★Relative Pitch Records
Arteria
Over the past decade, saxophonist Makoto Kawashima has consistently established himself as one of the most compelling improvisers in contemporary music. His unique approach to solo performance aligns him with the tradition of groundbreaking Japanese saxophonists like Kaoru Abe, Tamio Shiraishi, and Masayushi Urabe. Operating at the fringes of improvised music, Kawashima's artistry unveils a delicate essence, placing equal focus on silence and minute detail alongside intense expressions of tone a…
To Hit A Pressure Point
Lao Dan's innovative approach to music seamlessly intertwines elements of rock, free jazz, and noise with textures of Chinese folk music, creating a unique tapestry characterized by improvisational and aesthetic tension. His fearless transgression of genres, infusing Chinese folk-tinged free jazz with the raw energy of punk, results in a compelling and dynamic listening experience.
Pressure Sensitive
Paula Sanchez is a musician working with sound in the intersection of experimental music, improvisation and performance art. Putting the body and materials to the limit, in the destruction, composition/decomposition of a mutable sound space. In the pure presence, of an embodied sound that invents relations as it makes its way into nothingness.
This album is the result of performative experimentations with cello and cellophane, and erotic encounters of transparent asphyxiation.
Vagabondage
Vagabondage comes from my idle wandering through the city and my inner relationship with it - where the unexpected takes me – I take it - desire driven. Assuming the discourse between the ruins of my memory and my present idleness, I seek to let the events influence my choices in a way they unfold from this relation between my personal history and reflected in my music through my interaction with the city.
This album was recorded in three different places of Lisbon: SMUP, Desterro and Casa do Co…
Réimsí Géara
Listening closely to the duo of Elliott Sharp and Scott Fields one can hear a compact history of modern composition and improvisation. Although the duo has a sound all its own, under the surface you can sense traces of “New Music,” minimalism, free jazz, and blues.
Poiēsis
In a spontaneous studio session, alto saxophonist Tim Berne met fellow saxophonist Masayo Koketsu and percussionist Nava Dunkelman for the first time, setting the stage for an improvisational encounter full of contrasts and surprising cohesion. Berne’s rich, dynamic tone, provided a grounded foundation, while Koketsu's innovative use of extended techniques and breathy, ethereal sounds—challenged the space with a more experimental edge.
Dunkelman, with her textural percussion, wove between the tw…
A Willing Passenger
Saxophonist Paul Flaherty is New England's purveyor of the ecstatic jazz pulse. Through the years, Flaherty remained unshakable in the pursuit of soul healing and demon dashing through freedom music. Six pieces of alto and tenor saxophone steeped in the theme of loss and channeled through blasting improvisations that showcase his fabulous wailing and inferno of sound to stark bluesy melodies.
"January 20, 2005 was a cold night in Washington D.C. A dozen bands would perform at the Black Cat venue…
Vents
Vents is seemingly a musical wind trio - humans playing with flutes, airdrums, bubbles… Although, in each set-up, material has its own vitality.
As If Anything Could Be The Same
2014 release ** "As if anything could be the same is a duet album by the father and son team of saxophonist Jack Wright and contrabassist Ben Wright . In the world of improvised music, or non-idiomatic improvised music if one must, Jack Wright is a seminal figure. A self-taught bluegrass and folk musician as a youth, and later a history professor at Temple University, Wright's trajectory out of "normal" life coincided with his burgeoning political activism during the early 1970s. His subsequent…
FATHM
*100 copies limited edition* "Fathm isn’t so much an album as it is a question—a pause in the middle of a conversation no one’s having, but everyone’s pretending to understand. It asks nothing of you, but demands your presence, your ear, your breath. The flute, a tender and fragile instrument, becomes almost otherworldly—like a butterfly in another dimension with teeth, or a marsh wren that screams only in windings. It speaks in fragmented thoughts, tracing edges of longing, absence, and memory.…
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At the crossroad of different worlds, Hubbub comprises five musicians with activities in various fields. Together, they work on the sound matter to create a moving electro-acoustic space inhabited by layers, distensions, imbrications, pulsations, dots and lines. Thanks to the longevity of the group, Hubbub has developed its own universe, which is more than just the sum of its parts.
The Depression Tapes
Jim Hobbs and Timo Shanko were founding members of the Fully Celebrated Orchestra in 1989. This is their first duo record. Their decades of playing together can be heard in these pieces.
Nada Sagrada
Brandon Lopez leads his septet through an electrifying set recorded live at the Vision Festival. Mixed and mastered by David Torn and polished into a gem.
Morpeth Contemporary 2024
Exceptionally virtuosic and sensitive, South African harpist Jacqueline Kerrod is perfectly at home across multiple genres. This is her first recording with American guitar maverick Joe Morris. These are sublimely adventurous improvisations for pedal harp and guitar.
The Life And Behavior
A compelling collaboration between guitarist Fred Frith and innovative harpist Shelley Burgon — known for her work with Anthony Braxton, Trevor Dunn, and Okkyung Lee — in a series of concise and precise improvisations recorded in Oakland, CA, in 2002 and 2005, as Burgon blends seamlessly with Frith's acoustic guitar to create seemingly telepathic synchronicity and an expansive sonic palette.
Temple of Muses
Norwegian guitarist Stian Larsen joins London-based musicians Colin Webster (alto sax), Andrew Lisle (drums), and Ruth Goller (bass) for an exciting collision of energetic free jazz, post-rock and noise that is dynamic, playful and hard-hitting.
Shakkei
These duets exemplify a compelling musical interplay, characterized by symmetrical encounters and an organic, intuitive dialogue that seamlessly weaves together elements of core improvisation, contemporary classical influences, and jazzy choruses, resulting in a rich tapestry of sound that is captivating in its spontaneity and depth.Alexandra Grimal: tenor and soprano saxophonesGiovanni Di Domenico: acoustic grand pianos, celesta, pipe organ
Ugly Euphoria
Maranata is Dag Stiberg on alto and baritone saxophones, and Jon Wesseltoft on electronics. They have have been a long-standing part of Oslo's underground scene for over 20 years. At times enlarging the core duo to expand the instrumentation they have invited various performers over the years to participate in the project. This time they brought the exceptional Mexican and L.A. based, alto saxophone player Martín Escalante on board. Escalante himself a prolific player, brings his crushing sound …
Old Adam on Turtle Island
The Amsterdam based improvisers quartet performs a song cycle composed by John Dikeman reflecting on colonisation, and the double edged sword of religion which can lead to transcendence or tyranny.
Draw Bridge
"Sophie Agnel and Michael Zerang are relentless on every surface and in the diving pit of improvisation. You've got to hear it to see it to believe it: it's a water lily drum set in the soundboard of a pond piano. At times, it seems as if a single instrument is being played by two people, with razor-sharp clarity" - Alexandre Pierrepont