Exploring chaotic metallic rhythms, this ensemble has become one of Evil Clown's most prolific groups, blending gongs, chimes, Tibetan bowls, and horns spanning a dynamic range of sounds, here in a sextet configuration with drummer Steve Niemitz and special guest Chris Alford on guitar, offering a powerful fusion of rock elements within the ensemble's electroacoustic approach.

The Fall 2024 issue of Canada's premiere music magazine: On The Cover Brendan Grey and the Evolving Ethos of Super Duty Tough Work; avant-garde sound murals of Filipino composer José Maceda; Montreal-based composer and improviser Allison Burik; Kurt Gottschalk interviews Rita Ueda; Windsor-based post-classical guitarist Bilal Nasser; plus reviews and a CD of artists covered in this issue.

Each volume of Nandor Nevai's musikbook series merges four CDs of genre-focused music — folk, industrial, jazz, or hard rock — with autobiographical text and vibrant images, creating a multi-sensory journey through evolving sub-genres, as Nevai's narration and Alex Theoret's mastering bring pristine studio works and raw recordings into a cohesive, powerful experience.

Each volume of Nandor Nevai's musikbook series merges four CDs of genre-focused music — folk, industrial, jazz, or hard rock — with autobiographical text and vibrant images, creating a multi-sensory journey through evolving sub-genres, as Nevai's narration and Alex Theoret's mastering bring pristine studio works and raw recordings into a cohesive, powerful experience.

Each volume of Nandor Nevai's musikbook series merges four CDs of genre-focused music — folk, industrial, jazz, or hard rock — with autobiographical text and vibrant images, creating a multi-sensory journey through evolving sub-genres, as Nevai's narration and Alex Theoret's mastering bring pristine studio works and raw recordings into a cohesive, powerful experience.

Recorded live in Oslo, the Norwegian jazz-rock trio Elephant9 of Torstein Lofthus (drums), Nikolai Haengsle (bass) and Stale Storlokken (keys) join with legendary guitarist Terje Rypdal, channeling the intensity of bands like King Crimson and Mahavishnu Orchestra as they blend and evolve layered psychedelia with angular improvisation for a raw, electric fusion experience.

Recorded live in Oslo, the Norwegian jazz-rock trio Elephant9 of Torstein Lofthus (drums), Nikolai Haengsle (bass) and Stale Storlokken (keys) join with legendary guitarist Terje Rypdal, channeling the intensity of bands like King Crimson and Mahavishnu Orchestra as they blend and evolve layered psychedelia with angular improvisation for a raw, electric fusion experience.

Guitarist & vocalist Fred Frith leads the highly creative quintet of Zeena Parkins on keys & voice, Carla Kihlstedt on violin & voice, Mathias Bossi on drums and Shahzad Ismaily on bass, merging free improv, rock and experimental forms; drawn from live performances recorded by The Normal Conquest, this set of compositions captures the group's dynamic interplay and remarkable inventiveness.

The UK improvising rock/prog band Das Rad in their seventh album, expanded from the original trio of guitarist & mellotron player Nick Robinson, woodwind & keys player Martin Archer and drummer & synth player Steve Dinsdale, to this quintet with bassist Jon Short and guitarist & vocalist Peter Rophone, evolving their expansive approach merging electronic, jazz and rock music.

With two guitarists split between the left and right sides of the head--Kazuhide Yamaji and Mitsuru Tabata, also on vocals--in a trio aTwo guitarists split between the left and right sides of the head--Kazuhide Yamaji and Mitsuru Tabata, also on vocals--in a trio with Ruins drummer and Magaibutsu label-leader Tatsuya Yoshida, for a an energetic album of mostly instrumental post-prog "no-wave" improvisations, nine wild tracks captured live from four 2024 concerts in Japan.with Ruins drummer and Magaibutsu label-leader Tatsuya Yoshida, for a an energetic album of mostly instrumental post-prog "no-wave" improvisations, nine wild tracks captured live from four 2024 concerts in Japan.

After meeting through mutual esteem of their individual SoundCloud presences, these Oregon string players met to develop their compellingly engaging work in rehearsal, David Van Auken's guitar arrangements the perfect canvas for the sitar melodies of J.J. Gregg; after touring together they went into the studio for this album's 8 tracks, plus two live recordings.

Combing two 2004 albums on the Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L'Acier label, Japanese guitarist and singer Keiji Haino's collection of six blues songs was recorded twice, once in a "violent" version and once in a "soft" version, contrasting his intensity and passion with a more atmospheric approach, a great example of the diverse elements of Haino's wide approach to avant rock.

A diverse and interesting set of songs in Thurston Moore's ninth solo record, recorded in Europe & The UK with contributors including Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab and Deb Googe of My Bloody Valentine, many of the songs reminiscent of Sonic Youth but uniquely Moore through unpretentious communication that references topics including lucid dreaming, nature and the changing planet.

A diverse and interesting set of songs in Thurston Moore's ninth solo record, recorded in Europe & The UK with contributors including Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab and Deb Googe of My Bloody Valentine, many of the songs reminiscent of Sonic Youth but uniquely Moore through unpretentious communication that references topics including lucid dreaming, nature and the changing planet.

Composed using an "exquisite corpse" method during the pandemic, where each player provided a partially complete track with instructions to expand their concept, enlisting an incredible set of musicians across the US & Europe, directed by Moe! Staiano, including Jesse Quattro, Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, GW Sok, Amy X Neuburg, Darren Johnston, &c &c.

Summer 2024 issue of Canada's new music magazine, with composer & sound designer Stefana Fratila on the cover; plus articles on Evan Parker & Matthew Wright; Big Ears review; Filipino-Canadian composer Juro Kim Feliz; Brunswick composer & sound artist Charles Harding; the Canadian Afro-Cuban duo behind the ensemble Okan; plus album reviews, essays and a CD of tracks from artists in the magazine.

An exploration of tonal interplay and contrasting rhythms from nine electric guitars, bass, and drums by West Coast percussionist and composer Moe! Staiano (formerly of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum), a work in three movements that features assertive rhythmic structures and intertwining string structures, balanced by beautifully ringing moments of introspection.

A collection of songs exploring intimacy under colonialism by the writing duo of bassist and singer/lyricist Mali Obomsawin, a member of the Odanak First Nation and known for her work with the band Lula Wiles, and Chicago guitarist Magdalena Abrego, based in Cambridge, MA, featuring eight beautifully crafted pieces that showcase lyrical strength and astute observation.

Trumpeter Jac Berrocal's 80's underground avant-garde band Catalogue with drummer Gilbert Artman (Lard Free, Urban Sax) and electric guitarist Jean-Francois Pauvros were known for their merging of experimental and boundary pushing forms of improvised jazz, punk, and rock (Think Etron Fou or This Heat); these early recordings by Jean-Marc Foussat find the band at their most assertively eclectic.

A great set of 11 succinct songs and instrumentals from multi-instrumentalist, prog icon Bob Drake of Thinking Plague, The Science Group, VRIL, and Peter Blegvad fame, vignettes that play with pop formats in insidious ways around recurring Drake themes including a Planet of Dogs, three rustic tales, and a perturbing room in the tower, all noted in a colored foldout poster with lyrics.

A burning album of improvised rock and noise with members from Incapacitants, Keiji Haino + Masataka Fujikake Duo, Zeni Geva, &c., part of a free improv series organized by Doubtmusic and recorded at Tokyo's Knuttle House in 2023, from the quartet of Toshiji Mikawa on electronics, Jun Numata on guitar& electronics, Yusuke Nishimura on bass and Masataka Fujikake on drums.

Having worked together as members of the Kidd Jordan Quartet, pianist Joel Futterman and bassist William Parker recorded these collective duo improvisations in the studio in New York City in 2020, a perfect match of technical mastery pushing the boundaries of free playing through creative use of tonality, rhythm, and harmony from two extraordinarily compatibile improvisers.

Known best for the guitar work on clipping's Rick and Morty song "Stab Him in the Throat", Chicago guitarist Kirsten Carey joins with drummer Aaron Edgcomb (Trigger) for this set of mischievous improvised experiments that explore the relationships between rock, jazz and experimental sound through eleven assertive dialogs of quirky, skronky, and inspired playing.

Originally formed in 2005 by guitarist Pedro Gomes as a Portuguese free rock group, this Lisboa-based band has transformed into this burning quartet that bridges rock and free improv in both savage and brooding moments, from the superb quartet of Gomes on guitar, Pedro Sousa on saxophone, Gabriel Ferrandini on drums and Miguel Abras on electric bass.

Singer, songwriter and pianist Nelly Klayman-Cohen, aka Rotem Geffen, explores the fringes of dreamy pop music with lyrics in German, English and Hebrew that explore themes of memory, love, grief, loss, and the night as a vibrating room, with collaborators including Alexander Zethson on keyboards, Isak Hedtjar on clarinets and winds, Vilhelm Bromander on double bass, &c.

Wearing the cloak of 60's pyschedelic organ trios modernized in approach and maturity, this is the 8th album from the Swedish improvising, prog-oriented rock band Elephant9, presenting six new compositions from keyboardist Stale Storlokken (Supersilent, Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns) performed with Nikolai Haengsle on electric bass and Torstein Lofthus on drums.

Wearing the cloak of 60's pyschedelic organ trios modernized in approach and maturity, this is the 8th album from the Swedish improvising, prog-oriented rock band Elephant9, presenting six new compositions from keyboardist Stale Storlokken (Supersilent, Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns) performed with Nikolai Haengsle on electric bass and Torstein Lofthus on drums.

After meeting through mutual esteem of their individual SoundCloud presences, these Oregon string players met to develop their compellingly engaging work in rehearsal, David Van Auken's guitar arrangements the perfect canvas for the sitar melodies of J.J. Gregg; after touring together they went into the studio for this album's 8 tracks, plus two live recordings.

Singer, songwriter and pianist Nelly Klayman-Cohen, aka Rotem Geffen, explores the fringes of dreamy pop music with lyrics in German, English and Hebrew that explore themes of memory, love, grief, loss, and the night as a vibrating room, with collaborators including Alexander Zethson on keyboards, Isak Hedtjar on clarinets and winds, Vilhelm Bromander on double bass, &c.

The improvising string duo of stalwart London improvisers, Daniel Thompson on acoustic guitar and Phil Durrant on the octave mandola, are heard in two settings of texturally rich, intricate interactions, first at Cafe OTO in 2022 for an extended improvisation, then at Cable Street Studios two months later for six succint, impressively diverse dialogs.

The chameleonic styles of Sean Ono Lennon are in full force on this instrumental record, merging rock, jazz, experimental and cinematic styles in captivating ways, performed with the spectacular ensemble of Devon Hoff (bass), Yuka Honda (electronics), Johnny Mathar (drums), João Nogueira (Wurlitzer), Ches Smith (drums), Michael Leonhart (trumpet) & Mauro Refosco (percussion).

Montreal composer, guitarist and arranger Andre Duchesne developed the pieces on this solo album as a tribute to his sister Carole, "the one who dreamed of horses," who passed in 2010, his pieces incorporating elements of rock, improvisation and compositional forms, a sincere tribute developed by recording daily over a month as a virtual rock band of guitar, bass and drum programming.

The chameleonic styles of Sean Ono Lennon are in full force on this instrumental record, merging rock, jazz, experimental and cinematic styles in captivating ways, performed with the spectacular ensemble of Devon Hoff (bass), Yuka Honda (electronics), Johnny Mathar (drums), João Nogueira (Wurlitzer), Ches Smith (drums), Michael Leonhart (trumpet) & Mauro Refosco (percussion).

Composed using an "exquisite corpse" method during the pandemic, where each player provided a partially complete track with instructions to expand their concept, enlisting an incredible set of musicians across the US & Europe, directed by Moe! Staiano, including Jesse Quattro, Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, GW Sok, Amy X Neuburg, Darren Johnston, &c &c.

Vancouver mainstay, guitarist and composer Tony Wilson leads Longhnad, performing the energetically twising and turning, genre-spanning music of composer and saxophonist Peder Long, a mentor to Wilson while studying at Malaspina College, in a band with Vancouver collaborators Russell Sholberg (bass), Skey Brooks (drums), Jesse Zubot (violin) and Joshua Zubot (violin).

Reissuing the 2013 box set of the 1980s UK/Euro improvising rock band Cassiber, including their 4 remastered studio albums + 2 additional CDs, a 2 hour DVD, and a 32-page color book, revealing an amazing band merging experimental rock, fringe jazz, punk, pop, plunderphonics, improvisation, & musique concrete with an energetic and complex form of studio composition - superb!

Creating structured works from real time improvisations, Guy Seger's (Univers Zero) large ensemble of absolutely impressive players breaks down to smaller grouping to record the layers of each piece, which Seger then uses as raw material for each finished piece, as elements of rock, jazz, composed, and experimental forms merge into accomplished and engaging compositions.

Having collaborated over 15 years in bands including Slow is Possible and Cat in a Bag, the Portuguese quartet of Duarte Fonseca on drums, Joao Clemente on guitar, Nuno Santos Dias on Waldorf Zarenbourg electric piano and Ricardo Sousa on double bass, borrow from electric 70's jazz, rock and experimental forms through 10 diverse and intriguing concepts tinged with a dark wit.

Burning electric improvisation that draws from rock, metal, jazz and free improv by the Lisbon trio of Luis Guerreiro on trumpet, electronics, Jorge Nuno on electric guitar and Joao Valinho on drums, recording in the studio for an extended and unremitting collective improvisation that roars with galvanic, dramatic strength; terrifying!

A wild improvising band from Vancouver in their 3rd release of episodic compositions based around instrumental rock forms, six "sick" and wide-ranging pieces that blend rock, jazz, chamber music and inventive forms in magnificent way, from JP Carter on trumpet, Joshua Zubot on violin, Peggy Lee on cello, Cole Schmidt on guitar, James Meger on bass, synths and Dan Gaucher on drums.

The fifth album from John Zorn's Chaos Magic Ensemble of Brian Marsella on Fender Rhodes Piano, John Medeski on organ, Kenny Grochowski on drums and Matt Hollenberg on guitar, in three free flowing works that display Zorn's perceptive merging and the band's enormous skill, contrasting lyrical electric jazz with turbulent rock forms and disciplined contemporary structure.

The NY duo of Elliott Sharp and Don McKenzie pay tribute to guitar-oriented instrumental rock as practiced by Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, John McLaughlin, Sonny Sharrock, Miles Daves, &c, music that valued virtuosity and embraceability, with Sharp performing on Strats, Les Pauls, steel guitar, a Vietnamese ghita phim lom on Uchuu, mandola & mandocello and Telecaster.

An amazing collection and reflection on the work of percussionist, composer and connector Chris Cutler of Henry Cow fame and founder of the highly influential Recommended Records label and distribution service, through 10 CDs, 1 DVD and two books of documentation, artwork, photographs, published and unpublished texts in a sturdy box, with over five hours of unreleased materials.

Merging jazz and rock forms, NY bassist Hannah Marks composes and provides the lyrics for 10 inspired songs of incisive, quirky and expressive topics, performed with a sextet of solid players from the genre-mashing NY scene: Sarah Rossy (lead vocals), Lee Meadvin (guitar), Lex Korten (piano), Nathan Reising (alto saxophone), and Connor Parks (drums).

After The Work and his involvement with This Heat, guitarist Mick Hobbs formed Officer!, a shape-shifting RIO band that presented Hobb's unique, amusing and incisive songs, releasing three proper albums and, in 1989, a cassette on the Swiss label No Records that is here reissued, half of the album written for a stage play called Bandagen by Grazia Pergoletti.

A new trio from Norwegian improvising rock guitarist Hedvig Mollestad with Supersilent/Elephant9's Ståle Storløkken A new trio from Norwegian improvising rock guitarist Hedvig Mollestad with Supersilent/Elephant9's Ståle Storløkken on bass and drummer Ole Mofjel, in a well-balanced album that brings to mind Crimson, ECM fusion or Mahavishnu/Miles, through a six live performances throughout Norway of burning interaction around introspective sonic environments.and drummer Ole Mofjel, in a well-balanced album that brings to mind Crimson, ECM fusion or Mahavishnu/Miles, through a six live performances throughout Norway of burning interaction around introspective sonic environments.

The second full-length album from the UK genre-merging rock band Squid, in eight new songs of quirky imagistic and insightful lyrics and playing, surprising instrumental combinations and an experimental approach to layering sound, born from onstage improv experiments during their 2021 tour, recording this album at Peter Gabriel's studio at the end of that tour.

Compiling three essential albums from legendary Cleveland art rock band Pere Ubu--New Picnic Time (1979), The Art Of Walking (1980), and Song Of The Bailing Man, along with an album of out-takes and oddities, Architectural Salvage (1981), presented in a handsome four-disc 'bookback' with notes and memorabilia approved by the band.

Compiling two of the earliest and most essential albums from legendary Cleveland art rock band Pere Ubu--The Modern Dance and Dub Housing (1978), along with the 1995 compilation the Hearpen Singles and a 1977 live set in Manhattan, in a four-disc 'bookback' set featuring excerpts from the Pere Ubu scrapbook 75-82, written by David Thomas, including historical photos.

Teaming up with Norwegian keyboard player Ståle Storløkken of Elephant9 & Supersilent and drummer Ole Mofjell, guitarist Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen introduces her new trio with this double album of live recordings from three separate concerts in Oslo and Stavanger, Norway, in dynamic performances of blistering, building prog and jazz fusion-oriented rock forms.

Straddling quirky folk song and experimental sound collage, the long-running Western Massachusettes duo of fiddler, banjo player & singer Mia Friedman and clarinetist, wind player & sound artist Andy Allen (Guerilla Toss) present an album of observational songs with unusual perspectives and an anything goes approach to the music that surrounds each song; delightful.

Stripping down their performance matter to its most minimal expression, their work developed since 2011 as they've toured the European alternative scene, the Hippie Diktat trio of Richard Comte on electric baritone guitar, Julien Chamla on drums and Antoine Viard on amplified baritone saxophone work an energetic and heavy set of Steve Reich-ian grooves.

Restoring and remastering the 1979 Atlantic album Mingus at Antibes from bassist & composer Charles Mingus, an extraordinary concert from the 1960 Antibes Jazz Festival with the masterful sextet of Eric Dolphy on alto sax & bass clarinet, Ted Curson on trumpet, Booker Ervin on tenor saxophone, and Dannie Richmond on drums, with Bud Powell or Mingus himself on piano.

Promo copy with line thru bar code. Swedish guitar improviser Jon Lipscomb (LOPLOP, Swedish Fix) takes his listeners on a rugged trip across the strings, using distortion, tremolo and rapid-fire technique as he mines territories between free improv, noise and rock, his nimble mind stopping to explore areas of interest then cascading into new, turbulent environments; frightfully powerful.

Quick-witted and intensely detailed improvisations between Japanese drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and pianist Chihiro Owada (Karasutou!), who also performs on pianica, with both free vocalizing, in eleven recordings captured at live performances between 2021 and 2013 in Ogikubo, Maebashi and Youtsuya, Japan, plus a bonus studio composition combining unused sources.

Captured during their 2023 tour, the super-energetic, instrumental Japanese avant-rock duo of drummer Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins, Koenji Hyakkei, &c) and bassist Kentaro Nakao (Number Girl, &c) selected the best of their rugged and bewilderingly skillfull improvisations from three concerts at Bordland in Sendai, at Crates in Morioka and at Sublime in Aomori.

A live performance in Koenji, Tokyo at the club Jirokichi in 2022 from the prog-oriented instrumental improvising power rock trio of Mitsuru Tabata on guitar, Kazuhide Yamaji on guitar and Tatsuya Yoshida on drums, Tabata & Yoshida providing vocal emphasis through the nine brisk and highly interactive tracks of great energy, psychedelic overtone and impressive technical skill.

Taking what he describes as a road he's never been on, percussionist and improviser Gerry Hemingway turns in an astute album of original songs, Hemingway's voice expressive on work he explains was originally influenced by Dylan, Geeshie Wiley, Lou Reed or Monroe Brothers, the album developed over four years with a cast of collaborators including Ralph Alessi, Earl Howard, Michael Moore, &c.

Adding bassist Jon Short to their lineup, the 4th album from Das Rad continues the band's genre-merging approach of rock & improv forms rooted in prog, kosmiche, and jazz rock, this post-pandemic album bringing the band back together for live interaction, their enthusiasm evident in their energetic intercourse, particularly in the extended suite "Expergefactor".

Taking what he describes as a road he's never been on, percussionist and improviser Gerry Hemingway turns in an astute album of original songs, Hemingway's voice expressive on work he explains was originally influenced by Dylan, Geeshie Wiley, Lou Reed or Monroe Brothers, the album developed over four years with a cast of collaborators including Ralph Alessi, Earl Howard, Michael Moore, &c.

Vancouver mainstay, guitarist and composer Tony Wilson leads Longhnad, performing the energetically twising and turning, genre-spanning music of composer and saxophonist Peder Long, a mentor to Wilson while studying at Malaspina College, in a band with Vancouver collaborators Russell Sholberg (bass), Skey Brooks (drums), Jesse Zubot (violin) and Joshua Zubot (violin).

Performing together for more than a decade at the time of this recording at the 2022 Three Lobed Records 21St Anniversary Festival at Duke University in Durham, NC, the duo of guitarist Bill Orcutt and drummer/percussionist Chris Corsano burn through three distinct improvisations that pack in a wealth of ideas, styles and moods in a tight and cathartic set.

PROMO HOLE PUNCHED THO BAR CODE

Once roommates in Rhode Island, guitarist Jeffrey Alexander of The Heavy Lidders, now living in Philadelphia, and guitarist/vocalist Ashley Paul, now living in London, come together again for a 3-song 7" release of idiosyncratic and informed free-form songs and instrumentals performed with a saxophone, clarinet, prepared guitar, prepared percussion, moog & electric piano.

A warmly lyrical, mostly instrumental album of modern jazz that surprisingly takes it's title from legendary punk band MDC, and its songs from their 1982 debut album Millions of Dead Cops, led by NY drummer Mike Pride and performed with Jamie Saft (keys), Brad Jones (bass), Mick Bar (guitars) and on a few songs, vocalists JG Thirlwell (Foetus), Sam Mickens (The Dead Science) and Dave Dictor from MDC itself.

Circumventing pandemic lockdowns, the trio of Brandon Seabrook on guitar, banjo & tapes, Mike Pride on drums, marimba, glockenspiel, bells & organ and Mike Watt on bass recorded their contributions in separate studios and file-shared to create this genre-merging album of free improv, rock, experimental and inexplicable forms; an inspired and seriously unique album of challenges overcome.

After The Work and his involvement with This Heat, guitarist Mick Hobbs formed Officer!, a shape-shifting RIO band that presented Hobb's unique, amusing and incisive songs, releasing three proper albums and, in 1989, a cassette on the Swiss label No Records that is here reissued, half of the album written for a stage play called Bandagen by Grazia Pergoletti.

Bringing together two noise improvisers and experimenters, Guro Skumsnes Moe from Sult and MoE performing on octabass & electric bass, and Philippe Petit (who has albums on Aural Terrains, Monotype and Bolt) performing on synthesizer and turntables, both also providing vocal utterance, for two thick journeys of twisted, diverse and often deep sonics bridged by an abstract interlude.

Referencing the "laminal" style of AMM improvisations, the 6th album from the UK-based Orchesta of the Upper Atmosphere ensemble, led by multi-instrumentalist and woodwind player Martin Archer and Jan Todd, evolved from studio sessions of bass rhythms, free improvisation over those foundations, and then horn & voice arrangements shaped around the results, creating a superb hybrid of jazz rock, textural and free improv.

The core duo of guitarist & bassist Chris Cochrane (No Safety) and drummer & electronics artist John Thayer dig deep into a bag of aural tricks in eight compelling tracks that blur rock, jazz and experimental approaches to upbeat rhythmic music, assisted on various pieces by an excellent cast including Zeena Parkins, Graham Haynes, Gelsey Bell, and Kato Hideki.

The third album in Chicago 6- & 12-string guitarist Elijah McLaughlin's numbered album series of original compositions, rich flowing works of lyrical textures augmented with environmental field recordings and tape loops, performed with Jason Toth on upright bass, Katinka Kleijn on cello, effects, Joel Styzens on hammered Dulcimer and Adler Scheidt on piano.

A new collaboration between keyboardist Brent Cordero and bassist Peter Kerlin, a gorgeous blurring of jazz, rock and Terry Riley-esque composition in a swirling collection of original work and a cover of Eddie Harris' "Freedom Jazz Dance", performed in a core trio with drummer Ryan Sawyer and prestigious guests including Daniel Carter, Jessica Pavone, James Brandon Lewis, &c.

A powerfully creative concert of genre-bending improvisation when the core of the Norwegian jazz/rock band Chrome Hill--Asbjørn Lerheim (guitar) and Roger Arntzen (bass)--returned to Japan to join for the 3rd time with koto improviser Michiyo Yagi, plus her frequent collaborator, drummer Tamaya Honda, for an assertive concert of exotic, experimental improv at Tokyo's Aketa No Mise.

Saxophonist Allen Lowe's statement on American music and American song form across the many genres and styles that make up the terrain, including jazz, the blues, gospel, honky tonk, heavy metal, hillbilly/minstrel song & medicine shows, &c.; diverse forms of popular music that reflect a commingled society, as Lowe blurs the sacred and the profane with a stellar ensemble of musicians.

Four new tracks from the incredibly prolific Norwegian long form rock band Motorpsycho of Bent Saether on bass & vocals, Hans Magnus on guitar & vocals and the departing album for drummer Tomas Jarmyr, in a well-balanced release of songs and instrumental work including their longest piece to date, a theme from an imagined movie; sophisticated & intelligent modern rock.

Remastering and reissuing two tracks--"Summertime" and "C.T"--from saxophonist Albert Ayler's 1964 Fontana album My Name Is Albert Ayler with basssist Nils-Henning Orsted Pedersen, drummer Ronnie Gardiner and pianist Nils Bronsted; and his classic and passionate 1965 ESP Disk release Spiritual Unity with double bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray.

A compact version of the Exploding Star Orchestra, trumpeter & composer Rob Mazurek's octet with guitarist Jeff Parker, drummer Gerald Cleaver, pianists Angelica Sanchez & Craig Taborn, flutist Nicole Mitchell, vocalist Damon Locks and percussionist Mauricio Takara present a far-ranging set of electric jazz, Miles-atmospheres and lyrically compelling music.

A warmly lyrical, mostly instrumental album of modern jazz that surprisingly takes it's title from legendary punk band MDC, and its songs from their 1982 debut album Millions of Dead Cops, led by NY drummer Mike Pride and performed with Jamie Saft (keys), Brad Jones (bass), Mick Bar (guitars) and on a few songs, vocalists JG Thirlwell (Foetus), Sam Mickens (The Dead Science) and Dave Dictor from MDC itself.

Circumventing pandemic lockdowns, the trio of Brandon Seabrook on guitar, banjo & tapes, Mike Pride on drums, marimba, glockenspiel, bells & organ and Mike Watt on bass recorded their contributions in separate studios and file-shared to create this genre-merging album of free improv, rock, experimental and inexplicable forms; an inspired and seriously unique album of challenges overcome.

The 19th Pere Ubu album brings members from the history and offshoots of the band that initiated in Cleveland with vocalist David Thomas, melded with members Keith Moline and Andy Diagram from Pale Boys, legendary drummer Chris Cutler (Wooden Birds & Pere Ubu), clarinetist & guitarist Alex Ward and bassist Michel Templem, for 17 wide-ranging songs, often eccentric, but always uniquely Ubu.

Reminiscent of the packaging of early releases from The Ex, the vocalist from that band--G.W. Sok--provides the words for the first tracks on this 7" from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum drummer/composer Moe! Staiano's long-running band, a brutal wordplay stab at Russian president Putin for his invasion of Ukraine; plus a dub remix of a song on the upcoming full-length Surplus 1980 album.

Ten years having passed since his last solo acoustic guitar album, Bill Orcutt's new release focuses on a more lyrical, relaxed and reflective side to his playing, in ten succinct pieces recorded in the spring and summer of 2002 at San Francisco's community focal point for and member of Intersection for The Arts, The Living Room.

Ten years having passed since his last solo acoustic guitar album, Bill Orcutt's new release focuses on a more lyrical, relaxed and reflective side to his playing, in ten succinct pieces recorded in the spring and summer of 2002 at San Francisco's community focal point for and member of Intersection for The Arts, The Living Room.

Ljug Aldrig, aka Roosen, a visual artist, guitarist and vocalist from Stockholm, is heard in a 2-song 7" + download release performing with Dennis Egberth on drums, Alexander Zethson on keys, Anton Toorell on bass, guitars and Isak Hedtjarn on saxophone.

Recording in Brooklyn, the trio led by Venezuelan guitarist Juanma Trujillo, with Costa Rican bassist Kenneth Jimenez and New York drummer Gerald Cleaver, merge avant jazz, heavy rock grooves with a Sonny Sharrock flavor, and abstract almost chamber jazz, a fascinating combination of contrasts that keeps the boundaries of their contours flexible and masterfully unpredictable.