Barry Guy

CD-only compilation of recordings from FMP's 2002 Total Music Meeting in Berlin released by a/l/l in 2003, featuring a.o. Barry Guy, Paul Lovens, Paul Lytton, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker and Thomas Lehn.

"Autumn has always brought me bright thoughts and fruitful encounters. Barry and I, although we had known each other for many years — and although I had grown “into adulthood” musically through the influence of masters like him — had never had the chance to play and record together. Finally, October 2025 gave me this wonderful gift: an extraordinary meeting. Coming face to face with a champion of free improvisation placed me in a position where I had to draw upon all the creativity available — a…

What an opportuunity ! On the suggestion of Maciej Karlowski, percussionist Ramón López invited me to play in Lublin Jazz Festival. From a list of great musicians who might join us to form a trio the name of Trevor Watts was one that immediately excited me for quite a few reasons: Firstly, he along with John Stevens , Paul Rutherford , Evan Parker and Derek Bailey allowed me as a novice to enter into the rarified world of The Spontaneous Music Ensemble. I was a total greenhorn in free improvisat…

Maya Recordings  presents "Harmos – Kraków" a breathtaking new release by Barry Guy with the London Jazz Composers Orchestra. Capturing the creative spirit and electrifying artistry that has defined Guy’s decades-long career as a composer, director, and double bassist, this album is an essential document for contemporary jazz and improvisational music fans. Recorded live, "Harmos – Kraków" showcases Guy’s celebrated composition Harmos in one of its most compelling interpretations, performed in K…

Rare second pressing with white labels from 1983 in original 1972 gatefold sleeve of one of the very early Incus releases from 1972, the revolutionary and monumental album by Barry Guy, Derek Bailey and Paul Rutherford.

Very rare original 1977 edition on Incus of superb classic album of British improvisation with electronics, featuring Ian Brighton, Barry Guy, David Bourne and Philipp Wachsmann.

Excellent 1999 CD-only release by the Enseble featuring a.o. Philipp Wachsmann, Barry Guy, Walter Prati and Paul Lytton. With slipcase.

2016 release ** "After the highly praised trio CDs, Odyssey and ITHAKA, the composer and bassist Barry Guy presents a new CD – Deep Memory – with the same trio members, pianist Marilyn Crispell and percussionist Paul Lytton. For his new compositions, Barry Guy was inspired by Irish painter Hughie O’ Donoghue - all titles on Deep Memory courtesy of the Irish painter Hughie O’ Donoghue’s Berlin exhibition (2007) entitled “Last Poems”. A music has emerged of a tense and lacerating beauty. Tonal pai…

"The bass music you will hear on this album is, it might be said, a child of the seventies. A ferociously radical time in the development of the double bass as a solo instrument found composers eager to formulate soundscapes that would send our Bottesinis and Dragonettis running for the exit ! As an emerging bassist in these heady times, immersed deeply into the art of improvisation where almost on a daily basis colleagues pushed the boundaries of instrumental possibilities, I found myself addit…

"We recorded this CD in May 2023 on the magical Greek island of Hydra in the Old Carpet Factory Studio. The title Kouartéto emanates from the cover image by the artist William Pownall who in the true spirit of Hydra has for many years been an important focus for visitors seeking original artistic creations. And so, in this spirit. The music on this CD reflects a multifaceted response to a multicultural and open understanding of how artists can work together. Every project involving these four cr…

Jazz Festivals have often provided the opportunity for a first encounter with musicians that were “on the radar” , so to speak , but for various reasons (often geographical) never came to fruition. Jazzdor in Strasbourg was no exception, and on the 15th November 2023, at the invitation of its director Philippe Ochem, the Trio of Angelica Sanchez, Ramón López and myself performed a set that continued my lifelong association with piano trios. Ramón is no stranger to me and we have collaborated on …

*2025 stock* "It was at Ramón’s suggestion that we record as a duo in the downtime of another studio session, and perhaps it was his constellation of drums and cymbals that prompted the thought of a metaphorical planetary system. So Sidereus Nuncius - The Starry Messenger the title of Galileo Galilei’s short astronomical treatise published in early 1610, did not necessarily stretch the imagination unduly – there it was in front of me! Galilei’s telescopic observations of the moon and other celes…

*2025 stock* "Barry Guy and I first met and played together in a version of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble in the days of the legendary Little Theatre Club. The late John Stevens, visionary prophet of the coming music was the key figure at the centre of things who brought us together. “So it goes“ – John often used this figure of speech. I was reminded of this when I was looking through Samuel Beckett’s Collected Letters, hoping to glean some titles, knowing that Barry would be happy with a Beck…

*2025 stock* It has been eighteen years since the Homburger - Guy Duo recorded an album together with a percussionist as a third partner. All these years ago we were joined by the revered Swiss percussionist Pierre Favre. On this recording we work together with another Swiss percussionist - the unique and endlessly creative Lucas Niggli who originally developed his art by studying with Pierre. The music then consisted of baroque masterpieces as well as contemporary compositions that fulfilled ou…

*2025 stock* "Peter Evans and I have occasionally met in larger ensembles for special projects. This particular concert in Uster (Switzerland) within the PAM festival on 18. November 2016, allowed us to delve into the minutiae of duo performance where intense listening and decoding of intentions kept our minds and bodies in high alert. This occasion had us playing somewhat athletically, pushing and pulling ideas around, and to be honest, we both felt exhausted after the concert but also exhilara…

*2025 stock* This live recording of the epic composition “Time Passing…” by Barry Guy based on texts by Samuel Beckett, Edwin Morgan and Kerry Hardie, features the stunning achievement of the singers Savina Yannatou, Anja Pöche, Matthew Brook and bass improvisations by Barry Guy who acted also as conductor of the brilliantly performing Camerata Zurich.

*2025 stock* "This latest release on Maya Recordings documents a new duo collaboration of Barry Guy together with the exceptional Norwegian saxophonist Torben Snekkestad. At convergent boundaries, tectonic plates collide with each other, sometimes slowly, other times giving way suddenly with huge energy being expended. The various plates that encompass this planet either get subducted by being bent and pulled under the crust, or they collide and fold the rock at the boundary creating mountains. …

*2025 stock* Free jazz trio made up of leading improvisers pianist Agusti Fernandez, bassist Barry Guy and drummer/percussionist Ramon Lopez, recorded live in Cologne in 2013. Agusti Fernandez gives some insight into the music, “I believe that the essential thing for us is our shared desire to create an extraordinary, unexpected and unusual moment through music. A moment that cannot, perhaps, be described in words, but which can be perceived perfectly, as one of those fantastic occasions when mu…

*2025 stock* Important for this composition commissioned by the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra from Barry Guy, is the unity of composed and improvised passages, the concern for the capabilities and strengths of individual players, the way in which small groups are part of the larger structures. Based on “Ay, but can ye?” a Russian poem translated into Scots by Edwin Morgan and using images of Wassily Kandinsky, this mostly graphically notated score is a musical adventure for the players as well a…

*2025 stock* "A “meeting of spirits” between Greek singer Savina Yannatou and legendary free jazz bassist Barry Guy recorded live in Amsterdam, May 2010, where they performed at the famous Bimhuis Club. The music consists of free improvisations and a composition by Barry Guy, alongside two traditional songs arranged by Savina Yannatou and Barry Guy.The architects Ilya and Emilia Kabakov imagined a vertical opera space of several floors to be built within a cooling tower at the Zollverein Collier…