Tzadik's series reinterpreting John Zorn's Masada compositions releases the 24th "Book of Angels", performed by Klezmerson, a Mexico-based ensemble led by violist & composer Benjamin Shwartz, who founded the group in 2003 to integrate music from a Mexican standpoint.

The music of bassist Jason Roebke and his trio of guitarist Matthew Schneider and drummer Marcus Evan is rooted in the leader's solid bass work and the tasteful and informed lyrical freedom of his sidemen, as heard in this live performace Chicago's Hungry Brain.

Clarinetist Jeremiah Cymerman's solo work with clarinet, electronics and amplifier is a dark and aggressive work that mutates the potential of the single reed into a monstrous instrument of surprising properties.

An excellent quartet of 4 female improvisers creating mysterious landscapes, bizarre spaces and surprising topography using dual pianos, flute, melodica, trombone & alphorn.

Harpist Gabriele Emde began performing contemporary music by exceptional 20th century artists in the early 80s; in this collection recorded from 1985 to 1987 she presents one of Cage's "Landscape" pieces, a major work by Hans Otte, and several short pieces by Lou Harrison.

Works from Italian composer Clare Iannotta recorded from 2012 - 2014, including a work for string quartet composed for the DAAD artist-in-Berlin program titled "A Failed Entertainment" commissioned by Quaturo Diotima; plus 6 works for contemporary ensembles.

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.

Tim Brady with Bradyworks and Quatuor Molinari in a CD/DVD release of four synchronized musical, video & theater works, ambitious and fascinating compositional pieces.

A collection of narrative and experimental sound worlds for solo trumpet, born out of improvisation and organized through thoughtful collaborations with composers from Canada to Argentina.

Keith Wood's Hush Arbors with bassist Jason Ajemian, guitarist Leon Dufficy, and drummer Ryan Sawyer, in their 2nd Ecstatic Peace album of driving avant-folk songs and instrumental sections.

Michel F Cote, Bernard Falaise, Alexandre St-Onge, Christof Migone, and Sam Shalabi, all members of the excellent group Klaxon Gueule, in a minimalist release of improv.

An album of electro-acoustic compositions written for and recorded by New York City music ensembles and performers: MIVOS Quartet; Wet Ink Ensemble; Timetable Percussion; Jessie Marino.

Quartetski Does Stravinsky with drummer Isaiah Ceccarelli, guitarist Bernard Falaise, reedist Phillipe Lauzier, viole de gamaba player Pierre-Yves Martel and violinist Joshua Zubot reinterpret Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in honor of its 100th anniversary.

Bojan Vuletic composed these works based on lines from Baudelaire's "Les fleurs du mal", a remarkable set of songs sung by Vera Westera over the excellent musicianship of Zeena Parkins on harp, Nate Wooley on trumpet, and Bojan Vuletic handling the odd instrument.

Necks pianist Chris Abrahams teams up with electronic artist and sound poet Alessandro Bosetti for 6 introspective and mysterious tracks that mix Necks-like playing with ambient electronics and curious monologs, plus one waltz.

Cartridge Music was composed in 1960 and is one of Cage's earliest attempts to produce live electronic music, here realized at a live performance at the Audiograft Festival in Oxford in February 2012.

The Ex were in Ethopia in 2010 for their "Free the Jazz" saxophone project, here presenting Mats Gustafsson on baritone saxophone, Paal Nilssen-Love on drums, and Mesele Asmamaw on krar, a stringed bowl-shaped lyre.

Steelpan and electronics player and Amorfon label leader Yoshio Machida met the Serbian CINC band for these sophisticated and lovely post-rock pieces recorded in Belgrade, 2006.

Composer John Zorn presents two books of "Madrigals" scored for six acappella female voices, rich and seductive compositions intertwining voices in beautiful, electrifying and riveting ways through 10 works inspired by the 19th century British poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Antoine Beuger, Burkhard Schlothauer, Chico Mello, Jurg Frey, Kunsu Shim, Michael Pisaro, and Thomas Stiegler participate in this realization of Christian Wolff's compositions to make sounds or draw sounds out of stones, alone or with other surfaces, acoustically or amplified.

One composition each from Antoine Beuger and John Cage performed on the oboe by Kathryn Gleasman Pisaro; Beuger's work presents tones in regular intervals offset by silence; Cage's piece uses pitch and tone color with microtonal inflections, mutes and harmonic fingerings.

Antoine Beuger's minimalist work for American painter Marcia Hafif, known for her monochrome paintings, in 24 tonal works each 3 minutes long using stationary waves of eight frequencies from a different octave and punctuated by silence.

A portrait of instrument builder and microtonal composer Harry Partch presented through representative work, in a beautiful limited 180g vinyl LP with a 12 page booklet of rare photos and essays, plus an MP3 download; essential listening from an extraordinary composer.

Edwin Alexander Buchholz performs this beautiful work by John Cage on accordion, originally written for the Japanese sho, where sounds are single tones and chords, up to six part harmonies, or as Cage wrote, "sounds brushed into existence as in oriental calligraphy".

Burkhard Schlothauer presents two works by John Cage written for septet, using indeterminacy in a score where each instrumental part is given twenty time brackets, allowing overlapping sounds which will be shaped depending on choices from each performer.

Composer Jurg Frey's 1988 work "String Quartet" realized by Nadia Francavilla, Clemens Merkel, Stephanie Bozzini and Isabelle Bozzini, exploring ideas of audibility: the moment when sound waves move in space and the air touches the body.

Henri Pousseur was associated with Pierre Froidebise and Andre Souris, and worked closely with Karlheinz Stockhausen through the 50s and 60s; this LP presents early electronic compositions from 1954-1972, a fascinating and diverse set of works from this important composer.

Carl Ludwig Hubsch (tuba); Ole Schmidt (bass clarinet); Chris Weinheimer (bass flute); Robert Schleisiek (piano); and Tom Lorenz (vibraphone) interpret Christian Wolff's composition based on "Union Maid", a song from the 1920's, transforming the work through temporal expansion.

Early compositions from John Cage performed on accordion by Edwin Alexander Buchholz and violin by Joanna Becker, presenting "Dream" (1948); "In a Landscape" (1948); "Six Melodies" (1950); and "Souvenir" (1983).

Jurg Frey on clarinet and Irene Kurka on soprano vocals perform Wandelweiser composer Antoine Beuger's extended composition "Two"; then the duo of Rhodri Davies on harp and Ko Ishikawa on sho are layered on the first recording, creating a refreshingly new take on the piece.

John Cage's "Empty Words" (1974) is drawn from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, written in four parts: Part I omits sentences, Part II omits phrases, and Part III omits words. Part IV, which omits syllables, leaves us nothing but a virtual lullaby of letters and sounds.

The duo Contour of Stephen Altoff (trumpet) & Lee Forrest Ferguson (percussion) perform Antoine Beuger's "dedekind duos" dedicated to mathematician Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind; and Jurg Frey's "22 Sachelchen" or "small things", 22 focused miniature compositions.

John McAlpine performs composer Tom Johnson's beautiful piano cycle "Counting Keys", using mathematical progressions to create the structure of its 5 movements; plus 8 parts from his "Organ and Silence for Piano"; and two other compositions using mathematical processes.

Two works from composer Frey performed by Montreal's string ensemble Quatuor Bozzini: "String Quartet No. 3", a minimal work of colors, sensations, shadows, durations; and "Unhorbare Zeit" exploring durations without sound, or empty volumes, to achieve lucidity and transparency.

Pianist Samuel Vriezen performs Tom Johnson's work presenting what Johnson describes as a natural phenomenon within a musical scale: progressions in 1 to 5 voices of all possible combinations of notes with each voice being limited to 3 steps, a perfect 4th or a perfect 5th.

Christian Wolff initiated his "Microexercises" series when the Miniaturist Ensemble asked for a piece with no more than 100 notes in it; he went on to create 21 more pieces, 13 of which are performed here by the South African duo of Beat Keller & Reza Khota on electric guitar.

Three extended compositions using field recordings and electronic processing from Vanessa Rossetto and Matthew Revert, using obscure references in song titles to mask subtle dovetailing and transitioning of concrete sound and mysterious tones.

A fascinating collaboration from two minimalist/Wandelweiser figures: Christian Wolff on prepared piano, whistles, and stones, and Michael Pisaro on guitar, harmonica and stones, recording together in Caimbridge, MA for two extended works, "Looking East" and "Looking West".

The second release on Intakt pairing pianist Ulrich Gumpert and percussionist Gunter Baby Sommer in an album that borrows from blues, boogie-woogie, hard bop, German folk songs, and free jazz.

Drummer Barry Altschul joins saxophonist Jon Irabagon and bassist Peter Brendler in an incredible trio of free improvisation and hard playing that's not afraid to put a little cheesecake on the cover.

An amazingly creative quartet led by composer and reedist Jan Klare with trumpeter Bart Maris, bassist Wilbert de Joode and drummer Michael Vatcher recording in the studio in Bruxelles, Belgium.

Beautifully packaged PAL DVD of 6 films by Elio Martusciello (Taxonomy) including two original texts by Tim Hodgkinson & Sebastiano Giacobello & visual works by Ester Curcio & Ale Sordi.

New York/Ohio skronkers Scarcity of Tanks with Jim Sauter of Borbetomagus plus Kid Millions in a hard free rock free improv blast.

The Spring 2016 issue of Canada's best creative music magazine covering composed, improvised and experimental music. Articles include: Juan Camilo Vasquez' Caliope (canto de las abejas); First-Place Winner, Musicworks' 2015 Electronic M...

Electroacoustic composer and performer Anthony Pateras in a beautiful 5-CD box set documenting a broad variety of works from ensembles to solo work, an excellent overview of one of Australia's most vital composers and performers.

A 6 part work based on immersive listening with a smartphone featuring a GPS and audio headphones made during a train trip across the Arc Jurassien, developed into 6 rich and detailed compositions, performed with violinist Julia Eckhardt and cellist Silvia Platzer.

Using saxophone and electronics in unexpected ways, Warszawa composer Kamil Szuszkiewicz's 9 movement "Robot Czarek" is described as a "sound cartoon", using odd punctuation of voice and effected interactive instrumental interjections to tell his libretto's strange tale.

Polish conceptual composer Zygmunt Krauze meets pianist John Tilbury, who studied in Warsaw in the 1960s, and returned in 2015 for a residency; this delicate and beautiful work was recorded at the Concert Studio of Polish Radio in Warsaw with 4 pianos and a percussionist.

A double CD featuring all of Wandelweiser composer Jurg Frey's music for solo acoustic guitar, beautifully interpreted by the Chilean guitarist Cristian Alvear, including a new piece written specially for Cristian Alvear; beautifully unfolding, concentrative music.

Referencing sci-fi, C.S. Lewis, and alien worlds, the compositions of Marek Poliks each have a central metaphor like alien environment and warmth, spaceship and cradling, performed by ensembles using traditional and electronic instruments and objects.

Conceptualist/composer Alessandro Bosetti in a 4CD box set and extensive booklet presenting large and unusual radio works that he's composed from 2003-2011, using "translations, misunderstandings, travels, microphones, headphones and sonorous telephone games as creative tools."

Four recent pieces by Berlin-based instrumentalist, composer and improviser, Lucio Capece, all focusing on the process of listening, one performed by Konzert Minimal, the other solo performances including a work for hanging speakers and helium balloons.

An extended group improvisation and compositions by Lely, Sarah Hughes, and Jurg Frey, subtle and beautiful performances by Angharad Davies (violin), Rhodri Davies (electric harp), Michael Duch (bass), Lina Lapelyte (violin), John Lely (objects & electronics) & John Tilbury (piano).

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".

Recorded live at the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music in 2006, this is the 3rd and final volume of works by Morton Feldman performed by the Smith Quartet with John Tilbury on piano, recorded in high quality DVD audio and with extensive liner notes by Tilbury.

Free and open-ended improvisation and amplified sound work from Mats Gustaffson with the duo of Gennaro and Newman AKA Wrist Error.

The debut album by the chamber-jazz quartet resAUnance of Jonathan Golove on electric cello, Michael McNeill on piano, John Bacon on vibraphone and percussion, and Esin Gunduz on voice, blending compositional, improvisation, & Turkish folk music into passionate and beautiful works.

The Riviere Ensemble led by bassist Kent Carter with Christiane Bopp (trombone), Albrecht Maurer (violin), Katrin Mickiewicz (viola) and Laura Tejeda Martin (mezzo soprano) recording original works in historic churches in France, blending classical, jazz, free improv & traditional musics.

Pauline Oliveros surrounded by Belgian ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, performing two long pieces for orchestra, using her Expanded Instrument System and 5.1 Surround Sound System in a mix of conducted and improvised music using metaphors and listening concepts.

Canada's premier new music magazine in their 125th issue, articles include Ayo Leilani; Ocean Bug and Bird Songs; Gabriel Dharmoo; crys cole; Thin Edge New Music Collective; plus a CD with tracks from Witch Prophet; Gabriel Dharmoo; Tim Brady; crys cole; Marc Saba; &c. &c.

The Ensemble Daswirdas performs John Cage's "Branches" composition, which is based on a previous work, "Child of Tree", but here each performer plays an 8 minute variation of that work, which is performed on amplified pods, cacti, and other plant materials.

Violinist Clemens Merkel interprets compositions by Wolfgang von Schweinitz's "Sonata for Violine Solo"; Antonie Beuger's "Unwritten Page"; Bruno Madema's "Piece Pour Ivry"; and Thomas Stiegler's cycle "Kammerkomplex" ("quasi una fantasia", "gran partita" and "sonata facile").

German composer Alfred Zimmerlin presents 3 pieces that balance compositional and improvisational approaches, with a 7-part work for strings, a large Klavierstruck work for microtonal piano, and an improvised chamber work, "Klarinettenquintett," with Jurg Frey on clarinet.

Taken from 2 concerts during the 2013 Angelica Festival in Santa Caterina, with the Apartment House Ensemble, percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky, and Wolff himself; compositions include several "Excercises", his "Duo for Violins", and a variation on a Morton Feldman work.

Four works interpreted for accordion performed by Edwin Alexander Buchhol, including John Cage's "Cheap Imitation"; Michael Pisaro's "Here (2)"; Jurg Frey's "Sam Lazaro Bros." and Antoine Beuger's "die geschichte des sandkorns".

A superb program of string trios from minimalist composers Beat Keller, Tom Johnson, and Joseph Kudirka, from cinematic to spacious sound work, as realized by the trio of Julia Schwob on violin, David Schnee on viola, and Nicola Romano on cello.

Pushing the envelope on minimalism, Manfred Werder's 3 scores for "2003" present just 6 tones, the instructions telling 3, 2 or 1 performers to play a pitch or sound for 3-7 seconds twice during the performance; realized by Erik Carlson, Stephanie Richards, and D. Edward Davis.

An epic, hypnotic work for three choirs, three pairs of noise musicians, and church organ, to be performed in a cathedral or similar location with musicians surrounding the audience, here from a live performance at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2012.

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.

Two interpretations of Luigi Russolo's 1914 Futurist noise composition "Risveglio Di Uns Citta" ("The Awakening Of A City"), performed forwards and backwards, from a live performance at Squidco headquarters in Wilmington, NC.