Experimental / Acoustic

Monophonic is the name of the new album by Maria Bertel. As the title hints the album is a study of music played with 'one voice'. The amplification of the trombone mimics the effect of a magnifying glass, that let otherwise inaudible sounds be heard and brought forward. The compositions are long swathes of sound slowly developing, heavily inspired by drone and noise.

Iinterdependenzen is a selection of 11 solo improvisations that evolved during Maria Reich’s solo impro research. All pieces are uncut and were recorded in different places over 6 months on an iPhone. The situation, the material becomes audible, the wood, the bow hair, the room, the recording device, the musician. "There is no part of me that is alone...."

"Tenor saxophonist Ada Rave, born and raised in Argentina, decided to move to Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2013. She had heard ‘the call’, followed her musical intuition and became part of the colorful community of Dutch creative improvised music. Educated in the jazz tradition she started to look for a more personal language. A deep search. Not an easy path to go. The destination is always changing. Each step made will call for a next step. A slow process of collecting material, sounds, techni…

Conic Tube comes from the idea that the saxophone is nothing but a metal conical tube that amplifies, modifies and pushes the air through the room, if the instrument is just an object and sound is just air and air is inside-out of us, pushing this air becomes the tool to structure our space and surroundings making possible changes on our environment and energies. With this in mind and spirit this record was produced with the intent to fulfill and open new possibilities for the minds and spirits …

The first solo release of baritone saxophonist Sofia Salvo, “Rotarota” consists of a series of improvised pieces. They evoke emotional memories aspiring to set them free and mutate them into blaring music.

'Making a Journey to a Bright Nowhere' series - marking Eddie Prévost's 80th birthday. Volume 1, Cafe OTO 9th July 2022

Tip! In "Handle, Nail and Rubber Dinosaur", Jun-Y Ciao plays soprano saxophone and Zhu Wenbo plays clarinet. Before recording there was very little pre-planning, the only decision was that they each play a few short passages. They recorded a single take, during which there were some naturally occurring pauses and breaks – these make up the first 13 tracks of the album. After that they decided to make another recording with a more defined limitation: they maintain fixed fingerings, limiting the s…

MTDM (acronym from the Chinese name mei tui de ma, “horse without legs”) is the duet of Jun-Y Ciao and Tao Yi, both born in 1978, Year of the Horse. Tao Yi plays drums and trumpet, and Jun-Y Ciao, woodwinds, including different sizes of saxophone and clarinet. Around 2008, MTDM returned to Shanghai from Europe, and straight away got involved in the local experimental music scene, giving entirely improvised performances using only acoustic instruments. From their overall musical style, to their a…

Tori Kudo's live recordings from 1984 to 1986 at Ogikubo good-man will be released on 9 CDs by boid/Voice Of Ghost label on May 19, 2021. The cassette recordings of Tori Kudo's many live performances, mainly at Ogikubo Goodman on the eve of the formation of Maher Shalal Hash Baz and shortly thereafter, have been re-recorded on 9 CDs.  In addition to a hand-written index and hand-drawn flyers, this gorgeous box set also includes a DVD of "Maher Shalal Hash Baz" as an enclosed bonus. Tori Kudo beg…

*300 copies limited edition. Screenprinted artwork on old re-used cover jackets + insert.* Another transatlantic collaborative project on Förlag För Fri Musik, this time Blod teams up with Shadow Pattern from Canada. A seemingly impossible match that somehow works like a charm, the lo-fi folk of Gustaf Dicksson beautifully tangled up with the brutish concrete music of Nathan Ivanco. Recorded in the the winter of 2024 in Gothenburg, Sweden and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Mixed and arranged by Nath…

*2024 stock* "I have always been fascinated by the improvising combos that give prominence to the classical guitar, but it is usually easier to find such productions on the contemporary side. So having caught this little gem with strong freeform accents, where it makes its worthy appearance was a sign of amazement. We specify that the Graculus do not give exclusive space to the six strings but that in reality they are a duo formed by the English Phil Hargeraves (flute, soprano sax) and Richard H…

*2021 stock* Phil Hargreaves is a Liverpool saxophonist and bold improviser whose music evokes the voices and echoes of his home city. In his new album, Fall Through the Infinite, he duets with the drummer of Spaceheads, Richard Harrison, and they create an urban soundscape, sometimes forlorn, sometimes bursting with hope, which is constantly inventive and multifaceted in its sonic patterns. Hargreaves’s tenor horn rampages through Reach for the Tar in ardent conversation with Harrison’s scuttli…

"A live recording of freely improvised improv captured at All Hallows Church in High Laver, Essex in 2023 from the trio of AMM drummer and Matchless label-leader Eddie Prévost, Zürich and Maastricht trumpeter Silvan Shmid, and London double bassist Tom Wheatley of the group Widdershins, heard in three investigative conversations of great creative drive." * squidco.com

Mia Doi Todd is known for her quiet, haunting songs, usually conveyed through her evocative and instantly recognizable voice. With a deep body of work spanning twelve albums, and as a formidable collaborator on records by Laraaji, Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio), Scientist, and more recently with André 3000 and Carlos Niño on New Blue Sun, Mia is an essential element in the richly woven musical tapestry of her native Los Angeles. Morning Music is an instrumental, ambient experience unlike anyth…

*2022 stock* "Madam Press is a quintet from Denmark created by five talented women whose main goal is to experiment within coherent musical structures. In fact, the first thing that struck me when comparing Madam Press´ music with other improvisational outfits was the emphasis that some of the musical pieces here have in achieving melodies and twisting them beyond recognition. That is, while other improvisational musicians try to extract sounds from their instruments this woment try to shape thi…

Characteristically invisible and inaudible, the wind is made manifest solely by its agency and performance on objects: huge waves crash to shore, sand dunes edge forward over millennia (rumbling as they go), cyclones uproot trees and houses, intergalactic winds confound the planets. On a more modest scale, I’ve been building aeolian instruments since 1979, part of my investigation into the innumerable aspects of the vibrating string. I designed the two recent aeolian instruments heard on this al…

In 2022 Lori Goldston went on a small 4 date tour of Ireland playing in Cork, Limerick, Leitirm and Drogheda. Willie Stewart of Nyahh Records drove her on the tour and recorded each performance. With Lori’s permission, Willie edited and mixed each performance and put them together to make this album. The end result is a collection of improvisations and spontaneous moments. Every performance is drastically different to one another in mood, energy and technique. In these recordings you can hear ho…

Suspenseful Fantasias Unraveling Into A Humbly Wondrous Journey

2024 stock. Employing tape overdubs, shifting tape speeds, reverberation, and echoes, flautist Charles Campo performs seven improvisational compositions. The musical settings range from pastoral and contemplative to urban and ethereal.

*200 copies limited edition* Tokyo-based pianist Fumi Endo has been performing since 2017, playing mainly jazz and improvised music. Her distinctive, minimalistic performances have garnered a great deal of attention. Endo has performed frequently at Ftarri since September 2020. While she participated in two 2022 Ftarri CD releases—Takumi Ikeda’s "Musical Procedure" (Ftarri Classical, ftarricl-663), and the eponymous "Masahide Tokunaga" (Hitorri, hitorri-970)—Endo had no previous releases on Ftar…

*2023 stock. 250 copies limited edition* Seijiro Murayama is a drummer/percussionist and improviser/composer who lives in Paris. His first CDs on Ftarri's three labels (Hitorri, Ftarri and Meenna) came out in 2009, and he has since released a total of 12 solo, duo, trio and quartet albums on Ftarri labels. Of the solo albums, the first was "Downdate" (2017), followed by "The Empire of Slip of the Tongue" (2018) and "mi-tai" (2020). While "Downdate" and "The Empire of Slip of the Tongue" are elec…

*200 copies limited edition* Tokyo-born recorder player/improviser Eiko Yamada has lived in Germany since 1984 and currently resides in Heidelberg. Yamada performs in formations ranging from solo to large ensemble, as well as with a variety of artists including dancers and poets. She returns to Japan once or twice a year and appears in a small number of concerts in Tokyo.During her stay in Japan in summer 2023, Yamada performed with pianist Fumi Endo at Ftarri on August 13. In addition to their …

*100 copies limited edition* British saxophonist Colin Webster has always had a mono-thematic approach when it comes to making solo albums. From ‘Antennae’ (Gaffer Records, 2013) which dealt purely with micro-sounds and minimal dynamics, to ‘vs. Amp’ (Raw Tonk Records, 2021) which focussed on the sonic capabilities of a baritone saxophone played through a guitar amplifier. Textural Studies – as the title suggests – is no different in approach. Each piece is a deep exploration and thorough interr…

There is a delicacy and a passionate hardness, stripped bare of cloying sentiment. Its rawness is the exuberance of sound overflowing, basking in its self-created luxury…. It is, every bit of it, composed the same moment you hear it.

*2024 stock* This music is improvised and inspired by Judith Schalansky’s book "Atlas of Remote Islands: 50 islands I never set foot in and never will." The music is an echo of her writing, of inspiration by islands, entities with different and changing characteristics.

We maneuver through woody sounds created by individual movements and decisions. Our cello playing is free from classical patterns, a real achievement! It is not natural to develop one's own approach to this high culture instrument. In this trio there are three multi-layered variations of personal expressive will and power.

*60 copies limited edition* Live in concert at A New Wave Of Jazz festival, Hundred Years Gallery (London, UK) on February 8th, 2020.Graham Dunning : turntable, dubplates & spring reverbs, Benedict Taylor : viola, Daniel Thompson : acoustic guitar. Black Tape, Clear Box With Pins, Sealed. Design By Rutger Zuydervelt

** 2021 Stock ** The Barnacles (aka Matteo Uggeri) artistic path continues with “Air Skin Digger”, after the debut in 2017 “One Single Sound” on Boring Machines/Non Piangere Dischi, and right along with the release in collaboration with Maurizio Bianchi/M.B. on Artoffact “Sidereal Decomposition Activity.” Each Barnacles album is made by Matteo Uggeri following specific self-imposed rules. These 4 long compositions were made using only 4 sound sources per each, all cannibalized from other works d…

*250 copies limited edition* Alvear, Bondi & d'incise consists of Cristián Alvear from Chile, and Cyril Bondi and d'incise from Switzerland. The three musicians collaborate frequently in duo and trio formats. This album documents a duo performance by Alvear (guitar) and d’incise (vibraphone, electronics) of “Sleepless Night” (2022), a work by Spanish composer/sound artist Clara de Asís; and a trio performance by Alvear (guitar), Bondi (vibraphone) and d’incise (electronics) of “uno, dos o tres e…

*250 copies limited edition* Masahiko Okura, a reed instrument player and composer who has been performing actively since the 1990s, has previously released a number of solo and collaborative albums on Ftarri’s sister labels, Hitorri and Meenna. Percussionist Naoto Yamagishi lived in Europe for several years in the 2010s, and since then has been engaged in wide-ranging activities inside and outside Japan, frequently carrying out overseas tours and organizing concerts in Japan featuring musicians…

*2024 stock. 250 copies limited edition* Born in 1964, Tetuzi Akiyama is a guitarist/improviser active inside and outside Japan. Masahide Tokunaga, who was born in 1982, is an always-original alto sax player. Masatake Abe, born in 1993, is an innovative electric bass player on the jazz/improvised music scene. These three musicians of different generations performed together at Ftarri, Tokyo, on June 6, 2021. This CD contains two improvised pieces (about 25 minutes each) from that concert.This is…

*250 copies limited edition* Ai Watanabe is a Tokyo-based composer. After studying at Tokyo College of Music’s graduate school, she went to France and completed a graduate program at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris, and subsequently earned a doctoral degree at Tokyo University of the Arts. In recent years Watanabe has been focusing on electroacoustic music using field recordings as additional materials, earning high praise inside and outside Japan. Kokichi Yanagisawa is a guita…

*200 copies limited edition* Aquiles Hadjis was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. In 2009 he moved to Tokyo, and in 2017 he received a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the Department of Painting at Tokyo University of the Arts. Still based in Tokyo, he is engaged in creative work in the fields of film, painting and music. Antonio Mazzei, also from Venezuela, is a pianist and composer. He studied with Fred Hersch and Kevin Hays at New York's New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and has since continued …

*200 copies limited edition* Canadian musician Lee Noyes (born in 1977) lived in New Zealand from the mid-1990s to the 2000s and subsequently moved to Sweden, where he continues his work on the improvised/experimental music scene, playing electronics, percussion and other instruments. American guitarist Barry Chabala (born in 1961) has released numerous recordings on improvised/experimental music labels such as Erstwhile Records, winds measure recordings, and Another Timbre. Noyes and Chabala ha…

*200 copies limited edition* Ongoing since 2014, Mushoku In Excursion is a duo project by Takahashi 'Takakhan' Seiji and Yuko Nexus6. Kyoto-based Takahashi has planned and organized a wide variety of performances and events. Yuko Nexus6 is a performance artist/writer who lived for a long time in the Kansai area and now resides in Tokyo. The creation of this album began with the two making a one-hour recording by the Uji River in Kyoto. The tape became a foundation over which Yuko Nexus6 (piano, …

A diagonal chance encounter – chromatic undergrowth blossoming to a myriad tints of inner weatherings. Formations, fields, densities gather and dissipate. Outwards inverted, spiralling across. Orange dawn flowers upon the temple of the addicts. Radiating motionless fire. Sipping the morphium of the aether. Choir of the undertow and the roots of the air. Ljubljana-based piano player Neža Naglič (1984) devoted herself to exploring extended piano techniques in the context of free improvised music a…

“Peridot dives right in, and so I will. It’s a gemstone, peridot, and may become your favorite gemstone (as it has mine since I’ve dug in to its history and cultural significance). I like volcanoes and volcanic land formations. “Peridot,” the musical piece presented here by Powers/Rolin, is soundtrack to memories of in-person witnessed lava floes and the infinite parade of Herzogian docu-footage of rivers of fire and constructive destruction. There are edits or augmentations evident, creating (o…

Extraordinary, free, and expressive, the trio woo (Wodrascka Owczarek Orins) is the result of the moment and fortunate encounters. Paulina Owczarek and Peter Orins have been playing together for a few years, meeting in Berlin in Satoko Fujii’s orchestra, then venturing into a duo, producing music of subtle gestures, barely perceptible movements, but also of raw and liberated energy. Christine Wodrascka meets Peter Orins within the Franco-American ensemble Sangliers, with Dave Rempis, Keefe Jacks…

*200 copies limited edition.* Guitarist Clara de Asís and flutist Mara Winter established Discreet Editions in order to locate and highlight links between ancient and contemporary, experimental approaches to music making. Adrián Demoč’s Sen, the label’s third release, treats that mission with especial seriousness. Dusted’s review of Adrián Demoč’s Žiadba meditated upon the ways that the Slovakian composer’s practice confounded the limits of statehood. This time, he has expanded one of that album…

*50 copies limited edition* Pieces of debris washed up on a coastline shrouded in mist. Gratification comes from an eternal search for solace. Locked away at the top of a lighthouse somewhere on an unnamed isle, Grady Steele broadcasts to those within the beacon’s reach. A soundsystem built of driftwood and salvaged car stereos is pieced together with precision and laboriously dragged to the top of the obelisk. A timeless fugue state spent playing arpeggios on a Spanish guitar, the PA system ebb…