Recording at the Chamber of Commerce in Brooklyn in 2021, the duo of Sandy Ewen on prepared guitar and Jason Nazary on drums & percussion take a nearly pugilistic approach to their improvisations, building aggressive sections of intense pummeling, then slipping back to catch their breath before the next round, each filled with curious elements and energetic determination.

The first release on his new imprint, Right Brain Records, French guitarist Guillaume Gargaud improvises on acoustic guitar on the seven part Kōenji, a district in Japan known for its temple and falconry, here envisioned through creatively dexterous and inventive passages, recorded live in Le Havre, France in the spring of 2023.

A modern soundscape in three acts from Italian improvisers, drummer Walter Forestier (Death Roars, Angelo Mastronardi Trio) and guitarist Vito Pesce (Minus Tree, Pastel, Squieti), their 2nd album a dialog shifting between pensive introspection and aggressive evocation, a full range of expression that builds and releases suspense as the two unfold their narrative.

Focused mostly on introspective yet propulsive improvised interaction of concentrative listening, punctuated by moments of explosive exchanges, the trio of Dirk Serries on archtop guitar, Benedict Taylor on viola and Friso Van Wyck on drums & percussion are heard live in an engaging concert at Koffie and Ambacht's Le Sud, in Rotterdam in 2022.

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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 first release on his new imprint, Right Brain Records, French guitarist Guillaume Gargaud improvises on acoustic guitar on the seven part Kōenji, a district in Japan known for its temple and falconry, here envisioned through creatively dexterous and inventive passages, recorded live in Le Havre, France in the spring of 2023.

Jphono1, aka guitarist John Harrison, working with Carboro, NC improvising guitarist and Soul City Sounds label leader Phil Venable, along with input from John Crouch and Ken Moshesh for drum & percussion input, release this experimental album of strange drones, grooves and ambient electronic sounds, beautifully paced with a expansive breadth of concept.

A singularly beautiful and quirky album of electroacoustic improvisation from long-time collaborators and organizers of Japan's "Meeting at Off Site", Tetuzi Akiyama on acoustic guitar and Toshimaru Nakamura on no-input mixing board, their second duo album since 2009's Semi-Impressionism on the Spekk label, here recording in the studio for five dialogs of lovely eccentricity.

A single extended duo performance from improviser, composer and leader of the Infrequency Editions label, Lance Austin Olsen, performing on guitar, field recordings, wax cylinder recordings, MIDI organ & amplified objects, along with French pianist, composer and improviser Bruno Duplant, also credited with "sounds", a moody and tense work that meticulously uses innuendo and space.

Recording at Vortex Jazz Club in London in 2018, the As You Hear trio of renowned London and European free jazz pianist Veryan Weston with two younger generation improvisers, Pei Ann Yeoh (violin) and Beibei Wang (drums & percussion), here presenting a sophisticated concert of group improvisation, each collective improvisation named for a spice or seasoning.

Annette Peacock's response to the free-blowing loft scene was to compose using spacious intervals, allowing great harmonic and rhythmic freedom, inspiring pianist Paul Bley and his trio as heard in two unique interpretations of the same pieces from two exceptional working bands: one with bassist & drummer Mark Levinson & Barry Altschul, the other with Gary Peacock & Billy Elgart.

Two performers who have stretched the boundaries of their instruments--Miya Masaoka on 12-string koto and Anthony Braxton on saxophones and software-based electronics--in subtle and unusual environments where each player fills the phrases of the other in unforseen ways.

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 superb album of 80's free jazz with a warmly lyrical loft influence and filled with jazz reference, from the trio of late trumpeter Roy Campbell, also performing on flugelhorn & flute, late Japanese/NY drummer Takeshi Zen Matsuura and bassist William Parker, in a never-before issued performance at Boston-area Brandeis University for five expansive conversations.

Superb free improvisation from the UK trio of Nathaniel Catchpole on tenor sax, John Edwards on double bass, and Eddie Prevost on drums and bowed tam-tam, three generations of improvisers pushing the envelope of spontaneous composition in accomplished and playful dialog.

A mix of songs and instrumentals, with 11 country classic covers, recorded in the studio and on tour from 2017-2018 in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia, and Bulgaria, and the UK including one track from Cafe Oto, in the company of Titus Waldenfels (guitar), Thilo Kuhn (keys), Schroeder (drums), Gary Cherwonka (pedal steel) and Steven De Bruyn (harmonica).

A direct translation of this band's name is "unemployed shaman", the trio of Leo Ratherius (guitar), Marc-Antonie Moercant (drums) and Thomas Cockerel (bass) use trance-like rhythms to build sonic progressions like cathartic rituals, alongside open-minded improvisations.

The French trio of Louis-Michel Marion on double bass, Jacques Didonato on clarinet, and Philippe Berger on viola are heard in a live recording at Radio France, on June 12th, 2017, freely improvising in understated and rich layers of harmonics and tone, actively subdued interactions in an extended excursion of introspective chamber-oriented improvisation.

An album of controlled cacophony and slippery improvisation from the trio of Martin Klapper on amplified objects, toys & small electronics, Martin Kuchen on sopranino & soprano saxophones, snare drum resonator & metal objects, and Roger Turner on drums, small cymbals, metal and plastic, recording in Stokholm as they apparently try to build a shooting bear.

Two CDs and a 90 page hardback book with photos, info and interviews from audio documenter and experimenter Peter Cusak, recording in Chernobyl, The Caspian Oilfields, and various dangerous locations in the UK.

"Even though J.A. Deane has collaborated with many American avant-garde musicians, his solo albums are few. Sadly, his most accessible is also one of his less interesting. Nomad is an untypical release in the catalog of the label Disques...

Originally called Treffpunkt, or "meeting point", the partnership of violist Frantz Loriot and pianist Cedric Piromalli has evolved as they added collaborators to their idiosyncratic approach to improv, here with guests Antoine Chessex on tenor sax and Christian Wolfarth on percussion and cymbals for an extended, upbeat and wonderfully creative performance.

A unique exposition of an 1893 text by Robert Charles Hope exploring the legends of England's "holy wells", the water of which was purported to have healing properties, adapted to atmospheric songs by Drake and performed on a 1940 Hammond model BC organ and a Challen upright piano; delicate and descriptive songs that detail the legends and the hope they inspired.

Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and song-writer Bob Drake's 10th album, an unusual and quirky journey through rock, RIO, and prog references, exploring the "The island of the Lupi" through a strange set of songs, a showcase for Drake's immense skills and enigmatic curiosity in 16 miniatures of descriptive passages, brilliant playing and exceptional production.

A 3 CD set from bassist Benjamin Duboc: a solo disc of low register improv; plus 2 discs in duo and trio settings with Didier Lasserre, Sylvain Guerineau, Jean-Luc Petit, Pascal Battus, Sophie Agnel & Christian Pruvost.

Guitarist/composer Liberty Ellman's album takes its name from the four deserts--Atacama in South America, the Gobi in China, the Sahara in Egypt, and the "White Desert" of Antarctica--in seven sophisticated compositions performed with Steve Lehman on alto sax, Stephan Crump on bass, Damion Reid on drums, Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet, and Jose Davila on tuba.

West Coast double bassist and mid-west drummer Alvin Fielder meet Norways saxophonist Frode Gjerstad at the 2016 No Idea Festival in Austin, TX, opening the festival with this remarkable display of free improvisation, a seething and burning set from these veteran players.

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.

Helen Mirra uses the index of a W.G. Sebald's novel to create a mysterious, intriguing and fascinating audio world, performed by Mirra on printing press and acoustic guitar, and Fred Frith on rainsticks, mbira, charango, music box, voice, shoes and other objects.

Taking his Bay Area trio with bassist Jason Hoopes and drummer Jordan Glenn on the "Road", guitarist and improviser Fred Frith first presents the trio itself in a wonderfully diverse extended set at the Week-End Fest in Koln, Germany; then invites trumpeter Susana Santos Silva at Old Cabell Hall in University of Virginia; and then saxophonist Lotte Anker at Altes Kino in Ebersberg, Germany.

Two cycles of compositions from Fred Frith: "The Big Picture - For Saxophone Quartet and Two Improvising Soloists" and his legendary 90s copositions: "Freedom in Fragments".

Works for dance constructed by guitarist/composer Fred Frith as accompaniment to Amanda Miller's choreography for Nederland Dans Theater in 2011, revisited and revised by Frith into these beautiful pieces, with help from William Wynant, Lotte Anker, Karla Kihlstedt Arditti, &c.

Three distinct commissions for dance performed by Frith & Carla Kihlstedt; Frith & Carla with Fred Guiliano & Gail Brand; and with Frith, Hande Erdem & Threresa Wong.

The first of three sturdy box sets from innovative guitarist, composer and improviser Fred Frith, here with 8 CDs from the Recommended Records label plus a bonus CD, a thick booklet of artwork, photographs & extensive notes from Frith; albums included are Guitar Solos, Gravity, Cheap at Half the Price, Killing Time, Impur , Middle of the Moment, Keep the Dog; Dropera.

A commissioned work by Stanser Musik-Tage created during Frith's residency at the Benediktinerinnen-kloster Maria-Richenbach and premiered at the Festival on April 22, 2004.

Sax, bass clarinet and flutist Nobuyasu Furuya is a free player migrated from Japan to Lisbon, Portugal, here in a trio with bassist Hernani Faustino and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini.

Using double bass player John Geggie's compositions as a point of departure, this creative trio covers much terrain with its lyrical and sonic landscapes.

The 11th release from the trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi, in two extraordinary works spread across a double LP gatefold release; first a collaborative long distance project commissioned by Issue Project Room during the pandemic; then a live performance at Tokyo's SuperDeluxe in three extended improvisations with Haino on both drums and guitar.

A great example of the current Downtown/Brooklyn scene, using jazz as a jumping-off point to merge free playing, fusion, and rock stylings into an enthusiastic, and technically brilliant album, as bassist Adam Hopkins provides the compositions performed with the sextet of Anna Webber, Ed Rosenberg, & Josh Sinton on sax, Jonathan Goldberger on guitar, and Devin Gray on drums.

In tribute to late free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, the West Coast/Vancouver trio of guitarist Henry Kaiser, alto saxophonist John Oswald and vibraphonist Paul Plimley explore the intention of Taylor's singular style in six anagrammatically titled improvisations, with Chicago violinist Tracy Silverman joining for the massive "Oceans Felons Salad", and Scott Amendola joing for "fir loom".

10 babies under 1.5 years old are gathered from several countries to improvise on zither, piano, steel pan, toy turntable or computer-controlled pacifier with unlikely results.

L.U.M.E., aka the Lisbon Underground Music Ensemble directed by pianist Marco Barroso, is a big band with a chamber ensemble feeling, Barroso's upbeat and melodically sophisticated compositions driving the band by borrowing from a variety of jazz, funk and even cartoon-like styles to create a richly complex and compelling set of tunes that twist, turn and surprise.

Using unusual techniques and a collection of instruments that include the standard Western instruments of cello and flute, along with guembri, sulittu, dilli kaval, bass xun, launeddas (mancosedda, tumbu), plus the application of objects against strings, the Italian duo of Antonio Bertoni & Stefano Leonardi engage in seven remarkable and assertive improvised duos.

New York pianist Marilyn Lerner in a trio with Ken Filiano and Lou Grassi, instant compositions with great structure, virtuosity and melodic content.

An upbeat and energetic performance at the Konfrontation Festival, Ulrichsberg in 2006, featuring six early compositions by Anthony Braxton, arranged by pianist Pat Thomas and performed by the quintet of superb improvisers and interpreters Alex Ward on clarinet, Evan Thomas on electric guitar, Dominic Lash on electric bass, and Darren Hasson-Davis on drums.

Portuguese guitarist Luis Lopes with NY bassist Adam Lane and Israeli drummer Igal Fonis, emotional, raw music, with lots of feedback and distortion and astonishing solos!

Canadian guitarist Rene Lussier formed this quintette in 2016, with Julie Houle on tuba & euphonium, Luzio Altobelli on accordion, and drummers Marton Maderspach & Robbie Kuster, to play the intricate and lyrical pieces he developed, where up to five parts are overlaid at any given time, though the listener only hears the wonderful interplay and exultation of the resulting music.

Taking two of Montreal's most vital musicians, guitarist Rene Lussier and clarinetist Robert Lepage, and joining them with the far-ranging string quartet Le Quatuor Bozzini for a stunning album that merges chamber music, noise music, and improvisation without leaving behind melody, intention and direction; magnificent!

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

A series of exceptional compositions by saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc plus one by Alice Coltrane, performed in a variety of group settings, from duos to quintet, with sidemen Matthew Shipp, Roy Campbell, Steve Swell, Hilliard Greene, and Newman Taylor Baker.

In "Urban Landscapes" Irish guitarist and electroacoustic artist Mark O'Leary captures and documents environmental audio associated with Urban Cork City.

Three disparate improvisers--Guy-Frank Pellerin on soprano & tenor saxophones, Matthias Boss on violin & voice and Eugenio Sanna on amplified guitar plus small metallic layers, balloons & voice--present a non-idiomatic, fully improvised set of "sonorities, fragments, atmospheres seeming to constitute independent parts, but actually forming a unicum".

"Vancouver pianist Paul Plimley and his comrades, bassist Lisle Ellis and drummer Scott Amendola, have issued a tough little gem of a recording in Safe-Crackers. Plimley's pianism ranges in voice from fierce avant-garde improvisation to...

Marc Ribot's highly anticipated debut as a leader in a band with Henry Grimes on bass and Chad Taylor on drums, performing at the iconic Village Vanguard, with material including Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, &c.

Keith Rowe first met Graham Lambkin at erstwhile's 2007 Amplify 2011 festival in NYC, playing again in 2013, and recording this album at Lambkin's house that same year, creating something unusual and unique from each player's perspective.

The fourth set from Keith Rowe's duos at Erstwhile's AMPLIFY 2008 festival in Tokyo, a duo with long-time partner Toshimaru Nakamura, intense ea-improv from two masters.

Inspired by a work by John Stevens from 1991, Mark Wastell developed this work merging narration and improvisation by transcribing the text from Steven's performance, preseanted here by an electroacoustic ensemble including Phil Durrant, Dominic Lash, Bertrand Denzler, Jennifer Allum &c, yielding an enveloping and fascinatingly mysterious piece presented in two versions.

A richly refined and sophisticated album drawing on improvisation, experimenation and rock elements from the collaborative Vancouver ensemble Sick Boss of core members guitarist Cole Schmidt, bassist James Meger and drummer Daniel Gaucher, with guests including guitarist Tony Wilson, cellist Peggy Lee, trumpeter JP Carter, synth player Tyson Naylor, &c. &c.

Sim is the 3 piece electronic/rock band of Teruyuki, Yoshio & Masahiro, here with Otomo Yoshihide on turntables and synth, and amazing album of rhythms in a This Heat "Repeat" mode.

Bringing together two noise improvisers and experimenters, Guro Skumsnes Moe from Sult and MoE performing on octabass & electric bass, and Philippe Petit (who has albums on Aural Terrains, Monotype and Bolt) performing on synthesizer and turntables, both also providing vocal utterance, for two thick journeys of twisted, diverse and often deep sonics bridged by an abstract interlude.

Bringing an innate lyricism to free improvisation in the piano trio format, albeit a thoroughly modern take on that format where all performers are equal and active participants, from Aki Takase on piano, Christian Weber on bass, and Michael Griener on drums, performing five Takase originals, one from Griener & Takase, and 8 collective works.

910 Noise presents: Douceur Violente A 14 track compilation of electronic and noise artists from Wilmington, North Carolina.

Tony Wilson Sextet's was formed almost 20 years ago to perform his original compositions and arrangements, here performing Benjamin Britten's Lachrymae and 4 original works.

Zorn's 23rd Filmworks presents Eleven cues recorded for a striking documentary focusing on the life of controversial Mexican dictator Plutarco Elias Calles.

Forro is a NY East Village rock ensemble that reinterprets forro--traditional Brazilian folk music--using modern Downtown language, here taking on the compositions of John Zorn in rhythmically rich melodic approaches that's equal parts tribute and collaboration.

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

John Zorn remakes his Masada Quartet with the new quartet of Kenny Wollesen on drums, Julian Lage on guitar, Jorge Roeder on bass, and the leader and composer himself on alto saxophone, the band having honed the elements of the Masada Songbook through live performance in NYC since 2019, here captured in Bill Laswell's studio in 2021 for 8 lyrically ecstatic recordings.

Zorn's sixth quartet is inspired by the hermetic Angelic actions of John Dee and is replete with the procedures of distillation, calcination, crystallization, sublimation, purification, rotation as well numerology, prayers, canons, contrapuntal complexity, &c.

Composer John Zorn's Simulacrum ensemble of Trevor Dunn (bass), John Medeski (keyboards), Kenny Grohowski (drums), Matt Hollenberg (guitar), and Sara Serpa (voice) in their 6th album of heavy improv, celebrating the 500th anniversary of the passing of painter Hieronymus Bosch.

A gorgeous album of acoustic improvisation from Anthony Pateras performing on a prepared piano and Stephen O'Malley on steel string acoustic guitar, recorded live with no overdubs during O'Malley's residency at La Becque on Lake Geneva in the summer of 2021, slowly interacting through resonant harmonics and percussive tones that glide and fill the air with contemplative sound.

A reissue of the 1981 Incus LP of guitarist Derek Bailey with one-time King Crimson percussionist Jamie Muir ("Larks Tongues in Aspic"), also a member of Bailey's Music Improvisation Company, an album of hovering harmonics from Bailey's feedback amidst Muir's kitchen-sink collection of items that creates a unique and riveting complement to Bailey's playing.

An evocative album of sublime improvisation between guitarist Fred Frith and trumpeter Susana Santo Silva, recorded live for France Musique/Radio France at Motoco, Mulhouse as part of Festival Météo in 2021, the two inspiring remarkable force and assertive direction in a darkly spirited conversation of deep introspection and cathartic exorcism; magnificent!

A psychedelic set of recordings based around the guitar work of Philip Gayle, improvised, recorded, and layered into diverse experiments in sound and performed on banjo, bass, cello, door, guitars, mandolin, percussion, piano, toy piano, voice, ukulele and waterphone, with guests including saxophonist Shogo Ohshima and vocalists Shizka Ueda, Omusubisan and Fuuchan.

With previous albums on Creative Sources, Bug Incision and Eh?, the duo of Jay Kreimer and Public Eyesore label-leader Bryan Day use invented instruments recorded these highly percussive, well-paced and well-recorded improvisations during Kreimer's Fulbright fellowship in India, in Baroda, Hyderabad and Bangalore, the main tracks named for their recording location.

Improvisations from graphic scores that influence the structural framework for these five pieces from New York-based artist & composer Nickolas Mohanna, who uses a varied palette of percussive devices alongside electric guitar and computer, including hammered notes and brushed cymbals to create pulsing and immersive shapes that emerge and submerge in each floating work.

An enthusiastic and well-balanced studio recording in San Francisco from the trio of Zoh Amba on tenor saxophone, Chris Corsano on drums and Bill Orcutt on electric guitar, following Amba & Corsano's duo tour of the West Coast; this is a first meeting between Amba & Orcutt, who perform as a duo on two tracks, including a guitar duo with Amba on acoustic.

Recording in Maria Pinto, Chile, steel guitarist Susan Alcorn combines Chilean folk and nueva cancion with free improvisation and contemporary classical in an expansive set of 5 original compositions and a group arrangement of the Victor Jara's "El Derecho de Vivir en Paz", the achingly beautiful themes paying tribute to the victims of Augusto Pinochet's regime.

Using a wide assortment of guitars (electric, baritone, arch top acoustic, bass) + monochord, waterphone & zulu bells, Necks drummer and multi-instrumentalist Tony Buck joins with percussionist Mark Nauseef performing on bells and gongs for seven exotic improvisations rich in overtones, microtonal movement, ringing harmonics and hybrid motion.

The completion of John Zorn's second trilogy of albums performed by the extraordinarily masterful acoustic guitar trio of Bill Frisell, Gyan Riley and Julian Lage, here performing six intricate and lyrically graceful compositions dedicated to literary visionary Samuel Beckett; uniquely packaged in a clear imprinted sleeve.

A series of intimate duets between Syrian-born, Vancouver-based oud, ney, flamenco guitar and singer Emad Armoush with aA series of intimate duets between Syrian-born, Vancouver-based Emad Armoush performing on oud, ney, flamenco guitar and song, with clarinetist Francois Houle, violinist Jesse Zubot, trumpeter JP Carter, drummer/percussionist Kenton Loewen and cellist Marina Hasselberg--Houle, Zubot and Carter also adding electronic layers--as Armoush reinvents Arabic tradition alongsie original compositions. Francois Houle, violinist Jesse Zubot, trumpeter JP Carter, drummer/percussionist Kenton Loewen and cellist Marina Hasselberg--Houle, Zubot and Carter also adding electronic layers--as Armoush reinvents Arabic tradition alongside original compositions.

Merging traditional Finnish harmonies into experimental jazz compositions and improvisation with a penchant for extraneous sound and quick shifts from elegant playing to forceful avant expression, Finish guitarist Heikki Ruokangas performs eight haunting works with mastery of technique and pacing in a warmly gripping album of solo acoustic guitar.

Merging traditional Finnish harmonies into experimental jazz compositions and improvisation with a penchant for extraneous sound and quick shifts from elegant playing to forceful avant expression, Finish guitarist Heikki Ruokangas performs eight haunting works with mastery of technique and pacing in a warmly gripping album of solo acoustic guitar.

The Swiss-based Ever Present Orchestra, dedicated to the presentation of later works by composer Alvin Lucier written for this orchestra and centered on pieces for the electric guitar, in two works of differing characteristics: "Arrigoni Bridge" for 3 lap steel electric guitars + violin, sax & cello; and "Flips" for two guitars, bass and glockenspiel.

Discovered in the archives of guitarist and free improv innovator Derek Bailey's Incus Records label are these two live performances between Bailey and percussionist Paul Motian, mastered by Jim O'Rourke and presented as a vinyl LP with a 1990 performance at JazzMarathon at De Oosterpoort, in Groningen, and as a download with a concert in 1991 at New Music Cafe, NYC.