Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Jac Berrocal, voice & trumpet, Jean-Noël Cognard, drums & percussion, Philippe Thiphaine, guitar (from Heliogabale), Quentin Rollet, alto saxophone, Ben Ajrab, bass, Rivkah, voice & keyboard. Limited to 300 copies on pink vinyl in a screen-printed fold-open sleeve Enregistré au studio Pierre Schaeffer, Consevatoire Chatenay Malabry, du 11, 12 et 13 juillet 2011.

It was recorded in Bruxelles 2011, has been mixed and mastered by Sabine Ercklentz. A trio recording of forceful fragility, new sounds mixing, acoustic instruments meeting electronics. Random sounds taken care of. Creating 7 different pieces, each one of them representing its own personality. It is very dense and lo-fi. Christine Abdelnour has been one of the front figures in the last years with her new sounds on saxophone. Andrea Neumann is one of the original creators of the Berlin Scene no fu…

180 gram vinyl reissue of this LP, originally released by FMP in 1977. Peter Brötzmann and Han Bennink -- e-flat clarinet, b-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, birdcalls, viola, banjo, cymbals, wood, trees, sand, land, water, air. Recorded open air on a Stellavox recorder by Peter Brötzmann and Han Bennink from May 9th to 11th, 1977 in the Black Forest near Aufen and the Schwarzenbach Talsperre. Produced by Peter Brötzmann and Jost Gebers.

An extraordinary document of an experiment in which three improvisers - Pascal Battus (rotating surfaces and found objects), Bertrand Gauguet (saxophones) and Eric La Casa (microphones) - played at a working building site in Paris, adapting their playing to integrate the sounds and gestures of the workers at the site.

An overlooked performance from Roy Brooks and his legendary Artistic Truth ensemble – recorded back in Detroit in the early 80s – and smoking with the energy of a lost 70s spiritual jazz session! The group's got a leaner feel here, and even more fire than on some of Brooks' other sessions of the period – especially on the solos, which really stretch out boldly – especially on piano from Geri Allen, and trumpet from Rayse Biggs! Other group members include Vincent Bowens on tenor and flute, Mario…

Rare music from a legendary trio – one who cut two studio albums in the 70s, and reunited for this smoking live date in the early 90s! The lineup is heavy on percussion from Huseyn Ertunc – and from both Phil Musra and Michael Cosmic – although both of those players handle plenty of reeds as well – making for a performance that's really incredible – as the musicians shift effortlessly between instruments, often with this sense of urgency to find new expressions – a creative free play that…

GGRIL [Le Grand Groupe Regional d'Improvisation Libérée] launches Vivaces, recorded concert conducted by famous British saxophone player Evan Parker. Going for seven years now, ''Le GGRIL'' is Tour de Bras' home big band, based in Rimouski, Québec, located hundreds kilometers east from urban centers. GGRIL is an eclectic reunion of improvisation enthusiasts from a large array of ages and musical traditions. The band features a dozen musicians living in Lower St-Lawrence region. They worked with …

Mr. Gale studied trumpet with Kenny Dorham... his most noteable collaborations are with the Sun Ra Arkestra (Lanquidity), with Cecil Taylor (Unit Structures), Larry Young (Of love and peace), Elvin Jones, William Parker among others... he even played gigs back then w/John Coltrane at the Half Note (unfortunatly undocumented)... and cut two mythical albums for Blue Note in the 70's with his Ghetto Music. he's finally back on wax, after around 25 years ?! yes ! remember that word hot music used by…

A double LP of The Thing (Mats Gustafsson, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, and Paal Nilssen-Love) performing live with bassist Barry Guy at Saint Catherine's Church, Vilnius, Lithuania in 2011, exceptional cutting-edge improvisation.

Mazen Kerbaj, trumpet. Sharif Sehnaoui, acoustic guitar. Raed Yassin, double bass. All music improvised by Kerbaj, Sehnaoui, Yassin. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Fadi Tabbal at tunefork studio on the 29th and 30th of september 2010. Artwork & design by Mazen Kerbaj."f you look up moving companies in the Yellow pages, you’ll see a bunch of companies who put “A” in front of their name (as in A-Alert Moving), presumably in the hope that you’ll call the first listing you find in the book. I ki…

'We all met in Berlin at different times. Anthea and I had been playing as a duo since about 2006. Anthea also developed a performance/installation project with Annette I think around 2008. About a year later, I organised a house concert and we decided to play as a trio, which seemed very organic and easy immediately. We recorded parts of the album shortly after that. [] There was not much editing involved in either of the recordings, just minor changes. As for the general style - we act…

'Lucio Capece (soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, sruti box, double plugged equalizer, ring modulator, sine waves). Recorded at Berlin between 2009 and 2011. Zero Plus Zero can be described as a suite consisting of six structured pieces, where Lucio Capece expresses his huge creativity by exploring the possibilities of his main instruments - soprano saxophone and bass clarinet with preparations - as some others such as struti box and various electronic devices. Lucio Capece keeps on worki…

Nicolas Humbert and his co-author Marc Parisotto decided to make a further montage of the readings and songs for the album "Roots Run Deep". There are short stories and poems set to music, beautifully interwoven with the music Yusef Lateef had played during the shooting of the film "Brother Yusef". "I return as in a dream of a great American musician" says the old man in a great passage about Lester Young, as sounds and words melt into one song, drawing us closer to the aura of a great ja…

Rob Mazurek (cornet), Chad Taylor (drums), Noel Kupersmith (bass) & Jeff Parker (guitar) are 4 of the busiest members of Chicago's creative music scene, from Tortoise to Brokeback to Sam Prekop's band to Isotope 217 to the Chicago Underground Duo to Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge. As the 'Trio' their unique sound balances free jazz w/electronica & tuneful post-bop compositions. Recorded & mixed by Bundy K. Brown. RECOMMENDED

Rob Mazurek & Chad Taylor have been part of the heart & soul of the Chicago Underground groups for over a decade. Bassist Jason Ajemian makes his debut bringing a wide range of musical influences to the table. "...the trio's music is never frenetic: it is lapidary in its precision. W/ painterly splashes of organ & electronics, it casts a nocturnal spectral glow." NY Times

Collaborations like this one are a dime a dozen in the world of free improv / free jazz, but few have the delightful energy of Baro 101, an impromptu session in a hotel room by Norwegian drummer extraordinaire Paal Nilssen-Love, Swedish sax legend Mats Gustafsson and Ethiopian krar virtuoso Mesele Asmamaw. Nilssen-Love and Gustafsson were in Addis Ababa with Dutch post-rock-turned-avant-garde outfit The Ex, and were so enamoured with the sounds they encountered in the East African country that t…

A special 26 only copies box, with an extra LP: the tenor sax of Faruq Z Bey sounds really wonderful here – blown soulfully and openly, with a depth that draws on all of Bey's many years in jazz, yet never falls into any sort of easy, overdone modes! Instead, there's a vitality here that reminds us of sounds that Charles Gayle or Arthur Doyle were giving us over a decade ago – nicely unstructured in the setting of this loose quartet, yet still focused with a sense of soul that's undeniable! The …

special box in 26 copies, made in high quality leather various African objects/artworks from various African tribes, stunning booklet with many rare photos (30) of the Tour (mostly color and b&w) cola nuts (to break the colanut with somebody african saying, which means to make friendship) an extra one-sided LP (I side) on gold and gold/green wax, - ALL recordings available here for the 1st time! "One of music's most amazing powers is its ability to tell a story. In the case of The African Tapes,…

Michel Henritzi, lapsteel, guitar, effects. Fukuoka Rinji, violin, bells, effects, vocals. A stark and moving collaboration between the French avant-garde guitarist Michel Henritzi and Fukuoka Rinji, formerly of Overhang Party and currently of Majutsu no Niwa. The track titles of their first duo album limn a cosmos out of joint, hopeless and despairing - suns in eclipse, falling angels, the ghosts of Fukushima. The mood is emphasized in the bleak, dystopian photography of the jacket with …

"This 2 cd set recorded live at the Velvet Lounge a year before the legendary Fred Anderson passed away, is a fitting tribute by 3 Chicagoans to one of their own, the master tenor player, teacher, Velvet Lounge owner, advocate and AACM member, who has helped foster the musical scene in that city possibly more than anyone else. This artistic outing is a pilgrimage in sound taking us into the deepest recesses of this eclectic medium known as "jazz". These pieces conceived/composed by the 3 …

Piero Bittolo Bon is one of Italian Jazz’s youngest and most acclaimed rising stars. A mostly self-taught player, he mainly plays alto but is also at ease on baritone, bass clarinet, contralto, clarinet and flute. Passionate and vibrant, his music reverberates with echoes of the best of free jazz, “fire music”, torrid improvisations, sharp attacks and continuous inventions bar after bar. Member of El Gallo Rojo collective, he collaborated with some of the best italian creative musicians  (…

"Recorded at Brooklyn's Issue Project Room, this live burble features Flower on Japan Banjo, Corsano on tubs and Heyner (or Bobby McGee or Count 'fucking' Chocula or whatever he's calling himself here) doubling on bass (three tracks) and tubs (one track). Corsano's in his ferocious carpet bomb mode, laying down a thick lumpy rug of imaginary bubble wrap for the others to prance upon, and prance they do. Flower's doing a kind of China Pig upward spiraling wail on his axe, and Heyner (I mea…

Formed in 1967, the Quatuor de jazz libre du Québec (QJLQ) was a force to be reckoned with in post-Quiet Revolution Quebec. Between 1967 and 1970, the QJLQ shared the stage with artists such as Louise Forestier, Robert Charlebois and l'Infonie. It promoted improvised music as a means of bringing about real social and cultural changes in Quebec. In 1970, the QJLQ established a colonie artistique in Val-David. It also acquired land - the Petit Québec Libre - in an effort to offer artists and…

Vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz's (of Exploding Star Orchestra fame) Chicago Trio with drummer Mike Reed and bassist Nate McBride in a great modern jazz release of original compositions, informed, warm and compelling music.  "The Jason Adasiewicz Trio features Jason on vibraphone, Mike Reed on drums, and Nate McBride on bass. The Chicago jazz group formed in 2008, first experimenting as a free improvising trio, and later focused attention on arranging tunes that Adasiewicz wrote during his wife's …

Another rare experience: Faruq in a 4et date with a piano player (nominated outstanding jazz pianist in the Detroit Metro Times Music awards) !? yes, live ! (Label press)

"Lost big D eclectic jazz from the late 80's ! not much info/track titles about it ?! seems an unissued studio date who was planned for release but never happened, until now... it feauture rare appearances by members of Sphere (Vreeland/Dana) who unfortunatly released only one fantastic album back then on Strata... and Ron English who also rec. an LP for Strata under his name (but never issued on wax) and played with Lyman Woodard (drummer Leonard King was also part of the Organization), Wendell…

Rune Grammofon are delighted to present the second album from this excellent Swedish trio, something of a supergroup with members from already well-known projects. This time they collaborate with the legendary Jim O'Rourke. With their hypnotic, psychedelic jazz of sorts, they have carved out a different sound than any of the groups they are normally associated with, now enhanced by the vital contributions from O'Rourke. Sax player, improviser, composer and fervent record collector, Mats …

Awesome, 10/10 on Digitalis "The late Steve Reid, veteran jazz drummer and percussionist and Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), the British electronic musician/producer young enough to be his grandson, present the fifth and final installment of their momentous synergy. The music on this double LP was recorded in concert on June, 20 2009 in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London's Southbank Centre, as part of the Meltdown Festival curated by free jazz legend Ornette Coleman. For this marath…

London's fiercest free improvising saxophonist Evan Parker meets Downtown New York cellist Okkyung Lee and trumpeter Peter Evans for a series of superb duos and trios on "the bleeding edge".  "The art of trio improvisation is taken on here by three pitch producing instruments each from a different family: reeds, brass and strings. Each player comes from a different continent but the music speaks of unanimity. Purely acoustic real time improvised music continues to develop."- label press

The London improvising scene duo of vocalist Kay Grant, a former Downtown NY arists, and clarinetist Alex Ward, have been playing together for decades, here recorded in four live performances and a studio session."Singer Kay Grant left the Downtown New York scene some twenty years ago and crossed the Atlantic. Around the same time, schoolboy clarinettist Alex Ward donned long trousers and played in public with Derek Bailey. Since then, they have both been vital members of the London improvising …

Dennis Duck (ds), Fredrik Nilsen (b), Tom Recchion (mock cello, strangaphone), Keiji Haino (g), Rick Potts (g). Recorded in 1982. A definite, honest-to-goodness blast from out of the deepest vaults, bringing together Haino and a trio of wildly surreal pranksters from the Los Angeles Free Music Society scene. An amazing archive find!

And that's the story of jazz... Get it? Well, maybe you had to be there when legendary saxophonist Akira Sakata, guitarist Jim O'Rourke and bombast rhythm crew of percussionist Chris Corsano and double bassist Darin Gray (aka Chikamorachi) jumped in the van for a Japanese tour. This two CD set documents their 2008 jaunt -- not the first and far from last -- in blistering detail. Shades of Last Exit, Coltrane's Live in Seattle and even Kousokuya appear here but this quartet has nailed its own uni…

Smalltown Superjazzz is proud to to rerelase the debut album by Diskaholics Anonymous Trio. The album was released 10 years ago on the now defunct Crazy Wisdom/Universal label, and the album has been unavailable since then. The trio creates a pulsing, massive and monumental sound. Free-jazz, noise, electronic ambience, drone music and punk all mixed. The result of these three titans clashing together is an intense blow-out. Raw, grandiose and brutally beautiful. The album features three l…

Cien Fuegos presents live recordings circa 1970 Berlin from the legendary free music duo of German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist Han Bennink and pianist Fred Van Hove. Instrumentation: Peter Brötzmann (tenor saxophone), Fred Van Hove (piano), Han Bennink (drums, gachi, shell, voice). Recording: Recorded by Wolfgang Bukatz on August 17th, 1970 in Berlin. Supervision by Hans-Dieter Frankenberg. Produced by Jost Gebers. This album was origi…

Peter Brötzmann: soprano, alto, tenor saxophone, b-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, piano. Han Bennink: drums, piano, viola, banjo, bass clarinet. Recording: A1 & A2 recorded live by Bernhard Arndt on April 8th & 9th, 1977 during the Workshop Freie Musik at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. A3, A4, A5 & B1 recorded by Jost Gebers on March 26th, 1977 at the Quartier Latin in Berlin. B2 to B5 recorded by Jost Gebers on March 27th, 1977, at the Quartier Latin in Berlin. Produced by Jost Gebers. Th…

Stellar release!! ""The first disc features "Conduction No. 43: The Cloth". The first thing I noticed about this disc is how well it is recorded and perfectly balanced. We can hear Zeena Parkins's acoustic harp, the strings, guitar, oboe, vibes and other assorted percussion just right. You can tell that Butch Morris has rehearsed with this ensemble as the swirling lines they play together are so tight and instantly connected. Certain solos, like the oboe, rise above the rest of the ensemble like…

RED trio made a stunning debut in 2010. In this second album they play with British music veteran John Butcher pushing musical boundaries to the new realms of gripping and exciting kingdom of free improvisation. Rodrigo Pinheiro, piano. Hernani Faustino, double bass. Gabriel Ferrandini, drums and percussion. John Butcher, tenor and soprano saxophone. Recorded April 6, 2010 at Namouche Studio Lisbon by Joaquim Monte. Mixed by John Butcher. Mastered by Ar nas Zujus at MAMAstudios. Design by …

The Tarfala Trio (Mats Gustafsson : tenor sax and alto fluteophone. Barry Guy : bass. Raymond Strid : drums) has its roots from 1992, meeting at the Solo-92 festival in Stockholm, Sweden. After that first encounter in 1992, the trio has worked sporadically and played festivals in Europe and releasing 2 CDs on Maya Recordings. This recording captures them playing live in Belgium, 2009. It is explosive, high energy loaded ferocious music focusing on low dynamic melodic material. Tarfala Trio is at…

Guitarist Ninni Morgia, after playing with countless improvisers such as Peter Evans, Daniel Carter, William Parker and lots others, is here in a duo together with master Italian drummer and percussionist Marcello Magliocchi. Marcello Magliocchi has been active since the early 70s and has played and recorded with amazing artists like Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Peter Kowald, Mal Waldron, John Tchicai, Joelle Leandre and countless others. He also put out his work on Andrea Centazzo’s Ictus label and…

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 that's almost more focused on sound than music – lots of unusual percussive moments and ringing tones – shaped by the freedom of the performance, and slightly augmented by some wordless vocal utterances too! The record is only single-sided – a very u…