Experimental / Free Improvisation

"Nina Garcia has been actively moving the art of noise guitar into surprising and intriguing new spaces. She has been at it for some time now, a bit of a secret weapon all the while hiding in plain sight. As I listen to her music and ruminate upon seeing her perform it brings me to a realization which I have with very few musicians: the ego inherent in making art  can be transcended through a purity of direct action. At least that’s the feeling I have when experiencing Nina’s music which comes a…

*328 copies limited edition* Prophecy finds Eye in form familiar to those who've had the good fortune to hear their 2016 album Other Sky, but even more compacted and condensed, a band simmered and reduced to their pure essence. And then the volume increases. Prophecy is a pummeling din of guitar clouds shot through with electronic disruption. Stapleton's relentless motion drives Porteous' icy guitar streams in leaping waves. 'Catch Them' opens the album with Peter's vocals, croaking out from the…

Aspects of Memory is the first meeting between Lawrence Casserley (signal-processing instrument) and Emil Karlsen (percussion). Casserley has devoted his professional career to the creation and performance of real-time electroacoustic music, culminating in the development of his own unique device—The Signal Processing Instrument. This instrument allows him to use physical gestures to control the processing and to direct the morphology of the sounds. Casserley writes: “A key element of the Signal…

For their fourth album, and second release on Bead, light.box augments the duo of Alex Bonney (trumpet, electronics) and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (bass guitar, electronics) with a special guest, Tom Challenger on tenor saxophone.The album explores a vast range of textures and dynamics from cinematic ambient drones to delicate timbral and microtonal explorations, from fast-paced dialogues to invasive waves of distortion. The rapport between the musicians has developed over years of playing toget…

Recorded live at Conservatorio Nicolini, Piacenza, Italy, May 22. 2015 during "Musiche Nuove a Piacenza" Festival. Limited edition 980 handmade and individually hand numbered copy in papersleeve, with 21,50 x 21,50 miniposter © 2015

CD Edition. From its opening notes, it is apparent that Keith Tippett's first solo recording in fifteen years is something very special indeed. Tippett has always been a player with a talent for musical pyrotechnics, cascades of notes—triplets, trills, mordants and arpeggios-colliding with mighty tone clusters. But equally, he has also been an artist of great emotional subtlety and depth. Both these qualities are in evidence here. For much of the record, the sense is less that of Rachmaninov, mo…

"Mogador" stands as a compelling exploration of the intersection between seemingly irreconcilable musical worlds: the experimental realm of analog electronic music and the deep-rooted tradition of Gnawa. This project is more than just a juxtaposition of styles; it’s a meeting of minds where the ancient and the modern, the analog and the organic, are woven together into a seamless auditory dialogue. What truly sets "Mogador" apart is the way Pedro Vian’s use of the EMS AKS Synthi and Buchla doesn…

For Sara(.es), who has resonated with numerous musicians, this is a special solo live recording, her first in about a year. Weaving together the sounds of bells, water-emitting instruments, harmonica, crystal bowls, triangle, and more, an energy-filled piano solo unfolds. From 1 May to 14 June 2025, the solo exhibition ‘Prayer’ by artist Keiichi Ikegami was held at Gallery Nomaru, the home of .es (dot es) and the base for Utsunomiya MIX. Following the sudden passing of Satoshi Hayashi, former di…

January 2025, Osaka contemporary art gallery ‘Gallery Nomart’ hosted Hideo Takashima's solo exhibition ‘Fill with Empty’. This was Takashima's first exhibition at Nomart, and featured the first live collaboration between British heavyweight drummer/percussionist Roger Turner and sara (.es). The exhibition title ‘Fill with Empty’ refers to ‘a state filled with margins that contain diverse possibilities,’ according to Takashima. Takashima explains that the exhibition title, ‘Fill witt Empty’, refe…

"Although it might sound perverse to say so, Music for Piano may well be my favorite Gary Wilson record. Most people who dig Wilson are very into his lyrics, but I actually find them to be a bit taxing after a while. Those early records all sound and feel amazing, but what I really wanted was to hear the music without the words. I had high hopes when I found a copy of Another Galaxy, the 1974 Gary Wilson Trio LP, but it had a very different heft than that which Gary displayed on You Think You…

**Original 1982 copies, still sealed and log time stored (copies may have minimal wear on covers)**  Intriguingly sets the apocalyptic Robert Frost poem, with trumpeter Yousef Yancy as the ice and Garrett List as the fire. Haunting settings of vital dada poet Blaise Cendrars' incandescent lines and Sweetness, an ineffably lovely poem by Bayard Lancaster, whose alto parallels soaring synthesizer parabolas, and the riveting voice of Genie Sherman, whose sinuous, sibilant messages are those of pure…

*2023 stock* Limted 2022 restock, last copies. Originally released in 2006. Tetuzi Akiyama has been a major player on the free music/improv scene in Tokyo for over 20 years. Pre-Existence first came out on CD as a part of the great Wooden Guitar series from Locust. Akiyama's playing here is one of a minimalist approach, discovering and investigating the empty spaces between each note. He does not follow the Takoma guitar school style of finger-picking, but instead invokes a far more warped primi…

Folklore & Concepts, the latest release by Smegma—now five decades into their outsider avant-garde career—extends the band’s legacy of ritualistic collage, spontaneous improvisation, and anti-academic noise. Infused with tape, synths, prepared piano, horns, and voice, the album melds shamanistic energy with surreal group interplay, creating an unpredictable and stubbornly original sonic tapestry.

*2025 stock. 300 copies limited edition* "Two guitarists with wild and bold aesthetics met for no cost – Kost Nix, an explosive, freewheeling set... Often it is impossible to know who is doing what. They build on the opening, 20-minute piece «Quiet Concessions» massive walls of sound, delicate and raw, strange, poetic and totally weird at the same time. Byron Coley... hears in this piece echoes of early Grateful Dead, and Sonic youth, but you can add Fred Frith’s Massacree and Sonny Sharrock’s L…

Blue Abstraction compiles a selection of Jessica Williams’ lost prepared piano recordings. These recordings document the beginning of a vital, solitary phase in her career: a period of intense sonic experimentation that began with physically altering a 6’4” grand piano—creating a new instrument, and from there, creating a new music. The results are breathtaking; from melancholic soundscapes with Satie-esque lyricism to forcefully controlled cacophony, always grounded by the distinct emotional vo…

*125 copies limited edition* An alto saxophone and acoustic piano engage in an intimate musical dialogue, reflecting on the current state of improvised music. Okuda and Dyberg’s album unites two artists at the peak of their musical collaboration, deconstructing jazz history into shimmering fragments, reassembling them in new forms that deliberately move away from traditional references. The music incorporates diverse influences—glimpses of classical composers like Webern and Prokofiev, abstract …

2008 release ** "Although this collaboration between Italian psych-pop band Jennifer Gentle and mercurial, collabo-prone Acid Mothers Temple guitarist Kawabata Makoto sounds pretty much like you’d expect, the The Wrong Cage can’t quite be reduced to the sum of its parts. It can be a rich, rewarding document for listeners on either side of the pop/free psych divide represented by the two groups. Separating Makoto’s and Marco Fasolo’s guitar (the latter being the sole JG member to carry over into …

Minor Gestures' ~ 'Mion-phuingean' by Susannah Star & Band an extended folk session in mystical locations around the Govan stones, river Clyde & underground streamlets. “tha mise gad fhaicinn,tha mise gad fhaicinn”arsa an caochan “I see you,I see you”said the blind one

2005 release ** "The music contained in this awesome CD could be defined as an  outsider's version of electro-acoustic composition, using improvisation & field recordings as the main material to build the pieces with. The point of departure for making the whole song cycle was the conscious misunderstanding of language; coming from the idea that you can never say exactly the same thing in a different language (so 'i love you' means something else then 'je t'aime').  'Stots' and all the song title…

For their second official CD release (after a handful of cassettes and CD-Rs) this Helsinki quintet of horns, guitars, drums, and vocals forsake any sense of live atmosphere by mashing four years of recordings into a disorienting, rude collage of over the top takes on multiple forms of extreme music. More early 90s, Bad Vugum-damaged rock than 00s Fonal psych-folk, Hasardi is a tangent of the punk/hardcore continuum that veers wildly and often into free jazz, noise and just general weirdness. Ha…

Simply one of the most seminal band in italian underground rock in the last 10 years. Don't miss them.

Udo SCHINDLER, soprano saxophone, bassclarinet. Margarita HOLZBAUER, cello. Harald LILLMEYER, electric guitar. Udo SCHINDLER, soprano saxophone, bassclarinet. Margarita HOLZBAUER, cello. Harald LILLMEYER, electric guitar. Udo Schindler studied flute on conservatory and architecture on university. starting as guitarist + saxplayer with rock and rockjazz. after moving to munich, performing free jazz, experimental and improvised music, Neue Musik, compositions for stage- and radio-play, lyric-publi…

Pure core music, laically spiritual, in constant tension between order & chaos, law & anarchy, silence and loudness, modernism and tradition. Tense border music.

Weaving a transient web, a dreamatorium with its own agenda thoroughly concerned about space—in—between, From island to island is a subtle sonification of deep musicality, real and surreal journeys, and a giant Maelström hiding the unknown multiverse. Invitation for the descent is open, but whether those journeys are imaginary or not, one thing is certain—both Anja Lauvdal and Manja Ristić must take the ferry home. „Though separated by the sea between Croatia and Norway, the two artists have dev…

*200 copies limited edition* The dynamic duo of Audrey Chen and Tashi Dorji proudly present their new collaborative album "Courage Bones." This release showcases an intense dialogue between Chen's raw, visceral voice and layered analog synthesizer with Dorji's blazing, anti-capitalist ethos-driven guitar work. "Courage Bones" embodies a fearless journey into improvised sonic storytelling that defies conventional boundaries. Chen employs a personal and ecstatic language, blending traditional and …

Friends and musical cohorts since the early 1980s, these three master improvisers come together to perform a freewheeling set of outrageous and mind-blowing improvisations. Recorded at Roulette, founded in 1978 and one of New York’s most adventurous venues, the music is full of surprising twists and jumps from one mood to another with mercurial synchronicity. Dedicated to the memory of Downtown theatrical genius Richard Foreman, “Alchemical Theatre” presents nine pieces of tele-pathic, counter-i…

“Eighty minutes of trumpet/electronics and alto sax. Here, the length works in its favor. An advantage, oddly, to listening at home (and reading the back of the sleeve): You know it's 80 minutes long so you "read" it as such, as it's happening, sitting back a bit, seeking a wider focus. Wright gets nicely strident here and there, Coleman generally staying with breath tones early on, getting more vociferous later, Kasyansky hither and yon, doing a fine job integrating and coloring. There's a brea…

A radical album with uncompromising blasts of atonal electric guitar, free-form sonic explorations and richly layered passages. "Have you ever imagined what a meeting between the Silver Apples and Sonny Sharrock would sound like? In 1974, Jean-Jacques Birgé, one of the first French synthesizer players (ARP 2600) along with Francis Gorgé, virtuoso guitarist, created some unique improvised pop music.The unreleased and flamboyant recordings featured on Avant Toute would be the source for the cult 1…

Tip! *100 copies limited edition* Russian modular synthesist Ilia Belorukov, now based in Serbia, and Alex Riva, a Zurich-based flutist, here focusing on woodwind recorders. The pair have performed with Notice Recordings alum Jason Kahn, and toured as a duo with the novel instrumentation they use here, presented on “Wrestling for Futility”. The pairing is not a combination we hear often, and Belorukov and Riva seem to relish in the obscurity and uniqueness of the timbres and textures conjured by…

Tip! Welcome to the 20th Century: "My point of departure for the octet was to treat the ensemble as a flock of clarinets and develop swarm-like scenarios. At the same time, I thought of the 8 players as a kind of acoustic 8-channel-installation with the musicians surrounding the audience. This could be seen as an expansion of the stereo analogy we sometimes work with in The International Nothing. While The Nothin’ is all about developing a very personal language of new sounds with self-invented …

"Their differences intensify the soundscape. Francesca Gemmo provides a sensitive, contemplative, but deceptive lyricism, with memories of the wistful antique modes of Satie or Debussy’s impressionist palette twisted into shadowy subterranean echoes and knotted note clusters. Magda Mayas imaginatively extends Henry Cowell’s innovations of touch and timbre, alternately coaxing and attacking, releasing previously concealed phantom textures, percussive episodes, near-electronic hues, and micro-alte…

500 copies. Folk unit originated in the Swedish underground Enhet för Fri Musik - featuring members of Sewer Election, Ättestupa, Neutral, Makthaverskan, and Blod - continually re-invent what music is about through free improvisation and lengthy folk meanderings. Embedded in the ever exciting Swedish underground scene, Enhet För Fri Musik continue the quest for innovation numerous legendary Swedish bands started during the '70s - such as, Pärson Sound, Trad Gras Och Stenar, and Arbete Och Fritid…

Yara Asmar’s new album, “everyone I love is sleeping and I love them so so much”, presents 11 pieces recorded over the past year between the small town of Alfred in upstate New York and Beirut. These sometimes fragile and tentative sound sketches reflect the times as Yara steps out, as if onto ice, into a new life on a new continent. She works with unfamiliar instruments, new materials and new sounds to build on her intimate style; homemade mechanical music boxes and a personal archive of family…

2003 release ** Featuring: Thomas Lehn, Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama, Günter Müller, Christof Kurzmann, Taku Sugimoto, Keith Rowe, Marcus Schmickler, Otomo Yoshihide, Burkhard Stangl, Sachiko M, Cosmos. "A document of the 2002 Amplify festival in Tokyo curated by Erstwhile's Jon Abbey. Disc 1 and 7 are smaller club shows that took place outside the Festival proper, disc 2 is a studio session that took place around the time of the festival and discs 3-6 feature eight of the twelve sets that…

Dark Kitchen, the latest collaboration from Tom Jackson and Daniel Thompson, emerges as a striking exploration of sound and emotion. Released through Confront Recordings, a label renowned for adventurous and boundary-pushing music, this album exemplifies the duo’s deep commitment to improvisation and sonic innovation. From haunting textures to dynamic interplay, Dark Kitchen offers listeners a richly layered experience that challenges the conventional boundaries of modern music. Jackson and Thom…

Confront Recordings proudly presents Towers of Silence, an evocative new album by acclaimed artists Don Malfon and Vasco Trilla. This release explores sonic landscapes that blur the boundaries between experimental jazz and ambient improvisation, inviting listeners into a deeply immersive auditory experience. On Towers of Silence, Malfon and Trilla weave intricate textures and haunting melodies, crafting a soundscape both intense and contemplative. Their masterful interplay demonstrates a profoun…

Long-awaited duo, assembled over a period of two years as a result of file exchanges between Manchester UK and Austin Texas between 2010 an 2012. Four tracks of powerful electro-acoustic composition from two like-minded musicians who have never met in person. 'This fascinating album manifests both the frustration and invention that can emerge from inter-continental collaboration. It is an album of sacrifice  one that subsumes existent tendencies into the creation of a whole beyond individ…

“Scratching at the Surface” is a new collaboration from Erin Rogers and Kelsey Mines. This collection of striking vignettes dives deep into sonic exploration, weaving together powerful low-end resonance and shimmering high tones. Inspired by the sea’s raw energy and quiet beauty, Rogers and Mines craft a mesmerizing soundscape of undulating rhythms, bold textures, and immersive mystery.

Redshifts marks the debut collaboration between artists Zeena Parkins and Cecilia Lopez. Recorded in January 2025, the album features a striking interplay between two singular instruments: Parkins’ self-invented electric harp and Lopez’s RED—a large-scale, handwoven electronic instrument made from speaker wire. This collection of pieces captures a vivid sonic dialogue between Parkins’ masterful, expressive performance and López’s sculptural approach to sound and instrument design. These are one-…

Friendships and musical ties that are born unpredictably and are woven through distance, allowed the fortuitous encounter of Tarabita Espiral. A trio made up of Colombian saxophonist and clarinetist Maria Valencia, Puerto Rican NY- based double bassist Brandon López and NY-based vibraphonist Matt Moran. These three vibrant artists eschew traditional roles to sculpt a musical landscape of restless motion and textural dissonance. Valencia’s reeds seethe and spiral, channeling both fractured lyrici…