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Founded in 2001 and reunited after their last album in 2007, the quartet of Satoko Fujii (piano), Natsuki Tamura (trumpet), Hayakawa Takeharu (bass), and Tatsuya Yoshida (drums) unleashes a high-energy blend of avant jazz-rock, shifting from atmospheric fragments to dense, electric-edged turbulence, driven by sharp contrasts, ferocious rhythms, and the group's volatile, genre-bending interaction.

"I had the honor to be part of her "Fats Waller" project, which won the German Record Critics Award for Jazz Album of the Year in 2004. We toured Japan twice, first in 1996 in a special edition of the BCJO, and again in 2014, when Aki j...

Long delayed but bursting with life, guitarist Amanda Monaco's freebopping quartet — Michael Attias, Sean Conly, and Satoshi Takeishi — delivers a sharp, melodic, and mischievously adventurous set, blending playful grooves, quick-turn interplay, and Monaco's distinctive compositional voice into a vibrant, high-spirited vinyl debut from her Deathblow project.

Asked to rethink the solo sax format, Adia Vanheerentals transforms this release into a series of site-responsive improvisations, engaging the soprano sax in active dialogue with surrounding environments — echoing spaces, incidental sounds, and ambient noise — using extended techniques, breath & texture to shape concise statements where location is a partner in an open improvisational framework.

Founded in 2001 and reunited after their last album in 2007, the quartet of Satoko Fujii (piano), Natsuki Tamura (trumpet), Hayakawa Takeharu (bass), and Tatsuya Yoshida (drums) unleashes a high-energy blend of avant jazz-rock, shifting from atmospheric fragments to dense, electric-edged turbulence, driven by sharp contrasts, ferocious rhythms, and the group's volatile, genre-bending interaction.

Composer Henry Threadgill conducts a suite for six acoustic guitars and two pianos, bringing together Bill Frisell, Miles Okazaki, Brandon Ross, Gregg Belisle-Chi, Jerome Harris, Stomu Takeishi, Maya Keren, and Rahul Carlberg in an intricately orchestrated work whose intervallic syntax and meticulous counterpoint entwine with unexpected timbres to reveal his singular and sublime vision.

An archival punk document from JJ Gregg-better known now for his adventurous sitar work-this 1995 Seattle-area session with drummer Ryan Toliver captures the youthful energy of their Illinois-formed duo The Racing Pisshorses, recorded live to tape in under three hours and released here for the first time on 7" vinyl with download, a raw and spirited reminder of Gregg's formative years in DIY music.

A tour de force third release from pianist-composer Satoko Fujii's trio This Is It!, recorded in Tokyo with long-time collaborator Natsuki Tamura on trumpet and kinetic percussionist Takashi Itani, blending angular composition, fierce improvisation, and creatively spirited interplay into inventive, high-energy, and emotionally rich performances.

Live improvisations from the North Carolina duo of Alexander Cooper and Joseph Schlam, a double album of eight extended journeys through textural sound, drone and veiled reference, influenced by Costin Miereanu, Jaap Vink, Lionel Marchetti, Luc Ferrari, and Dagar Vani, as the duo work in stereo using two amps for drums, voice, live electronics, and field recordings.

One of Satoko Fujii's wildest groups, the quartet of Fujii on piano, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, Hayakawa Takeharu (HAYAKAWA, Dr. Umezu Band) on bass and Magaibutsu label leader & Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida present their first album since 2007, expanding their assertive approach to improv in an adventurous set that merges rock and jazz forms with lyricism and power.

Surrounding the realization of Karlheinz Stockhausen's ground-breaking work of electronic music and acoustic improvisation, Kontakte, performed by Judith Wegmann (piano) Jens Ruland (percussion) & Robert Torche (electronics), are Antoine Chessex's exploratory score Geschichte der Gewalt, applying improvisation to frequency and form, and the improvised prelude from all three: Spiegelungen.

The trio of Japanese saxophone legend Akira Sakata with the Scandinavian rhythm section of Johan Berthling on double bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums, plus a second drummer with Takeo Moriyama (Yosuke Yamashita Trio), perform six wildly exciting improvisations, Sakata's vocalizations at times pushing the band as they are heard live in this 2019 recording at Tokuzo in Nagoya, Japan.

The trio of Japanese saxophone legend Akira Sakata with the Scandinavian rhythm section of Johan Berthling on double bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums, plus a second drummer with Takeo Moriyama (Yosuke Yamashita Trio), perform six wildly exciting improvisations, Sakata's vocalizations at times pushing the band as they are heard live in this 2019 recording at Tokuzo in Nagoya, Japan.

Thirteen high-speed rock improvisations on drums, synth, piano & voice from the continuing collaboration of Magaibutsu label leader & drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and synthesist & pianist Risa Takeda, each track titled for Nordic mythology, the album title a reference to the World Tree, a giant ash supporting the universe; dramatic, amazing, unconventional instrumental music.

The duo of drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and keyboardist Risa Takeda take to the road in a 2023 summer tour, their rock-based improvisations energetically wild and masterfully controlled as they run through 11 pieces in a concert at Environment 0g in Osaka, the title referencing the capacity for some proposition or theory to be proven wrong; in contrast, this concert is quite right!

Using a democratic compositional concept of cues that any of the musicians can employ to redirect all players into new structures, leading to exemplary improv from the core quintet of Steph Richards on trumpet & flugelhorn, Joshua White on piano, Stomu Takeishi on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drumset, plus Max Jaffe replacing Cleaver on drums & sensory electronics for one live track.

The second of two albums capturing a May 15th, 2023 concert in Tokyo by composer & pianist Takahiro Kuroda at the Ftarri performance space, titled "Square of Thoughts Vol. 2: Eva-Maria Houben and Horn + x", this album presenting a 2018 Houben composition for horn and piano titled "Echo Fantasy II", performed by virtuoso horn player Kei Kondo and Takahiro Kuroda on upright piano.

One of two albums capturing a May 15th, 2023 concert in Tokyo by composer Takahiro Kuroda at the Ftarri performance space, titled "Square of Thoughts Vol. 2: Eva-Maria Houben and Horn + x", this album presenting two Houben works for solo horn performed by virtuoso horn player Kei Kondo, and one solo piano piece performed by Kuroda on upright piano.

Pointillistic, scrabbly and playful improvisation from the duo of Polish double bassist Marcin Bozek, known for creating and as the conductor of the Gdynia Improvisers Orchestra, and viola improviser and baroque musician Marie Takahashi of Reanimation Quartet; together their five improvisations show remarkable technique, momentum and determination in a wonderful confluence of strings.

A trio of leaders in their own right performing pianist Satoko Fujii's demanding compositions, bassist Takashi Sugawa and drummer Ittetsu Takemura rise to the challenge in a set of six exciting works that push and pull this remarkable piano trio in unexpected directions, responding to the twists and turns of Fujii's intense and intricate directions; superlative!

Performing live in a virtual festival performance at his home studio as an extension of his work at erstwhile's 2011 Amplify festival, Japanese sound artist Taku Unami recorded these three extended works using cardboard boxes and small robots, creating the curious sounds of their interactions and capturing them on binaural microphones to recreate their dynamics as exactly as possible.

Furious free improvisation fueled by dual electric guitars from Masayuki Takayanagi, leader of New Direction Unit, and Akira Iijima who provides walls of chaotic feedback, pushed on at high intensity by drummer/percussionist Hiroshi Yamazaki, captured in a 1983 live performance at Kid Ailack Hall in Toyko, remastered and reissued as a double 45RPM 12" gatefold album.

Composed over a period of thirty years, the eleven absolutely remarkable recording from the duo of husband and wife virtuoso piano improvisers and composers Aki Takase and Alexander von Schlippenbach, performing together on two grand pianos or, as the title describes, performing with four hands, is a stunning achievement in style, complement, and nearly telepathic dialog.

Composed over a period of thirty years, the eleven absolutely remarkable recording from the duo of husband and wife virtuoso piano improvisers and composers Aki Takase and Alexander von Schlippenbach, performing together on two grand pianos or, as the title describes, performing with four hands, is a stunning achievement in style, complement, and nearly telepathic dialog.

Confronted and assaulted by Asian bigotry in NYC shortly after the start of the pandemic, pianist Eri Yamamoto adopted a wig, mask and sunglasses to hide her ethnicity, about which she sings in the title track of her album, a mix of the sophisticated jazz instrumentals with bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Ikuo Takeuchi punctuated with songs of Yamamoto's pandemic experience.

Evoking the passionate free improvisation of Kaoru Abe and influenced by Austrian poet Georg Trakl's "Nocturnal Song", the trio of Makoto Kawashima and Harutaka Mochizuki on alto saxophone and Michel Henritzi on lap steel & feedback recorded these three crepuscular works in separate locations, assembled by Henritzi into richly dreamlike and cathartic compositions.

The long-established trio Disorder At The Border of Zlatko Kaucic on drums, Giovanni Maier on bass and Daniele D'Agaro on saxophone & clarinet invitee multi-reedist Tobias Delius to perform this extended free improvisation, Kataklisma in four parts, captured live at the Brda Contemporary Music Festival, in Šmartno Goriska Brda, Slovenia in 2017.

Better known for his work in avant compositional forms, both his own and as an interpreter of Xenakis and Toru Takemitsu, pianist Yuji Takahashi joined Japanese free jazz legendary percussionist Sabu Toyozumi in 1998 for this fully improvised live concert at C・S・Aka Renga, in Yamaguchi City, Japan, released in a collaboration with the Chap Chap label.

A free jazz trio session from 1995 at Cafe Amores, in Hofu City, Japan from the trio of late tenor saxophonist Mototeru Takagi with Korean improvisers, late percussionist Kim Dae Hwan and Choi Sun Bae on trumpet, performing five thoughtful and expressive conversations with an often Ayler-esque flavor; inventive playing from lyrical charges to pointillistic interaction.

A free jazz trio session from 1995 at Cafe Amores, in Hofu City, Japan from the trio of late tenor saxophonist Mototeru Takagi with Korean improvisers, late percussionist Kim Dae Hwan and Choi Sun Bae on trumpet, performing five thoughtful and expressive conversations with an often Ayler-esque flavor; inventive playing from lyrical charges to pointillistic interaction.

Better known for his work in avant compositional forms, both his own and as an interpreter of Xenakis and Toru Takemitsu, pianist Yuji Takahashi joined Japanese free jazz legendary percussionist Sabu Toyozumi in 1998 for this fully improvised live concert at C・S・Aka Renga, in Yamaguchi City, Japan, released in a collaboration with the Chap Chap label.

A flowing twilight electro-jazz cover of the standard "Stardust" from Japanese guitarist Bun Itakura and vocalist Mishio Ogawa, expanding the melody and Ogawa's phrasing with encompassing electronics and percussion from Takefumi Kobayashi; backed with an experimental "Mystery Making Factory" using paint brush, harmonic tone guitar, and mbira.

Rapid and lucid activity of mechanical and organic activity, a mad mechanism under the control of master machinists perking the ears in inexplicable ways, from the collaboration of Japanese sound artists Rie Nakajima and Takahiro Kawaguchi, their uncredited sources seemingly a mix of motors, bells, squeaky toys, material flurries, whistles, &c. &c.; playfully fascinating.

Having previously released outdoor live performances integrating the sounds of NY into their expansive improvisations, the Playfield octet led by Daniel Carter with Ayumi Ishito (Sax), Eric Plaks (Piano & Rhodes), Aron Namenwirth (Guitar), Yutaka Takahashi (Guitar), Luisa Muhr (voice), Zachary Swanson (Bass) and Jon Panikkar (Drums) step inside to record three far-reaching and inclusive studio improvisations.

An epic story in symphonic rock style from pianist, drummer and composer Risa Takeda, telling the fantastic tale of a dramatic confrontation between an Emperor and a Sorcerer, through eleven compositions of a contemporary classical and theatrical nature, using modern synthetic sources in active and complex orchestration as the plot advances.

Fifteen rock instrumentals between drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and pianist & keyboardist Risa Takeda, generally high-speed, technically superb and melodically infused pieces of imaginative creativity with a quirky sense of humor, augmented with Yoshida's vocalizing and effect processing from both; includes a download sheet for 15 high-def movies, one for each track on the album.

Reissuing and remastering the two PSF albums from Japanese improvising guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi's New Directions group of bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa, saxophonist Mototeru Takagi and drummer Sabu Toyozumi, plus a previously unreleased side-long "Mass Projection" recording, presented in a deluxe 3 LP box set with images by Yuji Itsumi and liner notes in English and Japanese.

Rich sound worlds or mysterious space and controlled chaos in this work commission by the TAK ensemble, the score devised partly in text and partly through instruction, giving directions for interpretation to the performers--Laura Cocks, Madison Greenstone, Marina Kifferstein, Charlotte Mundy, Ellery Trafford & Lopez himself--allowing each to become part composer, part improviser.

An absolutely intense sax & drum duo recorded in Chiba Prefecture, Japan at Kashiwa Church in 1986 between free improvising saxophonist Akira Sakata and drummer Takeo Moriyama, two influential performers whose work began in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio in the early 70's, here in concentrated form for 18 improvisations, including a burning version of Albert Ayler's "Ghosts".

An absolutely intense sax drum duo recorded in Chiba Prefecture, Japan at Kashiwa Church in 1986 between free improvising saxophonist Akira Sakata and drummer Takeo Moriyama, two influential performers whose work began in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio in the early 70's, here in concentrated form for 18 improvisations, including a burning version of Albert Ayler's "Ghosts".

The Berlin-based collective Takatsuki Trio of Rieko Okuda on piano, Antti Virtaranta on double bass and Joshua Weitzel on guitar & Shamisen are expanded to a Quartett in two extended live sets at Berlins' Kuhlspot Social Club in 2020, first in an expansive set with trumpeter Axel Dorner, and then an intensely active set with tenor saxophonist & clarinetist Tobias Delius.

A 1990 concert at Jazz Inn Lovely, in Nagoya, Japan in configurations of duos and trios, from free improvising legends Masayuki Takayanagi on guitar, Nobuyoshi Ino on bass, and Masabumi Kikuchi on piano, with a 16 page booklet of photos from private collections and a detailed essay from Kohjiro Tanaka in English & Japanese providing background on the performance.

Three reed & wind players and a drummer, from Japanese saxophonist Mototeru Takagi's collective free improvising quartet with fellow saxophonist Susumu Kongo, Nao Takeuchi on tenor sax plus flute & bass clarinet, and drummer Shota Koyama, recorded live in 1999 at Little John in Yokohama, Japan for three well-paced conversations of weaving winds and rhythmic intervention.

Three reed & wind players and a drummer from Japanese saxophonist Mototeru Takagi's collective free improvising quartet with fellow saxophonist Susumu Kongo, Nao Takeuchi on tenor sax plus flute & bass clarinet, and drummer Shota Koyama, recorded live in 1999 at Little John in Yokohama, Japan for three well-paced conversations of weaving winds and rhythmic intervention.

An extended improvisation performed live at Kuhlspot Social Club in Berlin from the Takatsuki Trio of Rieko Okuda on piano, Antti Virtaranta on bass and Joshua Weitzel on guitar & shamisen (a 3-stringed traditional Japanese instrument), captured at their monthly series expanding the trio to a "Quartett" for fresh perspective, here with alto saxophonist Silke Eberhard.

Using small objects and contact microphones to create peacefully clacking, mewling and idiosyncratic utterances, sound artists Takamitsu Ohta and Anne-Francoise Jacques developed this installation shown in 2019 at the Bonjour! Gendaibunmei gallery in Kyoto, recorded by Jacques as a tour of the various sonic manifestations that a visitor to the gallery might experience.

An energetic trio of Serbian free improvisers from Tibor Takacs Faki on reeds, Laslo Lenkes on guitar and Goran Grubisic on drums, Tibor Takacs Faki and Goran Grubisic both part of the rock band Wooden Ambulance, that energy translating into their indefatigable approach to collective improvisation, just keeping a lid on their rambunctious interaction.

Three days of improvisations from the the 2019 meeting of Osaka-based musicians mizutama, Tadashi Yonago and Kayu Nakada, plus Tokyo residents Junji Hirose, Toshimaru Nakamura, Daysuke Takaoka and Yuma Takeshita in duos and trios, all using original sound-producing devices or creating sound by repurposing instruments or electronic devices in unique ways.

While contrabass player Matija Schellander was performing a residency at the 2017 music Festival Artacts in Austria, this quartet formed with Paris saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet, percussionist Seijiro Murayama and Beijing-based vocalist Yan Jun, developing this work of quiet tension and sudden release, here from one of four performances, recorded live at Ljubljana in Slovenia.