The third release from the Portuguese trio of Rodrigo Amado on tenor saxophone, Gonçalo Almeida on double bass and Onno Govaert on drums in a studio album of assertively exploratory improvisation that builds from stark clarity to impressive hard blowing soloing and group interaction, an outstanding album of modern free jazz.

The second album from the Hydra Ensemble (Goncalo Almeida on double bass, Lucija Gregov on cello, Nina Hitz on cello, Rutger Zuydervelt on electronics) is a live recording with no audience from the Worm club in Rotterdam during the pandemic, reaching deeper into their masterful world of darkly intense chamber improv and electronics, slowly yielding to a spaciously brighter ending.

Featuring cellists Nina Hitz and Lucija Gregov, double bassist Goncalo Almeida and Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) on electronics, recording in Old Church, in Rotterdam Charlois for six pensive improvisations, a collective conversation of concurrently layered, minimalist melodic and textural lines expanded with drones, evoking the mythical Greek multi-headed monster.

Presented as a a tribute to past jazz masters John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry and Charlie Haden, Rotterdam's Ritual Habitual trio led by double bassist Gonçalo Almeida with drummer Philipp Ernsting and Riccardo Maronga on tenor sax, bass clarinet & synthesizers, create a sense of ritual through deep repetition of modern creative jazz rooted in free jazz tradition.

An album of spiritual and lyrically rich free improvisation from trumpeter Luis Vicente's Trio with double bassist Goncalo Almeida and drummer/percussionist Pedro Melo Alves, the three Portuguese improvisers performing Vicente's compositions that urge the performers to search and extend themselves expressively through both inspiring interplay and reflective calm.

The Selva trio of Ricardo Jacinto on cello, Goncalo Almeida on double bass and Nuno Morao on drums join with Rutger Zuydervelt of Machinefabriek who adds unique electroacoustic transformations to their fusion of free improvisation and hydrid world elements, resulting in this wonderfully dark venture inside a virtual jungle of contrasting darkness and refined acoustic beauty.

This is the 2nd release by this trio on Clean Feed, with Tobias Klein (alto saxophone, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet), Goncalo Almeida (double bass) and Martin van Duynhoven (drums) captured live at Bimhuis in Amsterdam in 2017, taking on compositions by Ornette Coleman alongside original compositions from all three players in a free jazz mode.

Rotterdam based band comprising two Portuguese players--Gonccalo Almeida on bass and Hugo Costa on sax--and German drummer Philipp Ernsting, the trio adding electronics, keys and effects, in their third album slamming hard free jazz and rock angst into a controlled chaos, a maelstrom of powerful riffs, rugged soloing, and mesmerizing grooves.

A dark set of heavy improvisations from bassist Goncalo Almeida's project with drummer Jorg A. Schneider, with guests Susana Santos Silva on trumpet and Colin Webster on baritone sax; references to Bill Laswell, Zu, and Napalm Death are a good indication.

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.

Hailing from Rotterdam's rich underground scene, the trio of Hugo Costa on alto sax, Goncalo Aleida on bass, and Philipp Ernsting on drums, with all 3 doubling on electronics, in a dramatic and energetic album blending free jazz, improv, metal, and punk music.

Crossing tonal material with post-bop playing, trumpeter Susana Santos Silva leads her LAMA trio in electroacoustic and traditional playing, with guest reedist Joachim Badenhorst adding a masterful edge, as they interpret the novel by the Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago.