Percussionist and electronics artist Matt Weston (Arthur Brooks Ensemble V, Arc Pair) in a 7" release showcasing his playing skills over his own notation systems employing additional dimensions of pre-and post-gestural strategies, using written standard notation and visual cues based on multiple and simultaneous, graphic scores.

Matt Weston (Arthur Brooks Ensemble V, Arc Pair) initiates a series of limited cassette releases with this solo album, seven works of percussion using traditional and idiosyncratic percussive sources with a pensive pace and somewhat irascible attitude, each piece fully notated and executed live in the studio, using a similar aesthetic to link each work.

The 3rd installment in percussionist & composer Matt Weston's serialized opera for percussion ensemble + electronics, a set of narratives and counter-narratives that explore mental health struggles as they develop over time in varying circumstances, realized through a combination of site-specific graphic, multidimensional and instantaneous scores.

Delicate abrasions and corruption of their instruments from the NY duo of Erica Dicker (Till by Turning) on violin and Dennis Sullivan (Radical 2), 9 works of improvised soundscape and avant-raw chamber music through prepared strings, tapes, looped feedback, resonant metals, modified snares and liberally bowed surfaces, richly constrained and luxuriously blood-curdling.

A live recording at Koenji Jirokichi in 2022 between Magaibtusu leader Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins, Korekyojinn, Koenji Hyakkei, PYN, &c) and pianist Kazuto Shimizu (Arepos, Chakra, Hikashu, Killing Time, Lars Hollmer's Global Home Project, &c), both on vocals as they unfold a playful and technically incredible set of "Doodads", "Watchamacallits" and other wonderful curiosities.

Phil Venable, the Chapel Hill, North Carolina bass player known for his work in the free jazz outfit Tragic Assembly, pairs up with Tragic Assembly drummer Charles Chace for an excursion into the outer limits of improvisation, the album title a reference to a medicinal clay and a riff off of the Charles Mingus song "Moanin".

An active and creatively absorbing duo between Chicago drummer Quin Kirchner and French-based pianist Rob Clearfield, recorded spontaneously during the sessions of The Shadows and The Light, with one extended improvisation per side, alternating between percolating rhythms of quick witted exchanges to gorgeous lyrical moments of hanging piano figures.

Cuban/NY pianist David Virelles in his first solo album, 14 original compositions and 2 from Cuban composers, blending modern jazz with Cuban, African and European influences, a tour-de-force of clear and balanced, irrepresible rhythms and elegant ballads, an inspired album opening on marimbula and expanded with percussion from Julio Barreto on three tracks.

Featuring the poetry and words of Cecil Taylor-associated poets Albey OnBass and Jane SpokenWord, the Boston collective improvising band Axiom of David Peck on reeds, winds and percussion, Steve Niemtiz on drums & percussion and Glynis Lomon on cello & aquasonic + OnBass & SpokenWord, focus on "Discourse", wakefullness and freedom in an age of social unrest.

A new quartet lineup for the Boston-based Evil Clown Collective group Leap of Faith, expanding the core duet of David Peck (PEK) on clarinets, saxophones, clarinets & flutes, and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice with multi-reedists Melanie Howell and Todd Brunel, all four employing their extensive arsenal of percussive instruments.

The first Leap of Faith set in a quartet lineup expanding the core of David Peck on reeds, winds & percussion and Glynis Lomon on cello & aquasonic with trumpeter Vance Provey and percussionist Michael Knoblach, in an introspective livestreamed set that balances the strings of Lomon against two horns while bringing out a wealth of unusual percussive interactions.

Using David Peck's "Broad Palate" concept to introduce frequent variation in sonorities through changing instrumental combinations, this live performance of Turbulence, the extended horn section of the Boston collective Leap of Faith Orchestra, presents the largest assemblage of performers for the group yet, and introduces the 17-string bass to the Evil Clown arsenal.

Rhythmically rich instrumental music crossing experimental, rock and compositional forms with an ear towards primitive and instinctual pulses, the French quartet of drummer & bass harpist Julein Chamla, percussionist Benjamin Flament, Simon Henocq on live electronics and guitarist Richard Comte explore innate pulses imbued with modern and urgent overtones.

Rhythmically rich instrumental music crossing experimental, rock and compositional forms with an ear towards primitive and instinctual pulses, the French quartet of drummer & bass harpist Julein Chamla, percussionist Benjamin Flament, Simon Henocq on live electronics and guitarist Richard Comte explore innate pulses imbued with modern and urgent overtones.

Eight powerful and often cinematic pieces for organ and percussion, jointly composed and performed by long-time collaborators, Montreal composers and improvisers Katelyn Clark and Isaiah Ceccarelli, these 8 compositions developed around improvisations on the historic instruments continuo & portative organs, with percussion including a 40" bass drum, bell plates, and almglocken.

An extension of his prior solo record, ONOMAT, Chicago drummer & percussionist Bill Harris also uses a prepared floor tom and feedback in this unedited 25 minute live performance at Music Garage in Illinois, notated for six track section as he explores unique rhythmic concepts augmented with encompassing environmental sonics and unusual disruptive elements.

A diverse and confident set of solo drums improvisations, acoustic or in tandem with metal and wooden objects, microphone amplification, drum feedback manipulation and close-microphone use on a detuned floor tom, in the first solo release from Chicago drummer and Amalgam label leader Bill Harris recording live at the Music Garage, in Chicago.

Part of his 80th Anniversary celebration and subtitled "The Art Of The Trumpeter And Drummers", this 5-CD box set brings legendary improviser Wadada Leo Smith together with four long-time collaborators and masterful drummers--Andrew Cyrille, Jack DeJohnette, Pheeroan akLaff and Han Bennink--with Smith performing on both piano and trumpet.

The 4th installment in percussionist & composer Matt Weston's serialized opera for percussion ensemble + electronics, a set of narratives and counter-narratives that explore mental health struggles as they develop over time in varying circumstances, realized through a combination of site-specific graphic, multidimensional and instantaneous scores.

A series of impressive improvised solo drum performances by AMM/Matchless leader Eddie Prévost performed at Network Theatre in London, 2012, three pieces with each demonstrating a different characteristic of his remarkably creative and technically virtuosic playing, first with drum sticks, then with "Hands, brush, hands", and finally "Sticking it too".

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.

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.

A work for percussion in thirty-four succinct movements from German composer Eva-Maria Houben and performed by the Frantic Percussion Ensemble of Markus Behn, David Gutfleisch, Simon Gutfleisch, Gunnar Kötke and Jonathan Szegedi, each section using broad and patient spacing to highlight a fascinating mix of traditional and unusual percussive devices.

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Only the second vinyl LP of Swiss trumpeter Samuel Blaser's career and released on drummer Pierre Favre's 85th birthday, this is their second duo album, well reflecting the extensive collaboration and touring these improvisers from two generations of free jazz have made, bringing nuance, virtuosity and humor together through original free improv and two notable standards.

Uniquely orchestrated with all three members bringing a trove of objects & percussion, the trio of Martin Küchen on saxophones, Agustí Fernández on piano and Zlatko Kaučič on drums are heard in this two-part live concert at BUMF festival in Smartno, Slovenia, for a superb example of intent listening and use of space around confident, stunningly creative & virtuosic playing.

Commissioned for the Tang Museum's "The Second Buddha: Master of Time", the duo of percussionist Susie Ibarra and guitarist Tashi Dorji envision the legendary figure Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to Tibet, through two extended improvisations of close communication and tight interaction, including gamelan-like percussion and unusually tuned guitar abstractions.

Bringing together two acclaimed German improvisers who met in Nuremberg in 1982 as teens--reedist Rudi Mahall and drummer/vibraphonist Michael Griener, "bumbling" around to learn free jazz together, heard now 40 years later as authoritative players recording as a duo in 2020 & 21 in Kotzlin and Berlin for eight energetically creative and buoyantly upbeat dialogs.

The first volume of powerful free playing and intimate conversation bringing together two New York-based improvisers, Cuban native drummer/percussionist Francisco Mela and Tennessee native reed & wind player Zoh Amba, both sharing a mountain region upbringing that brings a uniquely reflective quality to their playing, fortified by the exploratory NY improv scene.

The first volume of powerful free playing and intimate conversation bringing together two New York-based improvisers, Cuban native drummer/percussionist Francisco Mela and Tennessee native reed & wind player Zoh Amba, both sharing a mountain region upbringing that brings a uniquely reflective quality to their playing, fortified by the exploratory NY improv scene.

Evoking the spirit of a seance experienced by alto saxophonist Devin Brahja Waldman, the duo of Waldman and drummer Hamid Drake are captured live at Elastic Arts, in Chicago, beginning as a mysteriously delicate concert of intricately introspective playing and spiritual reflection, building to a free jazz drum & sax duo of powerful and enthusiastic release.

Recording at percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani's studio Nakatani-Kobo in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico and at Acid Mother's Temple guitarist Kawabata Makoto's studio in Asuka, Nara, Japan, the duo continue their collaborations honed through live touring and various improv configurations, generating incredible seismic sonics through unusual use of their instruments.

An extended improvisation in two parts at Dagny's Coffe Company in Bakersfield, CA: first a solo performance by Japanese percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani in a sweeping sonic manifestation of bowed gongs, cymbals, bass drums and objects, which then continues as a duo with trumpeter Kris Tiner for an exhilaratingly peak of adept brass excitement ending in a pensive reflection.

Innovative Japanese percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani met with bassist Kyle Motl (Peter Kuhn Trio) at Nakatani Kobo Studio, in New Mexico to record these two extended improvisations, the 1st creating an aural environment through ringing metal and bowed contrabass, the 2nd a set of agitated and disruptive interactions through incredible technical skill and expressive dialog.

39 tracks make up this compelling 3-part solo percussion work from Swiss improviser and composer Christian Wolfarth, using a game approach where some sequences are determined by the roll of a dice for note values, rest and tempo, Wolfarth performing on dead wood, a drum or 39 pine cones, augmented with recordings of stones, water, footsteps, church bells, &c.

Three recordings from percussionist Hans Lingens in his 2nd solo album on Umlaut, working at the intersection between improvised and composed forms of experimental music: "Nacht", a montage of prerecorded layers of mostly rolls and brush sounds; and two recordings in one take using close miking as he performs on a single cymbal with mallets ("Hund") and a bass bow ("Manatee").

The title Indústria was chosen by Eddie Prevost in tribute to the history behind the Museu Industrial de Bala do Tejo, in Portugal where this concert took place by the legendary free improvisation band AMM, represented here as the duo of percussionist Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury, performing as part of the 2015 OUT.FEST - Festival Internacional de Musica Exploratoria do Barreiro.

During his 2018-19 Canadian tours, Tim Olive joined Vancouver residents Joda ClŽment and Mathieu Ruhlmann for two trio performances, after which they went into the studio to record these four detailed improvisations using synthesizer, harmonium, glockenspiel, field recordings, feedback, magnetic pickups, preamps, octave generators, ukelin, cymbal, tapes, and objects.

An improvisational investigation into two bass drums over two extended recordings from West Coast experimental improvisers Kevin Corcoran and Jacob Felix Heule, as they apply an arsenal of unusual techniques and engage every inch of the drums with a diverse set of objects, evoking strange sounds, pattering rhythmic echoes, metallic cries and deep rumbling effects.

A wide range of approach and style in the debut duo recording from Alex Cunningham (violin) and Claire Rousay (percussion), a free affair of expressive and well-matched interaction, from effusively sophisticated rapport to pointillist dexterity and drive, from moments of intense introspection to cantankerous conversation, a fascinating and unpredictable dialog.

During pandemic lockdowns, flutist Mara Winter and experimentalist Clara de Asís explored locations of natural resonance to capture this mix of composition and improvisation, delicate and detailed recordings of diverse intent, using harmonically rich tones and textures that resonate in mysterious and haunting ways of beautiful dream-like secrets and reveries.

Futari (meaning "two people") is the stunningly beautiful debut album of pianist Satoko Fujii and vibraphonist Taiko Saito, recorded in 2019 after a concert tour in Japan, the confluence of these similar instruments and the performer's technical mastery blending in introspective and active modes, adding rich sonic dimensions through preparations and extraordinary technique.

An embraceable & explorative example of the core duo of the Boston-area free improvising ensemble Leap of Faith (the foundation of the Leap of Faith Orchestra) of David Peck on reeds and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice, both employing the enormous Evil Clown arsenal of percussive and sonic devices, in two large works recorded at their headquarter studio.

UK composer Oliver Leith presents a work in 8 movements for piano, keys and percussion performed by Siwan Rhys (keys) and George Barton, an invocation of everyday life through a personal and often idiosyncratic orchestration reflective of personal ritual & habits; our good and our irrational, often contradictory impetus, portrayed through quirky and embraceable episodes.

Eight improvised performances on percussion from Paris-based drummer/percussionist Seijiro Murayama recorded in 2019 using acoustic sources from snare drums, mallets, brushes, voice, steel tables, gong and voice, captured in four locations around France and in Mishima City, Japan, each exploring new compositional methods and ways to improvise within them.

NYC performer Aki Onda and Yokohama sound artist Nao Nishihara began collaborating in 2015 while Nishihara was residing in NY on an Asian Cultural Council grant, returning in 2016 for this live performance exploring the architecture and acoustics of ISSUE's 22 Boerum Place theater, installing handmade instruments and analog equipment within a visually arranged set-up.

Using prepared piano (Anthony Pateras), prepared guitar (David Michael Brown) and drums (Sean Baxter) this live concert of two improvisations was captured at l'Usine in Geneva, Switzerland in 2006, an exploratory conversation of dynamic structures and sound that implicitly references modern compositional approaches to keyboard, strings and percussion.

Using prepared drums drums, objects, voice, and Kalimba, Italian drummer Alberto Pederneschi presents eight solo works recorded in the studio, an unhurried but authoritative set of pieces that merge composed and improvised sections, drawing and evoking a narrative sense in coherent arrangements and intimate story telling.

The husband and wife duo of New York free improvisers, Reut Regev on trombone and Igal Foni on drums, both bringing electronics to their session, in surprisingly their debut duo release after two decades of musical collaboration and shared life, their assurance and intimacy evident in the relaxed spontaneity and sheer musicality they bring to their dialogs.

Recorded at the 79th Salon fur Klang+Kunst, in Krailling, Munich, the pairing of multi-instrumentalist Udo Schindler performing on alto saxophone, brass & synthesizer and Patrick Schimanski performing on percussion, live electronics & voice was inspired by the novella fragment Lenz written by Georg Büchner in 1836 based on Jean Frédéric Oberlin's diary.

Two live sets at Tago Jazz Cafe in the Philippines in 2018 from the trio of master percussionist Sabu Toyozumi on drums, American ex-pat Rick Countryman on alto saxophone, and Simon Tan on acoustic bass, this their 3rd album of solid free improvisation of extended and masterful discourse, unusual percussive devices, and powerful rhythmic foundation.

The fourth and final night of a series of concerts after three nights of trios and quartets, this live recording captures the duo of legendary Japanese drummer Sabu Toyozumi and American alto saxophonist living in the Philippines Rick Countryman, freely improvising four impresseive and creative conversations of both intricate and reflective dialog.

A dramatic set of improvisations performed on timpani and gongs from Spanish percussionist Vasco Trilla, from the quietest of moments to massively profound and encompassing events, Trilla's timing evoking both meditative passages and moments of power, in a rich and spiritual album that impresses by both technical ability and by the sense of story he reveals.

An absorbing album of percussion and voice from the working duo of Christian Wolfarth on drums and percussion, and Jason Kahn on voice, for two extended improvisations of cathartic vocal expression and assertive rhythmic and reflective percussive accompaniment, balancing eccentric and mesmerizing sound in gripping and compelling ways.

Drummer Gerald Cleaver's significance in NY free jazz can't be understated, and his influence and work with younger generation drummer Devin Gray as a teacher, friend and associate has shaped Gray's work, as heard here in this monumental encounter between the two drummers, a duet that started many years before, playing in the streets of NYC, and now properly captured in the studio.

A recurring trio in New Orleans between touring percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and guitarists Rob Cambre (Malevitus, Rough Seven, The Death Posture) and Donald Miller (Borbetomagus) performing at Mudland Public Theatre in 2018 for two extended, gritty and ringing exchanges.

Finding common ground through independent work in Asheville, NC, drummer Jeff Arnal and modular synth experimenter Curt Cloninger started exchanging musical ideas, developing their concept to add powerful rhythmic elements into patterned energetic synthetics, building a language to improvise together and rework their material into these rich and exciting compositions.

Better known for his work in avant compositional forms, both his own and as an interpreter of Xenakis and Toru Takemitsu, pianist Yuji Takahashi joined Japanese free jazz legendary percussionist Sabu Toyozumi in 1998 for this fully improvised live concert at C・S・Aka Renga, in Yamaguchi City, Japan, released in a collaboration with the Chap Chap label.

Working only with a cowbell from a charity shop in NYC, percussionist Sean Meehan, whose performances often take place in locations of unique resonant properties, discovered the Fort Jay powder magazine at Governor's Island--a compartment once used to store ammunition and explosives--using its sonic properties to capture these two recordings reflecting the original purpose of that space.

The 5th installment in percussionist & composer Matt Weston's serialized opera for percussion ensemble + electronics, a set of narratives and counter-narratives that explore mental health struggles as they develop over time in varying circumstances, realized through a combination of site-specific graphic, multidimensional and instantaneous scores.

Better known for his work in avant compositional forms, both his own and as an interpreter of Xenakis and Toru Takemitsu, pianist Yuji Takahashi joined Japanese free jazz legendary percussionist Sabu Toyozumi in 1998 for this fully improvised live concert at C・S・Aka Renga, in Yamaguchi City, Japan, released in a collaboration with the Chap Chap label.

Engrossing interactions of electronic sound, abstract percussion, static, metallic ringing and other ephemeral sonic assertions, from French-based Spanish sound artist Clara de Asís and UK-based Japanese-Korean installation & sound artist Ryoko Akama: three tracks of live electroacoustic improvisation, and three compositions extracted from those sessions.

Three drummer/percussionists and bass make up vibraphonist, marimbist, improviser and composer Patricia Brennan's sophomore album, reimagining the percussion quartet through jazz, new music and latin influences including Mexican folkloric roots, working with deceptively relaxed, highly interactive grooves that turn angular melodies into warmly irresistible music.

A truly unique improvisational setting between three Norwegian artists--inspired tap dancer JanneEraker, fiddle player and vocalist Vegar Vardal and double bassist Roger Arntzen--finding an exuberant excitement through the percussion of body movement, strange and slippery vocalizations and two emphatic strings; virtually indescribable and absolutely enthralling.

Performing in the intimacy of the Birdland Jazz Club in 2011, New York innovative pianist Cecil Taylor met with London free jazz legendary percussionist and long-time associate in The Feel Trio, Tony Oxley, Taylor's rapid often percussive approach to the keys pairing with Oxley's percussive work, and both invoking lyrical beauty from the other.

With masterful technique and remarkable creative drive, the Canadian duo of clarinetist François Houle and Joe Sorbara explore unorthodox sound worlds through microtones, pad percussives, circular breathing to stretch phrasing, Houle taking apart his instrument to affect tone and pitch, and Sorbara using idiosyncratic percussive instruments including "back porch piano guts".

Five works from US composer often based in Amsterdam, Evan Johnson, in solo, duo and trio settings including a triptych titled "L'art de toucher" in three configurations, demonstrating his unique approach to writing using disparate musical influences from modern to Baroque, mated to anarchic experimentalism and a Wandelweiser sensibility; fascinating!

A mesmerizing album of rich percussion and synthetic sound floors from Odd Person, aka August Treager (Bicephalic, Somnaphon), in seven trance-like compositions based around grooves that slowly evolve in character while accompanied by haunting asides of ghostly melodic figures, casting a decidedly world music flavor to original music that transcends location.

Recorded in a winery in Gorizia, Italy, in 2019, Austrian based pianist and composer Elisabeth Harnik, who works in both composed and improvised music, joined with Italian-born American composer, percussionist, multimedia artist and Ictus label leader Andrea Centazzo to perform this series of creative and authoritative "Duophonic Landscapes".

Unprecedented music for Shakuhachi by Frank Denyer (releases on Tzadik, Mode) with Yoshikazu Iwamoto on shakuhachi and Paul Hiley joining Denyer on percussion.

Intricate and exciting improvisation from Barcelona improvisers Michal Dymny on electric guitar and Vasca Trilla on drums, with saxophonist Paulina Owczarek as a special guest; "cave canem" translates to "beware of dog", an apt description of their cutting interactions.

A recording of two London based improvisers of different generations communing in the resonant surroundings of the 100 Years Gallery, with drummer Noble creating glittering bell and gong like tones over which guitar Thompson hangs fractured harmonics and strange bending chords.

With three percussionists--JC Maillard, Franco Pinna, and Thierry Aprino--Maillard also playing bass & stringed instruments, plus vocalist and frequent Zorn collaborator Sofia Rei, Zorn's series "The Book Beri'ah" presenting the final 92 compositions in his Masada series initiates with this compellingly beautiful and propulsive album of song.

In the spring of 2015 multi-reedist and wind player Perry Robinson travelled to Southern California for a series of concerts, recording this duo with Italian percussionist living on the US West Coast Andrea Centazzo, a free and open session with Robison on clarinet, micro ocarina & bird calls, and Centazzo also using a MalletKat & sampling.

Composer, keyboardist and conceptualist David Shea continues his musical journeys through the world's ancient trading routes that began with his albums Hsi-Yu Chi, The Tower of Mirrors, Satyricon and Rituals, here in ten encompassing compositions exploring the trading route from ancient Xian to Rome, through music, stories, history and Buddhist influences.

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.

Drummer/percussionist and electronic artist Weasel Walter's solo album presents 99 tracks that represent 4 large movements of "detailed abstract madness", titled "Curse Against Humanity", "Casting Destruction", "Ode To The Death Of Enemies", and "Cursed in Eternity", each a vicious and intensely captivating set of elusive movement in accord and discord; fascinating.

A series of solos and duets between Kalimba player Rainer Wiens and an impressive set of improvisers including Jean Derome, Malcolm Goldstein, Frank Lozano, &c.

The two parts of "Spuren" from Swiss percussionist Christian Wolfarth cover each side in an album of concentrative timbre and strategy, evoking continuous sounds that are diverted into unexpected avenues, drawing the listener into trance-like states with rich resonance, tone, and malleable rhythms, then surprising with unforseen audio twists.

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.