Referring to "Study Time", Zeitstudie presents two works each for two instruments developed by sound artist Akio Suzuki and recorded in Germany in 1984: the ANALAPOS, an echo instrument used to project the performer's voice across a coil spring; and the "De Koolmees" glass harmonica, 5 glass tubes in a metal frame that are struck or rubbed to create unique sounds.

With the same title as his autobiography, this 1978 solo piano album, originally released in a small pressing and now properly reissued, shows both the intimate and the technical mastery of the West Coast pianist and leader of the Pan-Afrikan People's Orchestra, through original compositions and works by Billy Strayhorn, Elmo Hope, Cal Massey &c.

This year's An Ayler Xmas, the 4th in the series from saxophonist Mars Williams, expands to a double CD with recordings from two bands: Josh Berman, Jim Baker, Kent Kessler, Brian Sandstrom & Steve Hunt (Chicago); and Steve Swell, Hilliard Greene, Chris Corsano, Nels Cline & Fred Lonberg-Holm (NYC); in incredible free jazz mashups and bash-ups of Holiday favorites.

Double bassist Joshua Abrams provides the compositions for this studio album performed with Ari Brown on tenor sax, Jeff Parker on guitar and Gerald Cleaver on drums, an exceptional quartet of master improvisers who balance lyrical and soulful playing with explorative impulse, fueled by an empathetic responsiveness that only a long history of collaboration can engender.

One of the most distinctive and introspective voices on the piano in modern improvised music, New York pianist Matthew Shipp presents a solo suite in four movements, each movement a side of this magnificently produced double LP, released to coincide with his 60th birthday, including liner notes from late poet and collaborator Steve Dalichinsky; a wonderful gift for 2020.

The 1st in SpleenCoffin's double-7" series, each featuring exclusive material and packaged in reclaimed 7" audio reel boxes, this volume featuring audio tracks by French synth duo FEMME; NYC's Sunk Heaven; a piece composed from a group recording of Jeph Jerman, Tim Barnes, Bill Hutson & Ten Byrnes; and a work from Romanian audio artist SOMNOROASE PĂSĂRELE.

A duo between Japanese free improvising drummer Sabu Toyozum and Swedish baritone saxophonist & wind player Mats Gustafsson, also performing on his own fluteophone (a mouthpiece attached to the flute), capturing five live improvisation at their 2018 performance at Jazz Spot Candy, in Chiba, Japan for an extremely inventive set of potent playing.

One of London's most significant and prominent free improvising double bassists, from Spontaneous Music Ensemble to London Jazz Composers Orchestra and innumerable projects with some of the globe's finest improvisers, entered the studio in 2019 to record this exceptional and diverse solo album of advanced forms and remarkably creative imagination.

A raucous and passionate concert led by the trio of Juozas Milasius on guitar, Tomas Kutavicius on piano, and Dalius Naujokaitis on drums, with the Lithuanian Young Composers Orchestra assisting on voice, cymbals, clapping, and "trampling", creating moments of adventurous disorder that lead to beautiful passages of heartfelt playing, in what must have been a marvel to experience.

An exceptional album of demanding collective free improvisation from the transatlantic quartet of Nate Wooley on trumpet, Liudas Mockunas on contrabass clarinet and saxophones, Barry Guy on bass, and Arkadijus Gotesmanas on drums & percussion, recorded in the studio in Vilnius, Lithuania while Wooley and Guy were artists in residence for the 2019 Improdimensions.

Kassel Jaeger, aka François J. Bonnet, a leading figure in electroacoustic and electronic music, presents an extended work of rich and warm layers, slowly unfolding and shifting as both detailed and clouded events emerge and disappear, the consistency and pacing of the work an impressive testament to his compositional control and inspiration.

Each side of these 2 LPs is take from one of four installations by Marina Rosendfeld in Frankfurt, Donaueschingen, and NYC, presenting the installation Deathstar; a piano performance within the Deathstar; a re-notation in the form of a concerto for piano and chamber orchestra; and the orchestration's reduction to something like chamber music.

A first-time encounter between saxophonist Matana Roberts and pianist Pat Thomas, performing live at London's Cafe OTO in 2018, with three short works opening the album as the duo develop their language, the 2nd side presenting an extended improvisation where both players go deeper into their dialog, each showing determination and great self-discipline.

A fierce display of raw free improvisation from a concert that closed the open-minded and essential New York City venue Tonic in 2007, from the the Full Blast trio of Peter Brotzmann on reeds, Marino Pliakas on electric bass, and Michael Wertmuller on drums, playing to a receptive and excited crowd, with Brotzmann speaking to the audience before the final burner.

Sounding current in the modern age of free improvisation, this 1973 recording of a live concert at Teatro Beat 72 in Rome, led by outstanding performers, trumpeter Alvin Curran (MEV), clarinetist Roberto Laneri (Prima Materia) and trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini (Gruppo di improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza), stands as a testament to the free improv movement they helped to expand.

Picking up where their "Live at Wirr" album left off, this new recording finds the Viennese free improvising electroacoustic duo of Martin Siewert on guitar & electronics and Katharina Ernst on drums & toys performing live at the 2018 New Adits festival in Celovec, Austria for five resourceful and diverse dialogs, from intensely tumultuous to delicately thoughtful.

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.

A Russian-Swiss collaboration between Boris Shershenkov (St. Petersburg), Kurt Liedwart and Mikhail Myasoedov (Moscow), Thomas Korber (Zurich), Christian Kobi (Berne) and Christian Muller (Biel), recording in the remote Vallée de Joux, on the border between Switzerland & France, leveraging diverse approaches to sound to create these six detailed electroacoustic improvisations.

The fourth album in 20 years from the Schnee duo of guitarist Burkhard Stangl (efzeg, Polwechsel) and Christof Kurzmann performing on lloop, voice and "ruber bands", creating music for films that have not yet been created through intensely moody electroacoustic environments, Kurzmann's voice sometimes guiding the narrative of their visionary sound.

The Norwegian big band Trondheim Jazz Orchestra joins together with the Swedish-origin trio The MaXx (Oscar Gronberg-keyboards, Petter Kraft-guitar & saxophone, Tomas Jarmy-drums) to develop and perform this monumental work of modern electric jazz, an abstract rock opera written specifically to leverage the power of the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.

A stunning album of electroacoustic improv that truly pushes the envelope, from the MKM trio of Gunter Muller on iPods & electronics, Jason Kahn on modular synthesizer, mixer & radio, and Norbert Moslang on cracked everyday electronics, three masters of the form in their 5th Mikroton release after decades working together in configurations on labels like For4Ears.

Philadelphia-based artist David Hartt invited songwriter & composer Van Dyke Parks to make an original arrangement of the Stephen Foster song "Old Black Joe" as part of his 2020 installation piece titled "The Histories (Old Black Joe)"; the B-side is a beautiful arrangement of "Souvenir de la Havane" by the pioneering pre-jazz American Creole composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk.

Joshua Abrams' (Town & Country, Matana Roberts & Chad Taylor, &c) 2010 album in an infectious groove-based album built around the guimbri, a 3-stringed animal hide bass used by the Gnawa of North Africa, performed with Chicago all-stars Jason Adasiewicz on vibraphone, Emmett Kelly on guitar, Frank Rosaly on drums, and Noritaka Tanaka on drums.

Originally released in 1980, this album reissues late trumpeter Bill Dixon's recording from Barigozzi Studio, in Milano, Italy in 1980, performing Dixon's tapestry-like compositions with Dixon on trumpet & piano, Arthur Brooks on trumpet, Stephen Haynes on trumpet, Stephen Horenstein on tenor & baritone saxophones, Alan Silva on bass, and Freddie Waits on drums.

A 7" single of two recordings from the Sun Ra Quartet, the first a 1978 recording featuring John Gilmore's "The Sky Is A Sea Of Darkness When There Is No Sun To Light The Way" performed with Michael Ray on trumpet, Luqman Ali on drums, and Gilmore on sax; the B-side presenting a 1958 version of "Somewhere in Space"; 70gm vinyl with picture sleeve.

London's Otoroku label keeps this magnificent album in print with a 2021 reissue of the 1982 Incus release featuring Evan Parker performing solo on soprano saxophone, using the natural resonance of the Church Of St. Jude-on-the-Hill, in Hampstead London as he explores upper tones and high frequency split tones in a technically brilliant display.

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.

Referring to an improvisational style only possible after many years of collaboration, which they refer to as a "ghostly, boundary-pushing music between friends", this is the 4th sublime album from the quintet of Daniel Carter on reeds & trumpet, Patrick Holmes on clarinet, Matthew Putman on piano & keys, Hilliard Greene on bass, and Federico Ughi on drums.

Two large works of complex sound and drone composed by New York avant composer Phill Niblock and performed by the French IRE ensemble of Kasper T. Toeplitz on electric bass, Franck Vigroux on electric guitar & electronics, and Helene Breschand on electric harp, exploring Niblock's work through the innovative merging of electronic instrumentation.

The expansive mind of composer and experimenter Charlemagne Palestine presents an extended drone work performed on organ, building from a peaceful single note to a harmonically rich combination of tones with a haunting vocal quality, subtly shifting and building in momentum then slowly fading out to the 20 minute mark; an epic journey in polyphonic transition.

A rich and beautiful drone work from Stephen O'Malley recorded at EMS in Stockholm, the title translating to "East-West Summer", as the piece emulates an accommodating evening, electronic crickets introducing and then settling into a slowly rotating and absorbing combination of tones, the flickering crickets returning to fade out the sense of restful night.

Recording in Cologne, Germany, the quartet of Arne Deforce on cello, Deborah Walker on cello, Erik Drescher on flute, and Dafne Vicent Sandoval on bassoon realize NY composer Phill Niblock's work of acoustic drone, using long sustained notes to create a seething combination of harmonic interactions with an ominous tone, ending somewhat abruptly to reveal its layers.

French sound artist Karbe Dinel creates a complex work of sound that shifts through diverse moods and seamlessly dovetailed sections, using synthesizer and effects to create deep resonating tones and high pitched complements, mysterious grainy ambience, haunting chambers of drifting electronics; a mysterious and compelling journey in the electronic realm.

Recorded at the same time and influenced by the recording of their 2020 album The Anthony Braxton Project, the NY Thumbscrew trio of Tomas Fujiwara on drums, Mary Halvorson on guitar, and Michael Formanek on double bass & electric bass present 9 original compositions, three pieces from each of the musicians, of melodically inclined forward thinking, creative jazz.

The debut of a new electric jazz quintet from NY violinist Sana Nagano, with Peter Appfelbaum on tenor saxophone & megaphone, Keisuke Matsuno on electric guitar, Ken Filiano on acoustic bass & effects, and Joe Hertenstein on drums, an inventive and energetic album of joyful urgency and tremendous group dynamic, fueled by Nagano's exuberant and lyrical compositions.

The songwriting team of John Zorn and Jesse Harris, who worked together on Zorn's The Song Project, wrote these beautiful melodies & lyrics that merge elements of rock and jazz for singer Petra Haden, performed in a quintet with Jesse Harris on acoustic guitar, keys & background vocals, Kenny Wollesen on drums, percussion, Julian Lage on guitar, and Jorge Roeder on bass.

Recorded during the The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra sessions in 1961 after moving the Arkestra to the Philadelphia/NY area from his original Chicago base, these two ballads are sung by Ricky Murray, "I Struck a Match..." written by Sun Ra and very much an Arkestra tune, while "Dreamsville" is a Livingston-Mancini-Evans tune that receives Ra's big band treatment.

Drummer Donald Sturge Anthony McKenzie II trades off duos with a set of masterful musicians in the second volume of his "Silenced" project, here with guitarist Elliott Sharp for a complex and inspired dialog; with bassist Bill Laswell for a rich and moody soundscape; and with guitarist Vernon Reid in a piece for McKenzie's daughter; plus one solo drum piece.

The "guess" was guitarist and electronics artist Dave Tucker's educated guess that these four musicians--himself, pianist/keyboardist Pat Thomas, guitarist Thurston Moore and drummer/percussionist Mark Sanders--would create someting extraordinary if he brought them together for a concert at London's Cafe OTO, this boundary-pushing album the indisputably successful result.

West Coast songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Coultrain, aka Aaron Michael Frison or Seymour Liberty, in an collection of songs based around a sequence of images reminiscent of a dream, capturing the hazy state of mind that drove the process behind this album, as well as its dreamy effect; soulful and introspective, an album of poetic observation and reflection.

A wild ride in two live performances, one at Elastic Arts in Chicago and the other at The Sugar Maple in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, both in 2018 from the Kuzu trio of Dave Rempis on alto, tenor & baritone saxophones, Tashi Dorji on guitar, and Tyler Damon on drums, evolving free improvisation that builds from introspective to full-on burning free jazz.

Dave Rempis invited bassist & composer Luke Stewart to his Exposure Series at Elastic Arts in Chicago in 2018, assembling a band for Stewart with Edward Wilkerson & Ken Vandermark on reeds, Jim Baker on piano, and Avreeayl Ra on drums; Vandermark then invited the band back to his Option Series at Experimental Sound Studio; this double album presents recordings from both.

This Brooklyn synth-driven rock band formed in 2018 between bassist and vocalist Argelis Liriano (The Boonies, Last Ones, Ghost Beaters) and drummer/percussionist Diana K (Hamish Kilgour Band, Giggle The Ozone, Ghost Beaters), and synth & guitar player Charles Dodson, drawing on influences such as Sun Ra, Suicide, Oneida, and Silver Apple.

Self-described as Scandinavian jazz rock noir, the Chrome Hill quartet of Asbjorn Lerheim on baritone guitar, Roger Arntzen on double bass, Torstein Lofthus on drums & vibraphone, and Atle Nymo on tenor saxophone, present a dramatic album of contrasts inspired by cinematic and musical moods, merging elements of folk, Delta blues and cowboy rock into their darkly cool sound.

Active Lisbon guitarist and producer André Fernandes formed the band Kinetic to perform the lyrically upbeat and sophisticated works of composers he admires--David Binney, Ohad Talmor, Akiko Pavolka, Sara Serpa, Perico Sambeat and Xan Campos--in a band that includes saxophonist Sambeat and pianist Campos, along with bassist Frederico Heliodoro and drummer João Pereira.

Existing between composition and free improvisation, this Norwegian quartet of Torstein Lavik Larsen on trumpet, Adrian Myhr on double bass, Fredrik Rasten on acoustic guitar, and Jan Martin Gismervik on drums & percussion are informed by minimal composed, folk and improvised musics, applying unusual technique and methodology to create beautiful textural and impressionistic sound.

Seriously joyful and consequential "avant-garde party music" from the Norwegian Cortex quartet of Ola Hoyer on double bass, Gard Nilssen on drums & percussion, Kristoffer Berre Alberts on saxophone, and Thomas Johansson on trumpet, in their 6th album of irresistible, upbeat free jazz.

The first of two planned volumes of studio improvisations between Brooklyn trumpeter & flugelhorn player Michael Sarian and keyboardist Matthew Putman, recorded in Sarin's home studio during the 2020 pandemic, allowing freedom in exploration as they sought out cadences, rhythms and melodies, this 1st volume presenting the finest of their investigations.

The productive and excellent work of Norwegian rock band Motorpsycho, releasing an album a year for 30+ years, continues with this superb example of long form and diverse approaches to the rock medium, the core trio of Saether (bass, vocals, mellotron, &c), Hans Magnus Ryan (guitar, sax, vocals) and Tomas Jarmyr (drums) extended by Reine Fiske on guitar and Ola Kvernberg on percussion.

The productive and excellent work of Norwegian rock band Motorpsycho, releasing an album a year for 30+ years, continues with this superb example of long form and diverse approaches to the rock medium, the core trio of Saether (bass, vocals, mellotron, &c), Hans Magnus Ryan (guitar, sax, vocals) and Tomas Jarmyr (drums) extended by Reine Fiske on guitar and Ola Kvernberg on percussion.

After decades playing together, the quartet of Daniel Carter on tenor sax, trumpet & flute, Matthew Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums, release the first of two planned studio albums, with two extended and remarkably warm collective excursions bookending a shorter "Scintillate", in an exceptionally solid album of masterful modern jazz.

Percussionist and sound artist Matt Weston incorporated Western notated scores, multidimensional graphic scores, implied notation, and aural scorers in addition to site-specific constructions to facilitate his instantaneous realization of this composition, which was mastered by Jason Lescalleet at Glistening Labs USA.

Drummer Gerald Cleaver continues his explorations in electronic music, taking his compositions of modular electronics, synthesis, FM tones, and muted drum machines into intricate and wide-ranging territory, compelling through the solid and natural rhythms he imparts to each piece, many of which are titled for musicians who have influenced him.

A reissue of Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza's Eroina, recorded in Rome in 1971, in a series of improvisations each inspired by the effects of a different drug, through electronic glitch, skronky horns, heavy piano and funky drums, performed by the ensemble of Ennio Morricone, Mario Bertoncini, Egisto Macchi, Battisti D'Amario, Franco Evangelisti, & Walter Bianchi.

A collection of compositions drawn from recent works by Michel Banabila, the composer performing alongside artists Rutger Zuydervelt, Yuko Parris, ok Van Vuuren and all n4tural, showcasing his flexibility in developing a variety of works that include cinematic sweeps, ambient/fourth world, sound and noise, and rhythm-based and synthetic.

The first recorded collaboration between guitarist Mark Shippy (U.S. Maple) and improvising violinist Alex Cunningham (Apathist!, Claire Rousay, Cunningham/Cameron/Smith), together taking their instruments into strangely tumultuous and often quickly shifting territory; sometimes ethereal, sometimes cantankerous, always captivating.

The first concentrated duo of two improvisers who have worked together in other groupings since 2006 from guitarist Joe Morris and double bassist Damon Smith, recording a set of five extended and technically stunning conversations, a mesh of texture and motion through charged creative drive, merging their strings among often inexplicable technique to create thrilling dialogs.

Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) invited 41 drummer/percussionists including Tony Buck, Vasco Trilla, Tim Barnes, Greg Stuart, Cyril Bondi, &c. to take part in a project by recording a few short fills or phrases, which Zuydervelt used as "Lego Bricks" to build a series of short rhythmical collages, the results being 24 diverse and fascinating compositions.

After their duo album A Map of Guilt and many albums together under various Fire! groupings, Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and electronic artist Joachim Nordwall face off again for a limited 7" single: two simmering dialogs, remarkable counterpunches of rumbling synthetics, instrumental noise, pulsating bass tones, heavy breath and terrifying innuendo!

Chicago Underground Duo drummer Chad Taylor joins with West Coast guitarist, composer and studio head Chris Schlarb for five extended improvisations on drums, mbira, 6- and 12-string guitars, Moog synth & Hammond organ, the album recorded in a single session with each piece a spiritually warm and melodically expressive dialog of embraceable music.

Using the natural resonance of the Liepkalnis underground water reservoir in Vilnius, Lithuania, the Katarsis4 saxophone quartet of Arminas Bizys, Algirdas Janonis, Danielius Pancerovas and Kazimieras Jusinskas merge free improvisation, both melodic and of extended tetechniques, with composed forms and folk music, capturing this extended work of beguiling and powerful music.

This forward-thinking Dutch quintet led by percussionist Pierre Courbois released this album in 1968, recording their percussion-centric and enthusiastic collective free jazz at the farm of vibraphonist Erwin Sommer, with trumpeter Boy Raaymakers, saxophonist Peter Van Der Locht and bassist Ferdinand Rikker'; a passionately joyful and impressive example of European Free Jazz.

J Spaceman and J Coxon play the music of avant rock band The Red Krayola! through two guitars, feedback, metronomes and a music box, recording during preparation for a joint performance by J Spaceman and J Coxon as part of: Art and Language: Letters to The Jackson Pollock Bar in the Style of The Red Krayola, Lisson Gallery New York, October 2019.

One of the original innovators in electroacoustic improvisastion, the Italy-based group Musica Elettronica Viva with the core of Alvin Curran, Fredrick Rzewski, and Richard Teitelbaum are heard live at the Academy of Arts, in Berlin, Germany, on October 5th, 1967 in a sextet format using contact mics, electronics, trumpet, amplified gas plate, moog, voice and saxophone.

The fifth album from Amsterdam avant rock band Plan Kruutntoone led by Hans Visser on guitar, banjo & voice, and drummer/percussionist Chris MŸller, is a diverse set of recording that bring a sense of isolation and introspection, including spoken word pieces with Samuel Beckett text fragments, and a string quartet composed by Hans Visser; unique and singular.

Both members of the Tokyo band SuperDeluxe, drummer Yoshio Mashida performing on steelpan, gamelan and metal-slit drums, and 5-string banjo player Cal Lyall, performing largely on a tabletop guitar setup augmented with electronics, have developed a lovely and relaxed, compelling language of improvisational forms using structural ideas-based on minimal scalar patterns.

Two concerts by improvising keyboardist and vocalist Jean-Marc Foussat, on the LP a recording at the Tout Rennes S'Emmerde event organized by From Town to Town, Capital Taboule, Consternation, L'Effroyable Association Western Soviets Satanist and Dream'in Noise, the 2nd a DVD of Foussat performing live on the beach as part of the 13th Farniente Festival.

A vinyl reissue of improvising synth, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jean-Marc Foussat's 2001 Potlatch album, originally released as a CD-ROM and here with an accompanying DVD titled "Hope for Happiness" including 3 silent films, two of which relate to the album; performed with Pascal Bouscailloux, Jac Berrocal, Jean-Francois Pauvros, Roger Turner, &c.

Taking its title from the rum-running yacht on which McPhee's father sailed from Nassau to Miami, this free electroaoustic improvised concert with Joe McPhee on pocket cornet & alto saxophone, Jen Clare Paulson on viola and Brian Labycz on electronics was captured live in 2014 at the Sugar Maple in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during Okka Fest 6, released as CvsD's first vinyl LP.

Somewhere between Acid Mothers, 70s Miles or Sun Ra's Arkestra, NY-based Japanese saxophonist Ayumi Ishito's first Spacemen volume with Theo Woodward on synth & vocals, Nebula and the Velvet Queen on theremin, Jake Strauss on guitar & bass and Steven Bartishev on drums, lives up to it's cosmic moniker through exploratory improv blurring jazz, electronica and psych.

Mining the area between the blues and creative jazz with pieces by Charles Tyler, Ornette Coleman, Phil Cohran and Sun Ra, this is the 3rd album from the Italian quartet of Alberto Popolla on clarinets, Errico De Fabritiis on saxophones, Gianfranco Tedeschi on double bass, and Fabrizio Spera on drums & percussion, joined by Eugenio Colombo on flute and Francesco Lo Cascio on vibes.

A cohesive suite in eight parts on dynamics, tone and vocal narration in acoustic jazz from the joining of the 20+ year Swedish duo project J/L Duo of saxophonist Johan Jutterstrom and drummer/percussionist Andreas Hiroui Larsson, Brooklyn-based pianist Adrian Knight and vocalist/lyricist Frew Elfineh Taha (also known under the moniker Black Fist).

Cleverly complex yet melodically embraceable, the trio of Beligan pianist residing in Norway, Jonas Cambien's trio with Andre Rolighete on tenor and soprano saxophone and drummer Andreas Wildhagen perform eleven original Cambien compositions, a mix of astute, joyful and irrepressibly creative approaches to jazz and free improvisation.

Arrived from Pressing Factory With Dinged Sleeves - top right corner is bent at about 1", otherwise new, sealed mint copies, vinyl is unaffected

577 Records' experimental, electronic sub-label Positive Elevation releases this remix of Gerald Cleaver's Signs album, itself an innovative album of synthetic rhythms and sonic landscape, here reworked by producer Hprizm, aka High Priest of Antipop Consortium, channeling Cleaver's work into dream-like territory that re-thinks and re-paces the original.