Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Zyggurat is Pete Grimshaw's experimental jazz project, in this iteration featuring him on synths and Nathan England-Jones on percussion. Formed in Birmingham, Zyggurat has over 8 years of cosmic electronic wrangling under it's belt. Releases and live…

Opaque Pink Vinyl An immersive percussion-led meditation from Los Angeles-based composer and producer Carlos Niño, Bubble Bath for Giants is at once an ode to oceanic vastness and a celebration of the quietly powerful - what Niño describes as the sa…

A testament to the interaction between the experimental avant-garde and the countercultural underground, the album was originally released on Elektra, recorded by Jac Holzman (the label's founder, responsible for signing The Doors, Love, and The Stoo…

Those looking for a comprehensive overview of Sun Ra’s celestial magic could do far worse than acquire a copy of ‘Artyard in a Box’, a collection of nine classic long players from the Sun Ra archive set across seven CDs. ‘Disco 3000’, ‘Sleeping Beaut…

Quite literally one of the most original and influential guitarists on the planet, Derek Bailey has completely revolutionized the language of guitar music in the twentieth century. His work has been championed by almost every cutting edge guitarist: …

*  Specialist Japanese Edition Vinyl LP with Obi strip Mono * Never-issued work from Don Cherry – and a really key piece of the puzzle in the career of this legendary trumpeter! The recordings were done for Swedish Radio, with great fidelity – more t…

Between 1969 and 1971, Francois Tusques and Sunny Murray were often accomplices in rebellious music. After other recordings, their collaboration culminated in an album that became mythical, Intercommunal Music, the site of a joust within the orchestr…

On John Zorn’s Bagatelles Vol. 5, John Zorn hands eight spiky miniatures to the Kris Davis Quartet, who turn his angular “weirdo tunes” into a fierce, lyrical piano‑guitar quartet set where structure, swing and free combustion constantly collide.

One of the most important musical partnerships in English Free Improvisation was the duo of Tony Oxley and Derek Bailey. Their long standing friendship began as early as 1963 with the group Joseph Holbrooke (including composer/bassist Gavin Bryars) a…

* Edition of 300 copies. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert. * John Tchicai (1936 – 2012) was one of the most important free improvising saxophonists of the 20th Century: an artist of rare vision and apt…

Last copies, sold out at source * Edition of 300 copies. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert. * Founded in 1969 by the pianist Ole Mathiessen, the bassist Henrik Hove, the saxophonist Jesper Nehammer, and…

Louis Moholo-Moholo returned to South Africa to a rapturous reception in 1993 with his band Viva-La-Black. They embarked upon a series of concerts and workshops, performing in Capetown, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Johannesburg. This album affords a gl…

CD version. "Every now and then I meet a bull who announces itself with its horns ('Le Corna'). But it doesn't scare me, it moves and dances, it runs away. Archery ('Tiro') is its favourite ('Rito') hobby, and my bull likes tea. It always eats round …

Antonio Borghini and Banquet of Consequences continue on their path of jazz, freedom, and rigor, in which writing, improvisation, tradition, and chaos coexist in a vital and surprising mixture. Well-organized music that uses disorder to its enrichmen…

Condor, Autumn Wind is a live album released in 1998 by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith in collaboration with his wife, poet Harumi Makino Smith. Recorded in Durham, it showcases Smith's avant-garde improvisation style through mostly solo tr…

Two 1970s’ CTI albums and 1980’s ‘Skagly’ make up this triumvirate from trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. Amongst those sidesmen featured on these albums are Billy Cobham, George Duke, George Benson, Hubert Law and Jeff Baxter. ‘Keep Your Soul Together’ and…

Diriaou (“Thursday” in Breton) captures the singular collaboration between Kristen Noguès-pioneering Celtic harpist and explorer of Breton tradition-and legendary British saxophonist John Surman, renowned for his atmospheric jazz on ECM. Recorded liv…

Alvin Singleton’s (b. 1940) approach to music-making has all along been involved in an interplay with listeners and their psychology. While this does not mean he has been centered on simply pleasing his audiences, his work seems to constantly draw hi…

With Notebook, Lukas Ligeti turns a band, a method and a score into the same thing: four pieces where intricate design and on‑the‑spot decision‑making fuse into chamber music that thinks aloud in real time.

From 1960 to the present day, from Georges Arvanitas to Laetitia Shériff, or from Manu Dibango to "Mama" Béa Tékielski, everyone has wanted to include François Jeanneau in their team at some point. This, his first album under his own name, was record…

Last Copies around. Bomb! ** 700 copies only. Definitive 7 vinyl records deluxe package featuring all four original albums restored and remastered, each with 4 page-portfolio and exclusive obi strip + 20-page booklet ** Souffle Continu records is thr…

On The Call, Bellbird turn their namesake’s piercing cry into a manifesto: an explosive yet intimate quartet music where twin saxes, rhythm‑led structures and “ugly” beauty carry climate grief and solidarity into a single, ringing shout.

Lau Nau (Laura Naukkarinen), Linda Fredriksson and Matti Bye enter the We Jazz Records realm as Kiri Ra! with their new album nen (out 22 May 2026). Kiri Ra! is a trio that creates their sound slowly, in a process of improvisation and discovery. Filt…

The Outskirts came together as a working band during bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s three-year stint as a Chicagoan from 2005-2008. They played regularly at all of the working venues for improvised music in Chicago at that time, including The Hungr…

Originally released in 1981, Mr. Circle’s Thi Nam should really have been recognised decades ago as a jazz dance classic. A beautiful example of European jazz fusion at its most sophisticated and optimistic, the album is immersed in the sonics and rh…

Wire Magazine's official King of All Skronk Mats Gustafsson is back with his partner in time Paal Nilssen-Love for a new duo record this week. I'm rather struck by the creepy skeleton on the front cover, and I'm also gleaning enjoyment from the textu…

Terrie Hessels, electric guitar. Paal Nilssen-Love, drums & percussion. Limited to 300 copies only. Recorded live in concert on the 4th of April 2015 at Festival PiedNu, Le Havre, France. Recorded by Emmanuel Lalande. Mixed by Arnold de Boer. Mastere…

* 200 copies. Black vinyl * Paal Nilssen-Love is at his powerful best on most of this record – showing that amazing command of the kit that's made him one of the most important drummers in free jazz over the past decade or so! And Fred Lonberg-Holm d…

Solo Drumkit Improvisations is a richly detailed document of Sean Baxter's explorations in extended percussive technique. Utilising stochastic structures applied to the conventional drumkit, Baxter exploits the sonic potential of a range of percussiv…

Resistance recorded live in 2013 is an expected performance of unforeseen music. That said, it boosts Vandermark's stock (not that he needs it) as a soloist. He has, of late, stepped out of his role as composer, arranger, and organizer of ensembles t…

Tip! Bocian Records presents Moon by saxophonist/clarinetist Frank Gratkowski and pianist Reinhold Friedl. Recorded and mixed by Nik Hummer. Mastered by Rashad Becker.

Celebrated vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, one of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz, presents Montara, a radiant album that blends Latin rhythms, soulful grooves, and his signature melodic brilliance. Released on Blue Note Records, this proje…

On Live at Hachioji Alone, Shudan Sokai document Tokyo free jazz at the moment it moves to the city’s western margins: exuberant quartet music where loft‑sharpened fire, song forms and nursery‑rhyme mischief collide in a tiny Hachioji club.

2024 Repress. ESP-Disk present a reissue of Pharoah Sanders Quintet, originally released in 1965. Recorded on September 10, 1964, prior to his well-known association with John Coltrane, this eponymous album (later renamed Pharoah's First) is the debu…

2024 repress. Azimuth was the blueprint for the band's own 'samba doido'/ 'crazy samba' sound. Released in the summer of 1975, the album was a minor commercial success selling around 200,000 copies, but it's now recognised as an essential piece of Br…

Legendary pianist Cecil Taylor enjoyed a month-long residen-cy in Berlin in June and July 1988, during which he began anartistic partnership with drummer Tony Oxley which lasteduntil Taylor’s final public performances in 2016. Recorded at theOutside …

Three of downtown’s most dynamic performers join forces to form Mephista—one of the first all women supergroups (Susie Ibarra, Sylvie Courvoisier, and Ikue Mori). Separately these three have worked with some of the most important musicians in new mus…

Frank London, a major voice in today’s Jewish music renaissance, who has worked with the likes of LLCooI J, LaMonte Young, Jane Siberry and Gal Costa, is a trumpetist, composer, arranger and musical scholar of startling range and creativity. The Debt…

Anthony Braxton, Milford Graves and William Parker are quite literally three of the most important virtuoso instrumentalists in new music, each a vivid conceptualist as well an influential composer/perf o rm e r. This intense improvisational outing f…

In early 2002 Derek Bailey astounded the free music community with his gorgeous album Ballads, a radical and steely interpretation of the standard repertoire. It became an instant classic, hit a dozen best-ten lists and remains his best selling cd of…