The French experimental jazz trio of Theo Ceccaldi (violin), Valentin Ceccaldi (cello) and Sylvain Darrifourcq (drums, percussuions, zither) in a playful release of quick paced, creative improvisations in an album of exciting and somewhat off-kilter music; superbe!

Saxophonist Quentin Biardeau and cellist Valentin Ceccalid, also on percussion, are Durio Zibethinus, a duo from Orleans, France using traditional and unusual instruments to present unique free improvisations balancing powerful technique and just plain creative fun.

The second album from the duo collaboration of acoustic and electric bassist Anders Berg and guitarist Tellef Ogrim on fretted and unfretted standard and baritone guitars, a Hadron Particle synthesizer, and other instruments, merging rock, jazz and other groove oriented styles.

Recorded at drummer Vladimir Tarasov's home studio, saxophonist Liudas Mockunas stands out in superb solos on soprano & tenor saxes, clarinet and bass clarinet, while Kanevicisu & Tarasov support on bass and an array of percussive devices including cimbalom and hunting horn.

Live recordings from the 2013 Edgefest by the trio of Canadian pianist Marilyn Lerner, NY bassist Ken Filiano, and drummer Lou Grassi, a freely flowing session that combines profound technical skills with innate lyrical sensibility.

A 2-part single improvisation recorded live at la Maison Peinte, Labarthe-sur-Leze in 2014 from Jean-Luc Capozzo on trumpet & flugelhorn, and drummer Didier Lasserre, showing a great range of style and dynamic in gutsy playing using powerful technique and creative interaction.

Mexican composer and vibraphonist based in Berlin since 2012, Emilio Gordoa in a duo with guitarist Nicola L. Hein, using preparations to their vibraphones, percussion, and guitar, in an 8 part composition of diverse approaches to improvisation, from exuberant interaction to Reich-like minimalism to cantankerous experimentation, a well-rounded and interesting album.

Thomas Bonvalet takes the banjo into unusual territory with Jean-Luc Guionnet performing on the organ at the protestant temple of Bergerac, France, in a beautifully terrifying album recorded during the MONC cultural arts centre's festival of avant-garde culture in 2010.

The French trio of Xavier Camarasa on piano, Valentin Ceccaldi on cello, and Sylvain Darrifourcq on percussion, having little to do with Mile Davis, but instead a creative band using timbral changes, intensity, density, volume to create unique improv environments.

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.

Montreal saxophone quartet Quasar (Jean-Marc Bouchard, Marie-Chantal Leclair, Mathieu Leclair, & Andre Leroux) in their 3rd incredible album of contemporary saxophone compositions, presenting 14 rich and varied compositions, including commissioned and premier works.

Composer Simon Martin pays hommage to Quebec painters Ozias Leduc, Paul-Emile Borduas, and Jean-Paul Riopelle in contemplative works for each artist, performed by the ensembles Quatuor Bozzini, Quasar quatuor de saxophons, and Trio de guitares contemporain.

Eleven songs by Montreal trombonist Scott Thomson, settings of poems by P.K. Page (1916-2010), one of Canada's distinguished literary figures, in a band with Pierre Tanguay on drums, Yves Charuest on sax, Nicolas Caloia on double bass, and Susanna Hood on vocals.

Montreal's most creative large ensemble, led by Joane Hetu & Daniell Palardy Roger, in their 5th release presenting works composed between 1976-2015 featuring twenty musicians playing in different combinations, showing the creative breadth and skills of this amazing band.

The trio of Achim Kaufmann on piano, Frank Gratkowski on sax and clarinets, and Wilbert de Joode on bass, has performed together since the mid-80s, developing a unique language of dynamic, texture and rhythmic complexity that puts them at the forefront of European collective improv.

Exploratory free improvisation with an emphasis on strings from the trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Biliana Voutchkova on violin, and Micha Rabuske on flutes & sax, collective conversation with scraping and overblowing mutating their sound in interesting and curious ways.

"At the same time risky attempt, masterpiece and manifest, Licht is a fine example of the radical, collective, demanding and disciplined approach of the best productions of Ernesto Rodrigues. Divided into seven parts entitled I-VII, Lic...

"Rumor is a studio session by four musicians who had recently performed together for the first time during the 2014 MIA improvisation festival in Lisbon. It joins two international visitors - Brazilian Marco Scarassatti on sound sculptu...

"Argentinian pianist (by way of Amsterdam) Nicolas Chientaroli delivers a solo performance that demonstrates the piano's architectural sound beyond the usual demarcation points of its 88 keys. Cada Fuego Es El Primero opens with plucked str...

"The Uliben Duo's CD Shared Memory (Creative Sources CS 327 CD) more accurately describe the performance of French bassist Benoit Cancoin facing the live processing of German Ulrich Phillipp. In other circumstances Phillips also plays b...

A half composed, half improvised album for solo electric guitar from composer and improviser Justin Lepany, known for his work with musicians like Sven-Ake Johansson and his composition "Ringing Peace" premiered during the 2014 Peace Nobel Prize ceremony: three diverse pieces using effects to create both density and spacious sonic fields.

"5th January, 12th January, 19th January, 4th February of the year 2015 have a thin red line (or I'd rather say a black line, considering their color on a calendar). They occurred on Monday, the first five Mondays of that year to be pre...

"Both Giesriegl and Gratkowski are responsible for the sound in the gearbox. It deals with an extreme range of vocalisms, which are often composed of elements of spoken language, which are part of the sound ensemble. He draws from an al...

"More like un-cropped images on a contact sheet, then burned and dodged portraits, this eight-track, 33-minute CD is a literal record of an improvisational session between two sound experimenters of divergent backgrounds but shared inte...

Extending the realm of reeds in improvisation, the trio of three clarinetists--Katharina Bohlen, Reinald Noisten, and Claudius Reimann--perform on clarinet and bass clarinet with a diverse set of approaches, opening their 12 movement work with a trio of bass clarinets, and then permuting bass, b-flat clarinets and sax with remarkable technique.

A three part improvised work for viola, trombone, electric guitar and double bass from, respectively, Ernesto Rodrigues, Eduardo Chagas, Abdul Moimeme, and Joao Madeira, an ascending conversation that uses innuendo, mystery, subtle movement, silence and swells to create atmospheric environments, each "voice" shifting enigmatically in sublimely hazy ways.

German composer working in Budapest Nikolaus Gerszewski does not consider the score for this piece a composition, but rather a basis for a process, which is executed live at Fabrica Braco de Prata with Gerszewski himself plus improvisers Ernesto & Guilherme Rodrigues, Pedro Roxo, Nuno Torres, Armando Pereira, Carlos Santos, Pedro Castello Lopes & Andre Mota.

Pianist Claudia Binder presents 3 concepts for solo piano - the introspective "Room for a Sound" and it's dramatic inverse, "Sound for a Room"; "Polyphony" in 3 parts using piano preparation, one part playful, one part serious, one part peculiar; and an inexplicable "It Takes Two to Tango"--in performances revealing a curious mind and tremendous skill.

Sharing common ground in improvisational language and extended techniques but approaching these materials in diverse and disparate ways, alto saxophonists Tim O'Dwyer and Georg Wissel, both using preparations on their sax and distinguished in separate stereo channels, present a singular concert of reed interactions live at the Peter Kowald Ort in Wuppertal, Germany

Live recordings at Jazzclub Moods in Zurich, Switzerland in 2013 from the trio of Christoph Irniger on tenor saxophone, Daniel Studer on double bass, and Dieter Ulrich on drums & bugle, bringing together two generations of free improvisers for seven concise and masterful conversations, lyrically inclined in captivating interplay and solos.

An immersive album of collective sound from the Portugues quintet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone, Eduardo Chagas on trombone, and Carlos Santos on computer, developing rich sonic environments of great detail and intense patience, a tremendous journey that rewards the careful listener.

Two German trombonists, Matthias and Matthias Muche, extend the trombone language through four open improvisations using advanced techniques and bizarre language, each appropriately titled for phonemes, as the two players explore the strangest and most interesting sides of their instruments to the benefit of the intrepid listener.

Live recordings at Exploratorium, in Berlin, Geremany in 2010 from the quartet of Klaus Kurvers on double bass, Andrea Sanz Vela and Ernesto Rodrigues on violin, and Micha Rabuske on dlute, bass clarinet, and soprano sax, collective improvisation with complex interplay and a bright spirit as the group follows their instincts in interesting dialog.

Roman philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus named "Clinamen" the unpredictable (in time and space) swerve of atoms falling in the void, which aptly describes the unexpected directions taken in subtle free improvisation from this French trio, led by bassist Louis-Michel Marion, with Jacques Di Donato on clarinet, and Philippe Berger on viola.

Jad Fair, vocalist and mastermind of Half Japanese, with the band Strobe Talbot (Nick Hobbs, Beng Gallaher, Andy Fisher), in a 33 rpm postcard flexi record of a song titled "Hunger", a limited and numbered edition of 250 copies with artwork from Jad Fair himself.

The Swedish duo of percussionist Andreas Pollak and prepared pianist Johan Graden (Adam & Alma) in an album of references and innuendo, clandestine and furtive sounds that evoke great mystery and drama in beautifully shaped sound; evocative music that deceives to emerge from the electronic realm while in actuality coming from all acoustic sources.

New York bassist Michael Bisio pays tribute to his teacher William O. Smith in this tremendous duo with cornetist Kirk Knuffke, in a beautiful mix of lyrical playing and heavy technical skills made to sound remarkably simply; a joyful and profound jazz album.

Jemeel Moondoc's third release on New York's Relative Pitch label is this duo with bassist Hilliar Greene, a soulful album of bluesy free playing, Greene's solid finger and bow work anchoring Moondoc for beautiful, informed, quirky and sincerely heartfelt playing.

The first release from the NY/West Coast trio of Tomas Fujiwara on drums, Ben Goldberg on clarinet, and Mary Halvorson on guitar, a collaborative improv of lyrical and nuanced improv, using great skill and sophistication in dialog that takes unexpected twists and turns.

The second volume of the project heard in the previous Creative Sources album, "Suspensao", here in a 9-piece electroacoust ensemble with viola, cello, doublebass, alto sax, trombone, piano, electric guitar, computer and percussion, suspenseful lowercase music that unfolds in mysterious, beautiful and rewarding ways.

Sometimes frenetic, always exhilarating duo work between Portugese electric guitarist Antonio Chapparreiro and drummer/percussionist Pedro Alcada, succinct tracks, some as short as 36 seconds, where the two spar and unite over angular rhythms and abrupt changes, with a twisted sense of humor and a wealth of adventurous spirit.

An exceptional lowercase acoustic improvisation album from some of the finest of Europe's outside-technique free improv players, with frequent collaborators and label-mates Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Nuno Torres on alto sax, and Guiherme Rodrigues on cello, in quintet with Red Trio pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro and French improv drummer Naoto Yamagishi.

Three foreboding tracks of aggressive and open improvisation from long-time collaborators Lebanese trumpet player Mazen Kerbaj and guitarist Sharif Sehnaoui in a quintet with Creative Sources labelmates Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, and Carlos Santos on electronics; a confrontational, at times frightening world of sound; gripping.

A 4 CD anthology released on Jean-Marc Foussat's 60th birthday, presenting an amazing diversity of material from 40 years of recording, including early experiments, the development of his unique language, improv with Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Matthias Mahler, Joe McPhee, Paul Lovens, &c.

Two albums together. "Carrousel": The Paris based Theo Ceccaldi Trio crosses improv with chamber music in a string trio of lyrical, subtle and advanced improvisation. "Can You Smile": Ceccarelli expands his trio with bassist/free vocalist Joelle Leandre for rich, interactive improvisation.

The 2nd album for this quartet, with Daniele Martini on saxophones, Giovanni di Domenico on piano, Goncalo Almeida on doublebass, and Joao Lobo on drums, for an album of slowly building free improv starting in a Necks mode and developing into frenetically lyrical passages, a great blend of modern and traditional approaches to free jazz.

Electroacoustic improviser Thanos Chrysakis performing on the chamber organ at the University of Gloucestershire, UK in a collaboration with Chris Cundy on contra bass clarinet, for a subtle, mysterious and uncompromising four-part improvisation.

A lowercase meeting of strings, objects, microphones and computer between core Creative Sources members Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, and Karne Decorne (objects) and Simon Proffitt (microphones & computer), investigating microsound in four unhurried conversations that include moments of odd interjections, tones, and timbre.

The trio of bassist Achim Tang, prepared pianist Philip Zoubek, and trombonist Matthias Muche extended with Sven Hahne on computer and Christian Thome on drums and electronics in a freely improvised electroacoustic album of subtle pacing and diverse approaches, with many of the rhythmic elements imparting a gamelan feeling.

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).