Trumpeter Sei Miguel joins the Portuguese Lisbon String Trio, his second collaboration with the free improvising core group of Miguel Mira on cello, Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, and Alvaro Rosso on double bass, adding a distinctive voice to their subtle interplay as they present this three part work based on the legendary German character who traded his soul to the devil.

Adding a fourth string to the collaborations of Portugal's Lisbon String Trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Miguel Mira on cello, and Alvaro Rosso on contrabass, Portuguese violinist Carlos Zingaro adds an additional level of delicately complex interplay to the trio's exceptional free improvisation, as they pay tribute to the Greek goddess of light and extent.

Large scale improvisation of the most subtle nature from Portugal's Isotope Ensemble led by Ernesto Rodrigues, 17 musicians slowly unfolding this beautiful work of consonance and dissonance dedicated to element atomic number 56, recording live at O'Culto da Ajuda in Lisbon with instrumentation including acoustic reeds, strings, brass, percussion, and electronics.

Guitarist Henk Zwerver, bassist Raoul van der Weide and percussionist George Hadow, frequent collaborators in the Amsterdam free improv scene, join with Berlin saxophonist & clarinetist Edith Steyer to make up the Bertch Quartet, their debut album a great and embraceable example of subtle, collective free improvisations that merge traditional and non-idiomatic forms.

A "shug monkey" is a cryptid, a creature that may or may not exist, supposed to have features of a dog and a monkey, an odd but apt reference for the unusual improvisations by Berlin-based saxophonist Simon Rose and guitarist Nicola L. Hein, one of 8 tracks named for unusual creatures and mythological beings, each described in sound through extended techniques and powerful playing.

Recorded on New Years Eve in Sintra in the Penedo region of Portugal, three strings--viola from Ernesto Rodrigues, cello from Guilherme Rodrigues, and a second cello from Miguel Mira--are joined by Carlos Santos on electronics for three extended and richly detailed improvisations, active yet concentratively controlled, using impressive and extended techniques.

Two string players, Swedish acoustic guitarist and banjo player Niklas Fite, and German double bassist Alexander Frangenheim, recording in the studio in Berlin in 2017 for 10 succinct improvisations ranging from quick interactive discourse of a pointillistic nature to near silent meditations using unusual and extended techniques, a quirky and informed album.

Finding common ground between the acoustic past and the electronic present, the duo of Christoph Schiller on spinet and Eric Ruffing on analogue synthesizer present two extended improvisations of tempered interaction, exploring periods of extended sound, timbre and decay, scrabbling inside playing, restrained electronic whines, and active pointillistic playing.

The Spanish free improvising quartet Colectivo maDam of Ruben Gutierrez on electronics, objects, Tomas Gris on acoustic guitar, Guillermo Torres on fluguelhorn, and David Area on electronics are joined by Lisbon improvisers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Miguel Mira on cello for this 3-part work, the first recorded live at Espacio B, Madrid, the 2nd & 3rd recorded in the studio.

A live performance at O'Culto da Ajuda in Lisbon from the Lisbon String Trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Miguel Mira on cello, and Alvaro Rosso on contrabass, joined in this concert by Creative Sources frequenct collaborator Eduardo Chagas (Variable Geometry Orchestra, IKB, Suspensao, &c), a large work of microscopically detailed and concentrative acoustic improv.

Swiss electric guitarist Florian Stoffner (Manuel Mengis Grupp) and Spanish/Portuguese saxophonist Albert Cirera (Agusti Fernandez Liquid Trio) present the 8 part "IRMA" in concise free improvisations, restrained but alert and quick-witted dialogs that explore their instruments with alternate approaches to each in articulate ways.

A live recording from the acoustic septet Free Music 7tet of Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Luiz Rocha (clarinets), Guilherme Rodrigues (cello), Eduardo Chagas (trombone), and (piano), Hernani Faustino (double bass) and Paulo Ferreira Lopes (drums), performing at O'Culto da Ajuda, for five improvisations from active free improv to lowercase exploration.

An album of free improvisation from the Bulgarian trio of Jivko Bratanov on piano, Vasil Hajigrudev on double bass, and Georgi Angelov on percussion, obliquely referencing the jazz tradition while steering from idiomatic tendencies, pushing themselves through dialog that emphasizes unusual sounds through technique, with a strong percussive element from all players.

Combining free jazz spontaneity with the urgency of funk and rock, NY-based German saxophonist and bass clarinetist Welf Dorr (Funk Monk) presents his Unit with drummer Joe Hertenstein, bassist Dmitry Ishenko and guitarist Dave Ross, in an energetic album of tunes that combine determination and passion with upbeat grooves balanced by beautiful ballad work.

Translating to "Swords Like Lips", the duo of Spanish guitarist Santiago Quintans and percussionist/drummer Ramon Lopez are captured live at La Fonderie in Le Mans, France for 10 improvisations of strong technical playing with lyrical intent and a varied program of kinetic and peaceful interplay, an album that would place well on the ECM label.

Italian jazz trumpeter Flavio Zanuttini (Abbey Town Jazz Orchestra) in a solo album exploring the relationship between the primordial sensoriality and vision of the Underworld, conceived and presented through extended techniques and often peculiar approaches to the trumpet as he tells his unusual tale of epic times.

A lowercase duo of intense focus and concentrative dialog from Creative Sources label leader Eernesto Rodrigues on viola and trombonist Eduardo Chagas, a member of IKB, Variable Geometry Orchestra, Suspensao, &c., through five recordings using primarily extended techniques and close proximity miking to create unusual textural and alien soundcscapes of great tension and release.

Emulating the sounds and intentions of cranes through string improvisation and unusual techniques, the quartet of Estonian violinist Elo Masing, German violinist Dietrich Petzold, and Portuguese violist and cellist Ernesto and Guilherme Rodrigues name each of 8 tracks on the behavior of cranes, from forming a flock, migration, fighting, ritual dancing, to nesting.

This supergroup of strings--16 musicians on violins, viola, cellos, double basses, piano, psaltery, zither, and guitar--in an intensely restrained collective improvisation recorded live at O'Culto da Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal in 2017, as String Theory's 4th album continues their title themes from the physical universe named here for the rare metalloid "Tellurium".

A live recording at O'Culto da Ajuda, Lisbon, during the 2017 CreativeFest #11 from the quartet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Gianna de Toni on double bass, and Vasco Trilla on percussion, a sinuous, curving extended improvisation of subtle shades, with certain rotations more forceful, but always gravitating to quietude.

A fascinating work of spoken word and free improvisation from writer Claudia La Rocco and the duo of Phillip Greenlief on sax and Wobbly (aka Jon Leidecker) on electronics and live sampling, La Rocco's unexpected text of the mundane and the fantastic repeated, manipulated and mangled, bringing the words in and out of focus as the music and sonic environment.

An exciting meeting of multi-generational and multi-national, forward-thinking free improvisers performing live at Klub Demboh in Berlin in 2017, from the sextet of Axel Dorner (trumpet), Mia Dyberg (alto saxophone), Pierre Borel (alto saxophone), Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Tristan Honsinger (cello) and Guilherme Rodrigues (cello).

Buenos Aires double bassist Pablo Vazquez presents nine solo improvisations using an impressive and diverse set of approaches to the instrument, utilizing every inch of the bass to evoke the supernatural beings of Argentine popular culture, in an imaginative approach to sonic narrative that demonstrates powerful control and masterful technique.

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.

The Creative Sources core string improvisers of violist Ernesto Rodrigues, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, cellist Miguel Mira, and double bassist Alvaro Rosso, with frequent collaborator percussionist Vasco Trilla, are joined by German violinist Harald Kimmig (Trio Kimmig) for a dynamic album that fluctuates from acoustic lowercase to rapid pointillistic improv.

The third album on Creative Sources for this 10-piece ensemble with 5 string players, piano, sax, trombone, electronics and percussion, freely improvising in an extended work themed for the Greek theological, philosophical, and scientific term typically translated as nature or physics, in a rich tapestry of meticulous detail and profoundly subtle communication.

Three versatile improvisers with pedigrees including Christian Weber, Christian Wolfarth, Objets Trouves, Big Bold Back Bone, &c, the Swiss trio of Roberto Domeniconi on piano, Jan Schlegel on electric bass, and Sheldon Suter on drums use unusual and extended techniques integrated within free improv in this coproduction with RSI Rete Due Radiotelevision, Switzerland.

Two mesmerizing, diverse, and incredibly sophisticated large scale conductions led by Ernesto Rodrigues and an ensemble of more than 30 performers on reeds, guitars, strings, electronics, pianos, voice, megaphone, brass, drums and percussion, rich yet restrained with moments of mystery and excitement, in two complete concerts from Lisbon in 2017 & 2018.

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.

Swedish double bassist Johan Moir, who focuses on extended techniques, preparations, Just Intonation and psychoacoustic phenomena, joins with cellist Guilherme Rodrigues in the studio in Berlin to record these 9 dialogs of haunting string improvisations, pushing the limits of their "hollow wood" instruments to create a vast palette of sound and approaches.

Two approaches to keyboards from Japanese acoustic pianist Yoko Miura and keyboardist Jean-Marc Foussat (Fou Records) recording these extended and excursive improvisations in Paris in 2017, contrasting Foussat's alien and encompassing synthetic and electronic worlds with Miura's sophisticated playing inside and out of the piano.

An extended studio improvisation recorded in Berlin-Weissensee, Germany in 2016 from the restrained quartet of Axel Dorner on trumpet, Nuno Torres on alto sax, Alexander Frangenheim on double bass, and Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, using advanced techniques in a monumental journey that finds the quartet in a variety of expansive and intriguing dialogs.

IKB continue their series of albums graced with taxonomic latin names for animals, here with the North Island brown kiwi bird, as the string- and wind-heavy electroacoustic ensemble led by violist Ernesto Rodrigues present this extended improvisation of subtle motion and understated complexity live at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, Portugal in 2017.

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.

A duo between Swedish guitarist Finn Loxbo (Fire! Orchestra) and bass clarinetist Erik Blennow Calalv, in a low-key, moody and tranquil album of improvisations with titles implying their unhurried approach to their dialog--"Clouds", "Moving, Dancing", and "Ryoanji"-- making a beautiful album of nearly ambient but decidedly determined music.

As part of "The Horse Improvised Music Club" concert series organized by London Improvised Music Scene members Adam Bohman, Sue Lynch and Hutch Demouilpied, the trio of drummer Steve Noble, saxophonist Adrian Northover and acoustic guitarist Daniel Thompson recorded these open-minded improvisations of strong communication and extended technique in 2017 at IKLECTIK in London, England.

Live at the 66th SALON fur Klang+Kunst in Krailling, Munich, Germany finds festival leader Udo Schindler on cornet, bass, contrabass clarinet, soprano saxophone in a duo with Berlin-based Istanbul-born computer musician Korhan Erel, who designs his own unique instruments with unusual controllers, performing 9 singular dialogs of ethereal and unorthodox sound.

A trio of free improvisers recording five detailed and subdued dialogs in the studio, from trombonist Matthias Muller (Splitter Orchester), cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, and guitarist Eric Wong, collective improvisation guided by long pointillistic passages that converge into lyrical focal points, a profound example of concentrative discourse.

Visual artists Maria Lucchese is also a multi-instrumentalist and voice performer based in Berlin, working with Gio Kaptra, a filmmaker, visual artist and scientist based in Urbino, take their listeners on a 7 part cosmic exploration using tibetan bells, theremin, voice, modular synth, breath and sound processing, the title translating to "through hardships to the stars".

Fraqx, the Netherlands duo of guitarists Jacq Palinckx and Frank Crijns, both on electric guitar and "devices", debut their collaboration with this 7-part journey of rich deformations, from raw visceral energy to subdued experimentation, a diverse set of textures and powerful playing from two players with a long history of unusual improvisation.

Two Spanish musicians--Ricardo Tejero on clarinet and saxophone, and Paloma Carrasco on cello and piano--both with a long history working together and with legendary improvisers, combine as Duo Bruo, joining their distinctive approaches in free improvisation to create 16 succinct works that present lyrical, spiritual, experimental, and distinctive dialog.

"Deep" is the word, as two Swedish improvisers--bass and contrabass clarinetist Christer Bothen, a member of Fire! Orchestra and Mats Gustafsson's Nu Ensemble, and double bassist Vilhelm Bromander, a peer of Axel Dorner, Sten Sandell, Raymond Strid, &c.--formed the duo "CBVB" to explore the possibilities of their big instruments, heard in this 6 movement, profound suite.

Porto bassist Miguel Angelo's solo release is an album of pure improvisation, unrepeatable takes, which, for the artist, makes musical and emotional sense as a satisfying moment of musical sensation, through 11 tracks on the double bass of powerful playing, creative impulse, lyrical and rhythmic inventiveness, and ultimately, great satisfaction.

Electroacoustic improvisation from the trio of Marc Vilanova on saxophone, Sergio Castrillon on cello, and pianist James Andean also performing on objects and electronics, in nine collective improvisations of close-knit dialog balancing intense activity and silent space, building tension and releasing it in unexpected and wonderfully eccentric ways.

Recording in Portugal, the quintet of Aural Terrains label leader Thanos Chrysakis on piano, Creative Sources label leader Ernesto Rodrigue on viola, son Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Miguel Mira on double bass and Abdul Moimeme on electric guitar, three parts of microscopic collective electroacoustic improvisation of highly focused, detailed interplay.

Croatian guitarist and electroacoustic musician Ame Zek in an album of electroacoustic improvisation using prepared guitars, acoustic percussions, self made objects, contact microphones, analog modular synthesizer, amplified feedback speakers, magnetic field microphones and digital midi machines; an album of raw, raspy, dark and dissonant sound.

Nine freely improvised introspections as "enlightening spots on different forms of life in a rather muddy environment" from Lucerne, Switzerland based tenor saxophonist Elio Amberg and pianist Christoph Baumann, wonderful miniatures of great style and skill, a diverse exploration of their fictional pond that's quite spellbinding and exciting.

Three free improvisations from the Lisbon, Portugal trio of Jorge Nuno on electric guitar, Jose Lencastre on alto saxophone and Pedro Santo on drums, four pieces titled for the length of their dialog as they explore spacious sound sculpting and energetic free playing, a nicely balanced set of work that transition with finesse between ardor and tranquility.

A beautiful album of darkly lyrical jazz duos from Israeli saxophonist and bass clarinetist Albert Beger and collaborator and member of the Albert Beger Quartet Shay Hazan, on double bass and guimbri, for seven pieces recorded in the studio: 6 improvised works and the composed piece "Cycles".

Four controlled improvisations from the New York City based trio of Michael Lytle on clarinet, Denman Maroney on piano, and Stephen Flinn on percussion, non-idiomatic collective improvisations that often have the feeling of electroacoustic improv through Flinn's use of percussion, Maroney's inside piano work, and Lytle's upper register playing.