Recording at London's Cafe OTO, and at the 2022 Newcastle Festival Of Jazz And Improvised Music, saxophonist and composer Martin Archer's exceptional 8-piece line up of his exuberant avant-electric jazz band blurring lines between 70's Miles and AACM abstractions, is heard across three CDs of fiery soloing, contemplative transitions, and spectacular group interplay.

Adding bassist Jon Short to their lineup, the 4th album from Das Rad continues the band's genre-merging approach of rock & improv forms rooted in prog, kosmiche, and jazz rock, this post-pandemic album bringing the band back together for live interaction, their enthusiasm evident in their energetic intercourse, particularly in the extended suite "Expergefactor".

The fourth collaboration between composer & saxophonist Ron Caines and arranger & saxophonist Martin Archer, recorded in Brighton between 2022 & 2023 with a cast of UK luminary improvisers--Charlotte Keefe, Chris Sharkey, Graham Clark, Gus Garside and Johnny Hunter--chosen for their applicability to each piece, in configurations from solo to full octet ensemble.

One of New York School minimalist composer Morton Feldman's later works, this extended composition spread across two CDs invokes waves of beautifully suspended, weaving strings from four violinists and cello, performed by the UK Apartment House ensemble violinists Mira Benjamin, Chihiro Ono, Amalia Young & Bridget Carey and cellist Anton Lukoszevieze.

Energetic, authoritative and unpredictable, this 2020 concert at Hyde Park Book club, in Leeds, UK from the collective free improv trio of Pat Thomas on keyboards, Chris Sharkey on electric guitar and Luke Reddin on Williams on drums, burns through an extended and far-ranging set of sonic environments and seriously exhilarating straight-on playing.

Energetic, authoritative and unpredictable, this 2020 concert at Hyde Park Book club, in Leeds, UK from the collective free improv trio of Pat Thomas on keyboards, Chris Sharkey on electric guitar and Luke Reddin on Williams on drums, burns through an extended and far-ranging set of sonic environments and seriously exhilarating straight-on playing.

A six part improvisational inquiry from three experienced London investigators--John Butcher on saxophones, Terry Day on drums and Max Eastley performing on his self-developed electroacoustic monochord, along with percussion and a bird call--all three performing with unusual and extended techniques to create a uniqe sonic palette applied to extremely focused conversations.

An interpretation and reimagining of the opening track of Coltrane's Meditations, from the UK trio of Ed Jones on tenor & soprano saxophones, Dominic Lash on double bass and Mark Wastell on tam tam, gongs, cymbal & percussion, performed live at Cafe OTO in London in 2023, transforming the original recording's density into a slowly opening, evolving work of beauty.

The title and text drawn from Samuel Beckett's last poem and meditation on language, "what is the word" and also his "Brief Dream", plus a poem from Barra O Seaghdha and two 18th century Edo Haikus, Barry Guy's exquisite work about life in transit through eight movements is performed with a stellar ensemble including Agusti Fernandez, Maya Homburg, Lucas Niggli, Percuy Pursgolve, &c.

To celebrate drummer/percussionist Eddie Prévost's 80th birthday, Café Oto hosted four concerts once a week in June, 2022, each a differing configuration from Prévost's history; this first concert brings together Prévost with four horn players, NO Moore on guitar and Marcio Matttons on double bass, for varying duos, trios and full ensemble performances.

"To celebrate drummer/percussionist Eddie Prévost's 80th birthday, Café Oto hosted four concerts once a week in June, 2022, each a differing configuration from Prévost's history; this 2nd concert brings together Prévost, Marjolaine Charbin (piano), Ute Kanngiesser (cello) and John Butcher (sax), the same group that recorded the contemporary album Sounds of Assembly on the Meena label.

To celebrate drummer/percussionist Eddie Prévost's 80th birthday, Café Oto hosted four concerts once a week in June, 2022, each a differing configuration from Prévost's history; this third concert presents combinations of improvisers from Prévost's weekly workshop series through diverse groupings from trio to septet.

A 2022 live performance at The Vortex in London from the trio of Maggie Nicols on voice, Caroline Kraabel on alto saxophone & voice and Charlotte Hug on viola & voice, reuniting the partnership from their 2002 Emanem album, Transitions, each track taking its titles from an observational poem by Jenny Xie, rendered in expressive, mostly wordless vocalization.

Impeccably recorded in the studio, the long-running and varied collaborations of saxophonist John Butcher, double bassist Dominic Lash and drummer Emil Karlsen come together for the first time as a trio, recording eight succinct improvisations of remarkable technique and nearly telepathic dialog, allowing space for each player to display their masterful skill.

Seeking to organize a group of musicians driven by an underlying pulse and a central energy, going beyond the abstract improvisations he has been familiar with for years, saxophonist Paul Dunmall assembled Steven Saunders on guitar, Dave Kane on bass and Miles Levin on drums, achieving these impressive improvisations, captured in the studio in Birmingham.

A member of the Paul Dunmall Quintet and Ed Gauden's Crux, Birmingham UK pianist, composer and band leader Steve Tromans presents an album of original work, lyrical and introspective pieces improvised in the studio as a response to the duress of the global pandemic, motivated to record on a great piano in the great Sansom Studio based on recent life experiences.

Starting as an electric jazz album, the UK trio of Mark Sanders on drums & percussion, Chris Mapp on bass & electronics and Andrew Woodhead on keys & electronics slip into moody and experimental ea-improv territory, fluctuating between acoustic and electronic material of masterful virtuosity, presenting two unconventional solo sections for drummer Sanders along the way.

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 second full-length album from the UK genre-merging rock band Squid, in eight new songs of quirky imagistic and insightful lyrics and playing, surprising instrumental combinations and an experimental approach to layering sound, born from onstage improv experiments during their 2021 tour, recording this album at Peter Gabriel's studio at the end of that tour.

The debut for UK saxophonist John Butcher on 577 Records is this exemplary 2021 live recording at Cafe OTO in London by the quartet of Butcher on tenor and soprano saxophones, Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on double bass and Steve Noble on drums, four of the UK's leading free improvisers demonstrating their prodigious abilities in concentrated conversation.

A concert recording on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Einstein Kultur in Munich from the quartet of Erhard Hirt on guitar & computer and Paul Lytton on drums, percussion & objects (half of the Quartet XPACT) plus Harri Sjostrom on soprano & sopranino saxophones and Philipp Wachsmann on violin & electronics, presenting a remarkable set of collective ea-improvisations.

Irish guitarist and composer Scott Fields has worked with the poems of late New York writer Steve Dalachinsky over the years, here bringing together an ensemble of improvisers, electronic and contemporary classical performers to set a suite of six poems by Dalachinsky sung by soprano Barbara Schachtner, with interludes between each weaving them into a larger and satisfying opus.

Impeccably recorded inside the Brønshøj Water Tower, in Copenhagen, Denmark, a highly resonant space built 100 years ago, where UK tenor and soprano saxophonist John Butcher continues his investigations into spaces with natural delay and decay, through 11 improvisations of discriminating pacing as he finds incredible beauty in floating and shifting tones and instrument errata; exquisite.

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.

Recorded live using the natural resonance of an apse in Giudecca, Venice, Sicilian-Norwegian contemporary & improvising violinist Agnese Amico performs on the Hardanger Fiddle, the traditional instrument of Norway that provides resonating strings under four violin strings, for 10 works inspired by historic popular songs while expressing a sensation of alalie.

After hearing Matt Mitchell's solo piano album performing the music of saxophonist Tim Berne, Brooklyn-based acoustic guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi asked himself how Berne's compositions would sound on his own instrument, reaching out to the composer for guidance as he went into the studio to interpret and record these 10 Berne compositions.

The first recording of an ongoing collaboration between violinist Maya Bennardo, bass clarinetist Erik Blennow Calälv, and kacapi (similar to a Japanese koto) musician Kristofer Svensson, presenting two restrained and lovely compositions bringing together contemporary classical, free improvisation and Sundanese music in a unique chamber format.

Pianist and composer Dante Boon performs his own work "Years, Numbers", alongside Antoine Beuguer's "Pour Etre Seul(e), Sans Reserve" and Taylan Susam's "Tombeau", and Bueger's "Nov. (piano)", four works of graceful and introspective beauty using minimal approaches to tone, chord, or spaciousness, recorded live at University Of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2014.

A thoroughly modern and bizarre two-act opera about three struggling roommates in Brooklyn performed with Jason Cady, Mary Halvorson, Tomas Fujiwara, Jessica Pavone, Tim Dahl, Ben Holmes, Katie Young, &c.

Carta reminds of Low to Six by Seven, Plumerai, Charles Atlas &c. in the tradition of mid-1990s moody pop/slowcore/indie rock/post rock bands.

Using field recordings collected around the world, Kim Cascone has constructed a CD which is neither an exploration of inner space nor a meditation on hearing.

San Francisco East Bay sonic artist and Public Eyesore/Eh? label-leader Bryan Day meets Omaha bass player and sound artist Dereck Higgins for four enveloping works of sound, sonically rich and epic journeys through terrains of identifiable musical elements and acousmatic curiosity, all with an ear to story-telling as the duo weave passages of fantastic elements.

First recordings of composer Frank Denyer's "Melodies" series from the mid-1970s, arising from his ethnomusicological studies that explored the concept of what makes up a melody, or a note, creating a series of compositions with melodies of one note, then two, building up to a final work of 14- and 15-note melodies; includes a 24 page booklet by Denyer detailing the concept.

Exploring new ways of interplay within a classic jazz trio setting, "Zyklus 1" or "Cycle 1" is the 3rd album from the trio of Bertrand Denzler on tenor saxophone, Joel Grip on double bass, and Sven on Ake Johansson on drums, a double CD + poster of four improvisations that reference "Time" through masterful technique and superb collective free jazz.

Bridging the East and West, with Miya Masaoka on koto and Xu Fengxia on guzheng representing the East, and Larry Ochs on sax, Didier Petite on cello, and Sylvain Kassap on clarinet representing the West; exhiliarating and exotic global improvisation.

Portugal bassist Ze Eduardo's trio in a set of compositions that includes jazz versions of animated televisions series, including a great cover of The Simpson's theme.

Merging Tiger Hatchery's tenor saxophonist Michael Forbes and bassist Andrew Scott Young and newly arrived to NYC Flying Luttenbacher leader & drummer Weasel Walter, for classic hardcore free jazz of articulate and demanding improvisation; this a recently unearthed studio recording from 2010, captured two years after their first encounter in a quartet with Jeb Bishop.

The improvising quartet of Canaries on the Pole (Foschia / goyvaerts / Irmer / Wissel) in their second release after their self-titled debut on the Free Elephant label.

An open-minded duet between French pianist Didier Fréboeuf, also performing on clavietta and objects, and tenor & sopranino saxophonist and contrabass clarinetist Jean-Luc Petit, in an improvisatory exploration of three crusts--"Bark", "Scab" and "Crisp"--music of impressive, creative dexterity that balances scrabbly playing with introspection around each crusty littoral.

Sporadic sonic exchanges exploring guidelines, graphic scores, or completely improvised, with an expansive instrumentorium from the sextet of Magali Babin, Andrea-Jane Cornell, Martine H Crispo, Anne-Francoise Jacques, Emilie Mouchous, and Erin Sexton.

An epic journey in free vocal improvised music from the trio of vocalist Anna Gadt with Zbigniew Chojnacki on accordion & live electronics and Krzysztof Gradziuk on drums, performing live in the studio in Nieport, Poland, with arrangements, deconstructions and original music by Anna Gadt, along with the theme from "Monumentum pro Gesualdo" by Igor Stravinski.

Reissuing the 2005 Utech release from the duo of Frode Gjerstad on clarinets and Steve Hubback on hand-made drums, cymbals and gong, performing live at Lille Konsertsal, Stavanger, Norway, in February 2001.

A split 10" vinyl album of two very different works: first French sound artist Jean-Philippe Gross in a sonic assault of garish rhythmic electronic persistence and noise; then the Golden Oriole instrumental rock duo of Kristoffer Riis on guitar and Thore Warland on drums in a compelling work of grooving structure with diverse percussive interaction.

1 Proletariat 27:40

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.

Two suites recorded in 1978 from the French improvising quintet of Jouk Minor on baritone saxophone & contrabass clarinet, Josef Traindl on trombone, Jean Querlier on alto saxophone, Christian Lete on drums and Dominique Regef on hurdy gurdy, two journeys guided by waves of drone from Regef's hurdy-gurdy as each player emerges and subsides in billows and surges of collective expression.

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.

Evan Parker and Matthew Wright are the core of Trance Map, the soprano saxophonist and live electronics duo expanding on their original 2011 concept with Trance Map+, adding guest musicians to their unique approach to electroacoustic improvisation, here in an exceptional quartet configuration with Peter Evans on trumpet & piccolo trumpet, and Mark Nauseff on percussion.

Three open improvisations recorded in concert at Kunstencentrum Belgie Hasselt, Belgium in 2010 by sub-groups from the Electrocacoustic Ensemble, plus an extended performance by the whole ensemble.

With members of IKB, Variable Geometry Orchestra, and LIO, the free improvising/chamber quartet of Ernesto Rodriguge (viola), Bernardo Alvares (bass), Roland Ramana (trumpet), and Nuno Torres (sax), were captured live at Estrela for an intense and introspective concert.

Three tracks of acoustic improv from an understated string quartet that uses extended techniques and the whole of their instruments to make unusual and rewarding music.

Free improvisation from the German trio of Olaf Rupp (electric guitar), Matthias Muller (trombone), and Rudi Fischerlehner (drums), evolving pieces of intuitive music that plays below and above the surface in murky musics or confident collective improvisation.

Fiction, folklore and everyday sounds fuel the compositions of NY pianist Angelica Sanchez, with her trio of Michael Formanek on double bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, the band explores concepts of lucid dreaming, backyard birds, novels, mythical creatures and ancient structures, in a magnificent album of inspired free improvisation.

Reedist Louis Sclavis' new cooperative trio with keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Tom Rainey in a mix of studio and live recordings from Casa da Musica, Porto.

Elliott Sharp's 1998 Knitting Factory album finds the saxophonist, guitarist & electronic artist in a solo setting of rhythmic works using MAX/MSP and DSP applications to create rhythmic and sonic environments over which he improvises, with assistanceÊon one track each from Zeena Parkin on "little green drone guitar" and Frank Rothkamm providing drums sequences.

Guitarist Sharp's 2nd volume of his "Octal" project realized on a custom Koll 8-string electroacoustic guitarbass; complex solo work with amazing technique and captivating creativity.

Pianist Takase continues her tributes to great American jazz musicians with a solo album of Ellington interpretations, taken from her unique perspective and style, played with great feeling and insight.

Using toys and handmade instruments alongside guitar, bass, synths, plundered recordings and electronics, the French Toys'R'Noise trio are a live performing group that borrows from electro-beat rock forms with overtones of IDM/ambient forms, building extended sections and then amusing with quick-witted sections that bridge a clear love of the music.

Four artistic projects concerning historic sound devices from Steve Roden & Martin Riches, Thilges and Frank Bretschneider in a DVD of sound and video performance captured at Tesla in Berlin, 2006.

1. Liquid Metal Dreaming In Ely 6:44

2. Seghill Ballad 3:24

3. Pythagoras Clocks Off And Heads For The Ruperra Arms 6:49

4. Pythagorean Ground 5:31

5. The Alchemists Of East Moors 3:47

6. Texting Robbie Burns 4:03

7. Pressure 15:44

8. Release 3:50

9. Bhopal Thoughts 18:48

During cellist and Confront label-leader Mark Wastell's 2022 residency at the East London Hundred Years Gallery he recorded four solo recordings, using his acutely creative approach to the strings in unique ways for each recording, which he then layered in the studio without edits to create this wildly and often psychedelically stochastic orchestral work.

With incredible skill and nuance, using extended and stunning technique, and through intent listening of nearly telepathic communication, the trio of Florian Stoffner on guitar, John Butcher on tenor & soprano saxophones and Chris Corsano on drums & half clarinet, perform seven subtle and detailed improvisations live at Le Singe, in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland in 2022.

Extending the duo of British improvisers, legendary vocalist and leader of London's The Gathering, Maggie Nicols, also performing on taps and percussion, and Confront label-leader, percussionist Mark Wastell performing on cymbals and frame drum, with Swedish percussionist Matilda Rolfsson on bass drum, captured in a captivating concert at All Ears in Oslo in 2023.

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.

Peter Blegvad expands his trio with Henry Cow alumni, drummer Chris Cutler and bassist John Greaves, this time with Karen Mantler on keys and chordal instruments, and Bob Drake on guitar, voice and percussion, reworking songs from his solo career and work with Slapp Happy, alongside new numbers of classic Blegvad wordplay, wit, depth and humor; like the label, Recommended!

The full two-hour performance of Cornelius Cardew's entire 193-page legendary Treatise graphic score, performed at Iklectik in London, England on January 28, 2017 in an 11-member ensemble of some of London's most interesting improvisers including participants in Scratch Orchestra, in a double CD release with liner notes by AMM founder Eddie Prevost.

Derek Bailey's Company Week between June 29th and July 3rd in 1982 brought together a superb set of free and open-minded improvisers--including Keith Tippets, Phillip Waschmann, George Lewis, Julie Tippets, Fred Frith, &c--performing "Epiphany" (sides A & B) as a continuous work for all musicians, and "Epiphanies" (sides C & D), shorter pieces of smaller groupings.

Simon H. Fell, Steve Noble, Pat Thomas and Han Bennink performing the works of Mancini scored for a jazz piano trio, plus 'sound manipulation artist' and prerecorded tapes.

Joining long-time UK improvising collaborators, saxophonist Paul Dunmall and drummer Mark Sanders is London performer and engineer Alex Bonney performing on trumpet, modular synthesizer and laptop, the trio recording in the studio for three conversations of lyrically inclined electro-acoustic improv, Bonney's synthetics adding an alien aspect to sophisticated dialog.

Fifty years after pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach joined the Manfred Schoof Quintet with the Peter Brotzmann Trio and named it the Globe Unity Orchestra, the ensemble is larger and stronger than ever, here celebrating the milestone in a band of 18 of the globe's most impressive improvisers, recorded live in a commanding concert at Jazzfest Berlin 2016.

The 2nd volume of the UK/US West Coast quintet of legendary AMM drummer Eddie Prévost, guitarist Henry Kaiser, N.O. Moore on "guitarisism", Blinker Golding on saxophone and Olie Brice on double bass, merging free jazz and free improvisation in a rollicking album of electric jazz recorded in London, adding two more exhilarating "Doors" of quick shifting improv.

Long-time collaborators and iconoclastic improvisers, drummer Eddie Prévost and saxophonist John Butcher, met at All Hallows Church, in High Laver, Essex in 2023, using the natural ambience of the space to capture these three improvisations, Prévost playing primarily on a drum kit and both in a more jazz-oriented sax and drum duo, extended by both players' exceptional technique.

Two unfolding, extended sets from a 2022 concert at Cafe OTO by AMM legendary percussionist Eddie Prévost and French pianist based in London, Marjolain Charbin, the pianist playing inside and out her of instrument augmented by objects, Prévost creating sonic environments through cymbal bowing and scraping, as the duo evolve into high motion and withdraw into suspenseful beauty.

Recalling his Sun Quartet album, UK saxophonist Paul Dunmall's new sextet pivots off the jubilant rhythm section of drummer Hamid Drake, double bassist Dave Kane and vibraphonist Corey Mwamba, with three saxophonists--Dunmall on tenor & c-soprano saxophones, Xhosa Cole on tenor and Soweto Kinch on alto & tenor saxophones--in a truly joyful bright celebration of free flowing jazz.

Taking their song titles from Basil Bunting's 1966 poem "Briggflatts", a mixed freeverse work with a changing rhyme scheme that is noted for its use of sound through word play to move its listeners, an apt analogy to the masterful and sophisticated dialog between double bassist Olie Brice and multi-reedist Paul Dunmall, Dunmall performing on alto & tenor saxophones, flute & clarinet.

The debut for UK saxophonist John Butcher on 577 Records is this exemplary 2021 live recording at Cafe OTO in London by the quartet of Butcher on tenor and soprano saxophones, Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on double bass and Steve Noble on drums, four of the UK's leading free improvisers demonstrating their prodigious abilities in concentrated conversation.

The first collaboration between electroacoustic composers and performers, Graham Lambkin (The Shadow Ring) from Kent, England and Australian composer, improviser and concrète collagist James Rushford, the two developing a series of fascinatingly mysterious and detailed sound compositions that incorporate live playing; beautifully packaged.

2018 Reissue: A much-needed vinyl reissue of the seminal London & European Free Improv trio release from 1970, an amazing album showing the relationships between established jazz forms and the emerging modern language.

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.

John Butcher mastered this live recording immaculately captured by Alex Ward at the Vortex in London in 2022 between two exceptional free improvisers, Dominic Lash on electric guitar and Ståle Liavik Solberg on drums & percussion, their three-part dialog sliding in and out of jazz, non-idiomatic and experimental modes in quick-witted and masterful exchanges.

An expressive piano trio from Steve Beresford on piano, Italian-born, UK-based drummer/percussionist Valentina Magaletti, and Italian Bassist Pierpaolo Martino, Beresford using piano preparations, electronics & toys to expand the palette of their instrumentation, all three bringing a wealth of experience in jazz, free improv and experimental sound to their solid conversations.

Marking their 40th anniversary with this 8th album, London's lyrically sophisticated Delta Saxophone Quartet in varying sax configurations of Christian Forshaw, Graeme Blevins, Howard McGill, Kathryn McGuiness, Andy Tweed, Tim Holmes and Chris Caldwell, reflect on their history in a diverse set of pieces including covers of Joy Division, David Bowie, The Durutti Column, &c.

Part of a series at Birmingham, UK's East Jazz Club by saxophonist Paul Dunmall with some of the UK's finest improvisers, here in a quartet of two string players—Olie Brice on bass and Faith Brackenbury on violin—plus long-time collaborator Tony Bianco on drums, the title Prema referring to divine love or higher love, as heard in this tremendous, extended performances.