Their first proper vinyl release since forming in 2008, this studio album recorded in Berlin finds Berlin saxophonist and electronic artist Bryan Eubanks, double bassist Andrew Lafkas, and NY drummer & cymbal player Tod Capp in an extended and dark improvisation, with Catherine Lamb's "secondary rainbow synthesizer" interacting and filtering their work as a 4th member.

Composer Andrew Lafkas' large ensemble piece with performers including C. Spencer Yah, Ron Stabinsky, Barry Weisblat, Sean Meehan, Ben Owen, &c. is a meditative work intended for live performance, this album the 2nd of 3 performances, a brooding and resonant rendering of rich and subtle detail that evolves over 70 minutes, carrying its listeners in a profound revery.

Austrian composer Peter Ablinger wrote this study, which is not intended for live performance, using a violin performing a slow glissando over one octave, here performed by violinist Johnny Chang, the recording then composed in the studio as a proportion canon, virtually layering 16 violins in a study displaying the harmonic interactions of that single glissando.

The first meeting between the Austrian duo of bass clarinetist Susanna Gartmayer and Christof Kurzmann, here using ppool software, voice and rubber band, creating 4 elusive and immersive works that float somewhere in the void between experimental electronics, improvisation and song, creating diaphanous tension and mysterious environments; spellbinding.

Portugese tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado met Belgian electric & acoustic guitarist Dirk Serries for this live performance at Jazzblazzt in The Netherlands in 2018 for two extended conversations, the first set finding Serries on electric and the 2nd on acoustic, as the two push and pull each other, intertwining or finding complement in their discourse.

Combining concerts from a number of festivals and venues between 2009 & 2017, this album presents the best of the collaboration between London free improvising vocalist Phil Minton and Austrian turntablist and experimenter Dieb13, each of them masterfully unleashed in overwhelmingly creative, outlandish, sometimes frightening/sometimes uproarious, truly unique music.

The first meeting for the trio of Tuvan free improvising vocalist & throat singer Sainkho Namtchylak, saxophonist Ned Rothenberg and turntablist Dieb13, captured in performance at Music Unlimited 33, at Alter Schlachthof Wels, Austria in 2019 for 2 improvisations — the 40 minute "Shave and a Haircut" and the 11 minute "Two Bits" — in incredibly creative and formidable music.

The 4th of 5 Xerox releases from electronic and sound composer Carsten Nicolai, based on the concept of digital replication of source material, Nicolai replicates his recordings and utilizes their changes, in Volume 4 creating melodic ambient works, warm tones that are colored and affected by subtle texture, creating a beautiful set of 14 cinematic expressions.

The sixth album of embraceable electroacoustic and acousmatic French composer Bérangère Maximin, whose work with Ina-GRM, Stockholm's EMS points to her extraordinary skills in organize other-worldly sound, imbued with her ability to create warmly embraceable works with mystery amongst propelling rhythm, here exploring recordings from city parks & abandoned properties.

Phill Niblock's "Baobob", a rich drone work on a massive scale, is realized by the German sound collective The Dorf (German for The Village) augmented as a 35-member orchestra, released in a 2-CD set alongside "Echoes", a compositions from Jan Klare in three parts recorded the same evening with the same large edition of The Dorf ensemble.

The third volume of this excellent German sound magazine and audio CD, 9 artists working in sound art, electroacoustic composition; a "listenable exhibition" of modern compositional approach.

Inspired by and using the same instrumentation as John Tchicai's seminal 60's free jazz band New York Art Quartet, since 2013 the Berlin Art Quartet of Matthias Schubert on saxophone, Matthias Bauer on bass, Matthias Muller on trombone, and Reinhard Bruggemann on drums, has carried on the spirit of NY Free Jazz, here in a live concert at B-Flat, in Berlin in 2019.

A conceptual performance piece from Christina Kubisch, composed and recorded between 1974-84 while in Italy, including a NY performance recorded by Phill Niblock, realized with Arturo Morfino on drums, guitar & objects and Fabrizio Plessi gargling water; an unusual, engrossing and excursive work integrating electronics, field recordings, wind instruments and voice.

A compilation of works from the late Chicago multi-reedist, experimenter, and AACM founder Muhal Richard Abrams, focused on his widely unknown electronic compositions, in four recording from 1968-1995 with collaborators including Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Amina Claudine Myers, Roscoe Mitchell, Maurice McIntyre, Yousef Yancey, Thurman Barker, &c.

Swedish conceptual artist Leif Elggren developed this second album in his trilogy using "The Motor", a soundwork that he's built over many years from basic fragments of sound used in installations and performances, aggregated here in an expanded form as a continuous drone, harsh on the surface but complex in its layers and sonic collisions.

Don Redman was an American big band leader popular in the 1930's, responsible for work on animations, sound tracks, and recordings of pre-swing hot jazz arrangements of popular tunes; here the French Umlaut Big Band under the direction of Pierre-Antoine Badaroux pays homage to his music in rich orchestration showing the melodic, inventive, and complexities of Redman's music.

A lyrical piano trio album from Swiss drummer Samuel Rohrer and two Portuguese musicians, pianist Joao Paulo Esteves da Silva and bassist Mario Franco, recording in France for 13 sophisticated pieces of melodic compositions used as a jumping off point for nuanced improvisation and exploration, all three revealing beauty in embraceable motifs and luminous song.

Multi-disciplinary artist living in Berlin, Stefan Roigk developed "Suffering For The Promised" over a 14 year period, composing this large work of acousmatic music as an atmospherically intense yet utterly fragile piece, combining concrete sounds, field recordings and devotional vocal fragments in an eclectic and highly intimate composition of great depth and detail.

Compositions for percussion from Berlin drummer and accordionist Hannes Lingens (Musaeum Clausum, Antoine Beuger, Lucio Capece, &c), composed over six years, each using a restricted set of materials, instrument or instrument type, Lingens performing solo, and as a duo and quartet using overdubs, employing microphone techniques for detail and ambiance.

Exploring new ways of interplay within a classic jazz trio setting, "Zyklus 1" or "Cycle 1" is the 3rd album from the trio of Bertrand Denzler on tenor saxophone, Joel Grip on double bass, and Sven on Ake Johansson on drums, a double CD + poster of four improvisations that reference "Time" through masterful technique and superb collective free jazz.

The fourth ECM album from NY Saxophonist Tim Berne and drummer Ches Smith, here in a trio with textural guitarist David Torn in three extended compositions merging jazz, rock and ambient forms, the middle track augmented with the Scorchio String Quartet and Craig Taborn, as they ebb and flow intense energy, fascinating compositional turns, and superb playing.

The fourth ECM album from NY Saxophonist Tim Berne and drummer Ches Smith, here in a trio with textural guitarist David Torn in three extended compositions merging jazz, rock and ambient forms, the middle track augmented with the Scorchio String Quartet and Craig Taborn, as they ebb and flow intense energy, fascinating compositional turns, and superb playing.

A beautiful rendering of French composer Eric Satie's 1918 masterwork "Socrate", originally for four sopranos and chamber orchestra, here stripped to its essence as a duo with Olalla Aleman on soprano and Guy Vandromme on piano, maintaining Satie's characterist reserve and refinement in the 3 parts: "portrait of socrates"; "banks of the ilissus"; and "death of socrates".

Two clarinetists--John McCowen, also the composer, and Madison Greenstone, both on clarinet & bass clarinet--taking the title from Boethius' (427-524 AD) printed work on ancient Greek music: "De institutione musica", as they generate long-form drones using the harmonic interactions and interference patterns of similar tones, overtones, and difference tones; impressively intense.

An adaptation from "Sileen", a composition commissioned by Musica For The Festival Oortreders at Neerpelt, Belgium, 2016 performed with 50 members of a local music school; "Sileen II" was realized with only Gareth Davis on bass clarinet plus sounds from Machinefabriek, recorded in the same pitch and tempo as "Sileen', then slowed to half its speed and one octave lower.

The 2nd part of a trilogy for guitar and sinetones composed between 2015-18, alongside "What Might Occur (Rereadings of Triadic Memories by Morton Feldman for guitar and sinewaves)" (2015-17) and "Un Lloc Entre Dos Records" (2017); this work, originally written in 2016, and revised in 2018, is heard in a recording at GMEA, France, with guitarist Benjamin Maumus.

John Cage wrote his "Number Pieces" in the last years of his life, using his time bracket technique of short fragments allowing the performer flexibility in interpretation; each piece is titled for the number of performers and its ordinal position in the series, and most pieces are dedicated to a musician; here pianist Guy Vandromme performs three of the "One", or solo, series.

Four improvisations in a series titled "Etoile" [star] and one composition using graphic notation titled "Toile" [canvas], from French clarinetist Joris Rhule, working with multiphonics and extended harmonic technique to extoll unusual sonorities from the single reed instrument, from fragile to forceful, fascinating examples of extreme sonic exploration.

Adventurous double bassist Pascal Niggenkemper was artist in residence at Wuppertal in the fall of 2017, presenting concerts with a diverse set of masterful improvisers from Europe and the US, excerpts of which are meticulously programmed in this 2-CD collection, organized by artistic endeavor and intent, from the spacious/introspective to wildly lively encounters; recommended.

Musaeum Clausum is a French-German trio that features Louis Laurain on cornet (Die Hochstapler, Umlaut Big band, ONCEIM), Hannes Lingens on drums (Obliq, Konzert Minimal) and Sebastien Beliah on bass.(Un Poco Loco, Ensemble Hodos, Umlaut Big Band), in an album of patiently developing improvisation giving each player freedom and flexibility within a composed framework.

Sebastien Beliah is a Paris-based double bass player, a member of Umlaut Big Band, The Coquettes, Un poco loco, &c., here in a solo album of bass noir, dark and resonant tones evoked through strong bowing, finding harmonics between the strings and from the instrument itself, creating beautiful passages in a mirage of engulfing deep timbre.

Combining folk and ethnic rhythms in traditional popular forms, the Trio La Soustraction of des Fleurs of Jean-Francois Vrod on violin & voice, Frederic Aurier on violin & voice, and Sylvain Lemetre on zarb & voice focuses on the music of the mountains of the Massif Central, melodic music with unique timbres, forms, pre-texts, and a richly complex set of musical objects.

Conservatory trained Argentinian saxophonist Sergio Merce uses a prepared tenor sax and a microtonal sax to create rich harmonics and slowly moving tonal works, layering aberrant and alluring tones in restrained configurations that allow each stratum of sound to be distinguished and appreciated, creating mesmerizing compositions of elusive and illusionistic sound.

A sextet of Cyril Bondi (vibraphone), d'Incise (metallic objects), Magnus Granberg (piano), Anna Lindal (Baroque violin), Anna-Kaisa Meklin (viola de gamba) and Christoph Schiller (spinet) perform two works composed by Bondi and d'Incise, recorded by Simon Reynell of Another Timbre, works of repetition with distinct variations that evolve as each piece progresses.

Pianist and composer Dante Boon performs his own work "Years, Numbers", alongside Antoine Beuguer's "Pour Etre Seul(e), Sans Reserve" and Taylan Susam's "Tombeau", and Bueger's "Nov. (piano)", four works of graceful and introspective beauty using minimal approaches to tone, chord, or spaciousness, recorded live at University Of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2014.

Fourteen pieces for solo guitar from Norwegian composer Johan Lindvall, sparse yet warmly spaced pieces that focus on the individual notes or simple chords in intimate ways, meditative yet warmly evocative; two sections are presented in multiple movements, with "five songs for voice and guitar", Rasten singing words written by Marianne Moore; lovely and refined.

Marianne Schuppe continues to reimagine songs and their relation to tone and melody, here in a series of 11 songs realized with voice, lute, and uber bows, creating delicate accompaniment to her lucid movements between pure sound and words, singing and speaking her lyrics of succinct phrases rich in subtle intimation and evocative imagery; beautiful.

Written in 1963 for up to 15 peformers plus a conductor who may also make sound, Japanese composer and Fluxus artist Toshi Ichiyanagi's score has 16 pages marked with combinations of lines, dots and letters indicating duration, number of events, and moments of restraint, each player using a different page, with certain options of switching pages with another player during performance.

Between 2014-16 Jakob Ullmann composed the orchestral work "steine, feuer, sterne" (stones, fire, stars) based on a modular structure, such that individual sections can be played outside of a complete performance, solo or in predetermined combinations; this album presents one section for solo bassoon titled "Muntzers stern" performed by Dafne Vicente-Sandoval.

Massimo Pupillo (ZU, Laniakea), electronic artist Luciano Lamanna and string instrument virtuoso Roberto Zanisi combine to form Creta, creating sonic works that blend sci-fi ambient atmospheres with dark bass pulses and languid Mediterranean string instruments, an unusual yet surprisingly complementary set of approaches yielding a darkly lyrical album.

Five works for harp and voice from composer Eva-Maria Houben and soprano Tatiana Kuzina, opening with a lovely "Aeolian Harp", and including two works from her "Voice and Piano" album recorded for harp--"Adagio" in 3 movements, and "Songs for the Island" in 5 movements--alongside "Hatid" and "Two Songs with Piano" in two movements.

Three compositions for voice and piano from German composer Eva-Maria Houben, also performing on piano with soprano vocalist Irene Kurka--"Adagio" in three pieces; "Lyri"; and "Lieder Fur Die Insel (Songs for the Island)--with texts from poet Felix Timmermans (adagio) and Hilde Domin (lyrik); beautiful, stark, haunting music that presents at its own pace.

Composer Michael Winter uses the "maximally complex, incomputable number" known as Chaitin's Constant, plus text adapted from Gregory Chaitin's 1994 book "The Limits Of Mathematics", samples from 36 creative musicians, the voice of Muirgen Eleonore Gourgues, plus cello from Judith Hamann and piano from Winters, to create this curious and compelling narrative work.

Composer Eva-Maria Houben in a collaborative work with bass flutist Rebecca Lane and bass clarinetist Samuel Dunscomb, the composer performing on piano and orgran, for two renderings of "Observing Objects", a patient work of long notes and tones interspersed with silence, lower registers in the winds balanced by the piano or organ's upper register.

German pianist Dominik Blum presents his second album for the Wandelweiser label, performing a selection of compositions from Swiss composer Hermann Meier (1906-2002), whose forward-looking work with reduced scores, modern use of time and space, and graphics scores in compositions pre-dating Messiaen, Stockhausen, Boulez, &c. that are only recently being rediscovered.

Swiss composer and percussionist Cyril Bondi, recording with d'incise, renders his piece "euhesma" (a genus within the bee family in Australia), a work performed on indian harmonium, melodica, harmonica, pitch pipes, and electric organ that slowly introduces and overlaps tones, varying the pitch, harmony, and amplitude to create rich aural environments.

Recording at the GRM Studios, the French duo of Eryck Abecassis and Francisco Meirino (phroq) use unpatched modular sythesizers that they program during performance, adding a level of risk and unpredictability to their detailed and rich sonic conversation, informed by decades of research and performance that both musicians bring to this intensely interesting album.

Commissioned by Berlin's Maerzmusik Festival and premiered in 2014, Elliott Sharp's composition & soundscape is named after the Greek waking dream and inspired by John Cage, Sharp using a methodology to filter and process his musical manuscripts via Photoshop, which are interpreted through amplification of acoustic instruments by the Zeitkratzer ensemble.

The insanely powerful work of this new trio--bass player Massimo Pupillo (Zu, Laniakea), drummer Alexandre Babel (Sudden Infant) and Caspar Brotzmann on guitar--captured live at Candy Bomber Studios, in Berlin for two monumental free improvisations of raw energy that blend noise rock, drone, and improvisation into something uniquely fearsome and wonderful.