Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

A spare, dark, improvised performance between Hartmut Geerken and Valeri Scherstjanoi – recorded at the start of the 21st Century, but with a depth that goes back to Geerken's earlier work! As with some of his best recordings, there's a quality here …

Recorded 31 March 1983 at Woodland Pattern, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. 'This was a cassette not officially released on Incus or any other label. It was sold by Derek Bailey at concerts. For a short period in 2010 original copies were sold via the …

Black Goddess was written and directed by Ola Balogun (recognized as one of Nigeria's most renowned directors) but shot and cast in Brazil and released in 1978. The soundtrack was composed and produced by one of Nigeria's most successful and origi…

The dialog of two improvising guitarists who, since 2004, have explored "timbres, interspersed with fragments of chords, rhythms and melodies, parallel plays in imitation or opposition". All the pieces that make up this CD are presented here in their…

An intensely personal journey, Charlotte Hug uses extended vocal techniques and an unusual language on the viola, creating an exceptional and unique improvisatory sound world.  Charlotte Hug's third solo (unaccompanied) CD is the first to feature her…

A sequence of improvisations recorded in the warm natural acoustics of St Peter’s Whitstable. This quartet plays music created in the moment. From a starting point of contrasting histories, energies and aesthetics, they weave together, forming a tape…

John Butcher and Derek Bailey first played in duo around 1989, at London's Red Rose Club. Butcher then took part in the 1990 & 1992 (London) and 1996 (Vancouver) Company weeks. Various other playing situations materialised in the 90s, ranging from…

2011 release ** "The leitmotiv of this release signed by the Koln-based trio made up of Matthias Muche - talented trombonist and active media artist -, Philip Zoubek - inventive Austrian pianist, who likes to alter his instrument's timbre...what is k…

“Michel Doneda soprano and soprano saxophones. Jonas Kocher accordion, objects. Recorded live on 27th november 2009 at Red House, Sofia, Bulgaria. Mastering by Christian Weber. Design: Fabienne Bartel. Limited edition of 160 numeroted copies. Screenp…

Dominic Lash, double bass. Patrick Farmer, percussion. Sarah Hughes, zither & piano. A 20-minute improvisation plus realisations of scores by the Wandelweiser composers Eva-Maria Houben & Taylan Susam, including an extraordinary outdoor performance o…

'How do you become Peter Brötzmann? How do you become what you are: a painter, a musician, an absolute artist? Europe was nothing but a ruin and shame possessed the heart of the young Germans. They needed to invent, scream, regain a lost brotherhood.…

Second outing for this powerful Anglo-Czech electronics-led trio (Jez Riley French, field recordings, zither, contact mics, electronics. Daniel Jones, turntable & electronics. Ivan Palack , amplified knitting machine). Recorded live in Hull, Novem…

Ressuage: Michel Pilz (bass clarinet), Itaru Oki (trumpet, flugelhorn, reeds), Benjamin Duboc (doublebass, voice), Jean-Noël Cognard (drums, objects), Patrick Müller (electrosonic) and Sébastian Rivas (laptop). Recorded in 2010 by Patrick Müller. …

Two instruments with totally different histories come together and look for a connection across two great sets from 2006 & 2010. "What counts is who you are performing with....in the end that is more important than the actual instrument"-Thomas Le…

s of Weston's compositional framework based on a cycle of pentatonic scales. Tessellations I explores the possibilities of improvising with a pre-established form as a soloist and was conceived for acoustic piano. (The composer recorded a version in …

The whole of the performance at the 2010 Freedom of the City festival by the 38-strong LIO. Conductions by Alison Blunt, Steve Beresford (featuring guest Leon Michener), Philipp Wachsmann, Caroline Kraabel, and Dave Tucker (featuring guest Ishmael Wa…

With a career now spanning over 40 years and more than 100 recordings, Joe McPhee has shown that emotional content and theoretical underpinnings are thoroughly compatible — and in fact, a critically important pairing — in the world of creative imp…

Thomas ! Thomas wrote me one day and said to me to check out some audio called So long ago in Berlin... wow, i immediatly fell in love with that sound, really 60's and melancholic in a way... those were the rec. of a mini Tour that Norris Jones set u…

Monumental! Who could have imagined back in 1969 that a German label religiously dedicated to uncompromising free-jazz would outlast the Berlin Wall? Such is the ongoing tenacity of Free Music Production, and its story is told in this intriguing 1…

A keenly awaited recording from the long standing collaboration and friendship between Fernandez and Saura. They have worked together in many different groupings but this is the first time their specific duo music involving piano and live sampling…

New Jooklo finnish formation, this time with great guitarist Topias Tiheasalo joining the compact trio of saxophonist Virginia Genta, drummer David Vanzan and bassist Tero Kemppainen, whom have been working together for the past three years now. The …

Two releases in one, Otherways was a 2nd generation free improvising group from London performing in '73; and Free Space was a group assembled in '73 by John Stevens with Trevor Watts, John Russell, &c.  The bulk of this CD features Otherways, a 'sec…

Recorded in 1984, this issue on vinyl of a performance by German bass clarinetist Michel Pilz and French drummer Jean-Noël Cognard is everything my heart needs today, bringing raw but lyrical improvisations on two short album sides (really too short)…

Moody, open, and airy – not really a jazz record, but one that feels quite improvisational in nature – although more in the ways you might get from an extended minimalist jam at start of the 70s! Instrumentation here includes synth, music box, vi…

Surprisingly, this remarkable and magnificently captured performance has never been issued on LP (or CD) before. Sun Ra and his larger than usual Arkestra are caught live here – dancers and all – sometime during 1971 at the Théâter du Châtelet in Par…

"The boundaries in jazz have now become smoother, the horizon is expanding. Dauner, Mariano and Saluzzi anticipated these developments back in the eighties. You can hear it immediately: three world class musicians get together. Wolfgang Dauner is one…

"Best known for his collaborations with people like Paul Flaherty, Michael Flower and Thurston Moore as well as a year-and-a-half stint as the drummer for Björk's Volta tour, Chris Corsano is widely considered to be one of the best and most adap…

On Vintage Duets, Anderson is joined by Steve McCall, a drummer who touched many listeners with his style and sensitivity, especially as a member of the group Air. McCall worked with Anderson at various points from early in his career. Recorded on 11…

Sun Ra's second album was a Delmark release, although it was originally intended for the Transition label, which did not survive long enough to release it. Recorded in 1957. Personnel: Sun Ra, piano, electric piano; Art Hoyle & Dave Young, trumpets; …

In this incredible big band-style ensemble you'll find the likes of Rob Mazurek and Jeff Parker supporting trumpeter and composer Bill Dixon. Spread across three long-form orchestral narratives, featuring various horns and woodwinds, guitar, piano, v…

Limited LP edition...MINDBLOWING! a unique and incredible orchestra of acoustic & electronic improvisation. "Jazz cornetist Rob Mazurek has created a sound world that is uniquely his own, sculpting a TOTAL sound environment, by fully utilizing the be…

Repress, originally released in 2000. Surprise reissue of the most infamous and difficult to procure Sun Ra artifact; originally issued on Amiri Baraka (then LeRoi Jones)'s Jihad label (home of the original Sunny's Time Now by Sunny Murray as well). …

40th volume in the BYG Actuel series; gatefold sleeve, 180 gram vinyl. "'A wild and passionate interstellar mix of free jazz, solo synthesizer and hard rocking cosmic philosophy specifically commissioned by the BYG/Actuel label (and apparently record…

Soul Jazz Records are re-issuing this lost classic deep jazz album. This is the only recording of Maulawi Nururdin and his group. Originally recorded in Chicago in Sep 1973, and released by a small independent label in Detroit the following year. …

Trio improv; Yoshizawa playing 5 string bass, Kosugi on violin, and Miyake on piano. A post-Cecil thirdstream air about it that's real avant-classical. Fluxus member Kosugi was also a member of '70s legends Taj Mahal Travellers.

In improvised music, double bass and drums have a very different role to that in rock or jazz. Freed of the duties of “the rhythm section,” they are featured as much as any other instrument, without having to wait in line for their turn to solo. T…

The first song on side A, Brainville, is such a great start, a walk down a busy street full of fascinating people all going somewhere. Everyone's in a good mood. You are among an intelligent group of people with senses of humor. They like to laugh…

restocked, very last copies : awesome LP reissue on Qbico's new label Sagittarius A-Star, unreleased before and limited to 200 copies only "one day i was reading a book about the Milky Way... the name for the black hole at the center of our galaxy wa…

On Journey, violinist India Cooke and bassist Joelle Leandre improvise in that exalted state of grace that every improviser hopes to attain. It’s a state in which everything they play just works. It’s as if they can’t play a bad note or make a sou…