Experimental / Duo

Accordion and alto saxophone: ten short pieces in moment form by Tizia Zimmermann and Chris Pitsiokos, recorded in Berlin and Zürich in 2024.

Colombian reed player María Valencia, on alto saxophone and clarinet, and Argentine cornetist Leonel Kaplan in an intimate improvised duo recorded in Belgrade in 2025, patient and full of textural invention.

Cellist Elisabeth Coudoux and guitarist Chuck Roth, who plays unprocessed and unpedaled, in a free improvised duo of shifting densities, extended techniques and fragile silences, recorded in Philadelphia in 2025.

Drummer and percussionist Sofia Borges and saxophonist Yedo Gibson in a tense, searching duo recorded in Lisbon: objects, prepared sounds and tenor and soprano lines in improvisations built on texture, pressure and close listening.

Second duo LP by Sarah Hennies and Tristan Kasten-Krause: two sidelong pieces grown from a live work played in darkness, singing bowls, gongs and double bass drifting into waltz-like pulses and field recordings. Numbered edition of 200.

Eugene Chadbourne and René Lussier, live in Paris and at Victoriaville in May 2002: acoustic and electric guitars, banjo and voice in a twisted hoedown of free improvisation, bluegrass and country blues.

Sophie Agnel on piano and John Butcher on saxophones, live at the 40th Victoriaville festival on 18 May 2024: spontaneous compositions of inside-piano sounds, extended techniques and quick, attentive interplay.

Fred Frith and René Lussier's duo, recorded at the 1986 Victoriaville festival and finished at Studio Victor: guitars, bass, violin, voices and tape in short, playful pieces. The CD adds four tracks recorded in New York in 1992.

Eugene Chadbourne and Paul Lovens on tour in May 1996, recorded in New York, in Michigan and in an Italian restaurant in Traverse City: guitar and banjo against drums, cymbals and saw, a suite for the waiters of the world.

Confront Recordings announces the release of Dancing with Dragonflies, a compelling new collaboration between double bassist Alan Niblock and percussionist Mark Wastell.

Six pieces from a concert at Het Apollohuis in December 1987, unearthed by Black Truffle. Guitars and bass tuned by Dreyblatt and played with E-Bows and Panhuysen's motorised plectrums, plus a Mattel toy drum machine, pedal steel harmonics and a bird whistle.

*300 copies limited edition* Percussionists Mika Kallio and Janne Tuomi have each spent decades at the edges of Finnish improvised music. Oresme, their debut duo on Mustik Motel, takes its name from the 14th-century philosopher who argued that all perceived motion depends entirely on where you stand. Nine tracks navigate that same double territory: outward into astronomical scale and inward toward something quieter and untranslated. Two percussion setups, one vibraphone, and a great deal of room…

Duo in the mirror that, in a continuous game of doubling and multiplication, ventures into another world, dense with unexpectedness and vital thrills. Sun Ra and post-rock, as well as Chicago experimentation and echoes of the world of Suzanne Ciani and minimal music, are the hints one can sense while listening to Medea, a journey to the edge and beyond. Star Splitter's new album comes five years after the debut album, a period in which the two artists experimented with the infinite possibilities…

On Die Dritte Ebene, Emilio Gordoa and Sven‑Åke Johansson let vibraphone, drums and accordion run in seemingly parallel lines until a mysterious “third layer” appears - a ghost‑music of overtones, pulse and texture that neither player could summon alone.

"Among all the paradoxes of communication, which improvisational musicians explore continuously as connoisseurs to create magic, there is the fact that they speak at the same time (something we are generally discouraged from doing). Not only that, but they have the quartering ability to listen and hear each other while speaking at the same time. Reversal of the situation for better sharing: to hear each other better, to hear everything better, it would really be better if we all got into the hab…

"Autumn has always brought me bright thoughts and fruitful encounters. Barry and I, although we had known each other for many years — and although I had grown “into adulthood” musically through the influence of masters like him — had never had the chance to play and record together. Finally, October 2025 gave me this wonderful gift: an extraordinary meeting. Coming face to face with a champion of free improvisation placed me in a position where I had to draw upon all the creativity available — a…

The duo of Camila Nebbia and Chris Corsano brings together two fiercely creative voices from the international improvised music scene. Nebbia’s searching tenor saxophone lines meet Corsano’s explosive, highly textural percussion in a set of spontaneous exchanges of raw expression. Their music moves fluidly between delicate detail and surging intensity, driven by deep listening and fearless experimentation. The result is a striking dialogue where every gesture reshapes the sonic landscape in real…

AMM as the duo of John Tilbury (piano) and Eddie Prévost (percussion), one continuous improvisation recorded live at the Museu Industrial da Baía do Tejo, Barreiro, Portugal, on 9 October 2015 during OUT.FEST.

Solo and duo improvisations by John Butcher (tenor and soprano saxophones) and Eddie Prévost (percussion), recorded live at Iklectik, London, on 4 April 2018. Matchless catalogue number MRCD 100.

AMM (John Tilbury, piano; Eddie Prévost, percussion) recorded live on 16 November 2012 at Španski Borci, Ljubljana, during the Neposlušno (Sound Disobedience) festival.

AMM (John Tilbury, piano; Eddie Prévost, percussion) recorded live on 16 May 2012 at CODES, the Festival of Traditional and Avant-garde Music in Lublin, Poland: a single 61-minute improvisation.

AMM as the duo of Eddie Prévost (percussion) and John Tilbury (piano), in concert at the School of Music, University of East Anglia, Norwich, on 14 February 2005.

Duo improvisations by Evan Parker (tenor and soprano saxophones) and John Tilbury (piano), two long chapters and a short epilogue, recorded at Gateway Studios, Kingston-upon-Thames, on 3 August 1998.

*200 copies limited edition* "Once upon a time, Lol Coxhill and Veryan Weston shared a home in a grand neoclassical mansion from the Regency era, located in the garden city of Welwyn Garden City, about 40 km north of London. That mansion was Digswell House, which at the time was run as a space for young artists to live and work. It wasn't just musicians—painters and sculptors gathered there too. Lol moved into Digswell House in 1976 and lived under the same roof as the already-resident Veryan fo…

Setpieces captures Cath Roberts & Olie Brice at a new peak of focus and invention, distilling their long-running musical rapport into a set of raw, finely tuned improvisations. Roberts’ baritone lines carve out bold shapes and sudden whispers while Brice’s bass grounds and disrupts in equal measure, creating a vivid, unpredictable dialogue. A striking next chapter for two of the UK’s most distinctive improvisers.

Tip! “Two Duos” is pressed from cellist Okkyung Lee’s most recent OTO Residency; the first side a duo with Jérôme Noetinger on Revox B77 and the second with Nadia Ratsimandresy on Ondes Martenot. Cut together, the two meetings seem to raise three cellos in the search for expressive voice: the cello, it’s magnetic reproduction, and the dual controls of the machine invented to expand on its musical qualities. On the A side Noetinger’s opening tape hiss establishes a current; an electrical partner …

On Cold Shoulder, Oren Ambarchi and Will Guthrie distil decades of experiment into a quietly blazing live duo set: spiralling Leslie‑soaked guitar and hyper‑sensuous drums move from hovering abstraction to glowing, melodic clarity with the ease of players who no longer need to prove anything.

4CDs box set with 120 page book. A monumental box set marking the 80th birthday of one of the most singular voices in improvised music. The Heraclitean Two-Step, etc. collects four CDs of solo soprano and tenor saxophone recordings spanning three decades - from a 1994 session at the Unitarian Chapel in Warwick to performances captured between 2018 and 2024 at Arco Barco in Ramsgate by Filipe Gomes. This is Parker at his most focused and uncompromising, working that extraordinary circular breathi…

Giuseppe Ielasi & Riccardo D. Wanke’s debut duo album blends electric guitar and piano with reverb, showcasing shared improvisational artistry and a delicate sculpting of sonic space through careful interplay and mindful silences.

*200 copies limited edition* Chris Abrahams - Steinway grand pianoMark Wastell - cymbals Recording engineered by Andrew LisleVortex Jazz Club, London, 8 May 2025

“Keep Telling Yourself That” is the debut album of the New York City-based experimental bass-violin duo of Jennifer Gersten and Maggie Cox. It is a collection of improvised songs testifying to a frisky, impish, no-holds-barred imagination for acoustic string playing. Bassist Maggie Cox exploits her titanic expressive and dynamic range on an instrument outfitted with gut strings, and violinist Jennifer Gersten transforms a beater violin through object preparations into an engine of ghastly twangs…

For almost ten years, Ruben Machtelinckx has followed an extraordinary path in Belgian and European improvised music. As a guitarist, but equally as a composer. It began in 2013, when the quartet Machtelinckx/Badenhorst/Jensson/Wouters released their debut, ‘Faerge’. The album was praised by international press and was listed ‘Best Belgian jazz release’ by Knack magazine. In 2020 he won the Klara Award for Best Belgian Jazz release for his latest record: Porous Structures (Aspen 009). In between…

Originally released by Confront in 2013 on compact disc as The Complete August 15th 2001. Now freshly remixed and remastered in 2023 for release on a delux double 180g white vinyl LP set and digital. Recorded at Sound 323, London by Tim Fletcher on 15 August 2001

On Live at ISSUE Project Room, Loren Connors and Alessandra Novaga turn the guitar into a nearly weightless medium, tracing an improvised, slow‑burn dialogue of tremors, silences and ghost‑melodies that feels less like a concert than a séance for two.

Polyvalent Creativity is a new CD release on Confront Recordings featuring free improvisation by bassist Dominic Lash on electric guitar and percussionist Mark Wastell on drums and percussion. The album comprises four tracks: "Potential," "Commitment," "Activation," and "Fulfilment," blending jazz improvisation with rich, textural soundscapes. Reviews highlight its unconventional approach, starting with tuning-like sounds that evolve into emotionally resonant free jazz. Critics praise the duo's …

*20 copies limited edition.* Hikikomori, a sonic entity forged in the crucible of London's north and south fringes, stands as a testament to the power of chaotic synergy. This avant-garde duo, comprised of Tom Wilson wielding synths and pedals and Dean Valentine Smith commanding the drums, isn't merely playing music; they are conducting sonic experiments that delve into intense and exhilarating new realms. Their sound is a powerful fusion, a volatile cocktail of free noise and jagged jazz rhythm…

On Landlocked, Mo'ong Pribadi and Sholto Dobie build a clattering, breathing machine‑folk from self‑made pipes, horns and percussive junk, where air compressors and human lungs mingle into an uncanny music of phasing clicks, drones and phantom tunes.

On Attacco morbido, ATMO (Leila Hassan and Elia Buletti) let soft drum‑machine grids, quietly glowing keyboards and voice‑led fragments drift together, where programmed pulse and hand‑played percussion blur into intimate, half‑dreamt songs.

On Taillis, Roxane Métayer and Charles Dubois cultivate a sparse, alive thicket of sound where violin, prepared drums and resonant objects trade roles, letting melody, pulse and texture quietly braid into fragile, shifting song‑forms.

Ad old men but not down-trodden paths when the areas are only popular & sought after by the still few. For many, there’s a Milky Way between pop & this music; for fewer, it’s like standing on either side of a hybrid ant. The guitar (the chordophone) & the drums (the membraneophones) are known by most, but the sound here is of the rarer kind, although there is indeed string play & rhythmic things, just not in the usual way, but instead according to other orders & expressions, like another dish. F…