Vocalist and electronic artist Lynn Cassier leads the "Yun" project, a sextet including fellow Octurn saxophonist Bo Van der Werf, plus two keyboardists (Erik Vermeulen & Jozef Dumoulin), bassist Manolo Cabras and drummer Marek Patrman, as she rearranges 12 pieces from the American Songbook, applying unique electroacoustic harmonic and rhythmic structures.

Collecting works from 2010-2017, Squidco's own Phil Zampino presents 10 tracks of electroacoustic composition sourced from studio work, live improvisation, field recordings, plunderphonics, and other indescribable approaches, a diverse set of recordings sharing a similar foreboding aesthetic and curious sonic desire.

Combining the work of 18 artists chosen to interpret a series of sacred rites that took place deep within the woods by an elite shaman of an Amazon tribe, including Squidco's own Carl Kruger & phil zampino, Cheval Gris (Ryan Lewis) weaves an incredible story in sound, a virtual soundtrack of rich aural environments, concrete elements, and ritualistic sound.

Thanos Chrysakis with Dario Villega and Oli Mayne in improvised set using electronics, prepared pianos, percussion, &c, a colored palimpset of sound.

A 5-part electroacoustic improvisation from the UK duo of electronic and sound artist Thanos Chyrsakis and reedist Chris Cundy, the former using laptop computer, synthesizers, and copicat tape echo to create mesmerizing sheens of sound that circle and complement Cundy's bass clarinet, who also performs on megaphone, voice changer, zither, & objects; entrancing and captivating.

Cilantro is the duo of multi-instrumentalists Angelica Castello on paetzold, ukulele, organ, tapes, & electronics, and Billy Roisz on electric bass, organ, tv, piezzo, computer & electronics, scrutinizing the activity in bordering areas between noise and silence, tenderness and rudeness, beat and drone, inner consciousness and outer awareness, control and freedom.

Jay Crockers follows the allure of salvage from six years of recordings, taking sketches and mini-improvs and organizing them into a large and unusual sonic journey.

Using violin, viola, synth and effect pedals, Portuguese string player Maria da Rocha creates rich environments of sound and unusual rhythmic structures over which she plays with subtlety and transcendence, in her first solo album, using her unique language as she tells the story of a beet and a witch, inspired by Odyssey Ulysses and Circe from Cortazar.

An exquisite and mysterious album of free improvisation merging acoustic and subtle electroacoustic elements, from the trio of Bertrand Denzler on tenor saxophone, Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Abdul Moimeme on electric guitar & objects, recording in the studio for this extensive work in four parts that transitions between moments of transfixing sound and cautious motion.

An electroacoustic octet drawn from the collaborative community surrounding Creative Sources, captured live during the Small Format Materials Festival at Galeria Monumental, in Lisbon in 2019, a subtle and substantial work of intimate tension and quietly detailed interaction, seemingly minimalistic yet dynamically a narrative evolution of sublime patience.

An extended improvisation of mostly quiet, occasionally cantankerous, but always intriguing free music, primarily acoustic playing with a strong cast of string players, plus reeds, keys, and computer, creating suspenseful music of great tension and impressive restraint as the sound evolves in gradations and facets of sound.

An anniversary release for the 10 year collaboration of Ease, the duo of Klaus Filip and Noid, using Filip's ppooll software (formerly lloopp) to tailor both pure electronic sound and modified field recordings into subtle and mysterious sound environments.

Upper Manhattan's ecstatic blues- and Bailey-influenced acousto-electric improvising band in a 3" release of exultant, exotic and unusual music.

Lowercase free improvisation from the duo of Sabine Ercklentz and Andrea Neumann performing on trumpet and a specially designed amplified piano frame, recording 5 detailed and mysteriously constructed works using space and structure in intriguing sound work.

ppooll sound artist Klaus Filip and Japanese experimental vocalist Moe Kamura (10Tet, Taku Sugimoto) in a two-part improvisation of electronic tones, textures, silence, and minimalist vocalization and utterance, Filip using a dynamic frequency palette inspiring Kamura's wordless expression; lowercase or Onkyo, a meditative and moody work.

Primarily a creative filmmaker, Blick here provides narrative improvisation--phonemes, gutturals, word fragments, and spoken word--over improvising keyboardist Jean-Marc Foussat's Synthi AKS, creating expansive landscapes or curious audio aberrations, through four recordings demonstrating a diverse set of sonic environments interweaving voice and sound.

The EMS Synthi AKS was introduced in 1972 as a portable analog synthesizer, used in many avant rock & electronic settings; on Spielgelungen both Jean-Marc Foussat and Thomas Lehn perform on the Synthi, their adept skills and experience with the instrument in free improv highlight both their incredible creative drive and the flexibility of the AKS.

Fraqx, the Netherlands duo of guitarists Jacq Palinckx and Frank Crijns, both on electric guitar and "devices", debut their collaboration with this 7-part journey of rich deformations, from raw visceral energy to subdued experimentation, a diverse set of textures and powerful playing from two players with a long history of unusual improvisation.

Two compositions--"Unbearable" and "Nauseating"Ð-from the synth & electronics trio of Ken Ganfield, Kurt Liedwart and Petr Vrba, starting with improvisations on three synthesizers and electronics brought to the extreme edge, the results remixed by Liedwart to create these outer limit tracks of sci-fi psychedelia and Gameboy nightmare; truly unique and disquieting music.

...

...

"While the previous Garcia/Branche CD seemed also improvised to me, this five-person work is of the two the more improvised one. The quintet of players also like their sounds to be sustaining, placing bows on strings, but also motorized...

A subtle album of soundscape from the French trio of Violaine Gestalder on saxophones, Louis Michel Marion on double bass, and Stefania Becheanu on field recordings, depicting 3 virtual aural views of a single landscape, the field recordings conveying a sense of location as the bass and sax use extended techniques and subliminal playing to create their vista.

French clarinetist Jean-Brice Godet leads the trio of bassist Pascal Niggenkemper and drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq in a live album of abstract free improvisation using tools like radios, dictaphones, object, and zithers, creating powerfully unique sound worlds.

Andre Gonvalves, known for the ADDAC System brand of modular synthesizers and several devices for electronic music, in a solo album combining analog and digital sounds and tools, processing of field recordings and ready-made materials, a rich and beautiful work.

DC electronic explorer Chester Hawkins releases this limited edition album of 50 copies shaped in a metal bullet that unscrews to reveal a USB drive with more than 4 hours of extended forays into psychedelic electronics, synth and tabletop guitar, journeys of hard drone & abstract concrete elements, in mp3 & wav format with a pdf, housed in a handsome black case.

Electro-psychedelic explorer Chester Hawkins presenting two live performances in Washington DC -- one recorded in isolation at Intangible Arts' studio (4th September 2018) and one in public at Rhizome community arts space (8th September 2018) -- improvised autopsies of Lutoslawski's String Quartet by means of three granular synth engines and one tape-edit/concrete emulator.

The meeting of Johnny Chang (viola), Jamie Drouin (suitcase modular synth), Dominic Lash (double bass), Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga(zither, and David Ryan (bass clarinet) recording at Bourough welsh Congregational Chapel, in London in 2013, recorded by Another Timbre label leader Simon Reynell, for a unique merging of disparate approaches to ea-improv.

"HumaNoise Tutti is an opportunity to hear Rodrigues in a large group that's not of his own devising-though there is often such complex and varied activity here, it would be misleading to evaluate it in the context of any one individual...

Sonic sources of a wide variety of timbre, rhythm and tone, mixed with voice, feedback, even bird sounds, make up the strata of this intriguing album from Oslo Improvisers Agnes Hvizdalek (voice), Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard (electric bass, electronics, field recordings), Utku Tavil (snare drum, no input mixer, sampler), and Natali Abrahamsen Garner (voice, electronics).

Sonic sources of a wide variety of timbre, rhythm and tone, mixed with voice, feedback, even bird sounds, make up the strata of this intriguing album from Oslo Improvisers Agnes Hvizdalek (voice), Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard (electric bass, electronics, field recordings), Utku Tavil (snare drum, no input mixer, sampler), and Natali Abrahamsen Garner (voice, electronics).

With discographies reaching back to the 80s, the trio of Beat Unternahrer on trombone and Furst-Pless-Horn, Jan Schacher on contrabass, objects and voice, and Pelayo Arrizabalaga, known for his reed work, on turntables and sine-generator, create 16 mostly improvised, succinct works that are influenced by free jazz, ea-improv, and sonic composition.

With references to "Robinson Crusoe" and titles referencing islands, the sea and shipwrecks, Argentinian guitarist living in Brooklyn, NY, Luis Ianes (Parias Ensemble) records his album that roughly translates to "Useful Ancient Constructions", using effects to create percussive, accompanying, and aquatic sounds, sometimes idiosyncratic, always interesting.

IKB, a ten-piece reductionist electroacoustic ensemble of strings, reeds, guitar, computer, percussion, piano, drums & objects, continues their exploration of exotic animal species with this 2020 live performance at O'Culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, Portugal, detailing the long-billed shore bird Limosa through intricate, restrained and remarkable expression.

Portugal's IKB Ensemble is an electracoustic improvising ensemble with a strong string and wind section, balanced with electric guitar, electronics, and percussion, each album focusing on an object--an art work, Dracaena Draco (Dragon Tree), Chelonoidis Nigra (Giant Tortoise)--and here taking on the Ornithorhynchus Anatinus, or platypus, in 3 fascinating movements.

Recorded at CreativeFest#12 in Lisbon at O'Culto de Ajuda, the 21-piece electroacoustic ensemble Isotope takes on the chemical element Radium in a gripping piece of evolving improvisation, intensely restrained and extremely detailed, orchestrated with cello, baroque violin, double bass, acoustic & electric guitars, zither, psaltery, winds, brass, keys, electronics and percussion.

Petr Vrba and Veronika Mayer use non-idiomatic improvisation to research the combination of textural materials, crossing them with vibrations of objects on the speakers, pure sound waves, feedbacks, tones coming from trumpet, accordion, electronics, and laptop, culminating in the creation of a muscular frenetic soup of tense energy fields.

Sporting a strange sense of humor and blending rock and improvisation, instrumentally this Amsterdam is the duo of Raphael Vanoli on guitar, synth, & electronics and Gerri Jager on drums, synths, & electronics, with Sandor Caron providing sound design, here in an album of stylistic amalgamations of unexpected and upbeat rhythmic oddity and fun melodic inventiveness.

Aberrant experiments with a stereo DJ mixer from Herbal International label leader Goh Lee Kwang, 5 tracks of unexpected sounds, micro-drills, crackles, purrs, hums, buzzes, quirks and bleeps from the mixer itself, performed live with no overdubs or pre-programming.

A work for heavy electronic drone and glitch, Herbal International Label founder Goh Lee Kwang presents this live performance from Malaysia's Finders Art Space in Kuala Lumpur, for 36 minutes of mysterious intensity that settles and fills the listening space like a pall.

Early recordings from Lab Coast (Chris Dadge and David Laing) from an odd session of improvisation recorded to cassette and restored for the band's debut release.

The debut of this reconfigured Boston-area trio drawn from the Leap of Faith lineup, starting with the core duo of PEK on clarinets, saxophones, clarinets & flutes, and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice, with guest Eric Woods on synth and percussion, the trio using heavy percussion and electronics gear in a unique journey of extended freeform improvisation.

Kurt Liedwart creates a personal journey through multiplicity of intense abstract layers of electronic and synthetic sound, constructing atmospheres of dronescapes, and cryptic songs, keeping the listener on edge in this album of intense "Tones" wrought from sythesizers, electronics, light controlled electronics, electromagnetic devices, and radio.

A live concert at Dom Cultural Center in Moscow, Russia in 2015 from Norwegian tuba player Martin Taxt, Saint Petersburg violinist and object player Andrey Popovskiy, and ppool performer Kurt Liedwart focusing on sinewaves and noise, in an extended lowercase improvisation exploring harmonic and microtonal sounds.

Moscow sound experimenter Phil Raymond, recording with computers and percussions, is resampled live by Moscow musician Kurt Liedwart on lloopp, electronics & percussion, to create these 5 darkly ambient tracks merging organized and improvised approaches.

Visual artists Maria Lucchese is also a multi-instrumentalist and voice performer based in Berlin, working with Gio Kaptra, a filmmaker, visual artist and scientist based in Urbino, take their listeners on a 7 part cosmic exploration using tibetan bells, theremin, voice, modular synth, breath and sound processing, the title translating to "through hardships to the stars".

A 5-part work of improvisations on keyboards, voice, guzheng and flute from French improviser Jean-Marc Foussat and Bao Luo (Beijing Talking), a mysterious album of nocturnal sounds, grand expressions, furtive language, and rich textures and timbres, as Bao Luo provides a guiding voice in song and speach to their beguiling dialog; an exotic and expressive album.

Maria da Rocha's name may not be familiar to jazz and improvised music lovers in Portugal, and this is because this violinist and violist from Lisbon has worked mainly on the Berlin and Stockholm circuits and much of her dedication goes...

The fourth collaboration between electronic composer Rutger Zuydervelt, aka Machinefabriek, and violinist, violist and vocalist Anne Bakker, in a work that merges and contrasts Bakker's string work and wordless vocals with soundscape, obscured field recordings and concrete sounds, using consonance and dissonance to create emotional pressure and release.

Translating to "Black Manner", saxophonist and electroacoustic artist Francesco Massaro, a member of the Italian band Bestiario, presents a dark and troubling album of intense and power solo saxophone and acousmatic accompaniment, which he refers to as "fixed media", each of the 8 pieces referencing musicians including Lenoci, La Volpe, &c.; enigmatic and superb.

One of the most prolific Evil Clown ensembles, Metal Chaos Ensemble distinguishes itself through the use of Gongs, chimes, glockenspiel, Tibetan Bowls and many other metallic sounds, with horns, compositions and narratives by multi-reedist PEK, in a rhythm-heavy fantastical journey in a septet with Moouse Traore on djembe and Mike Gruen on Azoth and Basilisk.

Each of these Boston-area improvisers handles an arsenal of equipment in the Metal Chaos Ensemble of David Peck (PEK) on reeds, synth, & daxophone, Bob Moores on synths & laptop, Eric Woods on synth, metal & wood, Abby on bass & electronics, and Yuri Zbitnoff on drums & percussion, in a massive work of detailed and passionate electroacoustics over PEK's large synthetic mix.

Metal Chaos Ensemble, formed in 2015 as a working project to explore rhythms on metallic instruments guided by rules-based chaotic systems of a very large number of small components, in a quintet studio recording using three dedicated drummers, reeds, electronics, and accompanying "tape" mixes, resulting in epic, inspired and wonderfully unpredictable improvisation.

PEK and Yuri Zbitnov lead the Metal Chaos Ensemble, here in a septet rendering of this Boston-area free improvising group that embraces an impressive arsenal of percussive, electronic and acoustic instruments, using unique strategies to yield densely active and eerily surreal music, an incredible excursion through experimental improvisation.

One of the most prolific Evil Clown ensembles, Metal Chaos Ensemble distinguishes itself through the use of Gongs, chimes, glockenspiel, Tibetan Bowls and many other metallic sounds, with horns, compositions and narratives by multi-reedist PEK, in a rhythm-heavy fantastical journey in a septet with Moouse Traore on djempe and Mike Gruen on Azoth and Basilisk.

This Boston-area collective ensemble explores chaotic rhythms on metallic instruments, heard in this 2019 recordings with three horns, doubled percussion and electronics, analog synthesis, and driving drum and bass work from Yuri Zbitnov and Mike Gruen, leveraging the Evil Clown arsenal of percussive devices as they perform an extended improvisations covering a wide scope of sonority and concept.

Guitarist Andy Moor of The Ex plays his guitar while electronic artist Kaffe Matthews reprocesses the sounds live into loops, drones, and static buzz, allowing Moor to respond to the manipulated sounds.

...

Gordon Beeferman and Dafna Naphtali perform duet pieces and improvisations for piano and voice with kinetic sound processing, fractal rhythms, and polyphonic/kaleidophonic disturbances, as Beeferman creates solid structures which are augmented by Naphtali's live processing, while she employs extended vocal techniques and hand & voice activated electronics.

...

Two large compositions by Montreal bassist Éric Normand, the first in a quintet with Camille Brisson, Antoine Simard, Marc-Antoine Mackin and Sébastien Maltais, using electronics, objects and motors; the second an acoustic work performed by the Quasar saxophone quartet of Marie-Chantale Leclerc, Mathieu Leclerc, André Leroux & Jean-Marc Bouchard.

A concise and essential concert from the Octopus octet, recorded in performances at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, Portugal during the Creativefest XII, the ensemble of mostly acoustic instrumentation (cello, viola, flute, clarinet, classical guitar, piano, percussion and synthesizer) carefully evolving a shade of blue in subtle details of tense restraint.

Takamitsu Ohta, known for his work with artists Anne-F Jacques & Ryoko Akama, in three unexpected recordings using the microphone and speaker of small devices with recording and playback ability, from five to fifteen such linked devices creating surprisingly stacatto and expressive voices from feedback, each piece aptly named for the resulting articulation each combination creates.

Unusual glitch and extreme electronics improvised by the duo of New York artist Dominic Cole and Chicago/NY artist Hunter Brown (Sound Tribe Sector Nine), using approaches including glitch, noise & circuit bending in 9 pieces with tongue-in-cheek titles, balancing erratic moments with exploratory sections and near silence, an interesting and enigmatic album of aberrant electronics.

Using a reel to reel deck, a mixer, electronics, and extraneous room sound, Brooklyn-based Ben Owens creates an album of contrasting drones and spaces, harmonically rich or pure tones contrasting with slowly drawn tape and abstract environmental sound, bringing enigmatic moments amidst drifting hiss and subliminal resonance; mysterious and intriguing.

Chicago born, Brooklyn-based saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson performs live at The Bunker on baritone saxophone, accompanying himself on analog synthesizer, using arpeggiated and repeating structures over which he improvises lyrical work using extended techniques including circular breathing, multiphonics, and overtones to great effect.

Evil Clown mastermind David Peck (PEK) in a double album of solo work, 1st pure solo, then in a long work accompanied by his own prepared mixes, using clarinets, saxophones, English horn, goat horn, tarota, bamboo, Chistmas & alto flutes, slide whistles, sheng, Melodica, Akai Wind controller, moog subsequent, gongs, brontosaurus & tank bells, Englephone, and delay.

A great example of the state of David Peck (PEK)'s approach to improvisation & arsenal of instruments, in an epic solo work merging acoustic and electronic sources with an unhurried path in a coherent long-form improvisation using reeds, sheng, fog horn, game calls, gongs, chimes, crotales, daxophone, [d]ronin, mpa 019, therimin, aquasonic, loops, & signal processing.

Two discs of solo work from Boston-area reedist, composer and Evil Clown collective leader David Peck (PEK), the first CD with 3 tracks, each focusing on a unique instrument from David Peck's large arsenal, in this case the bass tromboon, a C flute and a contrabass clarinet; the second a large improvisation using a mix from the first recordings along with live signal processing.

The fourth PEK Solo effort of 2020 finds Boston-area reedist David Peck in a virtual duo with himself, using a digital delay in a call and response on a single instrument - the tenor saxophone - his primary horn for a large part of his early history, demonstrating his current improvisational thinking & language on his most familiar instrument.

Approaching his solo work with new compositional strategies, multi-reedist and percussionist David Peck uses time and texture as the principal organizational elements in 9 pre-mixed recordings over which PEK was allowed more flexibility and freedom in instrumental choice during performance, using a vast collection of instruments in dramatic improvisations.

David Peck, aka PEK, took advantage of the down time from his typically busy performance schedule with the Boston-area collective of bands centered around Leap of Faith to record a number of solo performances, using a variety of reed and wind instruments and the arsenal of unusual percussive instruments at his disposal, recording the 3 full CDs of new material presented in this set.

"Siete Colores presents a trio of Rodrigues' viola and the dual electric guitars of Moimeme and Argentinean Fernando Perales (perhaps best known for the group Reynols with Anla Courtis). As "23 44'00"S 65 29'00" O" opens what's immediat...

The Berlin-based electroacoustic Red List Ensemble founded by cellist Guilherme Rodrigues in a studio recording of the 3-part "Scope", improvised music created in real time using extensive techniques to create and raise tension in a game of contrasts, exploring orchestration in micro-groups through organization of surfaces that are opposed in terms of timbre and sound texture.

New Haven instrumentalist Carl Testa and Chicago guitarist Christopher Riggs in a large composition for prepared electric guitar and live electronic processing that references Ashley, Stockhausen and Braxton while manipulating one's sense of time, space, and memory.

Franck Vigroux's performance at Museum de la Mine, Saint Etienne, France in 2012, performed without an audience, dramatic textural sound work in an impressive and twisted industrial setting.

Portuguese guitarist Manolo Rodriguez chose these 9 pieces from about 8 hours of improvised music, recorded on a Gibson acoustic guitar with piezo microphones on various parts of the guitar, passed through effects and finally controlled by a mixer, intended as a tribute to "the sense of sight as an intermediary of thought, and to artists who, with their eyes, have changed the world."

...

Recorded in the studio in 2017, "Cyclic Symmetry" presents an electroacoustic trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, and CS mainstay Carlos Santos on field recordings, in a minimal work suggested to be heard on infinite loop, contrasting deep silence with sections accenting the slow, interwining harmonics of both Rodrigues' string work.

Two sets across two nights during CreativeFest #12 at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, Portugal, in a septet of six acoustic sources--viola, cellos, flute, trumpet, piano and percussion--and electronics, an extended journey approached with quiet tension and incredible detail, the recording of the first set used as the basis for the 2nd to create a virtual ensemble.

1. Plane, Line Segments, Rays And Some Dissipations 49:49

1 Macaronesia 36:52

French double bassist Fred Marty joins Creative Sources core performers, violist Ernesto Rodrigues, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues and electronic artist Carlos Santos for an extensive improvisation exploring both lyrical and pointillistic improvisation, themed loosely around a garden quartet or frame, the music detailed, active and formidably sophisticated.

A lowercase meeting of strings, objects, microphones and computer between core Creative Sources members Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, and Karne Decorne (objects) and Simon Proffitt (microphones & computer), investigating microsound in four unhurried conversations that include moments of odd interjections, tones, and timbre.

Recorded on New Years Eve in Sintra in the Penedo region of Portugal, three strings--viola from Ernesto Rodrigues, cello from Guilherme Rodrigues, and a second cello from Miguel Mira--are joined by Carlos Santos on electronics for three extended and richly detailed improvisations, active yet concentratively controlled, using impressive and extended techniques.