Jonathan Webb and Robert Hopps combine processed field recordings with guitar, turntables, electronics, and found sounds in long form drone-oriented improvisations.

Guitarist O'Leary exchanges musical dialogue with drummer/percussionist Dylan van der Schyff and (prepared) pianist Wayne Horvitz over 15 taut improvisations.

West Coast multi-reedist and founding member of the Rova Sax Quartet Larry Ochs leads this impressive free improvising quintet patterned after the New York Contemporary Five, with the superb lineup of Nate Wooley, Harris Eisenstadt, Pascal Niggenkemper, and Ken Filiano.

Formed in 2008 the Norwegian trio of trumpeter Stian Omenas, guitarist Are Kolbeinsen and drummer Ulrik Thorsrud draws on influences including Asian folk musics, trad jazz, & abstract soundscapes.

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.

Exploring the many voices of the extraordinary electronic instrument onde Martinot with works by Olivier Messiaen, N'Guyen Thien Dao, Jacques Charpentier & Tristan Murail.

A beautiful example of creative chamber jazz from the Portugese quartet of Marcelo dos Reis (acoustic guitar, prepared guitar, voice), Valentin Ceccaldi (cello, voice), Luis Vicente (trumpet), and Theo Ceccaldi (violin) performing live at Lx Factory in 2013.

Two CD set of electronic and concrete compositions from German composer Riedl, with recordings from Siemens-Studio for elektronische Musik and Studio for konkrete Musik.

Frequent collaborators bassist Benjamin Duboc and drummer Edward Perraud, known from The Fish, Nuts, Abdelhai Bennani Trio, &c, join with prepared and unprepared pianist Eve Risser for two extended, intense and excursive improvisations.

Pianist and composer Eve Risser wrote this work after a mystical experience in Bryce Canyon, Utah, adding a choir to her 10-piece orchestra, balancing big band and chamber orchestra through instrumentation and approach, creating a complex and fulfilling journey in sound.

A large group under the direction of violinist Ernesto Rodrigues (also on harp, metronome & objects) in 4 extended improvisations of great suspense and tension through sound and silence.

3 live recordings from 3 ensembles - GGRIL, Ensemble SuperMusique and ECM+ - exploring relationsips between early music and contemporary creative music; with Jean Derome, Joane Hetu, Diane Labrosse, Bernard Falaise, &c. &c.

Free improvising saxophonist Simon Rose, on baritone and alto sax, meets composer/arranger Stefan Schultze on prepared piano for 11 exploratory works based around Schultze's "modules"--bits and pieces attached inside the piano--creating unusual platforms for free improvisation.

Cologne pianist and composer Simon Russell wrote these compositions, melding jazz, classical, electronic, even tango music into lyrical and joyfully quirky works, performed by his ensemble with Goerg Wissel, Matthias Muche, Udo Moll, Carl Ludwig Hubsch, &c.

The piano and vibraphone duo of Sten Sandell and Mattias Stahl in improvisations that borrow from both Sun Ra and contemporary classical such as Cage, Cowell, Xenakis, &c.

Tim Barnes on snare drum and amplification and Mark Wastell on amplified textures, tuned metal, making small, mostly unidentifiable sounds with a Cage-style open flair.

A new composition by clarinetist and composer Magnus Granberg, the leader of the highly acclaimed ensemble Skogen, this time with a new, smaller group that includes percussionist Erik Carlsson, performing his beautiful, melancholic music.

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

The meeting of Martin Tetreault and Otomo Yoshihide, two turntable master manipulators, in a studio recording from Montreal, in a collection of 21 improvisations that explore different themes.

Barcelona drummer and percussionist Vasco Trilla, know for his work with Planeta Imaginario, Filthy Habits Ensemble, Cows On Trees, &c. in a solo album that takes the listener through a myriad of tones and emotions along a varied and tonally hybrid journey of prepared drums, assorted percussion

Live recordings at LOFT in Cologne, Germany from the trio of George Wissel on prepared saxophone, Achim Tang on doublebass, and Simon Camatta on drums & percussion, performing seven "Movements" that use prodigious technique with reserve and direction, revealing the structure of their work as the pieces build and recede in fascinating ways.

A fascinating collaboration from two minimalist/Wandelweiser figures: Christian Wolff on prepared piano, whistles, and stones, and Michael Pisaro-Liu on guitar, harmonica and stones, recording together in Caimbridge, MA for two extended works, "Looking East" and "Looking West".

XYZ is the trio of Pierre-Yves Martel (feedback & static), Martin Tetreault (turntable), & Philippe Lauzier (reeds) improvising with post-industrial sound orchestration using electronic and acoustic sources.

Zorn's "The Book of Heads" is performed by guitarist James Moore, heard on CD and seen in a DVD by Stephen Taylor, using prepared guitar to interpret Zorn's hermetic language of meticulously notated sounds inspired by contemporary classical extended techniques.

Two commanding players from the UK & European improv scene who have consistently pushed the envelope in free improvisation--electric & prepared guitarist Fred Frith and saxophonist/bass clarinetist Hans Koch--present an album of assertive interactions, merging alien environments with amazing technical playing and inexplicable approaches to sound - superb!

Pianist Claudia Binder presents 3 concepts for solo piano - the introspective "Room for a Sound" and it's dramatic inverse, "Sound for a Room"; "Polyphony" in 3 parts using piano preparation, one part playful, one part serious, one part peculiar; and an inexplicable "It Takes Two to Tango"--in performances revealing a curious mind and tremendous skill.

Mexican composer and vibraphonist based in Berlin since 2012, Emilio Gordoa in a duo with guitarist Nicola L. Hein, using preparations to their vibraphones, percussion, and guitar, in an 8 part composition of diverse approaches to improvisation, from exuberant interaction to Reich-like minimalism to cantankerous experimentation, a well-rounded and interesting album.

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Acoustic free improvisation with an ea-attitude, improvising drummer/percussionist Pedro Oliveira (Bernardo Sassetti) and classical pianist Paulo Mesquita used prepared instruments in a dialog that contrasts solid rhythmically melodic piano progressions with a mix of propulsive percussion, deep resonant tones, environmental timbre, and percussive interventions.

Swedish pianist Mattias Risberg demonstrates the passion he dedicates to vintage instruments like mellotron, Hammond organ, analog synthesizers, clavichord and pipe organs, here in a solo album of piano, with some light preparations, and the pedals of a Moog Taurus, in an inventive album of improvisations inspired by the vivid images of postage stamps.

Referencing geothermal physics in the titles of their improvisations, these three Spanish improvisers create a riveting and radical set of experimental works, with Irene Aranda working inside and out of the piano, Johannes Nastejo extending and adapting his double bass, and percussionist Nuria Andorra using an arsenal of metallic and percussive objects.

Drummer, composers and electronic artist Mario Costa in his first solo album as a leader, presenting 9 original compositions performed at the 26th Festival de Jazz na Praca da Erva in a trio with French improvisers Benoit Delbecq on piano, prepared piano and synth, and Marc Ducret on guitar, a great album and an absolutely stunning concert by three masterful players.

Berlin pianist Antonis Anissegos and Greek drummer Christos Yermenoglou in an album of obscurely titled free improvisations, sophisticated and thoughtful discourse using both traditional and extended techniques, Anissegos inside and out of the piano, as the two converse through understated yet strong melodic threads, a truly lovely and accomplished album.

Sardinian improviser Paolo Angeli in his 8th release on ReR, peforming solo on his augmented Sardinian guitar equipped with motors, pedals, individual string mic'ing, and extra appendages, along side incredible technical skill and a brilliant sense of pacing - highly recommended!

A persuasive album of lyrical groove-based electric free improv from the Hungarian quintet of Daniel Vaczi on saxophones & piano, Balazs Horvath on double bass, Zsolt Sarvari Kovacs on drums, Marton Fenyvesi on electric guitar & effects and Aved Janos on saxophones, Vaczi also programming the Budapest Music Center's player piano in unusual ways for the 3-art "Fabula".

Prepared piano and percussion from Ofer Pelz and Preston Beebe, the percussionist using a diverse set of approaches to drums, cymbals and devices, blurring the sonic distinctions with Israeli-born Montreal-based pianist Ofer Pelz, whose preparations transform the piano in remarkable ways as the two focus on time, texture, space, and ambiance through seven fascinating improvisations.

Intricate and beautifully paced electroacoustic improv from the quartet of Thanos Chrysakis (laptop, synth & radio), Ken Slaven (berimbu, autoharp, violin), James O'Sullivan (guitar) and Jerry Wigens (clarinet & mandolin).

The Italian trio of saxophonist/clarinetist Francesco Masaro, pianist and prepared pianist Giovanni Cristino, and drummer/percussionist Walter Forestiere, take us on a journey at the lower levels of a forest's undergrowth, adding objects, preparations and extended techniques in a blend of free jazz and nonidiomatic forms to reveal mystery and brightness in the brambles.

A trio of improvisers recorded live at Exploratorium in Berlin, 2018, from Zemun prepared pianist Dusica Cajlan-Wissel, European percussionist Etienne Nillesen on extended snare drum, and improviser/sculptur Georg Wissel on prepared alto saxophone, through extended technique and preparations creating unusual sonic interactions of detail and restrained idiosyncratic discourse.

Recording in Saskatoon in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan the day before their performance at the Sounds Like Festival, audio explorer Tim Olive brings his magnetic pickups in a first meeting with Doreen Girard performing on a prepared tsymbaly, a Ukranian hammer dulcimer, for a single, unusually evolving, and wonderfully rich improvisation.

Taking their name from plants whose seeds are distributed by wind, violist Frantz Loriot and bassist Daniel Studer formed Anemochore in 2016 to purse different playing techniques and preparations in their search for unique forms of improvisation, here with drummer Benjamin Brodbeck and saxophonist & bass clarinetist Sebastian Strinning, recorded by Jean-Marc Foussat.

Mujician pianist Keith Tippetts embarked on his first solo tour in 1979, capturing these concert recordings that were originally released in 1980 on vinyl on the Universe Label; long out of print, Discus has revived these extraordinary recordings, showing the incredible technical abilities, endurance, and quick-witted creative powers of this legendary improviser.

Norwegian jazz vocalist Guro Gravem Johansen (Soyr, Crazy Moon, and vocalist for Helge Hurum's orchestra), in a duo with Colombian cellist based in Helsinki, Sergio Castrillon, performing on a prepared microtonal cello, as the two improvise over five dialogs, from the extended "Primo" to the succinct "Quintuple", blending unusual technique with unique creative impulse.

Spending two days in a recording studio in Berne, pianist Stefan Aeby recorded these 14 short works, a mixture of improvised and composed works using preparations and electronics to evoke a set of diverse recordings, from energetic structural works to evocative lyricism, nothing overstaying its welcome, carrying the listener through an inquisitive and compelling set of ideas.

Filled with mystery and innuendo, the duo of French pianist and keyboardist Loris Binot, performing on prepared piano, prepared Fender Rhodes, Moog & electronics, and French-based accordionist Emilie Skrijelj, also on samples & electronics, are heard in a recording at the performing arts theater at CCAM in Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy for two extended and superbly intriguing improvisations.

Bringing together NY drummer/percussionist John Hollenbeck, also on prepared piano, with Berlin bassist Bernhard Meyer for an album that blends textural rock, electronic and jazz approaches in 9 elusively calm yet structurally turbulent pieces, using complex systems of cross rhythms against atmospheric immersion, occasionally disruptive but generally eccentrically controlled and exploratory.

Four compositions for solo piano from Swiss composer Urs Peter Schneider, founder of Ensemble Neue Horizonte Bern, with four accompanying prose pieces with text in German from Schneider himself, Martin Luther, and Ita Wegman; unusual words to accompany Schneider's minimalist works of clear progressions, thoughtful direction and interesting concepts.

A split 7" release between Cremaster (Alfredo Costa Monteiro (electronics) and Ferran Fages (feedback mixing board and electroacoustic devices); and the Komora A trio of Karol Koszniec (electronics), Dominik Kowalczyk (laptop) and Jakub Mikolajczyk (modular synth).

The duo of late bassist Peter Kowald and inside-and-out pianist Agusti Fernandez in a set of extraordinary energetical, rhythmic and irrepressible improvisations.

A gorgeous and sinuous album of piano and voice from Portuguese pianist Joana Sá, using preparations and props to accompany the incredibly illustrative voice of Greek vocalist Savina Yannatou, whose profound skills create a sense of mystery and narrative that surpasses language and intent, creating something uniquely fragile yet fiercely alluring.

Pianist & improviser Steve Beresford performing on prepared piano, toys & electronic, percussionist Valentina Magaletti and bass player Pierpaolo Martino are heard in this cataclysmically interesting album based around Beresford's compositions, each piece a vignette that merges elements of free improv, rock, sound & avant structures in inventive and compelling ways.

Ganelin Trio saxophonist joins with the UK improvising duo of pianist Carolyn Hume & drummer Paul May, with percussionist Oleg Yudanov rounding out this sophisticated quartet of chamber-oriented collective free improvisation, their studio debut alternating three concise conversations with two extended works, each unfolding in great detail through expressive technique.

After the earliest versions of the Euphorium_freakestra toured in Weimar, Leipzig, Dresden, Krakow & Gottingen in 2000, pianist Oliver Schwerdt and guitarist Friedrich Kettlitz came together to develop a suite for grand piano, acoustic guitar and free vocals, a prelude to the album Gay - Saunawirt ten years later, and the start of the professional recording history of the EUPHORIUM ensembles.

A fascinating Italian project using improv techniques on voice, bass clarinet, prepared guitars & banjos and live electronics, allowing each musician to generate sounds by using their senses to listen and reflect on the world around them, from Elio Martusciello (live electronics), Chiara Liuzzi (voice), Francesco Massaro (reeds & electronics) & Adolfo La Volpe (guitars & objects).

An unusual sax and drum duo between Lithuanian saxophonist Liudas Mockunas, here performing on contrabass and prepared clarinet, tenor & soprano saxophones, with Christian Windfeld performing on prepared drum kit, drums, drums and cymbals, in two side-long improvisations, the first focusing on sonic subtlety, the second a rompingly idiosyncratic and energetic set.

An outstanding pair of concerts from Austrian pianist & vocalist Igrid Schmoliner and Chicago drummer & percussionist Hamid Drake, Schmoliner coming from a compositional/avant background, Drake merging jazz and world approaches to his playing, together creating something wonderfully informed and exciting, making their complex interplay radiantly lucid to their audience.

The debut of the Amsterdam-based trio of Argentinian pianist Nicolas Chientaroli and saxophonist & clarinetist Ada Rave with Dutch bassist Raoul van der Weide, all three using preparations, objects and voice to extend their unique approach to instant composition, heard in eight succinct, animated and sometimes eccentric dialogs recorded at BIMHuis.

Exploring the sonic and visual territory of water, centering on concepts of metamorphoses and breathing underwater, pianist Joshua White and trumpeter & flugelhorn player Steph Richards also employ resonating water vessels and percussion as they present three fluid and introspectively fathomed works in multiple movements: "Sacred Sea"; "Sequoia"; and "Northern Lights".

Following their Creative Sources album Wind Makes Weather, alto saxophonists Tim O'Dwyer and Georg Wissel, both employing preparations on their instruments, improvise a confluence of sonic rivers evoking, exploring and reflecting waterways from around the world, captured in concert at the cinema hall of the cultural center Alte Feuerwache, in Cologne.

One of Listen! Foundation's 2022 piano/bass duo series, German-based pianist Jordina Milla meets UK bassist Barry Guy for an album of uniquely discerning improvisation, Milla using inside preparations and gracefully energetic playing informed by her background in classical piano, complementing Guy's intensely melodic abstractions and technically advanced techniques; fascinating.

Composer and pianist Magnus Granberg developed this delicately introspective work as a collaboration between his Skogen ensemble and cellist Leo Svensson Sander & harpist Stina Hellberg Agback, concerning the development of art in times of crisis, using Messiaen's "Quatuor pour la fin de temps" (Quartet for the End of Time) as a basis, and brought into focus by actual pandemic.

Extraordinary New York drummer & percussionist Francisco Mela is joined by Taiwan pianist and composer residing in NY, Shinya Lin, for two extended collective improvisations of joyful interaction, a complex interweaving of keys and drums augmented by percussive preparations from Lin and vocal exclamation from Mela, an upbeat and exuberantly intricate encounter.

The trio of violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt, bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Matthias Bossi explore the language of memory and dreams through songs, improvisation, and field recordings.

"Active for over a decade, the trio New Windshas carved a distinctive niche in the arena of New Music by exploring the ambiguous territory in-between composition and improvisation while employing the particular tonalities and timbres of ...

Following the visual scores of multi-disciplinary artist Tina Douglas, pianist Magda Mayas uses objects and preparations on piano, clavinet & rhodes keyboards to expand on Douglas' sculptural and tactile scores, exposing the fragility or imperfections in each, allowing one melody, chord or noise to become the focus of Maya's aural rendering and interpretations.

The Canadian free improvising duo of accordionist Robin Servant (GGRIL, P.O.W.E.R., Danielle Palardy Roger) and drummer Mathieu Bec (Dubovnik, Michel Doneda) are heard in this 2019 performance at la Maison de la Culture du Pic Champlain, in a gripping set of dialogs using preparations and extended techniques to create unusual sonic approaches to both instruments.

Swiss musicians, trumpeter Marco Von Orelli and drummer Sheldon Suter and their Portuguese partners, guitarist Luis Lopes and electronics artist Travassos, in an album of unconventional collective improvisation using extended techniques in a large work of evolving, subtle interactions, magnifying sound and gesture in an engrossing sonic environment.

Thanos Chrysakis with Dario Villega and Oli Mayne in improvised set using electronics, prepared pianos, percussion, &c, a colored palimpset of sound.

Originally called Treffpunkt, or "meeting point", the partnership of violist Frantz Loriot and pianist Cedric Piromalli has evolved as they added collaborators to their idiosyncratic approach to improv, here with guests Antoine Chessex on tenor sax and Christian Wolfarth on percussion and cymbals for an extended, upbeat and wonderfully creative performance.

A co-production between BeCoq Records and Creative Sources, the quartet of saxophonist Mathhiew Lebrun with 3 guitarists--Leo Rathier, Paul Menard, and Thomas Coquelet--use preparations, feedbacks, glass, cymbals, microswitches, and unusual sax techniques to create unusual sonic environments that ebb and flow in introspective and disquieting ways.

Despite using traditional instrumentation, the Montreal trio of pianist Lisa Cay Miller, guitarist Vicky Mettler, and bassist Raphael Foisy-Couture avoid sounding anything but traditional, through preparations and a mischievous attitude transforming their instruments and applying them to a highly interactive and darkly optimistic set of very unique dialogs.

Sharing common ground in improvisational language and extended techniques but approaching these materials in diverse and disparate ways, alto saxophonists Tim O'Dwyer and Georg Wissel, both using preparations on their sax and distinguished in separate stereo channels, present a singular concert of reed interactions live at the Peter Kowald Ort in Wuppertal, Germany

Strange monsters indeed, two creative improvising vocalists--Mascha Corman from Germany and Thea Soti from Serbia--join with Czech prepared saxophonist Salim Javaid, each using their instrument both as a voice and an unusual sound source, presenting 16 short works that explore harmonic and unexpected outcomes from their unique conversations.

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"Siete Colores presents a trio of Rodrigues' viola and the dual electric guitars of Moimeme and Argentinean Fernando Perales (perhaps best known for the group Reynols with Anla Courtis). As "23 44'00"S 65 29'00" O" opens what's immediat...

An eruption of sound from the long-standing collaboration of violist Ernesto Rodrigues and Abdul Moimeme, here on prepared electric guitar, in a trio with unique percussionist Antez, whose intimate relationship with the percussive objects he uses creates a tectonic aural range of explosive flows and deeply churning cymbal vibration, caught live at Lisboa Incomum, in Lisbon.

A unique take on the piano, with both participants--Ernesto Rodrigues and Carlos Santos--approaching the physical aspects of the instrument, somewhat beyond prepared piano, as the two record not just the strings but the wood, metal and most likely wheels of the instrument, creating a cantankerous display of sound that unfolds slowly; idiosyncratic and noteworthy.

Composer, pianist and multi-instrumentals Joana Sa gives voice to texts by Goncalo M. Tavares as read by Rosinda Costa, where the text organizes the thoughts that filter the multiple, disorderly, eccentric, voluble mind described in Tavares' work.

A strangely agitated garden sculpted from melody, dissonance and instrumental abberation through profound technique and unusual approaches to their instrument, by French double bassist Louis-Michel Marion and pianist Françoise Toullec, bringing a sense of wonder and turbulent environment through a shared passion balancing ominous space with astute activity.

Two collaborations in a split LP, and the continuation of a series of duo pieces for piano and other instruments that pianist and keyboardist Eric Wubbels has been pursuing since 2006: first an intensive 3-part "Field Of Action" with vocalist and noise artist Charmaine Lee; then "Contraposition" with trombonist Weston Olencki in a duo with Wubbels on prepared piano.