The 35 poems found on Fortner Anderson's "Solitary Pleasures", performed with Michel F Cote, Sam Shalabi and Alexandre St-Onge, speak of the obsessions, phantasies and encounters of Anderson's life.

French jazz and rock drummer Blanc in an album of extended compositions using unique structures and vocal styles, fascinating colors and tones for unusual works.

A curious book of images from artists including Rhodri Davies, John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Richard Dawson, &c. photographed in a location familiar to a touring musician--a budget hotel room--pictured laying on the bed with each artist's head covered by that room's hotel wall painting, from typically insipid to perplexingly unexpected.

"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...

Commissioned by Another Timbre for the quarantine commissions series, Hlaholika was developed by composer Adrián Demoč for the Apartment House ensemble as a quintet of violin, double bass, clarinet, viola & piano, using the configurations for 3 other works performed here by Apartment House; plus a piece for an ensemble from the Janacek School of Music in the Czech Republic.

This is the third release from Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms, which, like the two preceding it, was created from Derome's personal travel journal.

A fascinating mix of concepts and sophisticated compositions, as interesting sonically as the visual aspects of the show, as evidenced in the well presented booklet.

In his release titled "The Fabric Shop", Jean Derome sews together 69 short improvised pieces into a solo album of random organization.

A solo poetic album by Andre Duchesne on acoustic guitar playing 14 beautiful songs.

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.

Four unorthodox improvisations that evade idiomatic playing through "wantonly abstract" and unusual approaches to their instruments, keeping their listeners guessing where their playing might take them, from frequent collaborators Sandy Ewen on guitar, Damon Smith on bass, and Weasel Walter on drums & percussion, recording in the studio in Brooklyn, 2019.

Submerging the listener into the immediacy of pure perception through the economy of materials and atemporality, Catalan guitarist Ferran Fages presents the 3rd piece of his trilogy for guitar and sinteones, referencing Feldman, Lucier and Szlavnics as he specifies tunings for the guitar accompanied by pure resonating sinetones used as memory vehicles or shadows.

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

A one-side EP with a screen print on the B-Side, of a raucous, dark and incredibly epic journey in heavy electric jazz from Fire! configured as the quintet of Mats Gustafsson on bass saxophone, organ & live electronics, Johan Berthling on electric bass, Andreas Werliin on drums, Stephen O'Malley on guitar and David Sandstrom on drums; awe inspiring!

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

This '93 solo concert at Norfolk Academy in Virginia finds free jazz pianist Joel Futterman reflecting on standards and jazz repertoire by inference & reference, improvising over 7 original compositions and Coltrane's "Naima", with moments of lyrical delicacy, savvy swinging sections, and reflective Monk moods, all filtered through his Futteran's powerful creative drive.

8 duos recorded in the studio between bassist Damon Smith and free vocalist Carol Genetti, and 4 trio tracks adding Fred Lonberg-Holm on violoncello and performing live at Chicago's Empty Bottle.

Emilie Girard-Charest is a Montreal cellist, composer and improviser, here presenting 5 works, one of her own and 4 from Fredrik Gran, Sergio Castrillon, Maxime Corbeil-Perron and Joane Hetu, using extreme techniques and electroacoustic accompaniment in both joyful and terrifying ways.

[Bonus Edition] Bay Area experimental music scene legend and multi-disciplinary artist Barabara Golden celebrates her 80th birthday presents works created between 1980-2020, including performances by Robert Ashley, Maggi Payne, Chris Brown, WIGband with Johanna Poethig, George Lewis, William Winant, Mary Oliver and texts by Melody Sumner Carnahan.

The trio of Rainer Wiens, John Heward, and composer/ improviser Malcolm Goldstein on guitar, drums, and violin respectively, in their first album.

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.

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

Joyfully assertive and somewhat twisted, the first of three improvisations on this live album at Wels Unlimited 2020 is the duo of Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik and drummer Didi Kern, starting at high speed then shifting to unusual approaches in a quirky dialog, made quirkier with Jaap Blonk adding wonderfully nonsensical vocalizations on the last two pieces.

Swiss drummer & percussionist Fritz Hauser's solo album creates a fictional percussion center that he uses as as springboard to compose solo works for spaces within the [non-existent] environment, depicted in both spacious and active sound work, generating open-air locations with bird sounds and cymbals and areas of quick-paced activity; absolutely impressive.

This Heat and Camberwell Now drummer, songwriter, vocalist, experimenter and sociological observer Charles Hayward steps away from his drums for an intimate album of song, performing on piano with minimal accompaniment as he presents new songs and new versions of songs including pieces from Camberwell Now; powerfully fragile, insightful, fascinating.

Dutch improviser van Heumen (N Collective, OfficeR, &c.) in a dynamic and shifting solo work of laptop electronics, noise textures, and text.

Three days of improvisations from the the 2019 meeting of Osaka-based musicians mizutama, Tadashi Yonago and Kayu Nakada, plus Tokyo residents Junji Hirose, Toshimaru Nakamura, Daysuke Takaoka and Yuma Takeshita in duos and trios, all using original sound-producing devices or creating sound by repurposing instruments or electronic devices in unique ways.

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.

An inventive and lyrical set of duos between Chicago tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist Keefe Jackson and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, nine concise pieces that blend free improvisation with compositions seamlessly in a really delightful duo.

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..

The Triple D Trio of Aurora Josephson (voice), Jacob Lindsay (clarinet) & Damon Smith (bass) met with visiting European improvisers Philipp Wachsmann (violin) and Martin Blume (drums) to record these live concerts in Oakland and SF.

A collection of miniature songs with mocking, satirical lyrics that reform out-of-date proverbs into modern pearls of wisdom, paired with improvisation and written composition.

Duo improvisations on pieces composed by clarinetist Pierre Langevin and percussionist Pierre Tanguay, using unusual instruments such as bagpipes, jaw-harps, accordions, etc.

Composer Philippe Lauzier (sax, clarinet) plays with Miles Perkin (double bass, voice) and Robbie Kuster (percussion) in this debut album that blends improvisation with original compositions.

Vocalist Genevieve Letarte in a release with Normand Guilbeault, Pierre Tanguay, Ivanhoe Jolicoeur, Claude Fradette, Guillaume Dostaler, Ivanhoe Jolicoeur and Guido Del Fabbro.

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

The trio of Tomas Korber on guitar & electronics, Christian Weber on double bass, and Christian Wolfarth on drums and percussion, unique electroacoustic improv recorded in the studio in Zurich, Switzerland.

Vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Sam Mickens (The Dead Science) leading an excellent band including drummer Mike Pride, bassist Shahzad Ismaily, vocalists Carla Bozulich, Jesse Quattro, &c, through 15 persuasive rock songs recorded in NYC.

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

For her 2nd solo record aside from her rock trio, guitarist Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen expands her orchestration to an octet, adding jazz-rock elements while balancing scorching playing with lyrical and open passages, as she pays tribute to Arne Nordheim's 1979 composition for Shakespeare's "The Tempest", and for her own experiences of furious weather in her home town of Ålesund.

A scorching album of instrumental rock bridging avant, prog and jazz/rock forms, from the inspired and burning Norwegian band led by guitarist Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen and her trio with bassist Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Loe Bjornstad; reference John McLaughlin, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, or just focus on the powerhouse that is the Hedvig Mollestad Trio.

Legendary UK drummer Roger Turner and Canadian guitarist Arthur Bull, seasoned improvisers since the 70s and already working as a duo, joined with Montreal trombonist Scott Thomson during Thomson's 2017 residency in Halifax through suddenlyListen, touring and recording this album of propulsive and dynamic creative improvisation during their 2018 tour of Eastern Canada.

Live recordings from Pollat-Pavillion in Munich, Germany in 2015 from this seriously fun spontaneous collective improvising trio of Udo Schindler on reeds, cornet, euphonium, and monophonic analogue synthesizer, Philipp Kolb on trumpet, tuba and live electronics, and Sebastiano Tramontana on trombone, voice and whistling; expect the unexpected!

Revisiting Sex Pistols' "Never Mind the Bollocks" in a band with Benoit Delbecq on piano, Gilles Coronado on guitar, Olivier Py on sax, Franck Vaillant on drums, and Sarah Murcia on bass, splitting the vocals with Mark Tompkins in a unique take on a punk classic.

Quietly lurking as it prepares to attack, this Kobra is the free improvising quaret of Aurora Nealand on accordion, alto saxophone, voice & objects, Steve Marquette on acoustic & electric guitars, Anton Hatwich on bass, and Paul Thibodeaux on drums, captured live at Chicago's Hungry Brain during the Instigation Festival for a mysterious 2-part "New Omens" and some "Telly Attire".

The electroacoustic improvising quartet of guitarist Peter Alexius, drummer Joe Herteinstein, Joker Nies on raw electronics, and Sebastian Grammss on spacebass, in 9 tracks that run the gamut from groove-based intensity to open dialog using unusual voices.

A significant release culminating the partnership of saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp, a distillation of their work after 8 duo recordings and dozens of collaborative albums, this 3 CD presents their work together in nearly telepathic terms: sympathetic and intimate without irascibility, a beautiful and introspective reflection of a shared ethic.

A beautifully unfolding story in connected works forming a codex from Texas composer and Wandelweiser artist Kory Reeder, a long form work performed by the UK Apartment House Ensemble in a septet of strings, winds and piano, each section creating a loose narrative ark through several notational strategies envisioned with characters, scenes, diversions, and digressions.

A live concert at the 11Th Festival International De Musique Actuelle De Victoriaville on May 19th, 1994, from the free improvising trio of Frederik Alarie on contrabass, Paul Leger on drum, Yannick Rieu on tenor saxophone.

Percussionist Danielle Palardy Roger's first major solo composition in 13 pieces which is performed by Claude Beaugrand, Jean Derome, André Duchesne, Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse, and Martin Ouellet.

Working their way backwards from "Five" in 2017 to the new "Three" in 2020, the UK creative improvising quintet of Daniel Thompson on acoustic guitar, Adrian Northover on saxophones, John Edwards on double bass, Marcello Magliocchi on drums, and Neil Metcalfe on flute are heard live at London's Iklectik in 2019 for three profoundly exploratory free improvisations.

Creative uses of percussion from Italian drummers Giacomo Salis and Paolo Sanna, who explore gesture, movement, listening, and the investigation of natural materials and found objects, in five studio tracks that present the results of their research in both rhythmic sections and sections of abstract sound, honed from concerts, studio albums, and a collaboration with Jeph Jerman.

New York/Ohio skronkers Scarcity of Tanks with Jim Sauter of Borbetomagus plus Kid Millions in a hard free rock free improv blast.

Reedist and mutli-instrumentalist Udo Schindler's first instrument was a soprano sax, and this solo concert at Atelier Ekkelancj Götze in Munich in 2018 brings to the foreground his 40 years of experience, advanced technique, and creative approach to this capricious and demanding instrument, performing a 2-part free-form "PNEUMA-Sax+Erde" and an encore.

Seeded Plain is the duo of Bryan Day and Jay Kreimer, who create homemade instruments and use them to create far-ranging improvisations with a unique set of timbres and percussive elements.

. Live recording from 1988.

"The avant rock/improv quartet Slawterhaus was invited to the 1990 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. The first 50 minutes of Live come from their performance, the last ten from a con...

Splitting his time between Portugal and NY, tuba and euphonium player Ben Stapp's association with guitarist Joe Morris and cornetist Stephen Haynes started in 2011, including participating in their Improvisations series, leading to this trio performing Stapp's compositions with musical forms based on the narrative structure of his novel "Mind Creature Sound Dasein".

Contemporary German painter Albert Oehlen invited Steamboat Switzerland — Lucas Niggli on drums; Marino Pliakas on electric bass; Dominik Blum on drums& voice — to create music for his solo exhibition Tramonto Spaventoso at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles, these extended compositions that connect to Oehlen's work the result, from dark ea-improv to hardcore Hammond free jazz.

The first new Sun Ra Arkestra album in twenty years, recorded in Philadelphia under the direction of saxophonist Marshall Allan, with long-standing Arkestra members including Danny Ray Thompson, Michael Ray, Vincent Chancey, Knoel Scott, Cecil Brooks, Atakatune, Elson Nascimento and Tyler Mitchel, with new material and new renderings of classic Ra compositions.

The duo of Pierre Tanguay on drums and percussion and Tom Walsh on trombone in a release of minimalist construction that blends composition and improvisation.

The trio of Roberto Fega (electronics), Elio Martusciello (guitar, electronics) and Graziano Lella (laptop) in a series of compositions and improvisations that explore the syncretism between different musical codes.

Fascinating compositions combining improvisation and organized sound from Martusciello, Lella, & Fega, using acoustic and electronic instruments to frightening effect.

A large band project from UK composer, arranger and conductor Giles Thornton, directing 29 musicians through original works and reinterpretations of ballads like Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You", in a blend of acoustic and electronic musicians that avoids overt fusion overtones while keeping the music melodic with the occasional exotica flair.

A truly unique set of compositions juxtaposing lush field recording with disruptive vocal repetitions, vowel sounds from six different speakers, creating disorienting moments that lull the listener into complacency and then startles them with unexpected interference, as the composer explores how he can establish a subjective relationship with natural environments.

Twins of El Dorado is NY trumpeter Joe Moffett (Ad Faunum, Inzinzac) in a duo with jazz vocalist Kristin Slipp (Art Bears Songbook) performing original work and a text setting by composer Wes Matthews.

The followup to their 2019 Corbett vs. Dempsey album and formalizing their trio name as "The Underflow", is an epic double LP of diverse and inspired free-ea from the trio of Mats Gustafsson on flute, fluteophone, baritone saxophone & live electronics, David Grubbs on electric guiar & voice, and Rob Mazurek on piccolo trumpet, wooden flute, electronics, percussion & voice.

Two long-standing duos--Isabelle Duthoit on clarinet & voice and Franz Hautzinger on quarter tone trumpet plus Chicago percussionists Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang, both on percussion and frame drum--joined together in 2020 for a European tour, recording this wildly informed homage to the Mesopotamia city Uruk live at Artacts in Alte Gerberei, St. Johann, Austria.

Francisco Lopez initiated this project in 2006 with the Pogus CD "Montreal Sound Matter", now expanded into an acousmatic group of linked tracks from a group of impressive sound artists.

Manuel Perovic arranges the story of Narcissus and Echo, as told by Ovid for saxophonist Jurg Wickihalder and a theatrical band including Michael Jaeger, Damian Zangger, Chris Wiesendanger, &c.

Two extended solo percussion works by Swiss improviser Christian Wolfarth, focusing on two components of the standard drum set--a tom or simple drum, and a cymbal--the first side a "Souvenir From a Drum" using brushes and sticks to disrupt then mesmerize the listener; the second side a "Souvenir from a Cymbal", a shifting roll and pattern that evokes a myriad of tonalities.

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

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."