Jazz /
F4 Fake
This is for sure no fake news! F4 Fake is the exciting new album by Made To Break, the gripping quartet of Ken Vandermark, mixing jazz, funky patterns, and electronics in groovy improvisations -- interrupted by abstract insertions. Recorded by Daniel Schatz, November 29 2017 at Primitive Studios, Vienna. Mastering by Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. Mixing by Alex Inglizian and Ken Vandermark. Artwork by Federico Peñalva. Personnel: Ken Vandermark - reeds; Christof Kurzmann …
Mental Shake
*2025 stock* CD version. Cafe OTO's tenth Otoroku release sees a return to the group that kick-started the label -- the veteran German reedsman and free-jazz pioneer Peter Brötzmann with the long-running London bass/drums partnership of John Edwards and Steve Noble. After the release of The Worse The Better, that group went on to play a series of devastating shows in Europe and to emerge as one of Brötzmann\'s finest working groups. Over the same period, Peter was developing a deep rapport with …
Real Time I, II, Bullfighting on Ice
Launching into the new year with some serious heat, the seminal Italian free jazz imprint ICTUS Records returns with their Reissue Series dedicated to archival unreleased gems and back catalogue releases, with three of their most exciting and exhilarating reissues to date: Evan Parker & Andrea Centazzo's "Bullfighting On Ice", and Alvin Curran, Evan Parker, & Andrea Centazzo's “Real Time” and “Real Time Two”. Capturing three of avant-garde music's most visionary voices in rare collaborations at …
Bullfighting on Ice
** Edition of 250 copies, remastered from the original master tapes ** This album is a historical document in several respects: echo of a creative season in its early, vigorous blossoming, it presents groundbreaking music as it was performed and listened to in a moment that now seems very distant, not just chronologically but also in terms of its cultural context. Furthermore, it serves as a testament to the initial opening of the emerging Italian free music scene to Northern European experience…
Real Time Two
** Edition of 250 copies, remastered from the original master tapes ** Recorded live in concert. Rome, Italy December 12-13, 1977 by Nicola Bernardini and at Teatro Comunale, Pistoia, Italy December 14, 1977 by Carla Lugli. "It was a magic evening. Not only did the trio burst with a creative energy that was homogeneous and interactive, but the acoustics, usually inadequate, of the half-empty sports pavilion with a capacity of 10,000 people, gave the music an ethereal transparency and crystalline…
Real Time One
** Edition of 250 copies, remastered from the original master tapes ** Real Time is an extraordinary example of interaction between musicians coming from different worlds of new music. I had the chance to perform with those two great musicians on other occasions: in duo with Alvin Curran and in duo, trio and sextet with Evan Parker. Alvin came from the American school, full of minimalist references, melodic structures and open to all kinds of contamination. Evan had left jazz to accomplish his o…
Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun
Ben LaMar Gay’s de facto debut album, 'Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun', was our attempt to introduce the legendary Chicago composer / improviser / renaissance man to the rest of the world with a compilation of tracks from 7 albums he made over 7 years (though he hadn’t yet made the effort to actually release). The material showcases Gay’s penchant for genre-hopping – from Steve Reich-ian soundscape voyages to Don Cherry-esque polyrhythm treks to Jorge Ben-style vocal-and-string earworm…
In The Moment
Makaya McCraven’s International Anthem debut 'In The Moment' is the album that properly introduced the then-burgeoning drummer/producer to the world. In many ways, it also laid the groundwork for a working method that both McCraven and the label have returned to again and again over the years: nearly 48 hours of live improvised performance recorded by IARC house engineer Dave Vettraino at 1 venue over 12 months and 28 shows - culled, cut, rendered, and remixed into 19 potent pieces of organic be…
Alternate Moon Cycles
Rob Mazurek’s 'Alternate Moon Cycles' was International Anthem's first release. The incredibly spare single-note-centered cornet, bass and organ chant was recorded to tape at pint-sized Chicago bar Curio as part of a performance series that predates any notion of our label’s existence. Documenting this performance – highly unique even within the depths of Mazurek’s vast catalog – stirred those notions, and soon talks began of releasing the recording on a fresh imprint. Performed by Mazurek with …
A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole
Tip! Across A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole, DePlume’s reflections on healing, dignity, and struggle are communicated through a stirring assemblage of disparate musics: ghostly and ancient folk melodies, groove-anchored maelstroms of swirling folk-jazz, elegant string arrangements that strike a midpoint between Ravel and Gainsbourg (courtesy of Macie Stewart), disembodied voices reconfiguring into the shape of a post-modern Greek chorus, noir atmosphere, and allegoric, troubadouric song. Throug…
A Dance More Sweetly Played
Join the Kyle Shepherd Trio on “A Dance More Sweetly Played” as they explore, collaborate and improvise on the ‘songs we like to play’. The album’s title is a dedication to the celebrated South African artist William Kentridge, with whom Shepherd collaborated on a joint-work “Waiting for Sybil” that has toured world-wide. In addition to ten Shepherd originals, perhaps most unexpected is the inclusion of an exquisite reading of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’ and a deconstructed take of Journey’s ‘Do…
... Un Jour Se Lève
LP version of Marteau Rouge's debut. Marteau Rouge are Jean-Marc Foussat, Jean-François Pauvros, Makoto Sato.
Unionen
Unionen is a new quartet of four star-level Norwegian and Swedish jazz musicians. The group takes its name from the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway under a common monarch 1814-1905 and brings together Ståle Storløkken (Supersilent), Per "Texas" Johansson, Petter Eldh (Koma Saxo) and Gard Nilssen (Supersonic Orchestra). It's not hip to say "supergroup" but this sure is one super of a group, with each member contributing to the band sound that is unique in all the best possible ways. From mis…
Zlatko Kaučič @ 70 Inklings
If it can be said of someone that he is more than a musician, more than an improviser, more than an artist then it can certainly be said of Slovenian drummer Zlatko Kaucic. Zlatko is a good spirit, he is a man who not only goes down in musical history as a partner of the greatest artists of improvised music, but also as a good spirit. As someone who, when he plays and when he enters a room, the world becomes brighter, wiser and arranged as it should be. This year Zlatko Kaucic turned 70 and his …
Ictus@45 – Out Off Nights
Legendary percussionist, leader and founder of Ictus Records, a publishing house legendary in the world of improvised music. He has recorded with Derek Bailey, Steve Lacy, Don Cherry and an infinite number of the world's most creative artists. Andrea Centazzo is a great figure, an outstanding drummer who needs no introduction to anyone and who continues to play with the greatest. We are proud to bring you a documentary of the concerts that took place at the Out Off theatre in Milan, where Andrea…
Agustí Fernández @70 - Aesthetic Of Prisms.
"Agusti Fernandez one of the greatest living piano masters, a brilliant improviser, an endlessly creative artist but also a friend. I can't quite find the words to describe well enough who he is not only for me, but also for FSRecords. So I will just say that it is perhaps thanks to him and his confidence that the label was able to embark on the path it is on now. 10 years ago, when no one knew about FSR yet, Agusti trusted me and agreed to release the album ‘Agusti Fernandez@60 - River, Tiger, …
Boillat Therace Quintet
CD version. We Release Jazz present its sixth release, a reissue of Boillat Thérace Quintet's self-titled album, available for the first time since its original limited private pressing in 1974. Full of prolific and inspired local clusters and boosted by the recently launched Montreux Jazz Festival, the Swiss jazz scene was vibrant and inventive in the 1970s, notably in the region surrounding Lake Geneva. This is precisely where jazz activist and brilliant pianist Jean-François Boillat and wind …
My Greatest Love
CD version. We Release Jazz present a reissue from Geneva's Boillat Thérace Quintet, the My Greatest Love album, featuring bebop and hard-bop legend Benny Bailey and available for the first time since 1975. Galvanized by the creation of the Montreux Jazz Festival in the late '60s and lively local scenes, jazz music was healthy and booming in Switzerland in the 1970s. One band that beautifully captured this energy was Jean-François Boillat and RaymondThérace's Boillat Thérace Quintet whose self-t…
Ryo Fukui in New York
We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's New York sessions with Lisle Atkinson and Leroy Williams, the aptly titled album Ryo Fukui in New York, sourced from the original masters. Recorded in February 1999 at Avatar Recording Studios in New York and inspired by Ryo Fukui's idol and mentor Barry Harris, the fourth album from the famed Sapporo pianist captures memorable sessions with seasoned American jazz musicians (and frequent Barry Harris collaborators) Lisle Arthur Atkinso…
Scenery
We Release Jazz (WRWTFWW Records' new sister-label) presents its first release, the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's highly sought-after masterpiece Scenery, originally released in 1976. Unquestionably one of the most important Japanese jazz albums ever recorded, Scenery reveals Ryo Fukui as a miraculously brilliant self-taught pianist fusing modal, bop, and cool jazz influences for a very personal, dexterous, and game-changing take on classic standards made famous by Bing Crosby and John Coltran…