A conduction of an absolutely impressive ensemble of free and ea- improvisers on a powerfully diverse journey, from Anna Högberg & Gustafsson on sax, Susana Santos Silva on trumpet, Per-Åke Holmlander on tuba, Hedvig Mollestad on guitar, Dieb13 on turntables, Christof Kurzmann on lloopp & voice, Massimo Pupillo on bass, Gert-Jan Prins on drums & electronics, and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad on drums.

A box set documenting the October 2015 3-day event held at Porgy and Bess in Vienna for the 50th birthday of saxophonist Mats Gustafsson (The Thing, Fire! and innumerable duo/trio/ensemble formations) with a who's-who of collaborators invited to join in various formations.

From post/hard bop to African-influenced spiritual jazz, the 2nd release from saxophonist & clarinetist Avram Fefer's quartet with Marc Ribot on guitar, Eric Revis on bass and Chad Taylor on drums swings freely or finds introspective grooves in nine original Fefer compositions of rich melodies around unusual time signatures, yielding extraordinary soloing and group interplay.

Assertive, sometimes skronky, masterful playing from the Gorilla Mask trio of Peter Van Huffel on alto & baritone saxes, Roland Fidezius on electric bass and Rudi Fischerlehner on drums & percussion, in their 5th album in 13 years, nuancing their sound with electronics while adhering to power trio playing fed by new collaborative and conceptual approaches from all band members.

Collaborators in Montreal projects including Ensemble Supermusique and Ratchet Orchestra, bass clarinetist Lori Freedman (Queen Mab Trio) and trombonist Scott Thomson (Monicker) have also worked as a duo for more than 15 years, starting with the Barnyard Record album Plumb, their long history allowing flexibility in unusual dialog and utterance that captivates naturally.

Powerful, modern jazz from a Norwegian ensemble of cross-genre improvisers, bringing an eclectic mix of jazz, electronic, African & orchestral expression into a series of works by double bassist Per Zanussi that explore the concept of "Li", a neo-Confucian term for fixed and dynamic patterns in nature, expressed through passionate ensemble work and exemplary soloing.

A truly unique improvisational setting between three Norwegian artists--inspired tap dancer JanneEraker, fiddle player and vocalist Vegar Vardal and double bassist Roger Arntzen--finding an exuberant excitement through the percussion of body movement, strange and slippery vocalizations and two emphatic strings; virtually indescribable and absolutely enthralling.

A swinging album of modern jazz from the Portuguese trio of Ricardo Toscano on alto sax, Romeu Tristao on double bass and Joao Pereira on drums, recording in 2021 concert at Theatro Sao Luiz in Lisbon, featuring two original Toscano compositions, one from drummer Joao Pereira, a traditional fardo song and the effusive Thelonious Monk tune "Played Twice".

Brooklyn-based Slovenian saxophonist Igor Lumpert draws on his life experiences through eight original compositions and a Bosnian folk song performed with his core band of alto saxophonist Greg Ward, drummer Kenny Grohwoski and bassist Chris Tordini, expanded to a sextet and octet with stellar improvisers including trumpeter Peter Evans, guitarist Jeff Miles, &c.

After working with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, pianist Corey Smythe assmebled this incredible ensemble that includes Peter Evans (trumpet), Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Stephan Crump (bass), Tomeka Reid (cello), &c., performing works influenced by the Kern/Harbach standard "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", which Smythe then interprets abstractly in 7 solo renderings.

Performing on viola, violin and a stroh (a string instrument mechanically amplified by a metal resonator and horn attached to its body) the NY duo of Joanna Mattrey and Gabby Fluke-Mogul present eight dialogs of ominous and prophetic divination, titles including "The Vision", "The Potion" or "The Omen", as they weave and tear at their strings in startling and impressive ways.

Hand selected by Montreal clarinetist Lori Freedman and assembled during a 2022 residency in Berlin, the BeingFive quintet brought together ea-improvisers Yorgos Dimitriadis (percussion), Axel Dorner (trumpet), Andrea Parkins (accordion & objects) and Christopher Williams (double bass) for a workshop approach to creating sonic environments of incredible depth and expressiveness.

Appropriately recorded at Seizures Palace in Brooklyn, the 3rd release from the NY trio Pulverize the Sound of Peter Evans on trumpet, Tim Dahl on electric bass and Mike Pride on drums & glockenspiel, expands on this 10 year working band's assertive approach to collective free improv, doing so with innovation, breathtaking technical skill and a wide range of mood and texture.

Performing on double bass, amp and a volume pedal, Gonçalo Almeida (LAMA, Albatre, The Attic) explores new sonic environments and possiblities for the large strings, using feedback that modifies based on the physical location between the amp and the resonator of the double bass, Almeida improvises with bowing strokes, pizzicato and unusual string preparations.

Known for the psychedelic dance band Gunerius & Verdensveven or The Harvey Steel Show, Norwegian guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Thomas Bergsten assembles an ensemble that blurs the lines between long improvisation and psychedelic-spiritual jazz, from freak jams to ECM-like electric beauty, tinged with Captain Beefheart or Faust; difficult to describe, intensely creative.

An intimate encounter with Portuguese tenor saxophone player Rodrigo Amado, performing three original compositions -- the extended "Sweet Freedom", "Singular Blow" and "Shadow Waltz" -- performed at the Church of The Holy Ghost (Igreja do Espirito Santo) in Caldas da Rainha, an often introspective and innately lyrical set that reaches emphatic moments while always speaking directly.

A truly inventive collective trio of free improvisers from Denman Maroney on hyperpiano (a conventional piano played with one hand on the keys and other inside the piano), West Coast double bassist Scott Walton and French drummer Denis Fournier, performing within the piano trio format and then turning it on its side with unexpected approaches to their conversations.

Performing in the intimacy of the Birdland Jazz Club in 2011, New York innovative pianist Cecil Taylor met with London free jazz legendary percussionist and long-time associate in The Feel Trio, Tony Oxley, Taylor's rapid often percussive approach to the keys pairing with Oxley's percussive work, and both invoking lyrical beauty from the other.

Espousing a need to bring more freedom to others--from fear, from oneself, from advertising, and freedom to love--baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton, also on alto flute and bass clarinet, leads his outstanding quartet of Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Christopher Hoffman (cello) and Tom Rainey (drums) through four intricately satisfying Sinton compositions.

Netherlands pianist Martina Verhoeven's quintet with Goncalo Almeida on double bass, Onno Govaert on drums, Dirk Serries on guitar and Colin Webster on saxophone is captured live in their debut performance at the Roadburn Festival 2022 Paradox in Tilburg for an extended 2-part improvisation of both dense and thrilling interaction and deep introspection, a spectacular and informed set.

While in Calgary as a Killam Visiting Scholar, guitarist Joe Morris worked with multi-wind player and professor Jeremy Brown, whose solo work impressed Morris so much that they began performing regularly as a duo, deciding to rehearse and record this remarkable series of improvised duos that Morris describes as unique to his catalog, something conversationally precise and organic.

Arranged by Joe Morris while Agusti Fernandez was in the NY Metropolitan area, this concert at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, brings together four distinctive string players with Morris on guitar, Fernandez on piano, Brad Barrett on bass and Do Yeon Kim on guyageum, seemingly taking their listeners to rapid galaxies through intensive, pointillistic and imaginative improvisation.

The long-established trio Disorder At The Border of Zlatko Kaucic on drums, Giovanni Maier on bass and Daniele D'Agaro on saxophone & clarinet invitee multi-reedist Tobias Delius to perform this extended free improvisation, Kataklisma in four parts, captured live at the Brda Contemporary Music Festival, in Šmartno Goriska Brda, Slovenia in 2017.

Bringing decades of experience from far-reaching careers as leaders and in collaboration with some of the most luminary improvisers in creative jazz, this first meeting between bassist Mark Helias and pianist Matthew Shipp evokes nine inspired dialogs from two consequentially compatible jazz musicians, beautifully captured in the warmth of the Park West Studios in Brooklyn.

The final collaboration of innovative electronic artist J.A. Deane, working remotely with violinist Jason Kao Hwang who sent Deane improvised solo acoustic violin recordings that Deane edited into 57 gestures, mapping them to a keyboard and creating six tracks of morphed electronics which Hwang improvised over with an electric violin to complete this unique and fascinating album.

Led by West Coast-based New Zealand guitarist Sally Gates, the 2nd album from this genre-blurring heavy improv band of original members Matt Hollenberg on the 6-string bass VI and Kenny Grohowski on drums, now officially a quartet with prior guest bassist Trevor Dunn a fourth member, here in 6 tracks that shred and weave intricate layers of jazz, rock, blues and metal.

Bringing together John Zorn's trio from Suite for Piano (Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, Ches Smith) with guitarist Julian Lage, this new jazz quartet is a versatile and flexible unit capable of instantaneous changes in direction of genre or mood with virtuosic finesse and sensitivity, as Zorn's compositions explore concepts from Freud, Sartre, and the Uncertainty Principle.

A combination CD and DVD of John Zorn's improvisation on the powerful organ at Henri LeBoeuf Hall, Bozar in Brussels in a dramatic musical reading of the epic Faust legend, performed with classical soprano vocalist Barbara Hannigan, who improvises with Zorn for the first time, the film allowing listeners to view Zorn's unusual keyboard techniques in close proximity.

John Zorn's extended solo organ improvisation at the 2022 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN performing on the Goulding & Wood seventy-rank organ at St. John's Cathedral, Zorn's performance inspired by Aleister Crowley's Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli and performed in a kind of trance state, as he traversed moods and mystery in a 44 minute journey of massive sound.

A 2nd album of inexplicable and fascinating genre merging based around Americana roots music sliced and diced with jazz/improv, electronica, and Downtown NY forms, from the core trio of Sam Day Harmet (mandolin), Sana Nagano (violin), and Zachary Swanson (upright bass) with guests Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar, avant bluegrass guitarist Stash Wyslouch and Soundpainter Walter Thompson.

Three albums of three duos between three frequent Boston collaborators and improvisers -- Jeb Bishop on trombone, Pandelis Karayorgis on piano and Damon Smith on double bass -- each CD respectively a combination of trombone & bass, piano & bass and piano & trombone, each recorded during the last year of Jeb Bishop's residency in Boston between 2016-2022.

The long-running Boston trio of Pandelis Karayorgis on piano, Nate McBride on bass and Luther Gray on drums explore the music of Hasaan Ibn Ali through four compositions transcribed by Karayorgis from Hasaan's so-called "lost" Atlantic album Metaphysics, interleaved with six of the band's favorite tracks from Thelonious Monk and three tracks from Monk peer Elmo Hope.

Leveraging more than a decade of collaboration, New York saxophonist Tim Berne and pianist Matt Mitchell present an intimate live concert in Montreal at Club Soda, performing mostly Berne compositions and one by Julius Hemphill ("Number 2") in a thoughtful and innately lyrical set of seemingly telepathic dialogs interpreting Berne's intricate and innovative works.

Swiss vocalist Sarah Buechi leads a new trio with Franz Hellmüller on guitar and Rafael Jerjen on bass, putting a uniquely expressive touch to a mix of original Buechi songs, standards including "I Thought About You" and "Moon River", and traditional song, the intimate and adept playing of Hellmüller and Jerjen enveloping the trio with a warm glow.

A series of spontaneous converstations captured live at the 2021 Copenhagen Jazz Festival at KoncertKirken, the second duo album between trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and pianist Kaja Draksler, using extraordinary and extended techniques to create lovely rolling textures or spacious sonic environments, passing between moods and approaches in natural and captivating ways.

The second volume of Music Frees Our Souls, the trio of Francisco Mela on drums, Cooper-Moore on piano and William Parker on bass, recording in the studio in Brooklyn two extended, far reaching and powerful collective improvisations of music performed under the influence of Mela's work with, mentorship by and encouragement from pianist McCoy Tyner.

With masterful technique and remarkable creative drive, the Canadian duo of clarinetist François Houle and Joe Sorbara explore unorthodox sound worlds through microtones, pad percussives, circular breathing to stretch phrasing, Houle taking apart his instrument to affect tone and pitch, and Sorbara using idiosyncratic percussive instruments including "back porch piano guts".

Referencing their influences as Punkt.Vrt.Plastik or the Kris Davis Trio, the uniquely voiced young piano trio of Simon Lucaciu on piano, Florian Muller on double bass and Lukas Heckers on drums formed in 2016 to compose and perform original work, inspired by Christopher Dell's possibilities of differentiation and unusual forms, receiving the Central German Jazz Prize in 2022.

Revisiting and remastering two 1958 albums on the Riverside Label (Monk in Action and Misterioso), then remastered as At The Five Spot on Milestone in 1977, this quartet show a different take on Monk's music through the authoritative playing and interpretations of Monk's music by tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, intensified by drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik's solid support.

Three albums and three distinct groupings in this essential remaster & reissue of two late 60s and one 70s Impulse! albums from saxophonist and composer Archie Shepp, in configurations of septets and nonets with luminaries of the day performing Shepp's rhythm-centric jazz focused on the Afrocentric experience, drawing on blues and spirituals in free jazz settings.

Three chamber works in single and multiple movements by minimalist composer Jurg Frey, exploring time & duration, form & shape and a balance of material, performed by a core quartet from the UK ensemble Apartment House, orchestrated for clarinet and bass clarinet, violin and cello, the final work adding piano, viola and percussion in a septet reworking of a 2014 composition.

Two days of concerts in 2018 at Alchemia Club, in Krakow, Poland and a recording at Radio Krakow the next day from English composer, band leader and a bass player Barry Guy, in varying configurations at Alchemia of duos & trios with some of Europe & The UK's leading improvisers, culminating in an 11-piece ensemble at Radio Krakow performing the large work "For To End Yet Again".

A remarkable, intense and startlingly virtuosic solo performance from Berlin violinist Sarah Saviet in a long-form extension of an originally 15-minute work commissioned by Saviet of UK composer Bryn Harrison, developed together to allow the score to be variable in length through performer choices to re-sequence the events and repetition of the composition.

With titles taken from different kinds of water nymphs in Greek mythology, composer Mark Iddon's four-part work is a hauntingly beautiful set of compositions of seeming siren calls and rich percussion, realized by an octet configuration of the UK ensemble Apartment House, with two pianists (Philip Thomas and Mark Knoop), three strings, clarinet, flute and percussion.

Five works from US composer often based in Amsterdam, Evan Johnson, in solo, duo and trio settings including a triptych titled "L'art de toucher" in three configurations, demonstrating his unique approach to writing using disparate musical influences from modern to Baroque, mated to anarchic experimentalism and a Wandelweiser sensibility; fascinating!

To celebrate its 50th year since bassist Barry Guy assembled the London Jazz Orchestra for its first 1970 performance on BBC Radio, the now multinational band convened in Poland in 2020 for a series of concerts at Alchemia Club and Manggha Hall in configurations of duos to quintets, culminating in a full ensemble performance of two magnificently powerful works: "Flow" and "Harmos-Krakow".

A rare mix of collective and chamber approaches to free improvisation from the Swedish sextet VÖ of Eva Lindal on violin, Anna Hogberg on alto saxophone, Johan Berthling on double bass, Leo Svensson Sander on cello, Alexander Zethson on piano & pump organ and Giannis Arapis on acoustic guitar, performing deeply introspective conversations that explore modernity and tradition.

Picking up where their "Live at Wirr" album left off, this new recording finds the Viennese free improvising electroacoustic duo of Martin Siewert on guitar & electronics and Katharina Ernst on drums & toys performing live at the 2018 New Adits festival in Celovec, Austria for five resourceful and diverse dialogs, from intensely tumultuous to delicately thoughtful.

The 35 poems found on Fortner Anderson's "Solitary Pleasures", performed with Michel F Cote, Sam Shalabi and Alexandre St-Onge, speak of the obsessions, phantasies and encounters of Anderson's life.

The fifth release from the international power trio of Dave Rempis (sax), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello & electronics) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) in a rewarding release of heavy grooves, offset by introspective soundscapes and moments of quiet beauty.

Dutch composer Michel Banabila amalgamates genres, using acoustic and electronics elements to serve his work, here in 8 recent pieces that blend electronica, world forms and soundscape in sophisticated ways, with vocal samples from all n4tural and Yuko Parris, guitar from Cok Van Vuuren, and a collaborative composition with Machinefabriek/Rutger Zuydervelt.

Named for Shipwreck Studios, this is the first meeting between San Francisco Bay Area improvisers Darren Johnston (trumpet), Aaron Bennett (sax) and Lisa Mezzacappa (bass) with Chicago drummer Frank Rosaly, for 6 tracks of outstanding interactive and playful improvisation.

French jazz and rock drummer Blanc in an album of extended compositions using unique structures and vocal styles, fascinating colors and tones for unusual works.

Percussionist Michel Blanc's astounding 12-part work was composed around news events that occurred between 1972-89, in a tour-de-force of music drawing from improvised music, RIO oriented rock, and concrete sound; with Marc Ducret, Annabelle Playe, Anne Gimenez, & Antonin Rayon.

An amazing album of vocal utterance and layered sound from Dutch improviser and experimenter Jaap Blonk, using spatial placement and movement extended by electronic means to focus on phonetic concepts, particularly the diphtong and approximant.

With backgrounds in both improvisation and compositional music, the new trio of Cyril Bondi on harmonium, Pierre-Yves Martel on viola da gamba, and Christoph Schiller on spinet, agreed on a sequence of pitches for this 5 part improvisational work, allowing space for the players to explore pitch and melody within a contemplative and pensive framework.

During the tour in support of their "Tse" release, the quartet of Cyril Bondi on Shruti box, pipe & harmonica, Christoph Schiller on spinet & effects, Pierre-Yves Martel on Viola da Gamba, pipe & harmonica, and Angharad Davies on violin, captured this performance at London's Cafe OTO, improvised over a sequence of pitches with astonishing creativity.

Vocalists DB Boyko and Christine Duncan turn gibberish into improvised poetry while accompanied by drummer Jean Martin who uses multi-timbered objects to create beautiful and absurd music.

Twelve pieces for guitar performed by Tim Brady, including three updated versions of previous pieces, new compositions by Brady, and four pieces composed by other artists.

33 songs & instrumentals in 74 minutes performed by Dublin composer, performer, improvisor, pianist and organist John Wolf Brennan, covering an eclectic and vast cross-section of styles and genres, from composers including Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, The Rolling Stones, Lars Hollmer, Tom Waits, Cornelius Cardew, Bela Bartok, Paul McCartney, John McLaughlin, &c.

Earle Brown conducts a chamber ensemble including John Tilbury on piano through a number of compositions, including versions of "October", "November", & "December", "Corroboree 1964 For Three Pianos", "Trio For Five Dances", and "Tracking Pierrot For Ensable".

Using sopranino, sorano and decayed tenor saxophone, Mark Brown recorded these unusual improvisations, generating a huge variety of sounds and tones, and then constructing those recordings into this curious and captivating 40 minute work.

Recorded in Britain's longest tunnel--the Standedge Canal Tunnel--during the Marsden Jazz Festival 2017, Norwegian cellist and composer Maja Bugge's solo album uses the natural resonance of the tunnel as an accompaniment to her expressive playing, recorded at a concert that blended composed work with improvisations that respond to the tunnel's unique resonant properties.

A burning album of collective free jazz from Canadian compatriots Francois Carrier on alto saxophone and Michel Lambert on drums, on a spring tour of Europe, performing at Poland's MOZG in Byrgoszcz, home of the MOZG Festival, with Polish tenor saxophonist Tomek Gadecki amd bassist Marcin Bozen, also on French Horn, in an exhilarating set of three extended improvisations.

Recorded in a winery in Gorizia, Italy, in 2019, Austrian based pianist and composer Elisabeth Harnik, who works in both composed and improvised music, joined with Italian-born American composer, percussionist, multimedia artist and Ictus label leader Andrea Centazzo to perform this series of creative and authoritative "Duophonic Landscapes".

A concert recording from 1977 in Calgary, CA captured during Eugene Chadbourne's time in Canada prior to his move to NYC, from the guitar trio of Duck Baker, Randy Hutton & Eugene Chadbourne, performing on acoustic guitars, using a variety of approaches to improvising in trio, duo and solo configurations, with original work, an Ornette Coleman mashup, and a piece by Charlie Haden.

The tenth Conference Call album and the first with drummer Dieter Ulrich taking over for former drummers Matt Wilson, Han Bennink, George Schuller and Gerry Hemingway, the 20 years journey for this transatlantic band leading to this album captured in the studio in Central NY while on tour, performing 3 original compositions from Ullman, 2 from Fonda, and 2 from Stevens.

Two live dates from Crescendo and Glenn Miller Cafe in Sweden from the trio of Sebastian Bergstrom on piano, Joachim Nyberg on bass, and Emil Astrand-Melin on drums.

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."

Three free improvising women--Angharad Davies, Rie Nakajima, and Alice Purton--met in the church in the tiny hamlet of Dethick, near Matlock, Derbyshire, over the course of two days developing the ten pieces of this album using an impressive set of stringed and percussive instruments, objects, and mysterious sources to create these fascinating sonic evocations.

Assigning different times systems--standard time, decimal and hex time--to different musicians, harpist Rhodri Davies develops an electroacoustic improvisational environment of unusual perception and sensation, performed live in Cardiff in 2018 with Ryoko Akama, Sara Hughes, Sofia Jernberg, Pia Palme, Andre Parkinson, Lucy Railton, Pat Thomas, & Dafne Vicente.

NY composer Mario Diaz de Leon, who is influenced by Scelsi, Ligeti, Dumitrescu & Radulescu, focuses on acoustic & electronic hybrids that often fuse both elements into unified meta-instruments.

Acousmatic work from electronic composer Degrassi: two serial pieces using algorithmic software, an elabration of recorded sounds, and an improvisation using real-time synthesizers.

Unprecedented music for Shakuhachi by Frank Denyer (releases on Tzadik, Mode) with Yoshikazu Iwamoto on shakuhachi and Paul Hiley joining Denyer on percussion.

A uniquely epic work in 14 parts by composer Frank Denyer, with a large ensemble of 40 musicians, many playing specially built instruments made from discarded materials, with other instrumentation including sitar, mandolin and hammered dulcimer, 4 male vocalists, 4 female vocalists, 4 players of adapted organ pipes, crumhorns, bowed wine glasses, 3 double basses, a contrabassoon, &c. &c.

Three solo investigations in tonality, microtonality, and the physicality of the tenor saxophonist from European free and modern improviser Bertand Denzler.

Live recordings and Derome's first release under his own name, inspired by Japanese magic squares and haikus, and performed in a group including Actuelle collective members Pierre Tanguay and Pierre Cartier.

The history of the early Detail trio of Frode Gjerstad on tenor & soprano saxophones, Johnny Mbizo Dyani on double bass, and John Stevens on drums continues to be unearthed with this studio session at Staccato Studios, in Stavanger, Norway in 1982, in two extended improvisations demonstrating the impressive skill and direction the band possessed.

15 wonderfully creative works from Boston-area saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra, also on lyricon, analog synth and effects pedals, creating a one-man-band of unconventional sonic textures layered live, over which he improvises in fun and profound ways.

Turntable musician DJ Sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit) in a strange take on Evan Parker as an homage and investigation into his work over the decades, as explained in Sniff's insightful essay in the booklet.

"Three traditions, three musics? Hardly. This trio of improvisers -- Michel Doneda, soprano saxophone; Benat Achary, vocals, percussion; Kazue Sawai, koto -- forgoes all pretenses of speaking a universal language or separate ones, but i...