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"While the previous Garcia/Branche CD seemed also improvised to me, this five-person work is of the two the more improvised one. The quintet of players also like their sounds to be sustaining, placing bows on strings, but also motorized...

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An unusual improvising string quartet plus alto saxophone, Thea Farhadian (violin), Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Guilherme Rodrigues (cello), Klaus Kurvers (double bass) and Nuno Torres (alto saxophone) present the 11-part "De-col//age_", a slowly-developing work balancing unconventional approaches to their instruments with more conventional strategies.

Two recordings from the lowercase acoustic improvising trio of Portuguese players Ernesto Rodriduges on viola and Nuno Torres on alto saxophone and objects with Saint Petersburg alto saxophonist Ilia Belorukov, recording at Belorukov's Spina! label's studio, and again live at Vertikal' Gallery in Saint Petersburg in 2016.

Recorded over a 3 year period, the trio of Portuguese string improvisers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello met with New Haven, Connecticut double bassist & synth player Daniel Barbiero, developing this detailed, two part lowercase acoustic improvisation with a spacious, patient feeling that interacts with its ambient environment.

Named for the Leipzig, Poland location in which this live concert was recorded, the acoustic free improvising quartet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, and Johannes von Buttlar on percussion, explore extended ranges and approaches to their instrument in these building and detailed dialogs.

As the album cover displays, basalto are the black rocks resulting from lava, here represented in the slowly flowing, hard toned electro-acoustic improv of the Portuguese trio of Ernesto Rodrigues onoctave viola & baritone violin, Abdul Moimeme on electric guitar, and Antez on percussion.

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Portuguese violist Ernesto Rodrigues joins with German electronic improviser Has W Koch for an album of interactive acoustics and electronics, where textures from Rodrigues' viola are fed into Koch's electronics to create new and unanticipated transformations, both patiently evolving the textures to reveal sublime minutiae and detail.

"When an improvised recording presents itself as a meteor, some foreign object from another civilization, like Days Are Not Days does, we should rejoice that it has entered our atmosphere and like a bolide, exploded upon contact. Okay, ...

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Recorded in the studio in 2017, "Cyclic Symmetry" presents an electroacoustic trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, and CS mainstay Carlos Santos on field recordings, in a minimal work suggested to be heard on infinite loop, contrasting deep silence with sections accenting the slow, interwining harmonics of both Rodrigues' string work.

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"Determined to prove a point. Swedish double bass player Vilhelm Bromander, known from Jonas Kullhammar's The New Kids On The Rock quartet and the more experimental The Agg, as well as his collaborations with pianists Sten Sandell and K...

Portuguese electric guitarist Luis Lopes met Chicago free improvising cellist and electronic artist Fred Lonberg-Holm in the studio in Lisbon to record these five improvisations, both using innovative approaches to effect processing to expand their sound into unusual sonic environments, balancing beauty and abrasive sound.

An unlikely pairing, cellist Ulrike Brand is best known for her work with John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi, while Olaf Rupp is a regular contributor in a variety of setting in the European Free Improv scene; here they join for an album of free improvisation, finding shared and gripping language in creative and uncommon approaches to their strings.

A free jazz session recorded in Brussells between trumpeter Nate Wooley and half of the Daniele Martini Quartet--saxophonist Martini himself and drummer Joao Lobo--stepping in and out of modal jazz with a contemplative approach, using extended techniques to great effect, Lobo handling the foundation and rhythm in absolutely impressive ways.

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"Siete Colores presents a trio of Rodrigues' viola and the dual electric guitars of Moimeme and Argentinean Fernando Perales (perhaps best known for the group Reynols with Anla Courtis). As "23 44'00"S 65 29'00" O" opens what's immediat...

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A darkly ritualistic, scrabbly album of darkly ritualistic improvisation from the Portuguese trio of saxophonist Mestre Andre, also on electronics, percussion, mbira and voice, double bassist Bernardo Alvares and drummer/percussionist Raphael Soares.

Mir 8 brings electroacoustic artists Andrea Belfi (drums/percussion), Werner Dafeldecker (electroncis, bass), Hilary Jeffrey (trombone) and Tim Wright (computer & electronics) together for their debut album of four cinematic tracks following an abstract narrative through panoramic landscapes.

An assertive album of free playing from the trio of Peter Van Huffel on alto sax, Roland Fidezius on electric bass, and Rudi Fischerlehner on drums, giving the music punk-jazz overtones in sound and rhythmic approach while clearly adhering to the heavy free jazz styles of the European masters.

Primarily a bass and guitar duo between Portugese natives Joao Hasselberg, on double bass and electric, and electric guitarist Pedro Branco, here in their second album together of delicately sophisticated string improvisations, joined by a a great set of collaborators to expand the duo to trio and quartet.

Draksler's interest in poetry drives this 2-CD release, with a chamber octet of improvisers and orchestra players, with 2 vocalists, two reedists (inc. Ab Baars), violin, piano, double bass, drums & orchestral percussion, performing Draksler's compositions for the words of Pablo Neruda and Andriana Minou.

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 live recording from Jazz Festival Ljubljana in 2016 from Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon leading a trans-national sextet with Julian Arguelles (sax), Achille Succi (bass clarinet), Roberto Dani (drums), Pascal Niggenkemper (bass), and Christian Lillinger (drums) through a series of complex harmonic and rhythmic compositions named for colors.

A live recording of drummer/composer Harris Eisenstadt's Canada Day band performing as a quartet with trumpeter Nate Wooley, saxophonist Matt Bauder, and bassist Pascal Niggenkemper, recorded at SUMP during their 2016 European tour, an exemplary set of free playing over a great set of original compositions, including a large work in 3 sections and 5 parts.

The unique orchestration of this trio, with Tony Malaby on sax, Mat Maneri on viola, and Daniel Levin on cello, givs a distinct character to the highly informed improvisations from these commanding players, who recorded this album at Three's Brewing in Brooklyn in 2015.

New York alto saxophonist Michael Attias presents his new quartet with Aruan Ortiz on piano, John Hebert on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums, in his sixth album as a leader, a lyrical album dealing with the theory of elasticity and the concept of equality in music.

Fiction, folklore and everyday sounds fuel the compositions of NY pianist Angelica Sanchez, with her trio of Michael Formanek on double bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, the band explores concepts of lucid dreaming, backyard birds, novels, mythical creatures and ancient structures, in a magnificent album of inspired free improvisation.

NY pianist Zack Clarke initiates his album in the electronic realm, resolving to jazz trio work with Henry Fraser on double bass and drummer Dre Hocevar, in an album interspersed with electronics and free playing, an appealing blend of traditional and experimental approaches.

Adventurous/Leventuruos is a good description of the articulate, sophisticated, and exciting trio work that Israeli pianist Daniel Sarid, double bassist Gilad Abro, and drummer Ziv Ravitz present, in 8 dynamic pieces that balance free, rapid and lyrical jazz.

After bringing her band Kaze to the Cortez club in Mito, Japan, the owner asked pianist Satoko Fujii back to perform a solo show, captured here across two CDs showing her extensive technical skills and passionate approach to playing, in a mix of new work and new takes on previously recorded compositions.

While working with Matthew Shipp on an Ivo Perelman album, drummer Whit Dickey and pianist Shipp agreed to record an album of their own and enlisted violist Mat Maneri to record this album of deep space-themed improvisations, collective music of heavy propulsion that bursts from impassioned exchange to convoluted clusters of sound.

Three works from Canadian composer Chiyoko Szlavnics, two electroacoustic compositions incorporating sinewaves, one with a saxophone quartet and the other with two accordions, two flutes and two percussionists; and a string trio of long sustained tones and slow glissandi.

Canadian composer Martin Arnold is based in Toronto, writing melodic works that contain a meandering, psychedelic quality, as heard in these three compositions performed by Philip Thomas on piano and Mira Benjamin on violin, the first two pieces solos from each respectively, and the last a duo with both musicians.

Ten pieces dating from 1995 to 2015 from Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith, performed by Quatuor Bozzini and Apartment House, the first in Another Timbre's Canadian Composer series, a 2-CD release focusing on Smith's "equal and simultaneous drive toward abstraction and lyricism" in slowly developing, lush and sophisticated compositions.

Berlin-based improvisers Christian Lillinger on drums and Tobias Delius on tenor sax and clarinet in an album of powerful rhythms, instant melodies, and quick-witted responses, bridging a generation of experience in dialog and give and take that works well head on and in reserve, a great encounter from two modern and active creative players.

The Berlin trio of Rudi Mahall on clarinet and bass clarinet, Olaf Rupp on electric and acoustic guitar and Jan Roder on double bass in an ironically packaged album of free improvisation of the highest standard, taking the listener on a journey of informed free jazz that references the past in thoroughly modern approaches to creative music.