Formed in 2011, NY trumpeter Dave Douglas' Quintet with saxophonist Jon Irabagon, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Linda May Han Oh, and drummer Rudy Royston releases it's fourth studio album, presenting compositions reflecting on 8 biblical psalms, each a sophisticated structure allowing the players great opportunity for interaction and inspired soloing.

The third release from the collaboration between the American avant-metal rock trio Sumac of guitarist Aaron Turner, drummer Nick Yacyshyn and bassist Brian Cook with Japanese legendary guitarist and vocalist Keiji Haino, for six rugged free rock improvisations captured live at the Astoria Hotel in Vancouver BC during Haino's 2019 tour of North America.

The third release from the collaboration between the American avant-metal rock trio Sumac of guitarist Aaron Turner, drummer Nick Yacyshyn and bassist Brian Cook with Japanese legendary guitarist and vocalist Keiji Haino, for six rugged free rock improvisations captured live at the Astoria Hotel in Vancouver BC during Haino's 2019 tour of North America.

Bringing together John Zorn's trio from Suite for Piano (Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, Ches Smith) with guitarist Julian Lage, this new jazz quartet is a versatile and flexible unit capable of instantaneous changes in direction of genre or mood with virtuosic finesse and sensitivity, as Zorn's compositions explore concepts from Freud, Sartre, and the Uncertainty Principle.

Drummer and conductor Nandor Nevai's NY trio with bassist Tim Dahl and bassist Trevor Dunn in the fifth iteration of his _ ("UNDRSKOR") project, championing a novel fusion-idiom referred to as 'Neauxtheque' which may be said to invoke "Danger Classical", the Martial Pop subgenre of Industrial and the virtuosic demands of Technical Death Metal.

Drawing on compositions from black artists who have created something uniquely their own--Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, Georgia Anne Muldrow--alto saxophonist Darius Jones pulls from the depths of emotion and vulnerability in five solo tracks recorded in Portland, deeply felt blues reflecting the black experience in America and the pain of isolation.

Led by West Coast-based New Zealand guitarist Sally Gates, the 2nd album from this genre-blurring heavy improv band of original members Matt Hollenberg on the 6-string bass VI and Kenny Grohowski on drums, now officially a quartet with prior guest bassist Trevor Dunn a fourth member, here in 6 tracks that shred and weave intricate layers of jazz, rock, blues and metal.

Multi-reedist Michael Marcus brings together former Cosmosamatics players Jay Rosen on drums and Tarus Mateen-Marcoustico on acoustic bass with French Horn player Frank Lacy (SaxEmble), Marcus on soprano & tenor saxophones, alto tarogato, G clarinet and bass flute for a set of Marcus original compositions, exquisitely lyrical free jazz based in the tradition.

An intimate and succinct set of conversations between two long time collaborators and compatible New York improvisers--tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp--recording at Park West Studios for their 18th album as a duo, making innately lyrical and technically creative decisions in a nearly telepathically manner informed by vast experience.

Mississippi born, saxophonist Frank Wright followed Albert Ayler to NYC to join the free jazz scene of the mid-60s, signed to ESP on the spot after label owner Bernard Stollman heard him sit in with John Coltrane, this his first release on label in a trio with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Tom Price as they rip through three original Wright compositions.

Twenty two vignettes of improvised conversations named for desert fauna between alto saxophonist & flutist Biggi Vinkeloe, tuba & trombonist Mark Weaver, and double bassist Damon Smith, using a unique tuning choice for the band suggested by Vinkeloe, and applying a quality to the studio to create a uniquely orchestrated and resonant album of masterful playing.

A double album of electroacoustic improv sessions from Sommerville, MA, centered around electronic artist Andrew Neumann on the Buchla Music Easel--a complex additive analogue synth--heard in quartet and trio sessions with Forbes Graham (trumpet), Sandy Ewen (guitar & objects), Junko Fujiwara (cello), Damon Smith (double bass) and Eric Rosenthal (drums & percussion).

Assertively probing like a squid raging out of the sea, Street Tentacle is the trio of Chicago tenor saxophonist Jeff Chan, guitarist Da Wei Wang also on electronics, and drummer Jerome Bryerton on drums, cymbals, gongs, bowed metal & assorted percussion, in five assertive improvisations of an everything including the kitchen sink style; daunting and domineering!

The second release from the Chicago chamber-oriented, collective free jazz trio of Dave Rempis on alto & tenor saxophone, Tomeka Reid on cello, and Joshua Abrams on bass, expanding on their highly concentrative and contemplative approach to group dialog, a powerfully assured and seemingly composed set of nine impeccable improvisations.

Led by New York wind and reed player Chad Fowler, who performs here on stritch, saxello & alto flute, this collective free jazz album brings together frequent collaborators, bassist William Parker (with whom Fowler plays in Dopolarians) and drummer & trumpeter Anders Griffen (heard on Thinking Unthinking and the Music of Frank Lowe) for two extended improvisations from contemplative to assertive.

Focusing on lyrically inclined grooves with a relaxed pace, the details and thoughtfully "unthought" playing from the NY trio of Chad Fowler on stritch, saxello & alto flute, William Parker on bass and Anders Griffen on drums, are heard in the Park West Studios in Brooklyn for three extended collective improvisations of passionate, expressive and empathetic playing.

West Coast songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Coultrain, aka Aaron Michael Frison or Seymour Liberty, in a sequel to his Phantasmagoria album, a soulful, introspective and lyrical collection of songs based around a sequence of images reminiscent of a dream, capturing the hazy state of mind that drove the process behind this album, as well as its dreamy effect.

An incredible performance recorded at Roulette in NYC by a large ensemble of 16 jazz luminaries of various ages, cultures and musical backgrounds, led by composer and bassist William Parker, who explains that Universal Tonality is another name for love, the profusion of which is interpreted by vocalist Leena Conquest in a profoundly inspired concert of magnificent artistry.

West Coast songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Coultrain, aka Aaron Michael Frison or Seymour Liberty, in a sequel to his Phantasmagoria album, a soulful, introspective and lyrical collection of songs based around a sequence of images reminiscent of a dream, capturing the hazy state of mind that drove the process behind this album, as well as its dreamy effect.

An extended improvisation in two parts at Dagny's Coffe Company in Bakersfield, CA: first a solo performance by Japanese percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani in a sweeping sonic manifestation of bowed gongs, cymbals, bass drums and objects, which then continues as a duo with trumpeter Kris Tiner for an exhilaratingly peak of adept brass excitement ending in a pensive reflection.

A recurring trio in New Orleans between touring percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and guitarists Rob Cambre (Malevitus, Rough Seven, The Death Posture) and Donald Miller (Borbetomagus) performing at Mudland Public Theatre in 2018 for two extended, gritty and ringing exchanges.

Innovative Japanese percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani met with bassist Kyle Motl (Peter Kuhn Trio) at Nakatani Kobo Studio, in New Mexico to record these two extended improvisations, the 1st creating an aural environment through ringing metal and bowed contrabass, the 2nd a set of agitated and disruptive interactions through incredible technical skill and expressive dialog.

One of four releases from percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani's 2019 tour, each from a different region and performing with local improvisers, this spectacular concert recorded at The Ship, in Kansas City, MO with Shawn Hansan on organ & sunthesizer, Michal Stover on pedal steel guitar and Jeff Harshbarger on contra bass for a diverse, extended collective improvisation.

A collection of poems written by and read by ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina and the first African American and third woman to hold the title--Jaki Shelton GreenÐ-presenting 11 texts with experimental sound work arranged by Shirlette Ammons, a fascinating set of observations and an insightful selection of "political statement, cultural commentary, and an aesthetic milestone".

A series of powerful "séances" from the Trio-Convulsant of Trevor Dunn on bass, Mary Halvorson on guitar, and Ches Smith on drums & percussion, imagining through improv the 18th century French sect of Convulsionnaires of Saint-Médard, assisted by the Folie à Quatre of Carla Kihlstedt (volin), Oscar Noriega (clarinet), Mariel Roberts (cell) and Anna Webber (flute).

A handsome spiral-bound book to accompany experimental sound artist and turntablist Marin Rosenfeld's roygbiv&b project riffing on the title through performance memory exercises, with text including a "User's Manual", a foreward by musicologist Benjamin Piekut, color & b/w images from the performance & exhibition, and four fold-out pages with scores.

Using sources from the world about him--field recordings, sampled orchestral noises, and voice recorders--New York composer and sound artist Nickolas Mohanna explores the spatial impressions of sound within a delicate acousmatic language, weaving inexplicable sounds into reorganized, recognizable components, creating a solid and compelling structural language.

A split cassette of dark industrial noise from the long-running experimental sound unit The Haters founded by G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, in a cantankerous 10 minute buzz saw drone; and a "Venemous Agent" from the Israeli noise band Kadaver, aka Michael Zolotov, in a cycling work that builds to an oscillating throb of metalic and rumbling sources; edition of 75.

The second volume of Music Frees Our Souls, the trio of Francisco Mela on drums, Cooper-Moore on piano and William Parker on bass, recording in the studio in Brooklyn two extended, far reaching and powerful collective improvisations of music performed under the influence of Mela's work with, mentorship by and encouragement from pianist McCoy Tyner.

The second volume of Music Frees Our Souls, the trio of Francisco Mela on drums, Cooper-Moore on piano and William Parker on bass, recording in the studio in Brooklyn two extended, far reaching and powerful collective improvisations of music performed under the influence of Mela's work with, mentorship by and encouragement from pianist McCoy Tyner.

Wild, nearly unprecedented and an exhilarating direction in European Free Improvisation heard in the 1st recordings from 1966 of pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity band, a 14-piece ensemble that included young saxophonists Peter Brötzmann, Gerd Dudek & Kris Wanders, bassist Peter Kowald, bass clarinetist Willem Breuker, trumpeter Manfred Schoof, &c.

Wild, nearly unprecedented and an exhilarating direction in European Free Improvisation heard in the 1st recordings from 1966 of pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity band, a 14-piece ensemble that included young saxophonists Peter Brötzmann, Gerd Dudek & Kris Wanders, bassist Peter Kowald, bass clarinetist Willem Breuker, trumpeter Manfred Schoof, &c.

A co-release with Dinzu Artefacts, clarinetist John McCowen continues his investigation into the physical possibilites of the clarinet family, here on contrabass clarinet for four fully acoustic recordings of continuous tones and unexpected aural phenomena through circular breathing while generating intense harmonics and multiphonics of earth-shaking ferocity.

The seventh album from the exceptional free improvising jazz trio Thumbscrew of Michael Formanek on double bass & electronics, Tomas Fujiwara on drums & vibraphone and Mary Halvorson on guitar, with compositions from all members as they refine and expand on their communal interplay fueled by the great chemistry forged over their near decade of recording and performing.

The inventive Canadian electric improvising band releases their 10th studio album, continuing as the trio of guitarist Bernard Falaise, keyboardist Pascal Globensky and drummer/percussionist Remi Leclerc, presenting six masterfully lyrical pieces that take unusual twists and turns, adding unexpected "elements" to each pieces in clever, playful and inspired ways.

The seventh album from the exceptional free improvising jazz trio Thumbscrew of Michael Formanek on double bass & electronics, Tomas Fujiwara on drums & vibraphone and Mary Halvorson on guitar, with compositions from all members as they refine and expand on their communal interplay fueled by the great chemistry forged over their near decade of recording and performing.

The 2nd album from the quartet of Joe McPhee on tenor saxophone, Warren Smith on vibraphone, Michael Marcus on reeds and Jay Rosen on drums, formed from a 2018 Jazzgalerie Nickelsdorf date with NY drummer Jay Rosen rounding out the quartet, this album extends their accessibly relaxed and creatively magnificent approach to free and structured jazz.

A prime example of the early Bristol, UK jazz scene and saxophonist Paul Dunmall's association with it, this trio born out of the band Spirit Level where Dunmall and drummer Tony Orrell first worked, and double bassist Paul Rogers with whom Dunmall would go on to work in Mujician, here in two live recording with Dunmall on soprano and in a burning Coltrane mode; exceptional!

A superb chamber jazz trio from NY improviser and violinist Sana Nagano, with Karl Berger on piano & vibraphone and Billy Martin on drums & percussion, Nagano having a long history with each through Berger's Improvisers Orchestra and with Martin through Creative Music Studio, their connections evident in their articulately energetic and confident collective conversations.

A New York trio of musical friends from Chris Pitsiokos on alto saxophone, Luke Stewart on electric & acoustic basses and Jason Nazary on drums, an elegantly impactful album of organic free jazz expanded through electronic textures from all three members as they enthusiastically explore new approaches to energetic, creative, contemporary improvisation; extraordinary!

Recording in Detroit in 2021 the ruggedly extreme free jazz quartet New Monuments of Don Dietrich (Borbetomagus) on saxophone, Ben Hall on percussion, Camille Dietrich on cello and Tony Gordon on electric bass guitar shred through six collective improvisations, taking time for burning solo moments and electrically-fueled exchanges; scorching!

Approaching the concept of endless repetition, New York composer and pianist Phillip Golub (Tropos, Sarafand Ensemble, Cecil McBee) presents his debut solo piano album, a contemplative set of system-based looping phrases that open up to improvisational variety in live performance, here in four renderings that defy the categorization of a "loop".

Using custom-written software to translate prime number sequences into a tonal palette of rich, compatible sounds, Vermont-based electronic musician and sound artist Greg Davis investigates the compositional properties of those numbers by paring the representation of each sequence into a network of pure sine tones which interact with fascinating harmonic and rhythmic structures.

A CD EP from North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green, the first African American and third woman to receive the appointment, persenting her work "I Want to Undie You" expressing her sorrow at the unexpected death of her daughter Imani and a celebration of her life, with audio arrangements by Alec Ferrel, plus versions of the text and music only.

Referring to the music on this album from New York feedback and electronic pioneer David Lee Myers as "firmly rooted in the electronic music of the 1950s-1960s", over nine tracks we are taken on an otherworldly journey of detailed particulate electronic adventures, sometimes swooping, vertiginous, monstrous and unpredictable, each track captured live in Myer's Pulsewidth studio.

A collection of poems written by and read by ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina and the first African American and third woman to hold the title--Jaki Shelton GreenÐ-presenting 11 texts with experimental sound work arranged by Shirlette Ammons, a fascinating set of observations and an insightful selection of "political statement, cultural commentary, and an aesthetic milestone".

Beautifully flowing acoustic avant folk under a diverse set of influences from the Dublin five-piece band led by acoustic and electric guitarist Aonghus McEvoy, with George Brennan on electronics, David Lacey on drums, Sean Maynard Smith on upright bass and Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh on viola, evolving their tracks from pastoral to edgy agitation or ecstatic drone.

Bringing together two acclaimed German improvisers who met in Nuremberg in 1982 as teens--reedist Rudi Mahall and drummer/vibraphonist Michael Griener, "bumbling" around to learn free jazz together, heard now 40 years later as authoritative players recording as a duo in 2020 & 21 in Kotzlin and Berlin for eight energetically creative and buoyantly upbeat dialogs.

Commissioned for the Tang Museum's "The Second Buddha: Master of Time", the duo of percussionist Susie Ibarra and guitarist Tashi Dorji envision the legendary figure Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to Tibet, through two extended improvisations of close communication and tight interaction, including gamelan-like percussion and unusually tuned guitar abstractions.

Drawing on the traditions of jazz by reference and by covers of "Bemsha Swing" (Monk), "The Happenings" (Nichols) and "Gotta Get Some Sleep" (Redman), this exuberant 2016 concert at Bimhuis in Amsterdam brings together three great Chicago players--Keefe Jackson on sax, Joshua Abrams on bass & Mikel Patrick Avery on drums--with Dutch pianist Oscar Jan Hoogland.