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.

Performing on the family of clarinets, reedists Michael Marcus and Perry Robinson recorded this album in 2016 in New Haven with drummer Jay Rosen, performing three Marcus and one Rosen composition, weaving their playing in a balanced triangle of sound, Rosen's diverse rhythmic approaches — mallets, drum kit, brush work — adding warmth and energy to a well-balanced album.

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.

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.

The opening and closing tracks from the new Blazing/Freezing album on a 7" single by the genre-merging Downtown NY trio of Sam Day Harmet (mandolin), Sana Nagano (violin) and Zachary Swanson (upright bass) deconstructing Americana roots music by slicing and dicing it with jazz/improv, electronica, sample sources, and inexplicable errata.

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.

Two Chicago improvising cellists--Tomeka Reid & Fred Lonberg-Holm--explore the repertoire for cello music in jazz, presenting works by Fred Katz ("Pluck It"), Sam Jones ("In Walked Ray"), Ron Carter ("Rally") and Harry Babsin ("Monti-Cello"), adding 3 new, original works by Fred Lonberg-Holm and a piece by Tomeka Reid paying homage to bassist Charles Mingus & violinist Billy Bang.

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Vocalist Paul Dutton in a release of "richly textured multiphonic vocal virtuosity, laced with rasps, rumbles, honks, howls, and wheezes" featured in both structured and improvised tracks.

Intricate and exciting improvisation from Barcelona improvisers Michal Dymny on electric guitar and Vasca Trilla on drums, with saxophonist Paulina Owczarek as a special guest; "cave canem" translates to "beware of dog", an apt description of their cutting interactions.

The 8th release on Confront's Core series of factory-pressed CDs brings together improvisers Max Eastley, Fergus Kelly and Mark Wastell, employing electroacoustic devices, invented instruments, metal percussion, a piano frame and tam tam to create a rich and mysterious sound world, darkly hopeful emanations in a nighttime traversal across unknown lands.

Electronic improvisations from Formian reed & electronics artist Fega, a member of Taxonomy with Elio Martusciello, as well as IATO and IXEM, Pangolino Orchestra, &c.

Including six of his own compositions, a work by Sylvie Courvoiser and Ornette Coleman's "Peace Warrior", New York violin virtuoso Mark Feldman's new solo album, recorded in the studio in Brooklyn, is a touchpoint to his skills and creative imagination today, 26 years after his first solo album, displaying a profound ability to engage and inspire his listeners.

Electricity and metal trash object meet in a banging and sparking session of minimal improvisation from percussionist Elisabeth Flunger and electronic artist Tomas Tello.

Fred Frith's solo performances are amongst some of his most fascinating, and this live album at Ateliers Claus in Brussels, 2018 does not disappoint, Frith using every inch of his guitar and an arsenal of objects, in tandem with his masterful creative intent, to present an extended and fascinating journey in sound, remarkable in its breadth and bold inventive power.

This album documents guitarist Fred Frith and saxophonist John Butcher's first head-to-head encounter in a recording studio, two titans of their instruments playing without overdubs in a single session for remarkable creative and sonic results.

Drummer Tomas Fujiwara's sextet is actually two trios interacting, with fellow drummer Gerald Cleaver, both Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook on guitar, and Taylor Ho Bynum on cornet and Ralph Alessi on trumpet, the pairings forming unisons and contrasts that add an unrestrained sense of enthusiasm and excitement to Fujiwara's sophisticated compositions.

A fierce display of raw free improvisation from a concert that closed the open-minded and essential New York City venue Tonic in 2007, from the the Full Blast trio of Peter Brotzmann on reeds, Marino Pliakas on electric bass, and Michael Wertmuller on drums, playing to a receptive and excited crowd, with Brotzmann speaking to the audience before the final burner.

A uniquely voiced duo album from Netherlands improvisers, electric guitarist Arvind Ganga and sax & bass clarinetist Riccardo Marogna also performing on electronics, taking their dialog into unusual territory while maintaining a clear thread on jazz-influenced modes, creating an exotic combination that often takes unexpected narrative turns; fascinating.

The first meeting between the Austrian duo of bass clarinetist Susanna Gartmayer and Christof Kurzmann, here using ppool software, voice and rubber band, creating 4 elusive and immersive works that float somewhere in the void between experimental electronics, improvisation and song, creating diaphanous tension and mysterious environments; spellbinding.

The latest project from Rafal Gorzycki, leader of "Ecstasy Project" & "Sing Sing Penelope", here with music composed for poems and inspired by modern electronic, jazz and chamber music.

Hard-edged NYC free jazz in a limited EP CD release from the trio of alto saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos, bassist Luke Stewart and drummer & composer Devin Gray, who explains that the music reflects "the modern world we're all trying to live in, with that odd mix of the comfortable and uncomfortable", as heard in the edgy and dynamic power of his group.

Volden and Gronvold are two Oslo-based improvising acoustic tabletop guitarists whose work focuses on textures and timing creating large and impressionistic soundscapes.

Influenced by experimental and electroacoustic practices, Hansen & Krakowiak attack and disseminate turntables and percussion through improvisations built on layers of sound and interpolated instrumentation.

Unusual improvisational forms from the quartet of saxophonist Paul Hartsaw, guitarist Kristian Aspelin, bassist Damon Smith and percussionist Jerome Byrerton, recording in Oakland, CA in 2006.

Swiss saxophonist & composerChristoph Irniger extends his long-running trio of bassist Raffaele Bossard and drummer Ziv Ravitz with Brooklyn alto saxophonist Loren Stillmand and German trombonist Nils Wogram, combining arrangement and improvisation in the jazz tradition, performed with inventive clarity and a strong regard for melody, making this an upbeat and creative album of modern jazz.

Part of a sound installation and exhibition of sculptural work by Reinhard Reitzenstein, the Test Tubes perform with strings, glass instruments, and unique instruments to create music of unusual and complex timbral combinations.

Guitarist Kim Johannesen and clarinetist Svein Magus Furu in a set of works with interacting tonalities that rely almost completely on texture, tones, scraping, &c..

Bassist J.C. Jones brings together science & music, enabling an evocative window into the illness MS by making the vibrations of myelin protein audible, over which Jones, Yoni Silver, Harold Rubin, Airel Shibolet, &c. improvise.

Pianist Dirar Kalash is a Palestinian performer, whos concerts combine free improvisation, text, sound, image, video and movement; opportunities to record and perform are rare, but on a visit to the UK in 2020 Simon Reynell (Another Timbre) was able to record these two extended and exemplary improvisations at St Paul's Hall at the University Of Huddersfield.

A quirky and fascinating duo of unusual instrumentation from Ute Wasserman's voice & whistles, and Aleks Kokowski on stroh instrumements (viola, violin), noseflute, bird calls, musical saw, &c..

A live recording from the Vilnius Jazz and Music of Silent Film Festival in 2016, performing for an adaptation of the silent film "The Lost World" by Arturas Jevdokimovas, by the trio of Martin Kuchen on sax & flute, Mark Tokar on bass, and Arkadijus Goesmanas on drums.

Evocatively drawing on the exotic sounds and rigorous tenacity of the Middle East, The Sprezzatura Ensemble of Esti Kenan Ofri on voice, Jean Claude Jones on lap-style Spanish guitar and Oren Fried on drums and percussion, particularly classical & traditional drums & ringing tambourine bells, present five freely improvised chants recorded in Jerusalem between 2017-18.

Montreal multi-wind instrumentalist Pierre Labbe (Les Projectionnistes, L'Orkestre des Pas Perdus, Papa Boa) leads an insanely talented and quirky quartet with guitarist Bernard Falaise, drummer Pierre Tanguay, and narrator/storyteller Michel Faubert, creating a captivating album that transcends language in it's superb pacing, development, and artistry.

Virtuoso UK bassist Ashley John Long presents a startling array of approaches and techniques on the double bass over 11 improvisations, from concise shorter presentations to expansive displays of skill, excitement or introspection, all with an ear to captivating his listener.

Referencing Wayne Shorter ("Footprints") and the lyrically free playing of Shorter's 60s influences, this 3rd album led by tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas, with the powerful support of pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Linda May Han Oh, and drummer Joey Baron, was recorded following a week at New York's Village Vanguard in January 2020.

Pianist and accordionist Joao Lucas' music for Andresa Soares' choreography "It was a very abstract thing", structured acoustic improvisation with a slight electronic edge.

A great example of British collective free jazz captured live at Iklectic in London in 2019 for two extended and wide-ranging performances--"Dial Tone I" & II--from the quartet of Sue Lynch (Remote Viewers, The Horse Improvised Music Club), Polish trumpeter based in London Dawid Frydryk, drummer Dave Fowler (Maggie Nichols) and the ever-active John Edwards on bass.

Phil Maguire (Verz label) exchanges abstract electronics from a variety of lo-fi devices with glitch and aberrant guitarist James L. Malone, a London improviser who has worked with Eddie Prevost, Phil Durrant, Steve Beresford and Adam Bohman, as the two trade strange sonic disruptions, avoiding pandemonium, instead using noise in pointed discourse.

Pianist and composer Brian Marsella leads an all-star octet including Cyro Baptista, Mark Feldman, Jon Irabagon performing Marsella's lyrical and upbeat compositions inspired by classical, jazz, and folkloric Brazilian music and influenced by composers from Ernesto Nazareth, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Pixinguinha to Baden Powell and Egberto Gismonti; irrepressible!

Authoritative and playful free improvisation in the European Free Jazz style, this 1978 album on Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink's Instant Composers Pool (ICP) label, included the pianist and drummer along with Peter Brotzmann, Peter Bennink and Evan Paker on sax, Paul Rutherford on trombone, and Derek Bailey on guitar, in a much-need reissue of this seminal album.

Combining concerts from a number of festivals and venues between 2009 & 2017, this album presents the best of the collaboration between London free improvising vocalist Phil Minton and Austrian turntablist and experimenter Dieb13, each of them masterfully unleashed in overwhelmingly creative, outlandish, sometimes frightening/sometimes uproarious, truly unique music.

Continuing her series of large works inspired by the dystopic writings of Octavia E. Butler, composer and flutist Nicole Mitchell assembles Chicago improvisers including cellist Tomeka Reid, percussionist Avreeayl Ra, trumpeter Ben LaMar Gay and interdisciplinary artist Lisa E. Harris to explore facets of Butler's Parable of the Sower.

"Distant Radio Transmission" was originally recorded as an improvisation by Roscoe Mitchell, Craig Taborn, and Kikanju Baku in 2013, then transcribed by Stephen P. Harvey in 2016, extended for strings by John Ivers in 2017, and then fully orchestrated by Roscoe Mitchell himself in 2017; the album also includes "Noonah Trio", "Cutouts for Woodwind Quintet" and "8/8/88".