to create something unexpected and rare.

A beautifully complex album of resonant improvisation from Swazi born trumpeter Yaw Tembe, who is committed to bring Africa to the Portuguese free music scene, Yaw, along with Paris veteran percussionist/objects manipulator Monsieur Trinitee, blend patient sonic environments with percussive platforms and both meditative and scrabbly trumpet work; an absorbing release.

A lowercase duo of intense focus and concentrative dialog from Creative Sources label leader Eernesto Rodrigues on viola and trombonist Eduardo Chagas, a member of IKB, Variable Geometry Orchestra, Suspensao, &c., through five recordings using primarily extended techniques and close proximity miking to create unusual textural and alien soundcscapes of great tension and release.

Italian jazz trumpeter Flavio Zanuttini (Abbey Town Jazz Orchestra) in a solo album exploring the relationship between the primordial sensoriality and vision of the Underworld, conceived and presented through extended techniques and often peculiar approaches to the trumpet as he tells his unusual tale of epic times.

A series of musical "mobiles" from European composer Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, sonic transformations of the visual experiences of Alexander Calder's dynamic sculptures.

Turbulence is the extended horn section for the Leap of Faith Orchestra, a varying-sized ensemble, recording here at Boston area's Outpost 196 as a quartet with PEK on reeds, Bob Moores on trumpet and Dan O'Brien on sax, clarinets & flutes, all playing an assortment of percussive devices, with Leap of Faith core member Yuri Zbitnoff as a dedicated percussionist.

Two extraordinary players from two coasts--clarinetist Ben Goldberg from the West and cornetist Kirk Knuffke from the East--in an exuberant duo of lyrical and virtuosic free jazz that astonishes the listener with the ease of their interactions in both parallel and contrasting lines, supporting the other as they express themselves uniquely; an impressive achievement!

An extremely interesting experimental record of free improvisation and electronics from the duo of Dino J.A. Deane and trumpeter Stephanie Richards, whose work with Henry Threadgill and Butch Morris is felt in these pieces where Richards explores resonance in brass and percussion as Deane samples and manipulates her playing live; an inventive and effusive album.

An unusual mix of instruments from the Montreal trio of percussionist Michel Bonneau on congas & balafon, John Heward on drums, and Scott Thomson on trombone, all members of Ratchet Orchestra and Heward's Murray Street Band, in an album of active and uniquely layered confident rhythmic floors over which Thomson freely plays with remarkable technique.

The pairing of German trumpeter Axel Dorner, and NY-born experimental artist Jason Kahn living and performing in Zurich, brings the tradition of avant free jazz and nonidiomatic improvisation into an unusual merging of techniques and approaches, each applying their advanced virtuosity to this intense concert, recorded during Hamburg's Zoom In Festival, 2017.

Nine improvisations between Italian trombonist and tubes player Carlo Mascolo (Kerlox Dynamic Band) and guitarist Andreas Fulgosi (By-Spiel Project) on baritone guitar, recording in Lisbon in 2017 for calmly developing dialog using unusual techniques and approaches to both instruments.

"Poisonous" is an auditory hallucination created with simple tools--acoustic trumpet and drums--from NY free improvisers Peter Evans and Weasel Walter, presenting seven pieces of forceful, modern abstraction, blurring the lines between composition and improvisation in a display of impeccable technical skill, mindboggling energy, and wonderfully twisted inspiration.

NY Tuba-driven trio The Gate led by Dan Peck on tuba & effects, with Tom Blancarte on upright electric bass and Brian Osborne on percussion, in a studio album of shorter pieces exploring the dark side of the huge brass instrument and the band's dark, enormous sound, with tongue-in-cheek titles like "Black Bird of Death Spewing Death Puke"; ominously impressive.

New York trumpeter Joe Moffett (Earth Tongues) in a solo album of absolutely impressive technique and intensely personal playing, at times using amplifiers and computer applications to generate unique sonic environments for the horn or playing beautifully lyrical tone, timbres, grunts and spits; an album of profound, introspective inner dialog.

A tour-de-force of solo improvisation from French trombonist Christiane Bopp, flawlessly captured by sound engineer Jean Marc Foussat, as Bopp transforms her instrument through technical skill, lyrical ability, and unusual technique, creating virtual duets, furtive expression, and thundering emotion, an absolutely impressive example of modern trombone language.

The long-running association of Chicago legends, trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, are recorded live at CTM Festival at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, in Berlin in 2018, accompanied by Lewis' laptop adding a third voice that responds and generates textural and rhythmic accompaniment in response to the playing of both improvisers; impressive and exotic.

A one-take improvisation recorded in Berlin by trumpeter Tom Arthurs, caught on New Year's Day 2018 using piccolo trumpet, mutes and binaural field recordings, intended for headphone listening, as he provides an incredible sense of location while stimulating his listener with subtle interventions that ultimately act as a backdrop for his distinctive and sly soloing.

Starting from silence, the improvisations on this collective and fully spontaneous album from trumpeter Luis Vicente and percussionist Vasco Trilla never reaches cathartic crescendo, but as only skilled innovators such as they can do, they captivate the listener in other-worldly environments of advanced technique and profound intention; engrossing and ineffable.

Finding free improvising trumpeter Jacob Wick, a master of lowercase approaches using unorthodox techniques, in a more active setting with Chicago drummer Phil Sudderberg (Marker with Vanderkmark, Dave Rempis); together they challenge each other in a give and take of skill and solid discussion, leaving room for unusual and sometimes aberrant technique; joyful!

Pairing electronics with cornet, the duo of French cornetist Louis Laurain and US/Berlin electronicist Pierce Warnecke create an absolutely impressive and frequently frightening confluence of brass and sound, from slow interference tones to fully amplified microscopic elaboration, building environments that shift to surprise, alarm, and entrance their listeners.

The 2007 solo debut of New York free improvising trumpeter Matt Lavelle, here performing on the hybrid instruments, the Bass-Trumpinet and Bass-Clarumpet, introduced and punctuated with spoken word insight and declarations, and using overdubs on selected tracks, making for an intimate and accomplished album of modern free jazz.

Recording in New York at the Omi International Arts Center in 2018, the duo of German trumpeter Nikolaus Neuser and Brazilian bassist Carlos Eduardo Quebrada Vasquez, Quebrada expanding his bass through electronics, capture an inventive and active set of dialogs, rich in technical skill and continually surprising through twists and turns; action-packed and inspired.

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.

Udo Schindler marks his 80th Salon fur Klang+Kunst in Munich as his first duo recording with a drummer, in a first-time meeting with long-time acquaintance, drummer/percussionist Eric Zwang Eriksson, joining him as they find inspired common ground with Schindler on alto sax, bass clarinet, cornet and euphonium and Eriksson using all aspects of his drums and percussive devices.

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.

Toronto-area saxophonist Colin Fisher, best known for his group I Have Eaten The City, with his collective quartet of NY players Daniel Carter on tenor, alto & soprano saxophones + clarinet & flute, Brandon Lopez on upright bass, and Marc Edwards on drums & percussion, for three extended and exploratory improvisations of exemplary creative insight.

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.

An extended and rich confluence of strings from R Keenan Lawler and John Krausbauer, using resonator guitar and banjo, sustained tones that intertwine in a beautiful and optimistic drone, minimalistic yet drenched in a profusion of harmonic detail; a beautiful and elusive dream mixing between an Indian raga and an alien electronic environment.

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.

An authoritative meeting between two of New York City's strongest players--Matthew Shipp on piano and Nate Wooley on trumpet--distilled to their essence after work with saxophonist Ivo Pereleman, here performing a set of 12 Shipp compositions brilliantly captured in the studio, illuminating Shipp's solid mastery of the keys and Wooley's remarkable technique and creative drive.

Two trombones free improvising in the studio in Koln from the Duo of Chicago's Jeb Bishop and Cologne's Matthias Muche, both members of the trombone trio Bone-Crusher with Matthias Muller, this album recorded in the studio in Koln just before Bone-Crusher's "Konzert Fur Hannes" (NotTwo), elucidating this facet of the trio in 10 insightful dialogs of awesome technique and wit.