Three consummate improvisers--Catherine Jauniaux on voice, Xavier Charles on clarinet and Jean-Sebastien Mariage on electric guitar--met at la Muse en Circuit in Alfortville, France after touring, recording this authoritative version of their profound and extended work, which uses lyrics excerpted from Marguerite Duras' 1971 cinematic novel L'amour.

Twelve studio improvisations between Kadima-label leader JC Jones playing on a lap-steel plugged in Spanish guitar and French guitarist & improviser Raymond Boni, also performing on harmonica and electronics, where Jones, leveraging his history of work as a double bassist, often takes on the role of percussive/rhythmic foundation against Boni's incredible explorations.

The fifth in bassist, guitarist and Kadima label-leader JC Jones "Distance Series", works assembled through virtual sessions with associated artists, Jones performing on Spanish guitar which he plays as a lap guitar, on Nucleous creating a set of five unusual vocal works with internationally reknown vocalists Meira Asher, Esti Kenan-Ofri, Anat Pick and Josef Sprinzak.

Known for his guitar work, and more recently on the bass, here in an album of improvisation on the 5-string banjo and 4-string banjouke.

It was during this recording at the 2015 "zoom in" festival in Bern, Switzerland that AMM guitarist and improviser Keith Rowe made the decision to cease performing solo, affected by Parkinson's Disease, this being his final recording as he performed on lapstick guitar, Boss RC-3, Boss PS-3, six band EQ, Sony ICF-SW22 and Roberts R984 radios, 2 contact mics & a metal strip.

Three concisely plain compositions for guitar, two solo and one trio, are played only with open strings or natural harmonics, where all the tunings are respectively irregular, written by Tokyo-based guitarist and composer Taku Sugimoto and performed and recorded in St. Petersburg, Russia by guitarists Andrey Popovsky, Denis Sorokin and Alexander Markvart.

With an obvious pleasure at their pairing, both in the studio in Belgum in 2019 and at a live concert at A New Wave Of Jazz festival at the Hundred Years Gallery in London, 2020, acoustic guitartist Dirk Serries and multi-reedist Alan Wilkinson explore a range of styles and techniques through diverse melodic and abstract expression in pursuit of new forms of expression.

The 2nd live release from the duo of iconic American composer and minimalist pioneer Terry Riley and his guitarist/composer son Gyan Riley, comprised of spontaneous improvisations and compositions by both Terry and Gyan captured during three performances in Canada, Japan and the US, with Gyan performing on electric guitar and Terry Riley on piano, voice, melodica and electronics.

Swedish guitar improviser Jon Lipscomb (LOPLOP, Swedish Fix) takes his listeners on a rugged trip across the strings, using distortion, tremolo and rapid-fire technique as he mines territories between free improv, noise and rock, his nimble mind stopping to explore areas of interest then cascading into new, turbulent environments; frightfully powerful.

A recurring trio in New Orleans between touring percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and guitarists Rob Cambre (Malevitus, Rough Seven, The Death Posture) and Donald Miller (Borbetomagus) performing at Mudland Public Theatre in 2018 for two extended, gritty and ringing exchanges.

A reissue of the Bailey solo guitar cassette tape release of a 1983 concert in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from the same year, originally sold by Bailey in concert during his tour of Japan in the same year.

In 1980 Duck Baker's first label deal had expired and the label changed direction, as did Baker himself from arranging traditional tunes into compositions for improvisation; still, these well-recorded demos from 1982 held an appeal through song selection and a uniquely edgy yet lyrical approach to his playing, now finally released to the public 40 years later.

Multi-instrumentalist & experimental composer Weston Olencki in three historically-driven sound works, recording with saxophonist Anna Webber as they explore the tenor sax in jazz and recording studio technology; the banjo with bluegrass and the mechanized modernism of the Carolinas; and a pump organ with Sacred Harp hymnody and the aging marble industries of Vermont.

A series of concise noise explorations from Italian-born, Brooklyn-based guitarist Matteo Liberatore, more typically heard in composed and improv/experimental forms including work with Elliott Sharp & Weasel Walter, here in an assertive album of guitar-driven analog synthesis & noise using unusual structures, alien utterances and intense twists and turns.

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.

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.

With a common passion for the jazz guitar, from Jim Hall to Bill Frisell, from Rene Thomas to Brandon Ross, the core duo of Canadian improvisers, guitarist Louis Beaudoin-de la Sablonniere and bassist Éric Normand, are joined by drummer Tom Jacques for a set of original compositions plus a Paul Bley piece, one by Gilles Vigneault, and two collective improvisations.

Twelve pieces for guitar performed by Tim Brady, including three updated versions of previous pieces, new compositions by Brady, and four pieces composed by other artists.

A composition for solo 'modified guitar' from Swiss composer d'incise peformed by guitarist Cristian Alvear, music "at the confluence of sound, melody and rhythm. Something quiet but somehow driven by a pulse, existing somewhere between the electroacoustic and the tonal conceptions of music."

A double CD of delicate music from the French composer Bruno Duplant, the first disc containing three chamber pieces exquisitely played by the Suidobashi Chamber Ensemble, the second disc a long piece for solo guitar, performed by Taku Sugimoto in a public park in Tokyo, incorporating an extraordinary variety of environmental sounds.

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.

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.

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.

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

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..

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.

Kook is the duo of Norweigan guitarists Stian Larsen and Erik Ahlsen creating a series of improvised soundscapes using their guitars and live electronics; absorbing music of unusual tone, texture, and direction.

A state-of-the-art duo recording from two remarkable improvisers bridging New York and Spain - guitarist Joe Morris and pianist Agusti Fernandez - performing "Ambrosia" in 6 parts.

A recording of two London based improvisers of different generations communing in the resonant surroundings of the 100 Years Gallery, with drummer Noble creating glittering bell and gong like tones over which guitar Thompson hangs fractured harmonics and strange bending chords.

Guitarist Vitor Rua (GNR, Telectu) recorded the 15 pieces of this 2-CD set first as a series of overdubbed solo improvisations, using his virtuosic skills to create intriguing and compelling works, which he orchestrated and recorded with the quintet of Hernani Faustino on bass, Luis San Payo on drums, Manuel Guimaraes on organ, Nuno Reis on trumpet, and Paulo Galao on clarinets.

Former Sub Pop noise recording artist, guitarist Yonkers (Microminiature Love) in 11 tracks of ferocious and fierce effected electric guitar work.

Part of a series of 100 portraits in sound iniated by Anne James Chaton, a journey into the texts and columns of newspapaper and radio broadcasts of a single journalist.

A large work composed and arranged by Norwegian guitarist Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen for the 12-piece Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, this album shows Mollestad's increasing range in expressive work that extends boundaries between composed, improvised and rock music, with authoritative playing balancing serious concepts from pandemic or motherhood with playfully whimsical moments.

The third volume in John Zorn's "Olympiad" series is this solo performance in 2007 at the Kompo Cultural Center in Gyungee, Korea by Zorn associate and eccentrically eminent improviser Eugene Chadbourne, performing on electric and acoustic guitars as he interprets 15 compositions for improvisers from John Zorn's seminal 1976 series: The Book of Heads.

Contrasting the explosively experimental side to his guitar work honed through the No Wave band DNA with glimmers of the lyrical approaches to his work heard in his acclaimed songwriting albums, Brazlian/Downtown New York legend Arto Lindsay shows his wide range of interests through thirteen succinct pieces of noise and thoughtful reflection.

A relaxed and informed dialog between young generation Portuguese improvisers Tomás Marques on alto saxophone and Afonso Pais on guitar, demonstrating their experience from bands like L.U.M.E. and Joao Hasselberg / Pedro Branco, these five expressive and intuitively melodic improvisations were recorded by the artists in 2022 and are presented without edits.

A frequent collaborator with NY saxophonist and composer Tim Berne, French guitarist Marc Ducret takes on Berne's compositions, at times in multiple interpretations of the same work or by merging pieces together, performed with the superb support of trumpeter Fabrice Martinez, flutist Sylvaine Helary, trombonist Christiane Bopp and Ducret's son, cellist Bruno Ducret.

The first encounter in 2022 between two free improvising guitarists--Guillaume Gargaud, a French composer and improviser playing a 6 string guitar, and Finnish experimental improv guitarist Jukka Kaariainen playing a 12 string--in a 5-part set of dialogs recorded in Helsinki, finding common ground from linear rhythms and high energy playing employing a large dynamical scale.

The duo of guitarist Killick Hinds on stringed instruments, bells & electronics, and Italian/NY drummer Francesca Remigi on acoustic & electronic drums, percussion, and credited with Delene Porter for performing on "symbiote"; an "eclectic, ecstatic and exploratory duo strives for sonic research and for breaking the barriers of the conventional process of music making."

Expanding their instruments into sonic sculpture, this first meeting between acclaimed Japanese improvisers Satoko Fujii, performing inside and out of the piano, and electric guitarist Otomo Yoshihide, demonstrates their incredible compatibly as heard in these live recordings at Tokyo's Pit Inn, part of an annual festival organized by Fujii & trumpeter Natsuki Tamura.

Three live guitar improvisations from Swedish guitarist Kasper Agnas performing at Stockholm's New Music and Intermedia Art venue Fylkingen, each piece uniquely approached, starting with a lap guitar dulcimer-like approach of rapid rhythmic attacks, to a warm sound world using mallets on the guitar neck, and finally a work of decaying chords that evolve in complexity, strength and skew.

Taking the dual role of soaring guitar lines and savagely deep string foundations, Susan Alcorn joins clarinetist Patrick Holmes and drummer Ryan Sawyer for this invigorating 2022 concert at Union Pool in Brooklyn, their unique instrumentation providing clarity to each performer's contribution through their dynamic and often wildly energetic collective interplay.

A unique concert even by the standards of Victoriaville from The Growlers, a vocal ensemble who interpret heavy metal, known for their epic work "Hate.Machine" and "The Dayking" with participation from poet Fortner Anderson, performed here along with a comprovisation backed by an electronic track originated from electric guitar recordings.

Electric free improvisation with a caustic edge, stellar burns with titles like "Broken Navigation" or "The Sun is a Ball of Hate", from the North Carolina duo of guitarist Phil Venable (Tragic Assembly) and NY/NC drummer Tommy Jackson, who explore the atmospheric drag on their far-reaching dialogs through propulsive energy burns and moments of dark stellar voids.

Drawing listeners into a meditative state, Oregon-based sitar player and experimental musician J.J. Gregg's album presents a lilting and bright rendition of Raag Rageshree, Raag Yaman offers a uniquely developed and comprehensive journey through the beauty of South Asian Classical music and Raag Chandrakauns, an interesting melodic to aid in personal meditation.

Referencing the "queen of morning ragas" Raag Bhairavi, Oregon-based sitar player and experimental musician J.J. Gregg performed these three improvisations immediately following a group meditation, each raga providing a distinct mood to take their listeners on a journey to complement their state of mind, weaving themes of inspiration and experience.

Taking advantage of stereo placement and strong effect processing, Portuguese guitarist Luís Lopes (Humanization 4tet, Lisbon Freedom Unit) releases the antithesis of his recent Love Songs series with this improvised guitar album, splitting his signal through two unique sequences of analogue pedals into tube amplifiers, creating hypnotically corrosive music.

Inspired by a trip to the Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum in Oslo, guitarist Ed Pettersen recorded this, his first solo guitar album, as a set of ambient/electronic recordings of long sustain and unexpected angles; seven tracks recorded live in the studio in London, and one recording in the Vigeland Mausoleum itself, using the resonance and 18-second decay of that space.

A suite based on raag todi from sitar player J.J. Gregg with Pavan Kanekal on tabla; five tracks revised in the studio to create compositions of both sitar music and more experimental forms, the music tying together concepts of water's effect on geologic formation, as illustrated and contemplated in a description from the albums's liner notes.

A frequent collaborator with NY saxophonist and composer Tim Berne, French guitarist Marc Ducret takes on Berne's compositions, at times in multiple interpretations of the same work or by merging pieces together, performed with the superb support of trumpeter Fabrice Martinez, flutist Sylvaine Helary, trombonist Christiane Bopp and Ducret's son, cellist Bruno Ducret.

With nine years of work together, the Uruguayan duo of guitarist Santiago Bogacz, aka Matador, and clarinetist Emiliano Aires have developed a near-telepathic dialog of sharp-edged interactions through technically rapid exchanges and plateaus of anxious reserve; exhilarating work heard here in 9 vehement and creatively urgent improvisations.

Each track in this beautiful pairing of strings through cello and electric guitar is named after nature, the title referencing a brown-eared bat, as the Berlin duo of guitarist Olaf Rupp and cellist Ulrike Brand intertwine in an unhurried series of dialog that prioritize natural fluidity, reflecting the confidence that nearly ten years working together has imbued to their improvisations.

Kingston, NY sound artist and media artist Evan Lindorff-Ellery recorded these two experimental improvisations in the summer of 2021 in a small cabin in West Saugerties, NY using electric guitar, contact mic, amp, recordings and various objects, while also repurposing recordings made while in Maine by running them through his electric guitar.

Restarting his sonic life at "nothing", Chester Hawkins' new project after work under his own name and his previous decades-long project Blue Sausage Infant is nil, recording after a two-week residency at Liebig12 in Berlin and participation in the Zero Cohesion program, this five-part work for "maximal drone" explores complex harmonics in a dynamic and powerful wall of sound.

Ten years having passed since his last solo acoustic guitar album, Bill Orcutt's new release focuses on a more lyrical, relaxed and reflective side to his playing, in ten succinct pieces recorded in the spring and summer of 2002 at San Francisco's community focal point for and member of Intersection for The Arts, The Living Room.

The core duo of guitarist & bassist Chris Cochrane (No Safety) and drummer & electronics artist John Thayer dig deep into a bag of aural tricks in eight compelling tracks that blur rock, jazz and experimental approaches to upbeat rhythmic music, assisted on various pieces by an excellent cast including Zeena Parkins, Graham Haynes, Gelsey Bell, and Kato Hideki.

Interdisciplinary Spanish percussionist Núria Andorrà whose background includes contemporary music and improvisation with performers including Agustín Fernández, Joëlle Léandre, Mats Gustafsson, Nate Wooley, and Joe Morris joins Fred Frith in Santa Maria de Palautordera for studio and concert recordings of eleven far-ranging dialogs of unusual and imaginative technique and concept.

Seven forays into dark experimental electroacoustic improvisation from electric bassist and Tour de Bras label-leader Éric Normand and French clarinetist Xavier Charles, leveraging unlikely techniques on both instruments, eight dialogs both assertive and cautiously mysterious, employing harmonic overtones, remarkable reed techniques, and rich electronic foundations.

With a booklet of images showing the riverside location of the first performances of French guitarist Marc Ducret's sophisticated compositions reflecting tidal river flows & fluctuations by season, the four meticulous recordings on this album were captured in the studio with Fabrice Martinez on trumpet, flugelhorn & tuba, Christophe Monniot on saxophones and Samuel Blaser on trombone.

Looking to create a sound realm that would reflect more life and less process, NY guitarist/banjo player Brandon Seabrook takes his 8-piece ensemble Epic Proportions on a truly epic journey through "lyrical melodies, dynamic improvisations and manic counterpoint", showing great evolution and development as a contemporary composer and player; "Brutal is beautiful".

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A brutal and complex concert of processed sopranino saxophone, electric guitar and electronics from the long-running Italian quartet Melting Mind of Virginia Genta, Michele Mazzani, David Vanzan and Matteo Poggi, recorded during a 2019 tour of France at Grnd Zero in Lyon, a 33 minute performance of thick noise & feedback layered with inexplicable detail.

On the last day of the 2021 Spontaneous Music Festival at the Dragon Club in Poznań, Poland, the trio of Berlin trombonist Matthias Muller was joined by younger generation Polish guitarist Pawel Doskocz on prepared electric guitar and fellow Berlin drummer and electroacoustic improviser Emilio Gordoa for these two extended sonic adventures recorded in near-darkness.

A perfectly complementary pair of improvisers from the ever-inventive guitarist Fred Frith and instrument inventor Sudhu Tewari, Frith performing on home-made instruments as well-- string instruments he's developed since the 80s described as "planks of wood with strings"--as the two draw unexpected sonic environments and propulsive rhythmic passages through eight compelling dialogs.

A duo of Brussels audio explorers, Jean-Jacques Duerinckx on sopranino saxophone and Anatole Damien on tabletop guitar and electronics, contrasting acoustic "dry" and highly effected "wet" sounds, the two develop sonic environments that build and release using unusual reed techniques and mutated string scrabbling in a strangely compelling set of dialogs.

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Active and informed improvisations on acoustic guitar from Jean Claude "JC" Jones, label leader of the Kadima Collective and also known as a double bassist, though his roots are in the guitar, which he has returned to with vigor since 2016, performing on lap-style prepared acoustic and prepared Spanish guitar, heard here in 13 concise pieces titled by single words.

A half composed, half improvised album for solo electric guitar from composer and improviser Justin Lepany, known for his work with musicians like Sven-Ake Johansson and his composition "Ringing Peace" premiered during the 2014 Peace Nobel Prize ceremony: three diverse pieces using effects to create both density and spacious sonic fields.

Acoustic and sublime minimal acoustic improvisation with an emphasis on strings from the Portuguese quintet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Miguel Almeida on acoustic guitar, Andre Lanca on electric guitar, Bernardo Alvares on double bass, and Felice Furioso on percussion, performing live during the Small Format Materials Festival at Galeria Monumental, in Lisbon.

Performing on solo electric & acoustic guitars, oud, charango and synthesizer, NYC guitarist Ken Silverman dedicates this album to musicians such as T-Bone Walker, Hamza El Din, Jimmy Page, Robert Fripp, &c.

Three live guitar improvisations from Swedish guitarist Kasper Agnas performing at Stockholm's New Music and Intermedia Art venue Fylkingen, each piece uniquely approached, starting with a lap guitar dulcimer-like approach of rapid rhythmic attacks, to a warm sound world using mallets on the guitar neck, and finally a work of decaying chords that evolve in complexity, strength and skew.

Quebecois guitarist Bernard Falaise of Miriodor, Klaxon Gueule, Papa Boa and Les Projectionnistes fame, continues his solo series with the fifth note of the scale, "Sol (G)", reflected in a series of eight inventive guitar improvisations using timbral effects and looping structures to expand his virtual ensemble as does in his live performances.

Chester Hawkins' curiosity for Denmark resulted in his renting an apartment in central Kobenhavn, bringing along his electronically modified lapsteel guitar, wind and reed instruments, tabletop noise-boxes, mobile synthesizer apps and a shortwave radio, which he joined with field recordings from the capital region, creating this magnificent loveletter to Denmark.

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An extended and rich confluence of strings from R Keenan Lawler and John Krausbauer, using resonator guitar and banjo, sustained tones that intertwine in a beautiful and optimistic drone, minimalistic yet drenched in a profusion of harmonic detail; a beautiful and elusive dream mixing between an Indian raga and an alien electronic environment.

Exploring the lineage of the Dukes of Bedford, the Russell lineage in Bedford, England, in groupings of acoustic & electric guitarists John Russell, Ray Russell, and Henry Kaiser along with double bassist Ollie Brice, from duos to quartets, eight Duke "Russells" from 1680 to 2003 are explored through intricate and joyfully creative and technically amazing string improvisations.