UK sax and wind player James Arben and cellist Shirley Smart explore the possibilities of chamber-oriented free improvisation through a series of dialogues of harmonic, rhythmic and timbral tension and resolution, created from bold experimental playing techniques and melodic discourse that draws on influences from jazz to Middle Eastern, folk and contemporary music.

Concert and studio recordings of peace music organised by John Stevens for himself and Trevor Watts with numerous workshop musicians and audience people on saxophones, percussion and voices mostly contributing a flexible drone.

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.

Originally developed for the soundtrack to Sean Martin and Louise Milnes 2011 documentary, "A Boat Retold", vocalist Maggie Nichols and pianist Peter Urpeth revisited the material for album release, creating this wonderful pair of extemporaneous, otherworldly narratives.

Inspired by the music of 70's Miles Davis electric work, composer and saxophonist Martin Archer presents 15 compositions performed in two parallel sessions over two CDs, the first in a septet that includes Corey Mwamba, Pat Thomas and Dave Sturt, and the second an extended ensemble with brass and wind sections, each bringing distinctive life to these inspired compositions.

Recorded in concert at The Network Theatre, Waterloo in London, 2012, the trio of Tom Chant on saxophone, John Edwards on bass and Eddie Prevost on drums present a tour de force of modern free jazz with great technical and conversational power.

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.

Recordings of improvisations from different rooms with unique resonant properties, manipulated and organized into 5 compositions mixing musique concrete and e-a improv.

Chris Watson recorded John Butcher on acoustic & amplified sax and Rhodri Davies on acoustic & electric harp in Routing Lynn in Northumberland, then joined them live at a festival in Gateshead where the duo played alongside Watson's reworked recordings.

Dedicated to Cecil Taylor and taking advantage of NY saxophonist Irabagon's UK visit, this album presents four drum duets "time two", as two tenor saxophonists--Paul Dunmall and Jon Irabagon--meet two lyrical drummers--Mark Sanders and Jim Bashford--following Dunmall long-standing interest in drum and sax duets, the results this ebullient and remarkable album.

Representing some of the finest of UK free improvisers, the quartet of John Edwards on bass, Mark Sanders on drums, Liam Noble on piano, and Paul Dunmall on tenor & alto saxophones are recorded in the studio in Birmingham for three extended improvisations of commanding technique, creative drive and wide dynamics; the power of free jazz in the hands of masters.

Pianist Bob Gluck in a trio with Joe Giardullo on soprano saxophone and Christopher Dean Sullivan on bass, a delicate album that belies the "quiet" in its title.

A comprehensive album of live performances from IST (Rhodri Davies: harp, preparations; Simon H. Fell: double bass, preparations; Mark Wastell: violoncello, preparations) between 1996 and 2000, beginning with their concert at Club Orange in London and including concerts in London, Billericay, Norwich and Cambridge, with a 20 page booklet of photos and text from the band & collaborators.

A searing album in the European Free Jazz tradition from the trio of Stefan Keune on tenor sax, Dominic Lash on double bass, and Steve Noble on drums, performing live at Cafe Oto in London in 2020 for an explosive set that at times catches its breath, but which always returns to their assertive and astounding displays, ultimately ending with a unique introspection; magnificent.

The Swiss string trio led by violinist Harald Kimmig, with Daniel Studer on bass and Alfred Zimmerlin on cello, is joined by UK saxophonist John Butcher for a set of improvisations that build with a unique percussive vitality and burning intensity.

Recorded in 1982 during a series of extraordinary free improv concerts by guitarist Derek Bailey and trumpeter Charlie Marrow, performing in configurations from solo to full septet with performers from NY's "New Wilderness" collective: percussionist Glen Velez, saxophonist & sound poet Steve McCaffery, trumpeter Carol E. Tuynman, saxophonist Patricia Burgess and trumpeter Michael Snow.

Formed in 1977, the freely improvising group of David Toop, Peter Cusack, Terry Day & Steve Beresford approached their performances with an extensive collection of instruments spread across the floor, allowing a vast range of expression both conventional and bewildering, collective and combative, as the group reveled in a concept of "production friction", here in never-released live recordings.

Recording in Brussels, Rhodri Davies performs a composition for pedal harp written for and dedicated to him by composer and saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet, using liberal periods of space that creates hanging anticipation amidst beautiful moments of fragmented string sequence and percussive response using the frame of the harp, leaving the listener in a state of fascinated expectancy.

An extended solo titled for author Redell Olsen's book secure portable space (Reality Street), performed on Lever harp and EBows by UK electroacoustic improviser Rhodri Davies, recorded at Old School, Bracon Ash, in Norfolk in 2004 by Graham Halliwell and edited by Benedict Drew and John Wall, creating a richly evolving work of haunting plateaus and valleys.

Dublin sound inventor Henry Dagg joins soprano saxophonist Evan Parker for a live concert in Canterbury: fourteen vignettes of electro-acoustic interaction using Dagg's "Stage Cage"--valve test-oscillators, ring modulators, frequency shifter, chromatic zither, and a variable tape delay system--to both generate sound and to transform Parker's improvisations in incredible ways.

The incredible first meeting between legendary saxophonist Joe McPhee and double bassist John Edwards is this performance at the 2019 Artacts festival in Austria, a powerfully reflective free jazz concert with McPhee speaking & preaching about the loss of giants John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and James Baldwin, as they stand upon their shoulders through free music.

Capturing two exceptional concerts at London's Cafe OTO in 2021 & 2022, in the launch of a new quartet expanding the longstanding trio of NO Moore on electric guitar, John Edwards on double bass and Eddie Prévost on drums, with Alan Wilkinson on baritone & alto saxophones, and for one performance on each night, tenor saxophonist Nathaniel Catchpole joining.

Their name a combination of magic and music, "Mujician" formed in the UK in 1988 as the quartet of Keith Tippett on piano, Tony Levin on drums, Paul Dunmall on sax & winds and Paul Rogers on bass, this extraordinary 2010 recording of two extended improvisations at the University of Bristol was the band's last, before the passing of drummer Levin and pianist Tippett.

An assertive album of compositional jazz from clarinetist & guitarist Alex Ward's Item 4 with London improvisers Charlotte Keeffe on trumpet & flugelhorn, Otto Willberg on double bass and Andrew Lisle on drums, a dynamic album that elicits exciting solos from all players around unusual structures that surprise in quick turns and changes of mood; inspiring!

Virtually unprecedented for the time, Evan Parker's 1976 solo soprano saxophone album captures Parker's prowess and unusual harmonic approach to the saxophone in a 1975 concert at the Unity Theatre in London and in the FMP studio the same year, using the instrument in startling ways as he captivates his listeners through a unique revelation of logic, drama and staggering skill.

Expanding on the history of Henry Cow in new recordings discovered after the 19-CD Cow Redux box, including: a well-recorded concert at the the first Glastonbury Fayre in 1972, the earliest recordings of the quartet of Martin Ditcham, Fred Frith, John Greaves and Tim Hodgkinson; a 1978 grouping with Phil Minton; unrecorded compositions from 1977 in Bilbao; and a 1976 Chaumont Concert.

Powerful debut release for three young musicians emerging onto the European electroacoustic improv scene, one of whom, Kanngiesser, has recently performed with AMM.

Nine compositions from Ryoko Akama commissioned by Another Timbre while she was doing research at the Krzysztof Kieslowski archive in Poland, the scores based on fragments of notes and objects from that archive, realized here by the Apartment House ensemble as a beautiful set of floating works invoking "clouds, as shape, as light, as colour, as body, as element".

Improvisations and realisations of indeterminate scores by Michael Pisaro and John Cage from this trio originally brought together by a reading of Cardew's "Treatise".

A durational piece featuring saxophonist Seymour Wright, electronic artist Grundik Kasyansky (Grundik + Slava) & trumpeter Jamie Coleman, members of Eddie Prevost's improv workshop.

Sound artist Stephen Cornford performs realtime feedback treatment of pianist Samuel Rodgers, creating tense and spacious sound works, intensifying Rodgers' sparse keyboard work.

London's Apartment House in a quintet configuration performs four chamber works by Slovakian composer Adrian Democ, plus the Czech ensemble Ostravska Band / Fama Q performing one composition; gentle music of deceptive simplicity, using color, shade and hue through unique orchestration, his works built upon creative foundations steeped in historic reference.

The duo of sound sculptor Max Eastley and electric harpist Rhodri Davies in an unedited recording performing live at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell, UK.

Two improvisations-one live, one without audience-by an Anglo-French trio of new voices from trombonist Forge, electronics artists Julian and cellist Papapostolou.

Four realisations of composer John Lely's simple but brilliant composition 'The Harmonics of Real Strings', a very slow glissando along the full length of one bowed string, performed by Anton Lukoszevieze; one realization for each string of the cello.

Two powerful electro-acoustic improvisations by two of the most exciting voices from the current London improv scene.

A half-hour concert of understated and engaging performance of astonishing detail and subtlety from violinist Milton and percussionist Dumont.

Four Barcelona musicians on the cutting edge of contemporary electroacoustic improvisation in their second release, recording at ca l'escuder in 2008.

Planning a duo album since 2019, this was to be pianist Keith Tippett & vocalist Julie Tippett first new studio album in 30 years, but tragically pandemic and Keith Tippett's passing prevented that, Julie instead turning to unreleased live solo piano recordings from 1979 through 1996 to which she added new vocal performances in the studio, creating eight impressive virtual duos.

After participating in the Birmingham Improvisors Orchestra, wind improviser Martin Archer, bass guitarist John Jasnoch and violin & electronic musician Sarah Farmer were joined in the studio by drummer Lee Boyd Allatson to record this mix of compositions, graphic scores and free improv, merging AACM-style free jazz with contemporary chamber-oriented improv.

Splitting the album between two ensembles, UK composer Eden Lonsdale's beautifully languid compositions are performed first by Apartment House, and then by the young Rothko Collective, the four pieces showing Lonsdale's development of writing for harmony, timbre and resonance into works focused on the passing of time and the integration of prominent melodic elements.

Complementing their 2022 release Kind Of Light, recorded the same day at Agnieszka Osiecka Polish Radio Concert Hall in Warsaw in 2021 after their performance at the Ad Libitum Festival, the quartet of Izumi Kimura on piano, Artur Majewski on trumpet & electronics, Barry Guy on bass and Ramon Lopez on drums & percussion release this magnificent 11-part improvisation.

Formed in 1992 by UK keyboardist Pat Thomas, originally with the intention of exploring the energy of rock forms within non-idiomatic ea improv, this 2017 album with Dave Tucker on acoustic & electric guitars, Roger Turner on drums & percussion and Phil Minton on voice, was captured live at Cafe OTO in London for two extended, sometimes perplexing, but consistently amazing improvisations.

A virtual live performance from the UK at The OctoBar in this solo clarinet performance from multi-reedist Massimo Magee, starting with a short introduction titled "The Way In", leading to a 43 minute extended and accomplished improvisation dedicated to the playing of iconic reedists Evan Parker and John Coltrane, complemented by unexpected digital glitches and reverb.

Two live performances at Sala Castello di Sannicandro di Bari and at Sala Auditorium Accademia Cinema Ragazzi in Bari, Italy from violinist & violist Stefania Ladisa's trio Strutture with drummer Marcello Magliocchi and saxophonist Adrian Northover (LIO, Remote Viewers, Runcible), using the resonance of the performances spaces in spacious free interaction.

Some of the finest London and Birmingham improvisers, the free improvising quartet of saxophonist Paul Dunmall with pianist Liam Noble, drummer Mark Sanders and bassist John Edwards, continue their work together with this exceptional live performance at the Eastside Jazz Club, Birmingham Conservatoire in an extended, far-ranging and engaging collective concert.

Eight studio compositions recorded in Kingston, London in 2022 between FMR label-leader Trevor Taylor on percussion and electronics, and violinist Philipp Wachsmann, also processing his sound through electronics, the two finding common ground and great compatibility in reserved pacing that seemingly allows each note and gesture to express itself fully.

The incredibly creative EUPHORIUM_freakestra as a mid-size ensemble performing at naTo in Leipzig, Germany are joined by legendary free jazz players, Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet and Barre Phillip on double bass, extending the incredible assemblage of players including Oliver Schwerdt, Axel Dorner, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Urs Leimgruber, Christian Lillinger, Gunter Baby Sommer & Michael Haves.

Their first time playing together as a trio despite many permutations in various projects over the years, the trio of Robert Mitchell (F-IRE Collective) on piano & percussion, Neil Charles on double bass and remarkably collaborative drummer Mark Sanders are heard in this 2022 concert at London's Cafe OTO for two extended, free and very informed collective improvisations.

Two intensely explosive and exciting improvisations captured live at AMR Geneva in Switzerland, 2021, from the trio of Albert Cirera on soprano & tenor saxophones, Olie Brice on double bass and Nicolas Field on drums & percussion, a masterfully controlled concert of ecstatic and extended free jazz frenzy that takes the trio far beyond this November concert!

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.

Scott Field's 9-part Sands for 20 instrumentalists, three singers, and a conductor, in this case Fields himself, employs a modular performance system that integrates composition and improvisation, the conductor selecting modules from melodies, phasing patterns, long tones, improv elements, fragmented short stories, &c., spontaneously assigned live; a fascinating accomplishment.

With each solo intended for a specific recipient, London saxophonist Magee recorded a series of improvisations during the pandemic isolations, retaining two of the recordings as pure solo Magee, the others virtual duos with: Travis D. Johnson on synth, Tim Green on drums, Joshua Weitze on guitar, A.F. Jones for resampling, Thomas Milovac on bass, and Lance Austin Olsen on guitar.

Steering far from pyrotechnics or histrionics, the drum duo of UK legend Mark Sanders and Norwegian residing in the UK and part of the new direction of Bead Records, Emil Karlsen, present six percussion improvisations that focus on textural interaction, melodic progression, polyrhythms, and sonic excitement through percussive elements; an exceptional duo.

The 20-year followup to their 2003 album on the Unsounds label titled Thermal, the trio of John Butcher on tenor & soprano saxophones, Andy Moor on guitar and Thomas Lehn on analogue synthesizer update listeners with their free and ea-improvising approach through five studio improvisations of incredible detail, technical & sonic mastery, and astute conversational skills.

Their first time playing together as a trio despite many permutations in various projects over the years, the trio of Robert Mitchell (F-IRE Collective) on piano & percussion, Neil Charles on double bass and remarkably collaborative drummer Mark Sanders are heard in this 2022 concert at London's Cafe OTO for two extended, free and very informed collective improvisations.

Referencing the "laminal" style of AMM improvisations, the 6th album from the UK-based Orchesta of the Upper Atmosphere ensemble, led by multi-instrumentalist and woodwind player Martin Archer and Jan Todd, evolved from studio sessions of bass rhythms, free improvisation over those foundations, and then horn & voice arrangements shaped around the results, creating a superb hybrid of jazz rock, textural and free improv.

Following his previous Discus release Yes Tomorrow, UK saxophonist and composer Paul Dunmall expands his quintet to a septet with legendary vocalist Julie Tippetts and trumpeter Charlotte Keefe joining the exemplary ensemble of Martin Archer on sax, Richard Foote on trombone, Steven Saunders on electric guitar, James Owston on double bass and Jim Bashford on drums.

Six sound-oriented compositions for acoustic ensemble performed by the UK ensemble Apartment House, beautifully reflective and rich works, the first six pieces being text scores for open instrumentation, along with Peace/Tree, a seven movement work for violin, cello and piano that specifies pitches while leaving room for interpretation and improvisation.

Written for and performed by the UK ensemble Apartment House, composer & performer Magnus Granberg's latest work reduces his working size from the larger Skogen ensemble to this sextet, opening new possibilities for composed structures that incorporate improvisation, in a work structured around components from Schubert's Abendbilder and So in Love by Cole Porter.

A work for voice, piano and electronics from experimental composer Laurence Crane, working with the closely associated UK ensemble Apartment House, Natural World is in three sections--"Field Guide", "Chorus" and "Seascape"--with vocalist Juliet Fraser and pianist & electronic artist Mark Knoop, Crane's work describing the natural world and portending the fragility of our ecosystems.

A double CD of UK's experimental music ensemble Apartment House performing 14 chamber pieces composed by and under the supervision of Laurence Crane, beautiful and informed minimal work from a unique voice in modern composition.

Commissioned by and recorded during the 2018 Ars Musical Festival, Fred Frith composed this work while under the inspiration of his residency at Lou Harrison's straw-bale house in the desert at Joshua Tree, CA, then performed with the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, along with two very unique improvisations, one recorded during the dress rehearsal and then again in concert.

Commissioned by and recorded during the 2018 Ars Musical Festival, Fred Frith composed this work while under the inspiration of his residency at Lou Harrison's straw-bale house in the desert at Joshua Tree, CA, then performed with the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, along with two very unique improvisations, one recorded during the dress rehearsal and then again in concert.

Continuing the sense of film noir and consummate conceptual compositions, Dave Pett's Remote Viewers ensemble of four saxophones--Adrian Northover, Sue Lynch, Caroline Kraabel & David Petts--and the powerful and often drum-like double bass of John Edwards, continue their journey in this strange place with 10 new solidly crepuscular and complex works.

Five interpretations of works by contemporary composers Franco Donatoni, Iannis Xenakis, Xavier Bonfil, Thanos Chrysakis and Tim Hodgkinson performed by a stellar set of performers in varying configurations, including bass clarinetist Jason Adler, trombonist Christian Larsen, bass clarinetist Yoni Silver, clarinetist Hodgkinson, horn player Julian Faultless, &c.

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.

In 1978 after recording his acclaimed solo album Monoceros, saxophonist Evan Parker embarked on a solo tour of the US and Canada, in New York City performing at the legendary loft space Environ, his first-ever solo performance in NYC and a masterpiece of extended techniques, circular breathing and spectacular control on the soprano and tenor saxophones.

A compelling and lyrical debut from the London-based trio Aspyrian of Robin Porter on tenor & soprano saxophones, Jack Gillen on guitar and Matt Parkinson on drums, the band name from Old English translating to "To search, explore, trace, discover, explain", which the band does with ebullient dexterity through seven original compositions from Porter and Parkinson.

Known best for his extraordinary saxophone playing, UK reedist and wind player Paul Dunmall also is a first-rate clarinetist, one of the most challenging of the single reed instruments, heard here in four extended improvisations captured in the studio, performing with contemplative thoughtfulness and prodigious technique on four members of the clarinet family: C, A, Eb and Bb.

Referencing the unusual 1896 feat of catching a turnip dropped 270 feet from a bridge by a member of the troupe The Royal Zanettos, the duo of London pianist Liam Noble and Geoff Simkins perform the slightly less daring but equally fascinating feat of performing a lyrical jazz concert at The Vortex in Dalston in 2022, for a mix of originals, standards and traditional tunes.

The first album from 1982 by drummer Geoff Serle's band Research, combining free improvisation with rock forms, electric and acoustic, or as he described it: "an electro-funk industrial jazz unit", configured as the quartet of trumpeter Jim Dvorak, a member of Mujician & Brotherhood of Breath, bassist Dan Brown from The Fixx, and legendary pianist Veryan Weston.

The second of two volumes from the quartet of John Dikeman on tenor saxophone, Pat Thomas on piano, John Edwards on bass and Steve Noble on drums, bringing the American saxophonist working throughout Europe together with this nearly telepathic collaborative grouping of UK frequent collaborators, captured in concert at Cafe OTO in 2019 for two absorbing improvisations.

A set of lyrical, thoughtful and sometimes whimsical works from the Scottish-based duo of Rob Hall & Chick Lyall (Green Room Trio), who have been developing their musical language since 2003, drawing from a wide range of genres from Baroque chamber music to free jazz and folk idioms, their lack of boundaries lending itself to a uniquely diverse and embraceable music.

A sophisticated and lyrical album of modern jazz led by UK vibraphonist Corey Mwamba, also on glockenspiel & beak flute, in a quartet with Laura Cole on piano, Andy Champion on double bass, and Johnny Hunter on drums & small percussion, with all pieces "devised and scored" by Mwamba alongside one collective improvisation; powerfully refined modern jazz.

An extended work for 10 improvisers using a composite composition of graphic scores, open notations, and two trio sub-pieces titled "skelf" (electric guitar, double bass and drums) and "antiphon" (violin, viola and double bass), all directed by UK saxophonist Matt London in an ensemble with reeds, winds, brass, strings, electric guitar, and Mark Sanders on drums.

UK sax and wind player James Arben and cellist Shirley Smart explore the possibilities of chamber-oriented free improvisation through a series of dialogues of harmonic, rhythmic and timbral tension and resolution, created from bold experimental playing techniques and melodic discourse that draws on influences from jazz to Middle Eastern, folk and contemporary music.

Two fascinating experimental concepts executed by Roger Turner, Henry Kaiser, Martin Kuchen, Damon Smith, Jeff Coffin, Ed Pettersen, Tania Chen, & Jordan Muscatello; Disc 1, each musician improvised alone to NASA recordings from the Voyager spacecraft, the results mixed together over the Voyager track; Disc 2, three improvisers play together in response to Voyager tracks.

Orfeo 5 are Shaun Blezard on electronics, Keith Jafrate on saxophone, Matt Bourne on keyboards & cello, Tamlin Cook on guitar, Mary Oliver presenting spoken word, and Simon Prince on saxophone & flutes, blending jazz, improv, folk, dub, sound art and electronica to create evolving, improvised narrative music that create a sense of place and journey.

A momentous 2020 concert at London's Cafe OTO, presented in two discs, the 1st with label leader Jean-Marc Foussat in a solo improvisation on synth and voice, the 2nd in a trio with Daunik Lazro on tenor & baritone sax, and Evan Parker on soprano sax, the 2 saxophones weaving and responding to Foussat's remarkable alien soundscapes and vocalization in an immersive extended improvisation.

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.

Unique approaches to the piano trio format, alerted to the listener by merging synthetics and samples into the opening, bubbling carnival-esque "Rapture", then settling into more recognizable yet innovative approaches to creative, modern jazz through Hawkin's fascinating compositions, electronics drifting in and out at times but generally adhering to great, modern jazz.

Working together many years in various formations--saxophonist Michel Doneda & drummer Roger Turner with John Russell; bassist Alexander Frangenheim & Turner in quartets with Pat Thomas or Phil Wachsman; Doneda & Frangenheim's own duo--this concert at Jazzatelier Ulrichsberg recorded during their European tour shows their incredible compatibility and seemingly telepathic conversations.

A delicate work of experimental chamber music from UK composer Jack Oliver Cooper (Modern Nature) performed by pianist Alexander Hawkins, cellist Anton Lukoszevieze and clarinetist Heather Roche, Arrival is delineated into twelve dovetailed parts that explore minimalism, patience and restraint; thoughtful music that rewards in close contemplation.

After The Work and his involvement with This Heat, guitarist Mick Hobbs formed Officer!, a shape-shifting RIO band that presented Hobb's unique, amusing and incisive songs, releasing three proper albums and, in 1989, a cassette on the Swiss label No Records that is here reissued, half of the album written for a stage play called Bandagen by Grazia Pergoletti.