Minimal improvisation using a meditative set of instruments including stone flute, small stones, and a "silent toy", from David Toop recording with Akio Suzuki on a rare trip to the UK.

Rafael Toral's Space Program, post-free jazz electronic music, is made manifest in this duo between the electronicist and drummer Davu Seru, performing live in Minneapolis during Toral's 2011 tour of the US.

A reference to rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from a single point in the sky around dusk or dawn, as heard through a combination of acoustic guitar, objects and no-input mixing board.

1st release for the duo of wind player Linsey Wellman and percussionist Mike Essoudry embracing stasis and movement, meditation and exuberance, delicacy and amplitude.

"Karoujite" is a Japanese term translating to scarcely, describing the minimalist attitude that Chilean guitarist Cristian Alvear and Japanese percussionist Seijiro Murayama approach this hybrid of composed and improvised music, using a focus of repetitive structures with slight variation to create a hypnotic and entrancing set of music.

A collaboration between composer Michael Pisaro-Liu and AMM guitarist/improviser Keith Rowe, with each bringing scores which they improvised over, creating 13 discrete sections including samples from Shostakovich's 13th String Quartet, balancing activity, space and silence in patient ways that only two such experienced composer/improvisers could.

Montreal Musique Actuelle turntablist Martin Tetreault and sound artist Erick d' Orion created this project as a tribute to the original explorers of electronic music and musique concrete -- GRM, Stockhausen, Henry, Oram, Schaeffer, &c. -- using historic sound recordings and new sources, presenting this incredible concert live at Au Mois in Quebec.

EA-improv minimalist Toshimaru Nakamura with English (Joe Foster/Bonnie Jones) in a recording made in Tokyo while the three were touring South Korea and Japan in 2007.

Taking their band name from an Ornette Coleman album, this European quintet presents new compositions in the style of Ornette, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and John Carter, ecstatic free jazz with a hard bop foundation, extended with modern technique and experience.

A quartet of thoroughly modern and innovative improvisers - violinist Carlos Alves "Zingaro", trumpeter Jean Luc Cappozzo, flutist and bass clarinetist Jerome Bourdellon, and percussionist Nicolas Lelievre - performing at "Live At Total Meeting", 2010.

Guitarist and singer Sylvie Chenard in duet with musician/performance artist Jon Asencio, joyfully exploring the energies of resistance and anarchy, in shades of science-fiction and totalitarian reality.

The duo of Jean-Luc Cappozzo on trumpet, horns and objects, and Geraldine Keller on voice flute & objects in an album of tones and tongues, an unusual set of adventurous free improvisation.

A collection of guitar, electronic and voice pieces from Anne-James Chaton and Andy Moor, originally released as a series of four seven inch singles here combined into a single CD with 3 bonus tracks.

An experimental sound and voice duet featuring eRikm and Natacha Muslera: extreme, convulsive and immersive sounds that alternately surprises and seduces in brutal and beautiful ways.

The first meetings of Jason Kahn (analog electronic) and Tim Olive (one-string magnetic pickup device) recording in a studio session in Kyoto, 2012 for four eventful and intricately structured works with a distinct developmental momentum.

Sparse but detailed improvisational journeys from the long-running duo of saxophonist Philippe Lauzier and bassist/electronic artist Pierre-Yves Martel.

French bassist Joelle Leandre and US vocalist Lauren Newton recorded these duos live at Club Gromka in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2010; absorbing and unusual interactions between two significant improvisers.

Saxophonist Marc Baron & bassist Loic Blairon recorded 6 improvisations and then recomposed and organized them into these two 30 minute works, one acoustic and one digital.

Captured during a Japan tour by the duo of Tim Olive (one-string electric guitar) and Alfredo Costa Monteiro (electro-acoustic devices), this live studio recording showcases the duo's attunement and dramatic sense of structure.

Three strange and wonderful sound pieces from the Chicago-based duo of Noe Cuellar and Joseph Clayton Mills, commissioned to make music from objects found in the basement of a local thrift store, evoking a sense of the lives embedded in those objects.

Part of Ayler's Guerilla Series, percussionist Laurence Cook and keyboardist Eric Zinman in an album of textural duos developed over a year while working with the Yamaha CP300 stage keyboard.

Two enounters between UK electroacoustic composer and performer Lawrence Casserly on his Signal Processing Instrument and American free jazz alto saxophonist Jefrrey Morgan, recording both in the studio in Cologne, Germany in 2016, and in concert at The Loft; a rich, subtle, and detailed astronomical encounter blending stellar electronics and responsive extended playing.

Lawrence Casserley is a pioneer of real time electroacoustic music, since the 60s working with other artists and developing his Signal Processing Instrument, using physical gestures to process and morph sounds; here he works with British vocalist and Deep Listening teacher Viv Corringham in an other-worldly collaboration of voice and electonics.

A pairing of two innovative players, Berlin-based pianist Magda Mayas and Australian sound and wind artist Jim Denley, Mayas playing inside and out of the piano and Denley on alto sax and bass flute, both providing field recordings adding unexpected elements in a set of extremely balanced recordings that entrance the listener with unlikely and captivating settings.

Pioneering improvising pianist Fred Van Hove at UK's Cafe OTO for the first time, captured in a duo with UK drummer/percussionist Roger Turner, their first recording together, for a night of exceptional improvised interplay, sophisticated and complex playing that is constantly buoyant and charming, an enthralling conversation between two veteran players.

Waterscapes is the performing duo of New York saxophonist Blaise Siwula and guitarist Jorge Nuno, interwining distinct approaches to acoustic and electric improvisation, creating rich sound environments and rapid interaction that draws the listener in and then sweeps them off their feet with passionate, complex and informed dialog.

Two concerts of experimental improvisation from two giants of conceptual improvisation and composition, recorded at IKLECTIK in London in 2015 and at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire in 2016; with superb pacing and brilliant execution, these dialogs between keyboard and percussive instruments explore unique sound worlds with depth, inquisitiveness, and a sense of wonder.

Recording at the GRM Studios, the French duo of Eryck Abecassis and Francisco Meirino (phroq) use unpatched modular sythesizers that they program during performance, adding a level of risk and unpredictability to their detailed and rich sonic conversation, informed by decades of research and performance that both musicians bring to this intensely interesting album.

A series of duo recordings between saxophonist, clarinetist and cornet player Udo Schindler and pianists, all recorded at Schindler's Salon for Sound and Art at Krailing, Germany between 2013 and 2016, with Claudia Ulla Binder, Masako Ohta, Elisabeth Harnik, Katharnia Weber, and Lisa Ullen; song titles taken from SONDAGEN (Soundings) in memory of poet Thomas Kling.

The third album from Japanese percussionist Seijiro Murayama and French saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet, each presenting unique languages and approaches to their instruments, here in four recordings made in two locations, once during the day in Mishima City at Hongaku Temple and the other at Teke Bar in the same city and on the same evening.

At the same event in Scotland that John Butcher recorded his excellent "Resonant Spaces" album, he also joined forces with sound artist Akio Suzuki on a variety of objects and sound devices to record the first 5 tracks of this unusual album of very free improv, the last track by the duo recording at the 2015 Ftarri Festival at SuperDeluxe in Tokyo.

Two German trombonists, Matthias and Matthias Muche, extend the trombone language through four open improvisations using advanced techniques and bizarre language, each appropriately titled for phonemes, as the two players explore the strangest and most interesting sides of their instruments to the benefit of the intrepid listener.

Recording in the rich resonant structure of the Church of Gauriac, in Gironde, France, Italian reedist Ugo Boscain on contrabass clarinet and French double bassist Fred Marty explore the lower registers in five dialogs of an album titled for "ecstasi" (ecstasy), using a wealth of creative approaches and insane technique, from reserved to spirited forays.

A magnificent album of sound-oriented free improvisation from the French duo of Jean-Luc Petit on bass clarinet, alto saxophone and sopranino sax, and Benoit Kilian on the horizontal bass drum, a beast of an instrument that create massive tones over which Petit employs an incredible array of techniques and tones on his reeds, creating other-worldly sonic environments.

On their 5th album together, pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura push the limits on approach and technique with their instruments, creating otherworldly and captivating improvisations, both players deciding against using "normal instrumental sounds", instead using preparations and textural approaches to create truly unique music.

After a six year break, the Humcrush duo of Stale Storlokken on keys and Thomas Stronen on drums & electronics return with this studio album of rhythmic angularities and experimental sound worlds, drawing on their experiences with bands including Supersilent, Food, Elephant9, Time is a blind guide, Meadow and Motorpsycho.

Phil Minton started as a trumpeter and became one of free improv's most outside vocalists; Joelle Leandre is a double bassist who also performs free vocal improv; this is their first recorded collaboration, and it's an unusual and wonderful album of heavy tone improvisation, plucked and bowed, and a masterfully odd free association of vocalisation.

Using a diverse set of strategies in free improvisation, from abstract textures, sonic and microtonal exploration to solid counterpoint, French saxophonist Matthieu Donarier and Spanish electric guitarist residing in France Santiago Quintans delight in the variety and dynamic approach to their album, in 14 tracks that surprise and captivate their listeners.

Anthony Pateras performs on pipe organ alongside Erkki Veltheim on electric violin, presenting a single extended work joining both instruments as a unified timbral force, producing exquisite and hypnotic sensorial phenomena over 50 minutes, as the duo investigate spectral phenomena in sound; includes a 24 page illuminating booklet interviewing both artists.

In 2005 Australian pianists Chris Abrahams (The Necks) and Anthony Pateras multi-tracked 4 takes in each octave of the piano, superimposing them over each other to create a kaleidoscopic maelstrom of pianistic energy, layers of piano creating a hypnotic and dizzying set of textures and unexpected sonic intersections.

Both bassist Barry Guy and guitarist Fred Frith are key artists of Switzerland's Intakt label catalog, but surprisingly the two have never shared a stage together; Intakt had a feeling about their pairing and brought them into the studio, this superb duo album being the result in 10 brilliant tracks intertwining acoustic double bass and electric guitar.

An intimate dialog between frequent collaborators, UK guitarist Fred Frith and Copenhagen saxophonist Lotte Anker, both players listening carefully as they interact in a fragile dialog of profound technique and inventive approach, using texture and nuance to create unusual and captivating interchanges that demonstrate how compatible these two very different instruments can be.

Pianist Aki Takase and violinist Ayumi Paul's 1st collaboration is an 18 movement suite for violin and piano blending composition and improvisation, with 11 movements from Takase and 5 written with Paul, plus Mozart's "K. 1 minuet in G major" and the Preludio movement from Bach's solo violin partita in E major; an absorbing set of recordings inspired by the writings of Thomas Mann.

Both former alumni of Anthony Braxton ensembles, the partnership of Marilyn Crispell on piano and Gerry Hemingway on drums is captured live in 2013 during their 2013 European tour, with tracks from Austria, France, and Amsterdam including the Europa Jazz Festival in Le Mans, France, for 11 highly attuned improvisations of masterful playing and dialog.

Matching two distinct keyboards--Xavier Camarasa's piano with Jean-Marc Foussat's synthi AKS--two improvisers present two extended works roughly translating to "The Immensity of The Instincts" and "There, or all is water ...", contrasting between melodic and otherworldly sounds, a complex tapestry that guides and excites the listener in an unusual convergence.

"More like un-cropped images on a contact sheet, then burned and dodged portraits, this eight-track, 33-minute CD is a literal record of an improvisational session between two sound experimenters of divergent backgrounds but shared inte...

"Both Giesriegl and Gratkowski are responsible for the sound in the gearbox. It deals with an extreme range of vocalisms, which are often composed of elements of spoken language, which are part of the sound ensemble. He draws from an al...

Recording at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in 2014, the duo of Swedish pianist Lisa Ullen and German double bassist Torsten Muller perform two extended improvisations focused on music and sound, using extended techniques and unusual approaches to their instruments in service to the spontaneous flow of ideas between them, never excessive, always captivating.

"Over the years I don't think I reviewed a lot of music by Klaus Janek, who plays processed double bass. In Vital Weekly 962 there was his release with Claudio Rocchetti, a tour document of their concerts in the Far East. Here he shows ...

"Although humanity's most in-demand and pervasive instruments the popularity of drums and guitars - or their equivalents - is so universal that there's no sanctioned method to play either. This is especially true with Free Music where adven...

"The Uliben Duo's CD Shared Memory (Creative Sources CS 327 CD) more accurately describe the performance of French bassist Benoit Cancoin facing the live processing of German Ulrich Phillipp. In other circumstances Phillips also plays b...

"Argentinian pianist (by way of Amsterdam) Nicolas Chientaroli delivers a solo performance that demonstrates the piano's architectural sound beyond the usual demarcation points of its 88 keys. Cada Fuego Es El Primero opens with plucked str...

Mexican composer and vibraphonist based in Berlin since 2012, Emilio Gordoa in a duo with guitarist Nicola L. Hein, using preparations to their vibraphones, percussion, and guitar, in an 8 part composition of diverse approaches to improvisation, from exuberant interaction to Reich-like minimalism to cantankerous experimentation, a well-rounded and interesting album.

"On "Pip", we get another fabulous performance, now by Norwegians Fredrik Rasten on guitar and Torstein Lavik Larsen on trumpet. Their acoustic music is minimal, repetitive, slow and with an eery intensity. It is less dark than some of...

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"The pianist Christine Wodrascka and the percussionist Jerome Lacoste, in forty-eight minutes and thirteen pieces of remarkably well-constructed works, offer a whole panorama of sounds, articulations, vibrations, timbres, crazy pulsatio...

"A similar grounding of sound in silence characterizes Layering Time [cs435], an austerely beautiful piece for piano, field recording and viola by Eva-Maria Houben in collaboration with Rodrigues. Houben, who plays piano and provides a ...

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The two-headed snake on the cover of this album aptly describes the sublimely sinuous and dark interplay between London free jazz drummer Steve Noble and bass clarinetist Yoni Silver, their 4-part improvisation taking on sinister elements of exceptional cymbal techniques, unusual drum tones, and extended lower register tones and high harmonics; excellent.

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.

Freely improvised music from the masterful duo of Canadian saxophonist Fracois Carrier and drummer/percussionist Michel Lambert, performing live at Ryan's Bar in Stoke Newington, London in 2015, seven tracks showing the depth of discussion between these two long collaborating musicians, supporting and pushing each other to great heights.

After his duo release with John Stevens, Norwegian saxophonist continues his series of partnerships by joining with saxophonist Sabir Matten for an album recorded in New York City, 10 improvisation that show how their complementary style propel each into unique territory of intertwining, propulsive, and creative playing.

Four fascinating compositions by Pascale Criton exploring microtonalities on instruments tuned in 1/16th tone (violin, viola, guitar) based on gestural processes developed in close collaboration with the musicians: one duo with Silvia Tarozzi and Deborah Walker, one solo piece with Deborah Walker, and two pieces performed by Dedalus Ensemble.

NY Composer and Zs founder Alex Mincek's first release since 2011 also launches Sound American's Young Composer Portrait series, presenting 4 chamber works--"Pendulum VII"; selected movements from "Harmonielehre"; "Pneuma"; and "Torrent"--performed by Wet Ink Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, and Yarn/Wire, in a deluxe hardcover book package with interviews and notes.

A live recording from Kongsberg Jazzfestival in 2017 between frequent collaborators, Norwegian improviser Frode Gjerstad on reeds and Chicago improviser Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and electronics, their second FMR album as a duo, alongside their work in the Cello Quartet and VCDC, showing the progression of their dynamic and fascinating dialog.

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.

Two of Downtown NY's most innovative performers collaborate for an album placing the rich acoustic piano work of Craig Taborn beside the slippery electronics of Ikue Mori, the result of their live performances that started at New York's Village Vanguard in 2016 and leading to this album, which presents a set of 11 unique and sophisticated dialogs.

Two guitarists -- Gyan Riley and Julian Lage -- perform 10 lyrical John Zorn compositions inspired by Shakespeare and written for the moon, a symbol of love, lust, madness and dreams, as the two guitarists play in unison and interweaving figures, a beautiful album of contemplative, refined and elegant works from one of New York's most prolific composers.

Actually four quartet improvisations and two duets, London creative improvisers Peter Urpeth on piano, Olie Brice on bass, Terry Day on drums and Ntshuks Bonga on saxophone took to Cafe Oto in January, 2017, to record this excellent album of collective free improvisation drawing on decades of experience in an absorbing and engaging concert.

The peforming duo of Tokyo pianist Yoko Miura on conventional piano, toy piano and melodica, and free improvising vocalist Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg are recorded in the studio for 14 succinct and unusual improvisations, Fou Records leader Jean-Marc Foussat recording the affair and providing electronics on one track; wonderfully weird and informed.

Two pianists dedicate to their instruments at the Gallus Hall of Cankarjev Dom during the 57th Jazz Festival Ljubljana: Paris-based pianist Eve Risser (Umlaut, En-Corps, &c) and Slovenian pianist Kaja Draskler (I/O, Draskler Octet, &c.), to record these inventive duos, weaving their keys together or working inside and out of the piano in incredible sonic approaches.

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.

Two generations and two monumental masters of free improvisation from Europe and New York joined together at the unerhort!-Festival Rote Fabrik Zurich in 2015 to unleash this technically awesome and ebullient duo in a fantastic concert of dynamic power, lyrical insight, intense rhythmic support and counterpoint, and profound musical ideas; incredible!

The 25 year collaboration of Norwegian free improvisers Frode Gjerstad on saxophones and clarinets and drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love, starting with Circulasione Totale Orchestra and best experienced in their duo recordings, here in an album dedicated to Frode's close friend and musical colleague, pianist and accordion player Elvin One Pedersen.

Spacious improvisations from the French duo of guitarist Jean-Sebastien Mariage and double bassist David Chiesa, slowly unfolding discussions of subtle nuance and contemplative colors.

Eight free improvisations recorded in the studio from London improvisers, guitarist Daniel Thompson and flautist Neil Metcalf, recorded and presented in the order played to maintain the familiar dialog and sense of adventure between two frequent collaborators.

A quirky and ingenious duo from two saxophonists using extended techniques: Alipio C. Neto on soprano sax and Thelmo Cristovam on C-melody sax, using the reeds, body and breath to create an unusual and uncommon dialog.

An impressive, creative, startling meeting between Japanese trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and German double bassist Alexander Frangenheim, taking Tamura out of his more typical structured improv and Frangenhemin into more active and agressive styles than his Creative Sources output; a great album reminding just how fun and awe inspiring free improvised music can be.

"Now, two duos with the participation of Udo Schindler, German multi-instrumentalist who has been paying particular attention to bass and bass variants of the clarinet, but also uses the soprano saxophone and, in "Empty Pigenhole", the ...

A beautiful album of darkly lyrical jazz duos from Israeli saxophonist and bass clarinetist Albert Beger and collaborator and member of the Albert Beger Quartet Shay Hazan, on double bass and guimbri, for seven pieces recorded in the studio: 6 improvised works and the composed piece "Cycles".

Nine freely improvised introspections as "enlightening spots on different forms of life in a rather muddy environment" from Lucerne, Switzerland based tenor saxophonist Elio Amberg and pianist Christoph Baumann, wonderful miniatures of great style and skill, a diverse exploration of their fictional pond that's quite spellbinding and exciting.