A dark album of sound art from the quintet of mostly St. Louis improvisers--Damon Smith, Louis Wall, NNN Cook, Michael Williams and noted flutist Fred Tompkins on two tracks--starting through shrouded percussion and unidentifiable sources, the group's sessions are edited into a cohesive album that takes its listeners on a unique journey of electronic and acoustic interaction.

Electric Bird Noise artist Brian Lea McKenzie extends his concepts in a new duo with vocalist Claudia Gregory (Exhaust the Fox, Claudia Versus the Queen of Hearts), with a new band name and a compelling set of epic electro-rock songs.

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.

Recording to 4 track cassette, this unusual and experimental Boston-area trio of active sound artists--Stella Silbert, Arkm Foam and Neil 'Cloaca' Young--improvise over abstract territory using turntables, a no-input mixer, objects, an open reel tape machine, contact mics, and cassette players, emerging with equally tongue-in-cheek and serious aural interactions.

Kingston, NY sound artist and media artist Evan Lindorff-Ellery recorded these two experimental improvisations in the summer of 2021 in a small cabin in West Saugerties, NY using electric guitar, contact mic, amp, recordings and various objects, while also repurposing recordings made while in Maine by running them through his electric guitar.

The 2nd release from the touring duo of Audrey Chen & trombonist Henrik Munkeby, Chen modifying her voice with amplification and performing on analog electronics, while Munkeby amplifies his trombone and also performs on analog electronics, feedback & sound files; often frighteningly intense improvisations that plays to the spectrum of sound in a mix of studio and live recordings.

Sound artist Charles Lareau, a member of Naturaliste with Bryan Day, Chris Fischer & Lonnie Methe, in six solo compositions of assertive electronics and noise, using recordings, found sounds and various electronics while often incorporating his environment to add aural excitement and unexpected moments between sections of slowly shifting, static textures.

Washington DC-area sound artist and Zeromoon label-leader Jeff Surak, creating audio environments since the 80's home taping days, in a set of sound recordings of electro-acoustic drones, tape generated musique concrete, "plus a heavy dose of weirdness"; five tracks of diverse approaches to sonic experimentation, particularly the epic "Parasite Lost".

A mix of chaos, awe and humorously inspired improvisation from the quartet of Don Malfon on alto saxophone, Fernando Barrios on drums & objects, Marco Albert on voice and Misha Marks on latarra (a form of home-built guitar), recording in Colonia Buenavista de San Pedro Ixtlahuaca, Oaxaca, Mexico for 7 peculisar and absorbing improvisations.

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.

The second chapter in the duo of West Coast improvisers Chris Williams on trumpet, cornet, objects & mutes and Patrick Shiroishi on alto, soprano and tenor saxophones plus snare drum, essentially a free jazz outing of six fascinating dialogs, from call and response to pointillistic interaction, a masterful display of assertive playing through intensive listening.

Powerfully rich sounds from two NY-based instrumentalists — John McCowen on contrabass clarinet & Carlo Costa on bass drum & percussion — in a three-part work of acoustic improvisations, McCowen sounding deceptively electronic through overtones and masterful harmonic technique, while Costa's bass drum provides deep foundations as he mysteriously layers percussive distractions; phenomenal!

On the last day of the 2021 Spontaneous Music Festival at the Dragon Club in Poznań, Poland, the trio of Berlin trombonist Matthias Muller was joined by younger generation Polish guitarist Pawel Doskocz on prepared electric guitar and fellow Berlin drummer and electroacoustic improviser Emilio Gordoa for these two extended sonic adventures recorded in near-darkness.

Previously played Squidco store copy, used for cataloging and samples, in excellent condition.

Review Copy, not new but in mint condition. May have a strike, the word "Promo" or a drill hole. Inquire on condition if you are concern...

Two western-US, like-minded sound artists and improviser who started their musical lives as drummer/percussionists, Jeph Jerman and Ted Byrnes present nine relatively succinct tracks of unusual and unidentifiable sources, typically formed around a rhythmic center and always actively engaging, finding logic in curious or even chaotic interaction.

A subset of the Andreas Røysum Ensemble, the trio of Norwegian clarinetist Andreas Roysum on Bb& Bass clarinets, Nakama Label leader Christian Meaas Svendsen on double bass and Danish drummer Kresten Osgood recorded these collective free improvisations on the title's date in an unnamed location, for four assertive dialogs of impressive expression.

A ritualistic narrative work from multidisciplinary artist Dorian Wood and percussionist Thor Harris (Swans), with Carla Bozulich and Jarboe contributing their voices in an ensemble of contemporary and experimental arrangement, alongside guests David Coulter, Heather Trost, Jeremy Barnes, Michael Corwin, Ignacio Carvajal, Andrea Calderon, Elizabeth Warren and Patrick Shiroishi.

Two sound works from multimedia artist John Collins McCormick (Sky Thing) recorded using a multi-channel, portable sound system that employs up to 8 subwoofers in drum stands, amplifying low frequencies and rattling odds and ends he collected over the years, creating a rolling and controlled cacophony of quick rhythms and unusual asides from objects placed on the subwoofers.

Demonstrating the striking diversity modern solo percussionists present, the Italian tape label TSSS Tapes compiles an international set of solo works from explorers Tim Daisy, Jeph Jerman, Ted Byrnes, Wojtek Kurek, Clinton Green, Rie Nakajima, Emilio Berne, Shakeeb Abu Hamdan, Lucie Nezri, Karen Willems, Paolo Sanna, Li Qing, Carlos Godinho, and Rodrigo Vieira.

Two mysteriously veiled electroacoustic improvisations recorded live at Maison des musiques, in Brussels, Belgium between performers Nicola Lancerotti, an Italian-born double bassist & sound artist, and sound artist Chiara Bacci, using glitch, veiled voices, synthetics and acousmatic sources, packaged in a sparkly green tinted cassette with download code.

The Thessaloniki trio Vasilis Liolios, Aris Giatas and Yiannis Tsirikoglou, aka Eventless Plot, pays great attention to sonic details through experimental sound and sonic expression, here in a two-part work performed on percussion, analog modular synth, tapes/Revox A-77, field recordings, electromagnetic mic & objects, joined by double bassist Antonis Argyriou for the 2nd part.

Four unedited performances of extreme double bass work from Tripticks label leader Nat Baldwin, merging free playing with extraneous bass sounds, noise and unusual techniques, yielding a muscular set of double bass improvisations, the opening tracks building technique around fractured lyrical expression as the album builds to the closing "negation" of burning intensity.

An album of sonic environments reflecting on religion in the Southeast from Atlanta, GA drummer and sound artist Kelsey Wilson, using organ, tapes and field recordings to create dark and brooding meditations intended for loud playback, five opaquely layered constructions of ambience and drone, crackling tape loops, low-tones synths and disembodied voices.

Two distinctive works of sounds and noise from Atlanta sound artist and drummer Kelsey Wilson composing extended works using field recordings collected between 2020-2022, volume/feedback and synthesizers; first a howling and heavy journey in "Bootstrap Story"; then a rich and ringing birthday party for Nick Cave that ends with haunting bells and running water.

Bassist & composer Nick Dunston's Berlin band Skultura creates a uniquely experimental and fascinatingly sculpted approach to free jazz through layers of sound and serious playing punctuated by voice and concrete elements, each piece keeping the listener in anticipation of what might happen next, eased into serious jazz grooves, then whisked away in new directions; not to be missed!

A heavy and wild ride in the 9th album from New York's The Gate of composer and tuba player Dan Peck, bass player Tom Blancarte and percussionist Brian Osborne, concise pieces of heavy melodic elements, dark riffs and an ominous attitude, intersecting with plundered asides and anxious pauses, a strong addition to their discography and an engrossing collection of deep disturbance.

Taking the viola da gamba and the daxophone into uncharted (dark) territories, composer Daniel Fishkin (who studied with daxophone inventor Hans Racheil) presents four works leveraging interference & frequency patterns, performed with an exceptional set of specialists on each instrument, and Fishkin's own 20-foot long instrument, The Lady's Harp, creating long, sustained tones.

Straddling quirky folk song and experimental sound collage, the long-running Western Massachusettes duo of fiddler, banjo player & singer Mia Friedman and clarinetist, wind player & sound artist Andy Allen (Guerilla Toss) present an album of observational songs with unusual perspectives and an anything goes approach to the music that surrounds each song; delightful.

An immersive drone performed on acoustic guitar, captured and extended through loops and effects and recorded to 4-track cassette, from French improviser Richard Comte (Hippie Diktat, Vegan Dallas), a single extended piece that begins with actively repeating chords that evolve into rich layers of textured, expansive loops, a seemingly infinite work that begs to be looped.

Excerpted from their 2022 concert at Museo Ex Teresa Arte Actual in Mexico, flutist Camilo Ángeles (TVL REC label), also performing on bass flute, joins with New York City violist Joanna Mattrey, an active performer and improviser associated with Issue Project Room and Roulette, for six unusual duos of wind, string and voice leveraging the natural resonance of the museum space.

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.

Cantankerously informed and paced like a perfect tumble, the duo improvisations of Massachusetts collaborator Stella Silber on turntables and Nat Baldwin on upright bass augment their work through turntable preparations and static, Baldwin performing all over his instrument, as the duo surprise and maintain interest through accessible abrasiveness.

One "Small Dog" and one Big from the Texas experimental duo of Andrew Weathers on synth, lap steel, recorder & electronics, and Gretchen Korsmo on voice, keys & percussion, both members of the Full Spectrum Records collective, their confident collaboration morphing drones, sonic deformation, resonance, voice, bells and mysterious sources in two well-paced & passionate sonic journeys.

The third release for the Chicago collective improvising trio of Jeff Kimmel on clarinet & electronics, Ishmael Ali on cello & electronics and Bill Harris on drums & feedback, acoustic interplay in the foreground with electronics adding layers of intriguing sonic pressure as their playing evolves through clear and cohesive conversation over punctuated & textural foundations.

Cornetist Josh Berman, drummer Bill Harris, and cellist Ishmael Ali meet with NY pianist Eli Wallace in Chicago, recording live in the studio for a session that focuses on acoustic interplay using unusual techniques, inside piano playing, textural percussion with scrapes & drags and melodic & harmonic fragments, Fitting quite well in a set of interesting moods and motion.

Extending their initial collaboration "One Moment in Time", released during the pandemic and picked up by Apple Music's Pure Meditation playlist, the trio of Stijn Huwels on electric guitar & pedals, Cok van Vuuren on dobro & mando guitars, and Michel Banabila on keys, sampler, voice & granular fx, extend their catalog with "Across the Sky", a beautifully warm work of layered drones.

A collection of works from Netherlands composer Michel Banabila, including a piece developed with saxophonist Dave Liebman and previously released only digitally; a work with Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek); a work with Pierre Bastien; and excerpts from scores for Yin Yue's choreography in two works: "Somewhere" for New York Live Arts and "Timeless Tide" for BalletMet.

The 2nd part of Chicago trumpeter Rob Mazurek's Astral Spirits series that started with "Vortice of the Faun", Mazurek performing on piccolo trumpet, electronics, voice, and percussion in a detailed journey, released alongside Mazurek's art opening "Constellation Scores" at URDLA, the cover showing two 3-D prints and the package comes with glasses to view them.

"Turning discarded sounds into a form of stumbling poetry", Christian Schiefner (aka Chemiefaserwerk) and Michal Fundowicz (aka Turmeric Acid) use cassette tapes, objects and field recordings (eg. a kitchen timer, a kalimba pattern, a Polish instructional tape, Croatian field recording) to create fascinating transformations of sonic environments in two engaging aural journeys.

TSSS Tapes brought together these three performers -- Belgrade violinist and sound artist Manja Ristić; Lisbon exploratory improviser and cellist Joana Guerra; and Argentine pianist and sound artist living in Rio de Janeiro, Veronica Cerrotta -- developing these two intensely detailed compositions of acoustic performance, field recordings and acousmatic sound.

NY composer & keyboardist Derek Baron meets with Minneapolis experimental composer & performer Luke Martin at Zeitgeist Center in New Orleans and at Resource Space in Minneapolis, MN to record these live performances on piano, keyboard, no-input mixing board and cassette recordings; minimal works of tension and release, incorporating movement, audience and room sounds into their contemporary improvisations.

The former touring guitarist for Bikini Kill, who has also worked with The Raincoats and Kim Gordon, in a 2-part solo work of experimental approaches to the electric guitar, starting with minimal loops that slowly layer in intensity until reaching a climactic release and dispersal, picked up again in the second part for a unique work of noise and alien guitar soloing.

A studio album from the Tamarisk free improvising trio of guitarist Andrew Weather, bassist David Menestres and Charalambides co-founder Christina Carter on vocals, the third album from this free folk trio of cathartic and unpredictable direction, here recording at Andrew Weather's recording space at Wind Tide, in Littlefield Texas in 2022.

Marc Myers, recording in Lincoln, Nebraska, is the creative force behind Abcess Grenk, merging analog electronics and experimental guitar in Erguss Von Licht, as a blend of synthesizers, modular synths, a Fender guitar, and a '69 Fender Deluxe Reverb amp, for richly layered and textured improvisations steeped in a DIY aesthetic that reflects Myers' decades-long evolution in sound exploration.

Recorded in Aaronsburg, Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania improvising trio of Kevin Sims (percussion, psatlery, flute), James Searfoss (reeds & tape loops), and Justin Dorsey (upright bass) explore the intersections of free jazz, drone, and electroacoustic sound, balancing texture, rhythm and tension across dynamic compositions that highlight their versatile instrumentation.

Developed using recordings made in Oregon and in North Carolina from West Coast sound and multimedia artists Cody Brand and Carl Kruger, Brant expanding Kruger's initial tracks with his own rhythmic additions and sonic embellishments to create twelve compositions with a recommended use of "reflective open-road journeys", noted as "Reality-dream boundary: blurred".

Minneapolis trio Dustsceawung — Miri Karraker (viola), Noah Ophoven-Baldwin (cornet), and Mitch Stahlmann (flute) — explore lowercase improvisation and instrumental abstraction in two 20-minute pieces, "Firn" (2018) and "Fold" (2022), blending scraping textures, breathy timbres, and hushed dynamics, as they create an intimate, shifting soundscape of subtle tension and ephemeral beauty.

Expanding beyond their post-industrial rock roots, guitarist Mike Graff and drummer Michael Jerome join forces with producer/keyboardist Van Eric Martin, bassist Mike Daane, and vocalist Blythe Gaissert for an ambient and cinematic work inspired by Metropolis, blending ethereal soundscapes and hypnotic rhythms into an immersive instrumental journey.

Born from remote exchanges between Jessica Ackerley (guitar, voice, synth), Nick Turner (guitar, mellotron, synth), and Chaz Prymek (guitar, lap steel), this debut album emerges as an evocative imaginary soundtrack, blending improvisational noise with Americana-inflected ambience in an expansive meditation on post-apocalyptic contemplation.

A rare solo outing from percussionist Jordan Glenn, weaving an adventurous and dynamic series of improvised drum and percussion explorations, shifting between deep grooves, cymbal rushes, and near-musique concrète textures, with playful yet tenacious pacing that balances free-jazz intensity, experimental soundscaping, and custom-instrument innovation in a cohesive and captivating sonic journey.

Recorded at Monhegan Community Church on a remote Maine island, this environmental work by Evan Lindorff-Ellery captures the interplay between improvised percussive textures and the resonant acoustics of the space, using frame drum, piano, acoustic guitar, bells, and found objects to leverage the church's natural reverb, while ambient sounds filter through its windows.

The duo of Chantal Michelle and Grace Villamil transform the monumental land sculpture of Opus 40 into a resonant instrument, layering voice and electronics with field recordings and audience interactions to create an immersive, spatially dynamic performance of ambient tension and sonic obliteration, masterfully teetering between composed sound, environmental resonance, and blooming noise.

Composer Francisco del Pino and vocalist Charlotte Mundy create a deeply nuanced and emotionally rich exchange, as Mundy's radiant voice navigates del Pino's intricate, polyphony-tinged compositions, layering syllabic repetition, resonant phrasing, and textural detail into a multitrack performance that evokes mantra, lament, and ecstatic meditation in equal measure.

A limited-edition cassette release from Turkish-born, Seattle-based artist Deli Kuvveti, Kuşlar Söyledi presents four studio compositions blending creaking doors, bird and liquid sounds, and minimal drones into a meditative exploration of microsound and sound collage.

Composing with assembled field recordings and environmental textures, Chiba, Japan-based composer Tetsuya Nakayama transforms mundane sounds into poetic events, as water, metal, and incidental noise intertwine in a quiet yet immersive narrative that re-enchants everyday spaces, revealing a new mode of listening shaped by nuance and fleeting detail.

Recorded live in Genoa in 2022, the energetic and exploratory, rock-oriented duo of bassist Tommaso Rolando (Torto Editions) and guitarist Andy Moor (The Ex) captures an improvisational dialog shaped by alternate tunings, intent listening, and kinetic spontaneity, as the two seasoned performers bridge punk-rooted experimentation with richly resonant acoustic interplay.

A unique document of Don Brown and Dan Reynolds' unconventional compositional practice, recorded live to tape in 2008 with an 8-piece ensemble performing four decades-spanning works at Multnomah Grange #71, this unauthorized cassette release captures a pivotal moment in Portland's experimental scene, offering singular music with deep references and no clear precedent.

The duo of Katie Porter on bass clarinet and Bob Bellerue on electronics, zither, and feedback create rich, multidimensional drones through live performance, blending harmonic wind tones with resonant feedback and overtone manipulation in two expansive recordings from Berlin and NYC that explore the porous boundary between intention and indeterminacy.

A textural and quietly immersive collaboration between Italian percussionist Francesco Covarino and Greek trio Eventless Plot, combining modular synth, field recordings, percussion, and tapes in an intricate 2024 live studio session that continues the exploratory cassette ethos of Covarino's TSSS label through Innovo Editions' equally intimate and tactile aesthetic.

An intimate, restrained electroacoustic collaboration between Eventless Plot and Haarvöl, unfolding in two extended, meditative movements that explore a nuanced dialogue between piano, field recordings, tapes, and electronic expression, gradually revealing layered sonic detail and immersive depth through spacious, dramatic momentum.

A rich electroacoustic dialogue recorded in Greece, Entanglements teams the hybrid percussion/modular-objects trio Eventless Plot with Berlin sound sculptor Yorgos Dimitriadis, layering responsive drum gestures, electronics, tape, samplers, and modular synth in a live performance that blurs composition and improvisation into immersive, intricate sonic interplay.

Bassist & composer Nick Dunston's Berlin band Skultura creates a uniquely experimental and fascinatingly sculpted approach to free jazz through layers of sound and serious playing punctuated by voice and concrete elements, each piece keeping the listener in anticipation of what might happen next, eased into serious jazz grooves, then whisked away in new directions; not to be missed!

Taking the viola da gamba and the daxophone into uncharted (dark) territories, composer Daniel Fishkin (who studied with daxophone inventor Hans Racheil) presents four works leveraging interference & frequency patterns, performed with an exceptional set of specialists on each instrument, and Fishkin's own 20-foot long instrument, The Lady's Harp, creating long, sustained tones.

Straddling quirky folk song and experimental sound collage, the long-running Western Massachusettes duo of fiddler, banjo player & singer Mia Friedman and clarinetist, wind player & sound artist Andy Allen (Guerilla Toss) present an album of observational songs with unusual perspectives and an anything goes approach to the music that surrounds each song; delightful.

On the last day of the 2021 Spontaneous Music Festival at the Dragon Club in Poznań, Poland, the trio of Berlin trombonist Matthias Muller was joined by younger generation Polish guitarist Pawel Doskocz on prepared electric guitar and fellow Berlin drummer and electroacoustic improviser Emilio Gordoa for these two extended sonic adventures recorded in near-darkness.

Recording to 4 track cassette, this unusual and experimental Boston-area trio of active sound artists--Stella Silbert, Arkm Foam and Neil 'Cloaca' Young--improvise over abstract territory using turntables, a no-input mixer, objects, an open reel tape machine, contact mics, and cassette players, emerging with equally tongue-in-cheek and serious aural interactions.

Recorded in two studios — Saint-Petersburg, Russia and Zurich, Switzerland — capturing 5 encounters between experimental improvisers Ilia Belorukov performing on modular synthesizer, and Jason Kahn, who steps away from his electronics and drums in favor of stark vocalizing, each providing perfectly caustic responses to the other's intense and determined tactics.

Captured live at Chicago's Elastic Arts, the trio of Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello, Ben Bennett on percussion, and Zoots Houston on synthesizer, work on a nearly microscopic level as they use extended techniques and unusual synthetic timbres, transforming from abrasive and gritty to broad tonal environments, from monumental sound to moments of pin drops; fascinating.

Featuring electronically-augmented vocal interpretations of lieder songs by such composers as Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, New York vocalist Judith Berkson also presents purely electronic pieces engaging noise and feedback-oriented vignettes, the evolution of her project started in 2016 as she re-contextualizes classical music in powerfully expressive ways.

The 2nd of two studio albums from the quartet of Daniel Carter on saxophone & flute, Matthew Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums, recordings from the same sessions as the 1st volume with five shorter works, as the long-time collaborators and friends show their nearly telepathic rapport in adventurous and masterful modern jazz.

An improvisational investigation into two bass drums over two extended recordings from West Coast experimental improvisers Kevin Corcoran and Jacob Felix Heule, as they apply an arsenal of unusual techniques and engage every inch of the drums with a diverse set of objects, evoking strange sounds, pattering rhythmic echoes, metallic cries and deep rumbling effects.

Recording at the Chamber of Commerce in Brooklyn in 2021, the duo of Sandy Ewen on prepared guitar and Jason Nazary on drums & percussion take a nearly pugilistic approach to their improvisations, building aggressive sections of intense pummeling, then slipping back to catch their breath before the next round, each filled with curious elements and energetic determination.

A live solo recording made using the amplified and processed sounds of snow, hail, and wind, captured by sound artist Max Hamel using a piezoelectric disc taped to a metal plate stuck out his window during the first snow storm of 2019, processed in real time using resonant filters, delay lines, and chaotic processors, the whole edited for these two compositions.

An evening of free improvisation recorded in Berlin at au Topsi Pohl in 2020 from the Swedish trio of Euro Free Jazz legend Sven-Ake Johansson on drums, Niklas Fite on acoustic guitar and Joel Grip on double bass, performing two extended and dynamic improvisations, and then settling into jazz standard form for "Isn't It Romantic" and "Out of Nowhere" sung by by Johansson.

Named after one of the eight core revolutionary operas produced during the Cultural Revolution in Korea, composer & performer Sunik Kim constructed this fascinatingly dense and constantly surprising set of compositions using Max MSP and SuperCollider, including a live version constructed from phone and Zoom recordings of performances at Cafe OTO and at Counterflows, in Glasgow, Scotland.

Four configurations of far-reaching free improv at Notice Recordings's 2021 event in Accord, NY: a solo performance by Charmain Lee on voice & electronics; a duo between Lee and Weston Olnecki on synths & trombone; a trio from Gabby Fluke-Mogul on violin, Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and Joanna Mattrey on viola; a duo between Lonberg-Holm and Olencki.

Narrated by text-to-speech vocalization, Korean-American pianist and composer Lucy Liyou collaborates with Bulgarian-born guitarist Ivana Kafedjiyska (YSKA) in an album of languorously floating and understatedly abrasive music complemented by subtle field recordings, two works of curiously philosophical, baffling and observational verse; unique and compelling.

Bringing to ears a 2003 encounter in Chicago, IL between legendary violin improviser, conceptualist and writer Malcolm Goldstein and exploratory cello improviser Fred Lonberg-Holm, through two extended dialogs weaving their strings around each other and finding unusual intersections and unions, from rapid action to introspective beauty; unsettling and inspired.

Taking the title from Brandon Sanderson's book series The Stormlight Archive, where a soulcaster is an instrument that transforms one object or life form into another; Joanna Mattrey transforms her viola and a tromba marina, aka a nuns' fiddle, with preparations, objects and unusual approaches through technique, creating a remarkable set of 11 unique and inventive improvisations.

Releasing their first studio work in 2020, this album presents the first two live concerts in Brooklyn and Saugerties for the ea-improv trio MAW of Frank Meadows on upright bass, Jessica Ackerley on electric guitar and Eli Wallace on prepared piano & synth, in two 2-part improvisations: the darkly heavy "Mise-en-Place" and the brighter experiments of "Opus 40".

Recorded live in Virginia's Crozet Tunnel, Magic Tuber Stringband (Evan Morgan and Courtney Werner) and Weirs (Justin Morris and Oliver Child-Lanning) present a captivating collaboration blending Appalachian traditions with contemporary drone and song forms, exploring vocal harmonies, resonant acoustics, and the profound interplay between music and place.

A celebration of friendship, sound, and daily life, Hal McGeeÕs cassette + download release assembles dictaphone recordings from his June 2025 trip to Ohio, capturing conversations with Chris Phinney, Jeff Chenault, and Jerry Kranitz, the ambience of cafŽs, shops, and the Arts Fair, collaborative studio and live performances, and voices from the city, composed into a strangely compelling audio diary.

A collaborative project by Éric Normand, Dur Temps Pour les Rouges (Hard Times for the Reds.) combines recordings from 2020-2025 by a large ensemble of voices, horns, strings, guitars, drums, synths, and electronics to realize a textured and emotionally rich sound world: intimate and expansive, lyrical and experimental, a striking and immersive listening experience.

A cryptic live document from The Gate's expanded lineup — Dan Peck, Tom Blancarte, Brian Osborne and guests — casting subharmonic dread, electroacoustic rupture, and dirge-like trance into two versions of the same ritual, where Almost Live blurs performance and fabrication and the Marston Mix sinks the remains into deeper, uncharted gloom, accompanied by a fractured visual zine of equal disquiet.

A bold reinvention from Halls of the Machine, trading electronica atmospheres for a guitar-fueled rock ensemble where Mike Graff's riffs, Michael Jerome's driving percussion, and dual bass foundations collide with subtle string undercurrents, forging a dense, cinematic sound that balances raw physicality with lingering, haunted introspection.