Compositions for synthesizers, electric harp, tabletop guitar, accordion, alto saxophone, percussion and voices performed by Joane Hetu, Diane Labrosse, Zeena PArkins, Danielle Palardy Roger, and Tenko.

Michel F Cote, Bernard Falaise, Alexandre St-Onge, Christof Migone, and Sam Shalabi, all members of the excellent group Klaxon Gueule, in a minimalist release of improv.

This Toronto quintet spent two years researching and performing the music of Steve Lacy, focusing on the vocal works, which they play with precision, imagination and love.

Composer Jurg Frey's 1988 work "String Quartet" realized by Nadia Francavilla, Clemens Merkel, Stephanie Bozzini and Isabelle Bozzini, exploring ideas of audibility: the moment when sound waves move in space and the air touches the body.

Crossing heavy improv with jazz, classical, world music and more, Zorn's latest compositions are handled by the ensemble of John Medeski (organ), Ches Smith (congas, Voudun drums), Kenny Wollesen (vibes), Kenny Grohowski (drums), and Matt Hollenberg (guitar).

The 28th release in John Zorn's Book of Angels series, performing the Masada song books in distinct groupings, brings together the all-star NY group of Cyro Baptista, Joey Baron, Trevor Dunn, John Medeski, and Kenny Wollesen for a blend of jazz, Afro-Cuban bop, Exotica, and more.

Chicago multi-reedist Ken Vandermark in a quintet with Italian musicians Stefano Ferrian (tenor saxophone), Simone Quatrana (piano), Luca Pissavini (double bass), and SEC_ (Revox tape recorder, instant sound treatment) in an uninhibited live concert in 2013 at Dragon Club in Poland.

Irish guitarist Christy Doran in a quintet with NY Downtown stars Hank Roberts (cello) and Marty Ehrlich (reeds), UK legend Ray Anderson (trombone) and Swiss sax master Urs Leimgruber, in recordings from 1989-1991 showing incredible melodic, technical and creative skills.

Originally issued on the Hat Hut label as a 3-LP set, this 1978 recording of Cecil Taylor compatriot, saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, performing live at Collective for Living Cinema in New York in a unique band with Karen Borca (bassoon), Munner Bernard Fennel (cello) and Roger Blank (drums).

Mesmerizing electric free improvisation from the Portugese quintet of Marcelo Dos Reis on guitar, Luis Vicente on trumpet, Joao Guimaraes on sax, Jose Miguel Pereira on double bass, and Joao Pais Filipe on drums, recording live at Salao Brazil in Coimbra, Portugal in 2014.

A very open album of improvisation, using an intensely responsive section of three drums and one bass, with Wooley in amazing form playing above the fray, from introspective reserve to seething runs, supported by a wicked undercurrent of astounding, criss-crossing rhythm.

Never before released radio recordings at WKCR in 1979 of NY trumpeter Arthur Williams, a member of the loft scene, in a quintet with Toshinori Kondo on trumpet, Peter Kuhn on sax, Denis Charles on drums and William Parker on bass, a great example of probing free jazz from that period.

Reissue of Italian improvising rock band of Jacopo Andreini (sax), Pino Montecalvo (bass), Carlo Lupori (drums), Efisio Biancofiore (guitar), Edi Leo (trumpet), active from 1993 to 2005, in their first demo tape recorded live in studio in 1994 plus two 7" split with NO and God Is My Co-Pilot.

Two recordings from multi-reedist Peter Kuhn from 1978-79; a reissue of an LP of a '78 radio broadcast with Toshinori Kondo (trumpet), Arthur Williams (trumpet), William Parker (bass), and Denis Charles (drums); and a live concert with Denis Charles in Massachusetts in '79.

Live recordings at the 2015 Tampere Jazz Happening from the first meeting of Susana Santos Silva on trumpet, Lotte Anker on sax, Sten Sandell on piano, Torbjorn Zetterberg on bass and Jon Falt on drums, a modern supergroup of responsive and subtle collective improvisation.

Part of a series of 8 split release cassettes, all hand-painted & numbered; this release presents the collaborative long-form improvisation noise project Amalgamated backed with Odd Person, the ongoing project of Bicephalic label leader August Traeger.

A great set of Downtown NY players led by trombonist Steve Swell, with Jemeel Moondoc on alto sax, Dave Burrell on piano, William Parker on double bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums, a heartfelt and masterfully soulful album of excellent modern jazz in a limited LP.

Following jazz traditions blending lyrical and free approaches with unexpected twists and turns from the Norwegian quintet of Andree Roligheten on sax, Thomas Johansson on trumpet, Oscar Gronberg on piano, Jon Rune Strom on double bass, and Tollef Ostvang on drums.

Downtown New York multi-reedist mainstay Elliott Sharp in his third Aggregat release, in a quintet with Taylor Ho Bynum on trumpet, Barry Altschul on drums, Terry L. Greene II on trombone, and Brad Jones on bass, pushing elastic limits on the concepts of jazz and free improv.

Based on Canadian physician & author Jacques Ferron's book "Gaspe Mattempa", bassist Eric Normad leads a quintet into a mythological audio world with Raphael Arsenault (violin), Philippe Lauzier (bass clarinet), Alexandre Robichaud (trumpet) & Antoine Letourneau-Berger (percussion).

NY trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson's 2nd Pi album, in a quintet with pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist John Hebert, guitarist Miles Okazaki, and drummer Craig Weinrib, for 6 original lyrical compositions with captivating progressions and top notch soloing making great modern jazz.

Following jazz traditions blending lyrical and free approaches with unexpected twists and turns from the Norwegian quintet of Andree Roligheten on sax, Thomas Johansson on trumpet, Oscar Gronberg on piano, Jon Rune Strom on double bass, and Tollef Ostvang on drums.

NY vocalist Kosi (Akosua Gyebi) recorded this album to accompany a theater production called Ghosts Appearing through the Sound: a tribute to Abbey Lincoln, paying homage to the great vocalist with a 4-piece band performing works by Lincoln, Coltrane, Monk, &c.

Saxophonist Paul Dunmall's quintet with Hamid Drake, Dave Kane, Steve Tromans, and Percy Pusgove, bridge traditional with chamber jazz and world music, including a work for bagpipes and frame drum, in a monumental suite of improvisational possibilities.

This French free improv group performs both quick-twisting post-bop compositions and modern extended technique work, comprised of John Cuny (piano), Jerome Fouquet (trumpet), Jean-Brice Godet (clarinet), Yoram Rosillio (bass) and Nicolas Souchal (trumpet).

Bridging contemporary and improvised music, Montreal double bassist Nicolas Caloia wrote these pieces for textured and impossible rhythms; blending pieces by Nancarrow and Grand Master Flash; and manipulating poems by Genevieve Letarte; with supporting improv from Jean Derome & Lori Freedman.

Composed between 1926 and 1939, "Mikrokosmos" was Bela Bartok's attempt to solve certain technical problems in the art of piano playing, here adapted by the 5-piece Quartetski into a fascinating series of progressive exercises and etudes, oddly enough presented without a piano.

Lisbon's Nuova Camerata brings together a mix of improvisers and contemporary classical players--Carlos Zingaro, Joao Camoes, Ulrich Mitzlaff, Miguel Leiria on string with Pedro Carneiro on marimba--for a set of improvisations bridging both disciplines in passionate and unexpected ways.

A live performance at Judson Church in Manhattan as part of the 20th Vision Festival from the NY/France free improvising trio of Joelle Leandre on double bass, Mat Maneri on viola, and Gerald Cleaver on drums and percussion, two tracks of steadily building, incredibly compatible dialog.

Part of the Henry Cow boxset, now available for individual purchase, compiled from live recordings, radio transcription, or early recordings, remastered and presented to give a complete look at the history of Henry Cow.

Part of the Henry Cow boxset, now available for individual purchase, compiled from live recordings, radio transcription, or early recordings, remastered and presented to give a complete look at the history of Henry Cow.

Composer John Zorn's Simulacrum ensemble of Trevor Dunn (bass), John Medeski (keyboards), Kenny Grohowski (drums), Matt Hollenberg (guitar), and Sara Serpa (voice) in their 6th album of heavy improv, celebrating the 500th anniversary of the passing of painter Hieronymus Bosch.

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.

A brilliant quintet brought together for the Tampere Jazz Happening, in Finland in 2013, with NY trumpeter Peter Evans, UK saxophonist John Butcher, Australian bassist Clayton Thomas, German drummer/percussionist Paul Lovens, and French pianist Frederic Blondy for a phenomenal extended improvisation presented in parts: "Une Aile Dissoute Dans La Lumiere".

The Portugese quintet of Angelica V. Salvi on harp, Miguel Carvalhais on computer, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, Marcello doe Reis on electric guitar, and Joao Pais Filipe on drums & percussion in a live concert in Brazil at Salao for a far-ranging album of electroacoustic free improvisation, beautifully building to frenetic, collective dialog.

The Runciple Quintet of John Edwards on double bass, Marcello Magliocchi on drums, Neil Metcalfe on flute, Adrian Northover on soprano saxophone, and Daniel Thompson on acoustic guitar recording at IKLECTIC, in London in 2016 for 5 excellent examples of detailed, collective improvisation.

Three foreboding tracks of aggressive and open improvisation from long-time collaborators Lebanese trumpet player Mazen Kerbaj and guitarist Sharif Sehnaoui in a quintet with Creative Sources labelmates Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, and Carlos Santos on electronics; a confrontational, at times frightening world of sound; gripping.

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.

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.

Drummer Isaiah Ceccarelli's debut album is inspired by voyages in the French Alps and the Pyrenees and features artists Jean Derome, Francisco Lozano, Steve Raegele, and Clinton Ryder.

A four part suite bridging compositional and improvisational music from Portugese pocket trumpeter Sei Miguel in a quintet including Rafael Toral on modulated electronics.

Vocalist Lina Nyberg in a quintet with David Stackenas (guitar), Cecilia Persson (piano), Josef Kallerdahl (bass) & Peter Danemo (drums), singing original works plus one by poet Coleman Barks, and Paul Simon's "So Long Frank Lloyd Wright".

Kadima collective saxophonist Ariel Shibolet and 4 California Bay Area players in impressive and intense improvisation that make for an unusual and open-minded discourse.

New compositions from bassist William Parker, two CDs with the first performed by the William Parker Quartet of Hamid Drake on drums, Rob Brown on sax, and Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson on trumpet, the second with his In Order to Survive quartet with Brown, Drake, and Coooper-Moore on piano; a tremendous album of beautiful melodies and infectious rhythms.

The sixth album as a leader from the Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-based pianist Davis, composing for the inspired working group of Mat Maneri (viola), Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Trevor Dunn (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums & glockenspiel).

Composer Ryoko Akama releases a 2 disc set of 23 scores in the crossroads of minimalism and sound compositions, quiet and loud, performed in a sextet with the composer herself plus Christian Muller, Cristian Alvear, Cyril Bondi, Stefan Thut, and d'incise, each section like a page in a notebook related to place, space, time or location.

Guitarist Joacim Nyberg, also performing on double bass, bell and recorder, in a live performance in Stockholm, Sweden at Fylkingen in 2014, using "Wood, steel, air. Hands, fingers, heart" in an open-ended and ardent exposition of his interpretation of jazz.

Singer/songwriter Julie McGeer leads a band of some of Western Canada's foremost players from the jazz and indie scene including Peggy Lee, JP Carter, Paul Rigby, Cole Schmidt, Darren Parris & Barry Mirochnik in an embraceable album combining jazz, indie pop and folk roots.

A central figure in the Portuguese creative music scene, from the pop group GNR to free improv in Telectu to contemporary composition, guitarist Vitor Rua presents a 2-CD album, one multi-tracking solo in complex and astonishing ways, and the 2nd playing the same scores with his group The Metaphysical Angels of top figures in the Portuguese avant jazz scene.

1. Ma(R)Ker #1 4:32

2. Ma(R)Ker #2 4:38

3. Ma(R)Ker #3 3:30

4. Ma(R)Ker #4 5:55

5. Ma(R)Ker #5 6:15

6. Ma(R)Ker #6 3:04

7. Ma(R)Ker #7 5:23

8. Ma(R)Ker #8 4:59

9. Ma(R)Ker #9 3:42

10. Ma(R)Ker #10 8:13

11. Ma(R)Ker #11 5:34

Claude St-Jean's band, Les Projectionnistes (Tommy Babin, Bernard Falaise, Pierre Labbe, Remi Leclerc), plays an ecletic mix of songs ranging from alternative jazz, rock, and improv.

An hallucinogenic and commanding blending of improvisation, song, spoken word, and tonal/timbral music from double bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen's Filosofer, creating beautiful sonic environments out of which voice and message emerge and submerge, buoyed by a string quartet (two violins and two double basses), computers, turntables, synths and samplers.

...

One of the Boston area's incredible, eclectic collective organizations from David PEK's Evil Clown is Turbulence Doom Choir, a quintet with three brass players, drums, reeds, and a variety of percussive, wind instruments, game calls, &c., presenting large scale improvisations of uniquely evolving approaches, instrumentation, and heavy rhythms, a powerful brew.

"Although some improvisers deny that one of the main parameters that they deal in their projects is the language, this almost always ends (I would say until always) to happen. The interest of the music that results depends on what they ...

"[...] Blattwerk's two torrents of strings move like a waveform, cresting and dipping in volume and intensity. The quintet features an unusual line-up-violin, viola, two cellos, and Trilla's drums-and shifts between an indeterminate wor...

Recorded in Lisbon, Creative Sources core performers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Miguel Mira on cello and Carlos Santos on synthesizer are joined by renowned German free improviser Matthias Muche on trombone and Cologne based guitarist Nicola L. Hein for two extended improvisations of actively subdued dialog that ebb and flow in commanding ways.

"[...] Trilla fits agreeably into the Creative Sources aesthetic, which values collective mood-building over individual displays of prowess. Nepenthes Hibrida was recorded live a few days before Christmas 2016, and features Trilla, viol...

An exceptional free improvising quintet of Montreal & Quebec improvisers--bassist Eric Normand, drummer Michel F. Cote, and bass clarinetist Philippe Lauzier--with French clarinetist Xavier Charles and German trumpeter Franz Hautzinger, performing live during the 2016 Festival de Musique de Creation, creating fascinating commotion with incredible restraint.

The remarkable European Free Jazz quintet Die Enttauschung, crossing bop forms with modern creative approaches to jazz for over 20 years, takes a new drummer--Michael Griener--and adds trombonist Christof Thewes, to join Rudi Mahall on clarinets, Axel Dorner on trumpet, and Jan Roder on bass, for an exciting and upbeat album of succinct tunes that both revere and abuse jazz history in wonderful ways.

An album of standards interpreted by NY drummer Tom Rainey's and his band Obbligato of Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Ingrid Laubrock on saxophones, Kris Davis on piano, and Drew Gress on bass, sincerely approaching the great songbooks that fuel traditional jazz, each updated and modulated but not overtly deconstructed, as the band finds great inspiration for group interplay.

European free jazz legend, pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach, takes on the complete Monk oeuvre in a quartet with Axel Dorner (trumpet), Rudi Mahall (bass clarinet), Jan Roder (bass) and Uli Jennessen (drums)

Albert Ayler's 1965 ESP album originally released as a 1-sided clear vinyl LP, the single "Bells" song actually an amalgamation of his piece "Holy Ghost" which transitions into "Bells", here augmented with "Vibrations aka (tune Q)2", performed with brother Donald on trumpet, Charles Tyler on alto sax, Lewis Worrell on bass, and Sunny Murray on drums.

Playing both upright & electric bass and doubling that with 2nd bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen, Jon Rune Strom leads his quintet of young Norwegian players--trumpeter Thomas Johansson, saxophonist Andre Roligheten, and drummer Andreas Wildhagen--for a live set at one of Norway's premiere jazz clubs, Nasjonal Jazzscene, for a jazz album of powerfully expressive free playing.

With members of The Core, Angles 9, Cortex, &c. The Heat Death is a Norwegian quintet with dual reeds and winds from Kjetil Moster & Martin Kuchen, Mats Aleklint on trombone, Olay Hoyer on bass, and Dag Erik Knedal Andersen on drums, a blazing band of energetic, informed and joyful free improv in a long-anticipated releases presenting 3 CDs of extended play.

Leaning more towards rock than jazz, but blending compelling blues-based improv, NY guitarist Nick Millevoi leads his Desertion project through a look at Wildwood, NY, the core of the trio as bassist Johnny DeBlase (Many Arms, Sabbath Assembly) and drummer Kevin Shea (Mostly Other People Do The Killing, Talibam!), with Jamie Saft on organ throughout.

Saxophonist Sabir Mateen's NY based Shapes, Textures, and Sound Ensemble with Steve Swell on trombone, Matt Lavelle on trumpet, Matthew Heyner on bass and Michael T.A. Thompson on drums, run though a gamut of post-bop and collective, creative jazz forms with energy, incredible dexterity, and tremendous group interplay, a great example of the modern spirit of jazz.

Multi-reedist Peter Kuhn returned to the San Diego scene in 2013, forming the Dependent Origination band with a core of drummer Alex Cline and saxophonist Dave Sewelson, referencing the Buddhist concept of interdependent co-arising; 4 years later this album adding Dan Clucas (cornet) & Scott Walton (bass) represents the current state of this excellent collective band.

Bear Brother is a young quintet that plays energetic and melodious free jazz with references to both American and European improvisational music, comprised of Erling Skorpen on trumpet, Lauritz Lyster Skeidsvoll on saxophone, Isach Skeidsvoll on piano, Hakon Norby Bjorgo on bass, and Martin Mellem on drums, with each band member contributing compositions.

With orchestration of harp, daxophone, idiophones, piano, cello, guitar, percussion, sampling & electronics, the Portuguese quintet Turbamulta (roughly translates to "rowdy mob", though clearly a very sophisticated mob) was born from the band Powertrio of Eduardo Raon, Joana Sa and Luis Martins, expanded to blend compositional, EA and improv approaches into something unique and beautiful.

The affect of Carlos Santos' electronics and recordings are the foundation of this Portuguese quintet's improvisations, creating an environment over which Ernesto & Guilherme Rodrigues on viola & cello, Eduardo Chagas on trombone, and Andre Hencleeday add subtle gestures of unusual approaches to their instruments, in a mysterious album of lowercase improv.

Originally released on the Hat Hut label in 1979, this 2-CD set of saxophonist Steve Lacy's quintet with Steve Potts on saxophone, Irene Aebi on cello, voice & violin, Kent Carter on bass, and Oliver Johnson on drums, are heard live in two tour-de-force concerts, first at the 1977 Jazz Festival, in Willisau, Switzerland, then in 1978 at Jazz Au Totem in Paris, France.

Mining the traditions of 60s jazz with a focus on Wayne Shorter's Miles Davis era, the long-standing Sound Prints quintet co-led by saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas, with Joey Baron on drums, Linda May Han Oh on bass and Lawrence Fields on piano give their listeners a superb album that balances free and traditional playing with excitement and lyricism.

One of the core ensembles in Boston's Evil Clown collective led by multi-reedist David Peck is Leap of Faith, a uniquely inspired collective free improv band with unusual instruments and percussive devices, here in a live concert at Outpost 186 as quintet with Glynis Lomon on cello, Damon Smith on bass, Silvain Castellano on bass, and Yuri ZBitnov on drums & percussion.

The Canadian free improvising electroacoustic quintet Escargot of Timothee Quost on trumpet and no-input mixer, Camille Emaille on percussion, Tom Malmednier on snare drums, Xavier Fertin on clarinets, and Louis Freres on bass, in a playful and oft-times bizarre set of collective improvisations, wonderfully eccentric work of strong technical skill and unusual techniques.

Four configurations of free jazz recorded live during a 2017 visit by Japanese drummer Sabu Toyozumi to Manila: first in a duo with alto saxophonist Rick Countryman; then in a trio with Toyozumi on erhu and Simon Tan on acoustic bass; then a quintet with Simon Tan on electric bass, vocalist Stella Ignacio and trombonist Isla Antinero; and last as a trio with Countryman, Tan, and Toyozumi.

A series of musical "mobiles" from European composer Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, sonic transformations of the visual experiences of Alexander Calder's dynamic sculptures.

NY based German-French bassist Pascal Niggenkemper in a European septet with reedist Frank Gratkowski, pianist Eve Risser, violist Frantz Loriot, vibraophonist Els Vandeweyer, voicals Emilie Lesbros, and drummer Christian Lillinger recording at the Loft, Cologne.

Nozen is a crossroads of contemporary jazz, musique actuelle and the musical traditions of Jewish Eastern Europe, contrasting styles giving birth to a deep and spontaneous music.

The trio of Chris Caldwell on reeds, Susie Hodder Williams on flute, and Trevor Taylor on percussion and electronics in a set combining free improvisation with written pieces using stochastic & graphic processes, plus a work by Stockhausen, "Aus Den Seien Tagen" and one dedicated to John Mayer.

Swiss trumpeter Silvan Schmid is a cofounder of the Gamut Kollektiv, organizing festivals and concerts, here caught live in 2016 at Gamut Series No 1 at Amboss Rampe in Zurich with his own quintet of Tapiwa Svosve on sax, Silvan Jeger on cello, Vincent Glanzmann on drums, and Lucas Wirz on tuba performing 6 Schmid compositions of profoundly lyrical free jazz.

The core trio of Leap of Faith Orchestra--David Peck on clarinets, saxophones & flutes, Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice and Yuri Zbitnoff on drums & percussion--joined by Mimi Rabson on violin, the quartet recording with the full Leap of Faith Orchestra arsenal of instruments; plus an expanded LOF recording of the Orchestra work "Possible Worlds".