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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

"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 ...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

The first duo album by pianists Sten Sandell and Lisa Ullén, recorded in their home country of Sweden, performing eight freely improvised piano works which include the two-part "Double Music" and two-part "Onyx", each recording contrasting complex interplay of discord and harmony with beautiful passages of introspection and intellectual depth; a remarkable merging of masterful talent.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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 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.

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

During the 2019 concert series dedicated to improvised music, "Improdimensija", Catalan pianist Agusti Fernández met with Lithuanian saxophonist Liudas Mockunas in the MAMAstudio in Vilnius to record the two part, 3 sections-each "Improdimensions", a masterwork of piano and sax dialog of incredible technique and taste, from rapid runs to profoundly impressionist sections.

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 third volume of NY bassist, composer, and electronic/computer musician Carl Testa's amazing Sway project, giving an interactive electronic processor its own voice interfacing with any size ensemble, here with two new works--one for quintet among a set of Chicago improvisers, the other in Portland, Maine with a sextet--each uniquely voiced and excitingly unpredictable.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Dedicated to the late free jazz legend Cecil Taylor, this Lisbon sextet of Paulo Alexandre Jorge on tenor saxophone, Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Eduardo Chagas on trombone, Manuel Guimaraes on piano, Miguel Mira on cello, and Pedro Santo on drums performs four energetic and well-balanced collective improvisations, respecting and evoking the incredible legacy Taylor left behind.

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.

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.

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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.

On their 5th album together, pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura push the limits on approach and technique with their instruments, creating otherworldly and captivating improvisations, both players deciding against using "normal instrumental sounds", instead using preparations and textural approaches to create truly unique music.

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.

An important and well-matched trio of electroacoustic improvisers, and a welcome addition to guitarist Ian Brighton's return to active music life, with Steve Beresford on piano, prepared piano and electronics, and Trevor Taylor (Circuit) on percussion and electronics, six unhurried improvisations of intricate interplay and interchange themed on physics.

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.

Steve MacLean's 5-piece ensemble perform complex, composed polyrhythmic pieces interspersed with atmospheric improvisations for guitar, bass, keyboard, percussion and various objects.

Sparse but detailed improvisational journeys from the long-running duo of saxophonist Philippe Lauzier and bassist/electronic artist Pierre-Yves Martel.

Rob Mazurek solo works are brilliant displays of honest, lyrical and emotional playing, here recording in Rome for Radio Roma, bringing the cornet to the foreground, starting with a piece only on the horn, then adding electronics, piano, and prepared piano for a set of ethereal and spiritual improvisations that are not bound by any specific genre.

Luis Jose Martins uses classical guitar, prepared guitar, electronics, and percussion in a solo album of incredible detail and lyrical, beautiful playing of original compositions that blend his playing with modern techniques and electronics into melodic masterpieces, performed in the natural resonance of the church of the convent of S. Bento in Avis.

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.

The Swedish duo of percussionist Andreas Pollak and prepared pianist Johan Graden (Adam & Alma) in an album of references and innuendo, clandestine and furtive sounds that evoke great mystery and drama in beautifully shaped sound; evocative music that deceives to emerge from the electronic realm while in actuality coming from all acoustic sources.

The trio of bassist Achim Tang, prepared pianist Philip Zoubek, and trombonist Matthias Muche extended with Sven Hahne on computer and Christian Thome on drums and electronics in a freely improvised electroacoustic album of subtle pacing and diverse approaches, with many of the rhythmic elements imparting a gamelan feeling.

A live concert at Les Soirees Tricot Festival in Paris, France in 2016, dedicated to the "City of Light", from the quartet of Luis Vicente on trumpet, Theo Ceccaldi on violin, Valentin Ceccaldi on cello and Marcelo dos Reis on acoustic guitar and prepared guitar, in music that, like the city, exhibits gorgeous simplicity through intricate sophistication.

A collaboration between American sound artist Jeph Jerman and Italian percussionists Paolo Sanna and Giacomo Salis, twelve intriguing short improvisations using extended techniques and lowercase approaches that include minimal textures, field recordings, abstract atmospheres and organic sounds.

The Danish/Norwegian trio of Thomas Eiler on drums, Niklas Adam on electronics & guitar, and Danielle Dahl on sax and electronic wind instrument draw inspiration from early electronic minimalism, punk rock, noise and free jazz in the full-length debut, surprising the listener as the music shifts from abstract reductionism to full-on assault.

"Sudori is, simply put, an avant-jazz rollercoaster with blues, Dixieland, circus music, and free improvisation all tumbling in your stomach with strong Italian herbs and spices. Trumpeter Pino Minafra is accompanied by his Sud Ensemble...

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.

With members of Sao Paulo Underground, Pharoah and The Underground, and Chicago Underground, cornetist/electroacoustic artist Rob Mazurek leads a quintet with Mauricio Takara (drums), Thomas Rohrer (winds), Philip Somervell (piano) and Guilherme Granado (keys) through a unexpected confluence of styles to create an otherworldly blend of spiritual music.

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.

Clarinetist Tom Jackson and pianist Keith Tippett have worked together since 2001, with bassist Ashley-John Long joining them in improvisation in 2009, adding violist Benedict Taylor that same year in London, here meeting in the studio for 4 subtle and expansive recordings.

A cooperative band of mostly NY improvisers-- Mary Halvorson on guitar, Tomas Fujiwara on drums, Taylor Ho Bynum on cornet & flugelhorn, and French pianist Benoit Delbecq, recording in the studio for a album of uniquely unusual and rewarding compositions from all players.

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

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.

Madrid multi-instrumentalist and cross media artist Edith Alonso in an album of prepared solo electric bass improvisations, a four part work of muscular and shadowy sound, dark vibrations with crepitating edges making a sinister and cathartic dungeon of sound.

Beautifully slow drifting compositions for clarinet, ARP 2600, piano and prepared piano from the duo of Anthony Burr and Anthony Pateras, drawing on Cage and Feldman in these expansive and tranquil works that create beautiful and quietly exotic sound environments.

During multi-reedist Frode Gjerstad's tour of South America in 2015 he met with pianist Fabiana Galante and fellow reedist Luis Conde to record these excellent improvisations, all three using unusual and extended techniques to create these 8 captivating dialogs.

Ernesto Rodrigues leads a 16 piece orchestra of strings, reeds, winds, voice, brass, accordion, electric guitar, electronics and percussion through the elaborately restrained work "Chelodnis Nigra", rewarding the careful listener with fascinating layers of sound.

With 2 clarinetists--Joris Ruhl and Joachim Badenhorst--and 2 prepared pianists--Eve Risser and Philip Zoubek--plus flutist Julian Elvira, leader/bassist Pascal Niggenkemper explores his "different twins" concept in 9 uniquely orchestrated and impressive improvisations.

Extended Pianos employ stochastic improvisations, live analogue processing, feedback experiments, atmospheric tape composition, and ultra-physical episodic structures to manipulate prepared piano performances in real time, creating an exceptional and engrossing work.

Anthony Pateras & Valerio Tricoli worked 7 years transforming pianos, organs, harpsichords, tape machines and synthesizers into an expansive sonic otherworld that celebrates the "End of Times" in three parts; a meticulous and fascinating work.

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".

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.

An engaging encounter between bassist Leandre and pianist Sirjacq, delicate yet intense interaction from two sophisticated & listening players from different generations.

Having worked together in many projects for many years, this is the 1st trio record from Montreal improvisers Jean Derome, Malcolm Goldstein & Rainer Wiens, six free studio improvisations showing the subtle and sophisticated dialog that such long association yields.

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.

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.

Two studio recordings recorded 2 years apart (1969, 1971) of "Frictions", a 6 part work, and the additional 2 part "Frictions Now" from the quartet of Michael Sell (trumpet), Dieter Scherf (sax & winds), Gerhard Konig (guitar & flutes) and Wolfgang Schlick (percussion).

Recorded between 1989 and 1994, New Winds showcases Ned Rothenberg, J.D. Paran, and Robert Dick in a richly inventive exploration of woodwind timbres, their fluid shifts between reeds and flutes creating agile counterpoint and striking sonorities that blend chamber precision with adventurous free improvisation.

A solo work from Pierre-Yves Martel performing two works for the viola da gamba, bringing this fretted renaissance-era ancestor to the violin into the 21st century through two slowly evolving and sonically fascinating pieces.