Scandinavian and American musicians join together to form this quartet, with Kristoffer Berre Alberts on saxes, Jamie Saft on organ and keys, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten on electric bass, and Gard Nilssen on drums & electronics, for an album of spacey and groove oriented jazz.

Italian saxophonist Stefano Ferrian in a duo with pianist Simone Quatrana, Ferrian bounding terse phrases against Quatrana's concise but tenacious dissections of pattern and rhythm, using angularity, counterpoint and expansive harmonics in a rewarding dialog.

New York drummer Tyshawn Sorey's impressive work for double trio is an ambitious chamber jazz composition using multiple harmonic, formal, rhythmic, and modal vocabularies in an exploratory and improvisational framework, inspired by the work of Lawrence D. Butch Morris.

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).

Eric Normand's Quebec based 12-piece GGRIL (Grand Groupe Regional d'Improvisation) in an album of 5 improvisations and a piece by percussionist Danielle P. Roger; wonderfully creative music with eclectic instrumentation that's simultaneously challenging and fun.

Three impressive works of electroacoustic improv from the trio of Serge Baghdassarians (mixer, delays, electric guitar), Boris Baltschun (computer, sampler) and Burkhard Beins (percussion and zither), brooding and concentrative sound that unfolds slowly in detail and color.

Moscow sound experimenter Phil Raymond, recording with computers and percussions, is resampled live by Moscow musician Kurt Liedwart on lloopp, electronics & percussion, to create these 5 darkly ambient tracks merging organized and improvised approaches.

Live recordings from the Dom Cultural Center in Moscow by the trio of Norbert Moslang on cracked everyday-electronics, Ilia Belorukov on sax, electronics & laptop, and Kurt Liedwart on analog synthesizer, electronics, ppooll, superb ea-improv balancing reserve and cracked power.

A concept record from Gaudenz Badrutt (electronics & synth) and Christian Muller (electronics & contrabass clarinet), starting with an improvised piece which is then resampled live into 6 new pieces, changing the character with each pass, and presented in reverse order.

An absorbing album of solo drum work from French drummer/percussionist Antonin Gerbal, recording in the studio and demonstrating his profound sonic and technical approaches to the drums, isolated from projects like Peeping Tom, Bertrand Denzler/ONCEIM or Zoor.

Saxophonist Pierre-Antoine Badaroux and double bassist Sebastien Beliah formed Ensemble Hodos in 2008 to perform the music of composers who wrote scores that include freedom and/or improvisation for the players, here performing the music of Philip Corner.

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.

Since 2012 the free improvising duo of vocalist Geraldine Eguiluz and double bassist Stephane Diamantakiou have worked together, taking themes from the jazz songbook as a starting point for free form improvisations of a fragile and unpredictable nature.

Italian soprano saxophonist Gianni Mimmo meets Boston guitarist Garrison Fewell for 10 freely improvised duets of strong dialog balancing technical and lyrical skills with an ebullient intensity and warm spirit, engaging the listener in their joyful dialog.

Violinist Emanuele Parrini leads his quartet with Dimitiri Grechi Espinoz on alto sax, Giovanni Maier on double bass, and Andrea Melani on drums, performing Parrini's 3 part "The Blessed Prince", and original compositions from bassist Maier; lyrical and innovative modern jazz.

Portuguese trumpeter Luis Vicente in a quartet with Amsterdam-based improvisers John Dikeman (sax), Wilbert De Joode (bass) and Onno Govaert (drums), captured during an energetic live performance at zaal 100 in Amsterdam in 2015 for superb free jazz.

Jazz Passengers leader and saxophonist Roy Nathanson in an album of duos recorded live during a series of concerts at The Stone in NY, with collaborators including Marc Ribot, Curtis Fowlkes, Anthony Coleman, Arturo O'Farrill, Myra Melford, and Lucy Hollier.

Alto saxophonist Julie Kjaer, a Denmark native living in the UK and active on the London Improv scene, in a trio with two of the most active London players - Steve Noble on drums and John Edwards on bass - for a live album at Vortex Jazz Club in 2015.

Two works from composer Frey performed by Montreal's string ensemble Quatuor Bozzini: "String Quartet No. 3", a minimal work of colors, sensations, shadows, durations; and "Unhorbare Zeit" exploring durations without sound, or empty volumes, to achieve lucidity and transparency.

Christian Wolff initiated his "Microexercises" series when the Miniaturist Ensemble asked for a piece with no more than 100 notes in it; he went on to create 21 more pieces, 13 of which are performed here by the South African duo of Beat Keller & Reza Khota on electric guitar.

Pianist Samuel Vriezen performs Tom Johnson's work presenting what Johnson describes as a natural phenomenon within a musical scale: progressions in 1 to 5 voices of all possible combinations of notes with each voice being limited to 3 steps, a perfect 4th or a perfect 5th.

John Cage's "Empty Words" (1974) is drawn from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, written in four parts: Part I omits sentences, Part II omits phrases, and Part III omits words. Part IV, which omits syllables, leaves us nothing but a virtual lullaby of letters and sounds.

The duo Contour of Stephen Altoff (trumpet) & Lee Forrest Ferguson (percussion) perform Antoine Beuger's "dedekind duos" dedicated to mathematician Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind; and Jurg Frey's "22 Sachelchen" or "small things", 22 focused miniature compositions.

Jurg Frey on clarinet and Irene Kurka on soprano vocals perform Wandelweiser composer Antoine Beuger's extended composition "Two"; then the duo of Rhodri Davies on harp and Ko Ishikawa on sho are layered on the first recording, creating a refreshingly new take on the piece.

John McAlpine performs composer Tom Johnson's beautiful piano cycle "Counting Keys", using mathematical progressions to create the structure of its 5 movements; plus 8 parts from his "Organ and Silence for Piano"; and two other compositions using mathematical processes.

Early compositions from John Cage performed on accordion by Edwin Alexander Buchholz and violin by Joanna Becker, presenting "Dream" (1948); "In a Landscape" (1948); "Six Melodies" (1950); and "Souvenir" (1983).

Burkhard Schlothauer presents two works by John Cage written for septet, using indeterminacy in a score where each instrumental part is given twenty time brackets, allowing overlapping sounds which will be shaped depending on choices from each performer.

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.

Fritz Welch and Guido Hennebohl present a strange and discomforting album of electronic madness, as they "rattle them pots and pans, slap-the-cheek slurps and stick sharp elbows into a web of goof-off electronics" as they pursue the message of freedom.

Carl Ludwig Hubsch (tuba); Ole Schmidt (bass clarinet); Chris Weinheimer (bass flute); Robert Schleisiek (piano); and Tom Lorenz (vibraphone) interpret Christian Wolff's composition based on "Union Maid", a song from the 1920's, transforming the work through temporal expansion.

Edwin Alexander Buchholz performs this beautiful work by John Cage on accordion, originally written for the Japanese sho, where sounds are single tones and chords, up to six part harmonies, or as Cage wrote, "sounds brushed into existence as in oriental calligraphy".

Antoine Beuger's minimalist work for American painter Marcia Hafif, known for her monochrome paintings, in 24 tonal works each 3 minutes long using stationary waves of eight frequencies from a different octave and punctuated by silence.

One composition each from Antoine Beuger and John Cage performed on the oboe by Kathryn Gleasman Pisaro; Beuger's work presents tones in regular intervals offset by silence; Cage's piece uses pitch and tone color with microtonal inflections, mutes and harmonic fingerings.

Antoine Beuger, Burkhard Schlothauer, Chico Mello, Jurg Frey, Kunsu Shim, Michael Pisaro-Liu, and Thomas Stiegler participate in this realization of Christian Wolff's compositions to make sounds or draw sounds out of stones, alone or with other surfaces, acoustically or amplified.

Henry Threadgill's tribute to friend, composer-conductor Lawrence D. Butch Morris, in a detailed 4-part work with an excellent set of improvisers: Henry Threadgill, Jose Davila, Jason Moran, Christopher Hoffman, David Virelles, Roman Filiu, Curtis Macdonald, and Craig Weinrib.

Percussionist Paul Lovens joins the Lok 03 trio of Alexander von Schlippenbach (piano), Aki Takase (piano), and DJ Illvibe (turntables) for the follow-up to their 2005 debut, here in an extended album of playfully unexpected improv from four masterful players.

This progressive/folk/jazz/improv/experimental/psych quartet from Norway covers a diverse set of approaches to improvisation, from textural, minimalistic and radically abstract, like something AMM would play, using graphic and written notation.

Freely improvised collective with an electroacoustic inclination and chamber music reserve from the quintet of Dre Hoceva (drums), Bran De Looze (piano), Lester St. Louis (cello), Chris Pitsiokos (sax) and Philip White (electronics & signal processing).

Bay Area trumpeter Darren Johnston meets improvising guitar legend Fred Frith for an incredibly well-paced series of duos, remarkable improv that uses space, skill, extended techniques and unexpected approaches to both instruments in vivid and beautiful discourse.

A live recording at Greenwich House Music School in New York City in 2014, and the 3rd album from the Renku trio of Michael Attias on alto sax, John Hebert on double bass, and Satoshi Takeishi on drums, lyrical and intimate trio work from three masterful players.

Michel Banabila's excellent melodically experimental electroacoustic label Tapu in their 2016 double CD sampler, with tracks from Banabila, Asid & Banabila, Banabila & Van Geel, Banabila & Machinefabriek, Banabila & Erker, and Banabila/Erker/Samson.

Harpist Gabriele Emde began performing contemporary music by exceptional 20th century artists in the early 80s; in this collection recorded from 1985 to 1987 she presents one of Cage's "Landscape" pieces, a major work by Hans Otte, and several short pieces by Lou Harrison.

In 1979 Joe McPhee, working with CJR produced Craig Johnson, recorded this set of overdubbed recordings of himself performing on saxes, trumpet and flugelhorn over original compositions showcasing solo, duo, trio and quartet contexts, an album of virtual McPhee ensembles!

Unreleased for more than 39 years, these remarkably creative live solo performances on trumpet, flugelhorn, flute, steelophone, percussion and gongs from improvisor and composer Wadada Leo Smith were recorded in Los Angeles in 1977, during his visionary Kabell Records years.

An album of tones and tonal environments from Barry Chabala and A.F. Jones, using guitars and effects to create slowly moving tones punctuated with unusual utterances of unknown origin; rich and curiously non-specific sound that lives in the back- and foreground.

A long-term studio project/mutant big band merging collage, scored pieces, structured improvisations, cut-up jams, hi- and lo-fi textures, electroacoustic work, and location recording into large and wonderfully unpredictable compositions with few boundaries.

Saxophonist Junji Hirose met Kazuhisa Uchihashi at Foxhole in Kichijoji in 2014 and 2015, Uchihashi performing only on Hans Reichel's daxophone--wood shapes played in a variety of ways to create unusual sound--as heard on these 10 surprising and wonderfully idiosyncratic recordings.

15 wonderfully creative works from Boston-area saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra, also on lyricon, analog synth and effects pedals, creating a one-man-band of unconventional sonic textures layered live, over which he improvises in fun and profound ways.

A 15-member ensemble of Boston area improvisers plus guests Jeb Bishop, Tony Malaby and Taylor Ho Bynum, taking their name from the deep-sea submersibles used for exploring, as this band survey's large form improvisation that blends free and melodic jazz in adventurous ways.

Blending melodic strength with post-bop intensity, Boston area improvisers Jorrit Dijkstra on alto sax, lyricon & analog synth, Pandelis Karayorgis on piano, Nate McBride on bass and Curt Newton on drums present 10 exuberant and unique modern jazz compositions.