The Trio was the influential 60's band of saxophonist John Surman, drummer Stu Martin, and bassist Barre Phillips, here paid tribute by saxophonist Bernd Reincke, drummer Chad Popple, and bassist John Hughes, using their tunes as a springboard for exuberant modern improv.

London's Cafe Oto organized a reunion of String Thing, guitarist Ian Brighton's project with violinist Phillip Wachsmann, bassist Marcio Mattos, & Trevor Taylor on percussion and electronics, adding guitarist John Russell and saxophonist Evan Parker, here capturing an impressive night of improv, and Brighton's first public appearance in nearly 40 years.

West Coast double bassist and mid-west drummer Alvin Fielder meet Norways saxophonist Frode Gjerstad at the 2016 No Idea Festival in Austin, TX, opening the festival with this remarkable display of free improvisation, a seething and burning set from these veteran players.

Saxophonist Paul Dunmall's quintet with Hamid Drake, Dave Kane, Steve Tromans, and Percy Pusgove, bridge traditional with chamber jazz and world music, including a work for bagpipes and frame drum, in a monumental suite of improvisational possibilities.

With members from Twenty One 4Tet, Clock and Clouds, Cactus Truck, and trumpeter Luis Vicente's Trio, this quartet's strength lies in a seemingly casual approach to what is in execution intensely detailed dialog, each member contributing to a unique and entrancing group sound.

UK Tenor saxophonist Mark Hanslip and drummer Ed Gauden in their 3rd record together, here stripped down to a duo, inspired by a planned trio concert where the pianist was unable to perform; the resulting show worked so well that the two decided to take it to the studio, this album the result of impressive avant interchanges in 8 succinct tracks.

A trio of Chilean improvisers, Luis Conde on alto saxophone, Nicolas Rio on drums, and Ramiro Molina on electric guitar, with various pairings of the trio taking foreground in music that develops interesting structural compositions into tight dialogs of strong collective improv.

Pianist Simon Nabatov plays the music of Thelonious Monk in a live concert from 1995, alternating those recordings with a 2013 concert of solo electroacoustic work, an unusual approach that focuses the melodic aspects of Monk while highlighting his eccentricity and intrepidity.

A wonderfully playful and buoyant duo between trombonist Sebi Tramontana and reedist Frank Gratkowski performing on bass clarinet, clarinet, and alto saxophone, performing live at Spanski Borci Theatre, in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2016 over 15 concise and compelling dialogs.

The 6th and final volume of tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman's ambitious series exploring modern free improvisation in a variety of trio setting with differing players and configurations, here with Joe Morris on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums in an extended and masterful 2-part recording that runs the gamut of lyrical and burning free jazz.

The 4th volume in Brazilian/New York saxophonist Ivo Perelman's exemplary 6-part series "The Art of the Improv Trio" bring together bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver for a 3-part set of free improvisation, beautifully flowing dialog of masterful playing.

The second volume of New York/Brazilian saxophonist Ivo Perelman's 6-part series "The Art of the Improv Trio" is the most unique of the set, with Mat Maneri on viola and Whit Dickey on drums for a series of thirteen shorter and more intricate works of great range and diversity.

Saxophonist Ivo Perelman is the anchor for the 6 volumes of "The Art of the Improv Trio", here with Karl Berger on piano and Gerald Cleaver on drums in a lyrical album that flows with grace and thoughtfulness, from ballad introspection to uptempo excitement, an impressive start to the series.

The Swiss string trio led by violinist Harald Kimmig, with Daniel Studer on bass and Alfred Zimmerlin on cello, is joined by UK saxophonist John Butcher for a set of improvisations that build with a unique percussive vitality and burning intensity.

A new trio at the time, TIN is trumpeter Axel Dorner, bassist Dominic Lash, and drummer/percussionist Roger Turner, captured live in three locations during their 2015 UK tour, presenting masterful avant improvisations of sound-oriented work using an immense technical vocabulary to creative inventive and captivating dialog.

Violinist and percussionist Nick Smith, having access to St. Mary's Church at Great Baddow for music performance and rehearsals, made his first use of the space in 1996 in a duo with Mark Wastell on violincello, preparations and percussion, where they used the acoustics of the church to enhance their detailed and absorbing improvisations.

Starting from John Cage's Zen quote--"Every day is a good day"--the trio of Rachael Wadham on piano, Philippe Lenglet on acoustic guitar and cithar (a type of harp), and contrabass, recorded these improvisations approaching their instruments not for melodies but as tools for experimentation, from which this trio finds a wealth of inventive sound.

Using principles similar to Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening, the quartet of Thanos Chrysakis, Christian Kobi, Christian Skjodt, and Zsolt Sores use acoustic and electronic instruments in carefully developed improvisations based around dynamics, densities & textures.

Acoustic instruments and feedback devices in old stone spaces, rich multi-layered music recorded during a residency in the Czech Republic by the trio of George Cremaschi (double bass and electronics), Irene Kepl (violin and electronics) and Petr Vrba (trumpet, clarinet and electronics).

A composition for solo 'modified guitar' from Swiss composer d'incise peformed by guitarist Cristian Alvear, music "at the confluence of sound, melody and rhythm. Something quiet but somehow driven by a pulse, existing somewhere between the electroacoustic and the tonal conceptions of music."

Six chamber works by the Paris-based Italian composer Giuliano d Angiolini, following his Edition Rz release by presenting more examples of Giuliano's careful and particular use of indeterminate elements in a series of compositions that are musically exquisite.

Three beautifully delicate works for Jurg Frey's clarinet, composed by the Amsterdam-based Wandelweiser composer/pianist Dante Boon, who has collaborated with Frey for several years and who accompanies Jurg on two of the pieces.

A collaboration between American sound artist Jeph Jerman and Italian percussionists Paolo Sanna and Giacomo Salis, twelve intriguing short improvisations using extended techniques and lowercase approaches that include minimal textures, field recordings, abstract atmospheres and organic sounds.

US West Coast multi-instrumentalist Patrick Shiroishi performs an unorthodox set at 2575 Mission in Los Angeles, California, using alto saxophone, bells, electric toothbrush, ipod, pie tin, spoons, tape player, and voice to create a yearning work expressing the frustration of longing and estrangement.

The French Le Bruit de la Musique festival is run by Le Quan Ninh and Martine Altenburger, who invited Simon H. Fell to perform a solo set on the doublebass, the result being this fantastic album that takes the largest of bass instruments through an astonishing array of approaches enhanced by the acoustics of the church of Toulx-Sainte-Croix.

After "Exta", where saxophonist John Butcher and electronics artist Thomas Lehn met with pianist John Tilbury, the duo now meet with New York pianist Matthew Shipp for a distinct improvisational entanglement of Butcher's dense streams, Lehn's rich sound floor, and Shipp's thick repetitions.

Unusual instrumentation and a very diverse set of improvising backgrounds from pianist Alexander Hawkins Ensemble, with Orphy Robinson on steel pan, Otto Fischer on electric guitar, Dominic Lash on double bass, Hannah Marshall on cello, and Javier Carmona on drums.

Long-time collaborators and compatriots Frank Paul Schubert on soprano sax and Rudi Fischerlehner on drums and percussion recorded these intricate and engaging improvisations in their shared studio in Berlin, presented as a live album, unedited and in the order performed.

The NY duo of accordionist Andrea Parkins, using self-designed virtual instruments, field recordings, everyday objects and small instruments, and drummer Brian Chase, applying guitar pedals to his percussion, create fascinating sculpted works of electroacoustic improvisation.

Another twisted, complex and irresistible album from multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Bob Drake, practically presenting a history of the rock genre in 20 short pieces that twist and turn in inventive, humorous, peculiar, mesmerizing, and masterly songs.

The new release from Italy's excellent electroacoustic experimental band Ossatura led by Elio Martusciello takes the band into new territory, detailed and more luminous, more acoustic, with vibes and clarinet (Michael Thieke) and even a lovely song surprising long-time fans.

Saxophonist Silke Eberhard leads her trio with Nikolaus Neuser on trumpet and Christian Marien on drums, through a distillation of well known and lesser known Mingus tunes, restricting each tune to its essence in 3-4 minute renderings focusing on Mingus' compositional strength.

The Berlin quartet of bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall, Nicola L. Hein on guitar, Adam Pultz Melbye on bass and Christian Lillinger on drums, using traditional and extended techniques in spontaneous compositions that blend free jazz and sound improvisation in truly unique ways.

A live recording in 2001 at Germany's The Loft from saxophonist & clarinetist Frank Gratkowski and his quartet with Wolter Wierbos on trombone, Dieter Manderscheid on bass, and Gerry Hemingway on drums, a superb example of the saxophonist's stature in the free improvising community, and the outstanding players he associates with.

Two decades of duets recorded from New York City to The Netherlands between eccentric free country improviser and vocalist Euguene Chadbourne on guitar and banjo, with free improv masters John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Volcmar Verkerk, and Charles Tyler.

Madrid multi-instrumentalist and cross media artist Edith Alonso in an album of prepared solo electric bass improvisations, a four part work of muscular and shadowy sound, dark vibrations with crepitating edges making a sinister and cathartic dungeon of sound.

Double-bassist Carlo Costa, originally from the Canary Islands and who has worked with Tim Berne, Tomas Fujiwara, Ingar Zach, Wade Matthews, &c. in a solo album of solid and unusual bass technique including plucking, bowing and scraping, in his 9-part series of "Doors".

The title reflecting violinist Angharad Davies' Welsh Roots, this duo with inside pianist Tisha Mukarji furthers the collaborations of these improvisers, recording in St Catherine's Church in South London, using the acoustics of the space to shape the form of their music.

A joint composition for violin and double bass, developed over six months in 2015 by violinist and Wandelweiser composer Johnny Chang with bassist Mike Majkowski, a fragile and beautifully revealing work in 5 parts that moves slowly through subtle harmonic changes.

Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith's extended composition for violin and percussion in 15 parts, performed by percussionist Simon Limbrick and violinist Mira Benjamin, a unique orchestration that reveals a journey of steady pace, tension and beauty.

Bryn Harrison's highly acclaimed, labyrinthine composition for violin & piano from 2014, expertly realised by violinist Aisha Orazbayeva and pianist Mark Knoop, for whom this 5-part work of beautiful repetitions reflecting tapestries of sound was written.

After many years working together in the vital Downtown NY scene, saxophonist Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp take their playing the next step after their previous duo "Callas", in thoughtful improv that expresses in both their mutual language and masterful skills.

The second CD that NY saxophonist Ivo Perelman has recorded with Ornette alumni Karl Berger, the first with Berger on piano, and here on vibraphone, opening new aspects of sound to the commanding dialog between these two friends and seasoned improvisers.

A stunning example of modern creative improv from the duo of bassists Peter Frey and Daniel Studer, in concert with configurations of duos, trios and one septet, with performers including John Butcher, Hans Koch, Magda Mayas, Jacques Demierre, Gerry Hemingway, &c. &c.

The longÐrunning duo of NY pianist Matthew Shipp and Brazilian/NY saxophonist Ivo Perelman forms the basis for this excellent quartet, with mainstays Michael Bisio on bass and Whit Dickey on drums, in an expressive and soulful album that balances enthusiasm and brilliant restraint.

Referencing the color "blue" rather than the blues themselves, the duo of New York tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and Joe Morris on acoustic guitar present free improvisations balancing technical and melodic musings, an intimate and thoughtful album of concentrative playing.

Referencing sci-fi, C.S. Lewis, and alien worlds, the compositions of Marek Poliks each have a central metaphor like alien environment and warmth, spaceship and cradling, performed by ensembles using traditional and electronic instruments and objects.

Four recent pieces by Berlin-based instrumentalist, composer and improviser, Lucio Capece, all focusing on the process of listening, one performed by Konzert Minimal, the other solo performances including a work for hanging speakers and helium balloons.