"Despite the heading ensemble name this album presents for only half of the total disc time music of the N e w O l d L u t e n Q u i n t e t. During the quintet set of the year 2012 a technical problem happened while recording. Oliver S...

"Aware of the history of the group later became a quintet Oliver Schwerdt decided twice to form the original triadic constellation before having a bigger set with the additional basses. That Short Night of 2013 catches the warm-up which...

Ominous and dense with layers of strata intended for nighttime listening, the German quartet of Axel Dorner on trumpet & electronics, Matthias Lorenz on cello, and both Robert Landfermann and John Edwards on double bass recorded these four tremendous electroacoustic improvisations at their live performance at naTo in Leipzig, Germany in 2013.

Jean Claude "JC" Jones seamlessly merges two violins from Ariel Lanyi & Ilan Volkov, bass from Hagai Bilitzky and his own performance on bass, lap style spanish plugged-in guitar and tibetan bowls, creating 13 beautifully contemplative drones that weave distinctive tones, timbres and rich resonance; dedicated to Barre Phillips & Francois Lagarde.

"Kick It Six is a guitar album. While this might not be surprising given that Terraplane is Elliott Sharp's contemporary blues band, what might be unexpected is the range of guitar sounds that may be heard here, all in the service of de...

"Carl Stone and Elliott Sharp have shared concert stages and delicious meals for decades in Japan, Europe, and North America. Circumstances conspired to have their latest concert in Tokyo in 2019 to be recorded and now presented here. E...

Known as a percussionist, Bay Area improviser Charles K. Noyes' first part of his Crimes In High Places is performed on electric & resonator guitars plus amplified guqin, expanding on the innovations of Derek Bailey in free-form non-idiomatic playing as he works to create a personal language on the instrument, presenting a dark and creatively foreboding vision.

"The newest duo projects of the Austrian trombonist Werner Puntigam - a) with Swiss guitarrist Beat Keller, b) with German drummer Georg Wilbertz - are performing freely improvised noisy chamber music. Their big goal is to explore maver...

"Stuck in Paris traffic in the pouring rain on the way to a gig in Pigalle, inspiration struck (though who the victim was remained uncertain). As they took a breath in the cold night air waiting to begin a Stromraum concert, dawn broke ...

"RADIOLARIA is an algorithmic composition for E#'s Orchestra Carbon modeled on biological paradigms of growth and reproduction. The score combines musical notation with written instructions that guide the performers' interactions in ord...

"Produced by Elliott Sharp, STATE OF THE UNION 2.001 was a massive and beautifully packaged 3-CD set of 171 one-minute pieces by leading lights of the international avant-garde, both famous and unknown, and was the fourth installment in...

"Theatrically gripping and sonically sophisticated, this modern opera by composer Elliott Sharp and librettist/narrator Jack Womack reflects the events surrounding a 1981 killing in New York's East Village. That flashpoint was the genes...

"TECTONICS is a solo program performed on saxophones, guitars, a laptop running MAX/MSP as well as various DSP applications, plus a variety of external hardware DSP devices. Sharp's work with electronics dates back to the late 60's and...

"Gunter, Baby 'Sommer is not celebrating his 70th birthday alone. In addition to his fourth solo CD Dedications, he presents the duo CD Dry Swing / Tandem Spaces together with the piano player Oliver Schwerdt. With one of the most idios...

"There are view vocal actors which can improvise semantically. Friedrich Kettlitz the co-founder of the E U P H O R I U M _ f r e a k e s t r a proved to be a master of that genre in the year 2011. With his close friend and extravagant ...

"The EUPHORIUM_freakestra live in December 2005. On one exciting stage in Leipzig, the creative centre of eastern Germany. At least a home game for the ever transforming ensemble. This time you can experience creative improvised music o...

"With Dal Ngai the E U P H O R I U M _ f r e a k e s t r a at an age of three years is reborn as an ensemble with two godfathers of contemporary music. On the one hand it called Daddy and on the spot appears Gunter Baby Sommer, the grea...

Each member of jane in ether is a formidable musician in her own right. The cream of the the berlin improv scene whose extended techniques of their respective instruments are, it's no exaggeration to say, ground breaking. I bore witness...

"The E U P H O R I U M _ f r e a k e s t r a in it's early days already formulating an album presenting different musical styles one piece after another. For shure the focus seems to lie on an improvisatory approch to dealing with conte...

"The first double album of a vast cast of an early version of the legendary E U P H O R I U M _ f r e a k e s t r a was recorded primarily in march 2001 and never officially released before the twentieth birthday of the ever renewable e...

"Just a few months after the Eisenach based f r e a k e s t r a had shown their electrified groovy improvisations on a little tour performing at venues in Weimar, Leipzig, Dresden, Krakow, Gottingen etc. Oliver Schwerdt came up with an ...

The quartet of Sergio Armaroli (vibraphone), Martina Brodbeck (cello), Francesca Gemmo (piano), and Fritz Hauser (drums & percussion), also heard in free improvisational duos and trios, perform Armaroli's "Structuring the Silence", aiming to extend the performers' improvisational freedom using time and space through broad compositional instructions.

Six compositions for solo piano written by English composerb Christopher Fox between 1991 and 2015, performed by Netherlands pianist John Snijders at Abbey Road Studios in London, each work uniquely approached in both writing and performance, each a concept or style that brings something unique to Fox's music while still retaining his voice and character in composition.

Seven works composed in the 21st century by Sebastian Gottschick, who arranges and conducts the Ensemble Fur Neue Musick Zurich, configured as an ensemble with percussion, a sextet, a chamber ensemble with baritone and soprano, and performing himself solo on viola; sophisticated and modern works that employ complex tonality, timbre and playing techniques.

Active since 2010, the German/Swiss duo of classical guitarist Christian Buck and improviser Christian Wolfarth occupies a space between music and sound art, as they perform two works each by Ed Haubensak and Tomas Korber, pieces that make use of time, microharmonies, multiphonics, unusual tuning systems, interference patterns, and other conceptual approaches to music.

Drawing on material from Billy Strayhorn, Thelonious Monk, Michel Legrand, Harry Warren, and Victor Young, the lyrical duo of saxophonist Alex Hendriksen (Swiss Jazz Orchestra) and double bassist Fabian Gisler (Jurg Wickihalder European Quartet) cite the art form of storytelling as central to their music as they reflect thoughtfully on the American Songbook.

As part of her Colonial Piano Project, Australian pianist Gabriella Smart commissioned and performs "Kaps Freed" by Cat Hope, a contemplation of composer Percy Grainger's Free Music ideals, with Stuart James on electronics; and the alliterative "Two New Proposals for an Overland Telegraph Line ..." by Erkki Veltheim, inspired by the 1st piano to arrive in Alice Springs, AU.

The second album of piano works from Japanese composer Jo Kondo performed by pianist Satoko Inoue--a noted interpreter of solo works by Feldman, Ferrari, and Cage--here presenting all of Kondo's works for solo piano written from 2001 to 2012, alongside two early works from 1975, exploring a wealth of harmonic, rhythmic, and conceptual ideas from a diversity of projects.

Conductor Sebastian Gottschick presents an additional selection of songs and chamber music works from composer Charles Edward Ives that reflect this broad range, 20 mostly brief and innovative works composed between 1898 and 1921, blurring the boundaries between genres through unusual motifs, themes, gestures and phrases that appear in new vocal and/or instrumental contexts.

West Coast composer and saxophonist Noah Kaplan, associated with Anthony Coleman, David Tronzo, Peter Erskine, Rinde Eckert, Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Joe Maneri, &c., here in his 3rd album with his Noah Kaplan Quartet, in a set of original compositions and one standard performed with Joe Morris (guitar), Giacomo Merega (electric bass) & Jason Nazary (drums, electronics).

The innovative string trio of Daniel Studer on double bass, Harald Kimmig on violin, and Alfred Zimmerlin on cello, develop focused environments of timbre, texture, dynamic and space, seemingly abstract yet incredibly concentrative and virtuosic interaction, here joined by Chicago trombonist and electronics artist George Lewis adding a 4th profound layer to their incredible conversation.

The long-running duo since 1987 of spouses, pianist Hildegard Kleeb and trombonist Roland Dahinden, are joined by Swiss-born/ Berlin-based percussionist & vibraphonist Alexandre Babel for an album of interweaving and contrasting instrumental lines, blurring the boundaries between contemporary music and improvisation through exceptional mastery and dialog.

1992 live performances demonstrating masterful freedom in improvisation, recorded while on their first tour as a duo after working together in larger ensembles, from Hans Koch on clarinet, bass clarinet and tenor & soprano saxophones, and Paul Lovens on drums, cymbals, gongs & musical saw, in four live improvisations from Bulgaria presented in the order recorded.

With a superb septet of improvisers also versed in contemporary music, trumpeter Franz Koglmann presents sophisticated compositions that interject the concept of "solitude" in the three-part title track, alongside Koglmann compositions and Jimmy Giuffre's "Finger Snapper", using striking orchestration of trumpet, sax, clarinet, bassoon, oboe, french horn, cello and double bass.

The Die Unwucht (The Imbalance) duo of saxophonist Christopher Kunz and drummer Florian Fische was formed to explore jazz tradition while looking for ways to break down restrictive boundaries and create their own forms of expression, achieving a great balance and equality in Kunz' lyrical playing with a Getz/Desmond sound against Fische's active interactions.

Two works commissioned by the Austrian Studio Dan ensemble: "As We May Feel" by George Lewis, referencing visionary engineer Vannevar Bush's concepts of data linking & association, in a work reminding how music recombines and associates; and Oxana Omelchuk's double concerto for two trombonists, "Wow and Flutter", taking listeners on a profound journey through recording technologies.

An essential part of the New York jazz scene since the mid-80s, pianist Russ Lossing's compositions employ concept and space in unique and personal ways, as heard in these 8 original works performed with his trio of long-time collaborators, double bassist Masa Kamaguchi and drummer Billy Mintz, for an album of highly evolved and lyrically sophisticated music.

Captured live in Ljubljana during the 2019 "Sound Disobedience Festival", European Free Improv legendary drummer Paul Lovens co-composed this work with Swiss guitarist Florian Stoffner, "Tetra" referring to structures of 4, as in their 4-part improvisation with each player using all 4 limbs in a remarkable dialog of time, tone, technique, and nearly telepathic intention.

The innovative acoustic free improvising ensemble Polwechsel, bridging contemporary music and free improvisation in ways that sound deceptively electroacoustic and comprised of Michael Moser on cello, Werner Dafeldecker on double bass, and Martin Brandlmayr & Burkhard Beins on cymbals & percussion, are joined by Klaus Lang performing on the church organ of St. Lambrecht's Abbey.

Swiss trumpeter Silvan Schmid (Silvan Schmid Quintett, London Improvisers Orchestra, Floor Poodle, &c) in a solo album of remarkable technique, pacing and intention, using traditional brass elements like rips, smears, half-valved notes and portamento, along with murmurs, pops & percussive evocations of indescribable origination, at times augmented via amplification.

Captured live at the 2016 Jazz at the Factory Festival in Sao Paulo, this addition to New York pianist Matthew Shipp's catalog finds the masterful player presenting his own compositions like "Symbol Systems", "Gamma Ray" or "Invisible" light alongside unique takes on "Angel Eyes", "On Green Dolphin Street", "Yesterdays" and "Summertime".

A live album at Kunstraum Walcheturm from Swiss double bassist Daniel Studer's quintet of strings and piano, with Harald Kimmig on violin, Frantz Loriot on viola, Alfred Zimmerlin on violoncello, and Philip Zoubek on piano, performing an inventive set of Studer compositions extending string improvisation to extremes through unorthodox structures and techniques.

Named for a Don Cherry composition included on this album, the core trio of The Thing--Mats Gustafsson on reeds, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass, and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums--is joined by saxophonist and pocket trumpter Joe McPhee, recording classic free jazz and harmolodic pieces by Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, James Blood Ulmer, Frank Lowe, & Joe McPhee.

Trumpeter Marco von Orelli's piano-less quartet with Tommy Meier on tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, Luca Sisera on double bass, and Sheldon Suter on drums is caught live at Theater am Gleis, in Winterthur, Switzerland in 2018, and at Boudoir au Revoir, the same year, performing von Orelli's compellingly clever compositions, plus one each from Adam lane and Tommy Meier.

A remarkable album of solo trumpet improvisation of incredible and creative technique, performed on trumpet, cornet, piccolo trumpet and slide trumpet, from Swiss trumpeter Marco von Orelli, the album title referencing a work by Charles Ives for offstage string ensemble, woodwind quartet and, most significantly for this album, solo trumpet.

Through preparations, computers, contact microphones, gongs, feedback and other tools, Swiss pianist, composer & improviser Judith Wegmann's work transform the sound of the piano into an otherworldly instrument, set against more traditional acoustic pieces of a reflective nature, together creating a conceptual set of ten pieces in a uniquely flexible approach.

"Tom Cora made his musical debut as drummer on a local US television programme. In the mid 1970s he played guitar for a Washington, D.C. jazz club house band. He took up the cello while an undergraduate at the University of Virginia and...

Distinctive for the dual reed front line of French saxophonist Stephane Payen on straight alto sax and New York tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, with the spirited rhythm section of double bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Tom Rainey, formed in 2002 through the collectives HASK and F-IRE, finally realized in recordings with this 2019 studio encounter in Pernes-les-Fontaines, France.

A live recording at Instants Chavire's, in Montreuil, France in 2020, and a studio recording 5 days later in Malakoff, France, in the 2nd album from the Judson Trio of Joelle Leandre on double bass, Mat Maneri on viola, Gerald Cleaver on drums & small percussion, the entwining of viola and bass strings propelled with assertive restraint and accent from Cleaver.

The kind of conversation only two profoundly accomplished jazz artists such as pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker could have, steeped in the history of the creative form and founded on a long history of collaborations between the two, here in four engaging extended dialogs recorded in the studio Sextan in La Fonderie, Malakoff, France.

"Double-CD documenting the magic meeting of one of the all-time great rhythm sections in jazz: percussionist Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker, with London's brilliant Black Top (Orphy Robinson and Pat Thomas) and Elaine Mitchener....

"Allen Lowe says: "To me, free improvisation is another form of narrative, just as linear in terms of the consciousness of moving from one place to another, as any kind of storytelling. Yes, anyone can do it, you might say (and this is ...

The first live album from Chicago bassist and guimbri player Joshua Abrams is the 6th Natural Information Society album, captured live in the summer of 2019 at Cafe Oto in London, the core quartet with Lisa Alvarado on harmonium, Mikel Patrick on drums and Jason Stein on bass clarinet joined by UK legend Evan Parker on soprano saxophone for four ecstatic improvisations.