Experimental / Free Improvisation

*100 copies limited edition* "Dig Up Roots" is a document of a live performance at Tokyo Arts and Space on July 1, 2022. Ryosuke Kiyasu plays snare drum and table, presenting an extreme and cathartic relationship with physical surfaces and their characteristic tolerances, as exploited with wood, hands, and body. Notably the distinctive acoustics of the space can be felt deeply throughout the performance, not to mention the overblown recording. The space’s container is audible, fluctuating, and s…

2014 release ** "The three pieces presented by Borg (piano) and Nørstebø (trombone) are spellbinding explorations of the low tone. Three pieces but they segue into one another effortlessly and, with the possible exception of slight variation in pitch (and I'm not even sure of that) are pretty much indistinguishable from each other unless I missing some subtle pattern shift. The sounds are all low and sustained--bottom of the keyboard piano and extremely low trombone (the disc says, simply, "trom…

*2024 stock* "Recorded back in 2019, in Newcastle upon Tyne, “Skinwalker” is a collaboration between noisy British punk band Bruxa Maria and Norwegian trio MoE. Between these two acts, fireworks might be expected to fly constantly but “Skinwalker” turns out more restrained and controlled than you’d expect. Four tracks, of which three exceed ten minutes, are on offer here, all of them brimming with caged fury and aggression which, if unleashed, could turn this recording into a tapestry of burning…

*2024 stock* "A lone voice rises over the booming rumble of the octobass, a large acoustic instrument resembling a double-bass, yet twice the height. The octobass’ unusually large stature lends itself to these haunting sounds, looming over this cacophonous reverberation like a specter of monstrosity. Another voice lightly ascends, and the two vocalizations coalesce as this musical foundation crumbles along, carried by the tapping of harmonium keys, swimming and dissonant.  This patient singing b…

2016 release ** Limited edition of 50 copies in folded card sleeve. Featuring: Å, Low-F, Giovanni Venosta, Al Doum & Fhe Faryds, Fracture, Luciano Margorani, Antonio Siniscalchi, Enten Hitti, Eternal Zio, Eugenio Sanna, Silvia Bolognesi, Roberto Del Piano.

"During 2019 Keith, Julie and myself had discussed the idea of a new Couple In Spirit album for Discus Music.  Rather than choosing one of the many possible live recordings of the duo, Keith and Julie were keen to make a new multi tracked studio recording, something they had not done for 30 years since their EG release.  The studio was booked for spring 2020, and the project was opened for advance subscriptions.  The New Year arrived, lockdown kicked in, Keith’s already fragile health deteriorat…

1994 release ** Cardboard sleeve. The album features fragments of concerts organised in 1999-2004 as part of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art's "Strefa" Program. The recordings come from collections of Dominik "Wolfram" Kowalczyk, Jarosław Żwirblis, Jarek Guła, Marcin Witkowski, and from the artists' archives - thanks to them for making them available. Featuring: Andrzej Załęski, Pavel Fajt, Anna Zaradny, Polwechsel, Bartek Qźniak, Robert Piotrowicz, Burkhard Stangl, Ruins, Ceza…

Abhorrent Expanse thrives on contradictions and draws strength from the muddled wastes between firm stylistic distinctions. The group conjures harrowing visions of the descent into true hysteria, abstracting the familiar hallmarks of extreme metal into ancient soliloquies intoned in forgotten tongues. Tectonic grinding, relentless needling, and claustrophobic encapsulation give way to violent flashes, pangs of dripping saturation, and wildly unnerving murmurs. Following the release of their debu…

Whisker is a duo consisting of modular synthesist Ben Baker Billington and bassist Andrew Scott Young. These are two space cadets who have emerged from the burned-out basements and sweaty lofts of the midwest noise scene to become leading figures in the Chicago music community. Billington has mastered trippertronics under his Quicksails project and provided tactile drum work to the pivotal Chicago industrial collective ONO, while Young’s bass playing has graced records by Ryley Walker, Circuit d…

*2025 stock* Carol Genetti and Peter Maunu’s music might best be described as genre bending, stream of consciousness, improvised spontaneous composition. Drawing on elements from the second Viennese School is as natural and organic as a contrasting modal, folk inspired melody, albeit with a deranged noise accompaniment. Investigations of delicate sounds might be interrupted by abstractions of animal voices. Quick reflexes determine sudden directional shifts, allowing the music to adapt to its ne…

*2025 stock* "Macrodose" marks Bill Harris's third solo record, following "Blinking Glue" (2022) and "Onomat" (2021). Harris's unique approach to solo drumming combines acoustic and electronic elements, utilizing feedback and timbral manipulation to create a distinctive auditory experience. Where Blinking Glue was a single-take, live performance which represented a snapshot of his live solo set, Macrodose returns to a similar format of Onomat, encapsulating shorter sonic spaces in a number of di…

"Here’s a duo called Cyanobacteria, consisting of Francesco Gregoretti (drums) and Renato Gricco (double bass), teaming up one day in September 2016 with Carl Ludwig Hübsch, a well-known improviser playing the tuba. The duo has a similar background, even if I only heard of Gregoretti before. The five tracks span fifty-two minutes and form an on-going exploration of ideas, textures and all of that within the world of improvisation. It is a meeting of like-minded people, with one foot in a more tr…

*2023 stock* Asian Meeting Featival" rose to the highest recent years. This is the studio recordings CD, finally put out via doubtmusic. Amazing musicians / artists from each country in Asia gathered in Tokyo, they played powerful improvisations under directions by dj sniff and Yuen Cheewai. We recorded, selected and edited them for completed the CD. We would like you to fell splender Asian improvisation and experimental music. This CD will be expected all over the world !!! The Asian Meeting Fe…

** 2021 Stock ** The drum duo "Dada Rhythm" was formed in 2008 by Uzamashi Okamoto and Kasei Yamada, and since 2018 they have changed their name to "Dinarzum", and also work as "Nichientai", playing only seven cymbals. The duo creates a tapestry of syncopated movements where inorganic and tribal organic qualities, which are similar to minimal electroacoustics, intertwine in a dense way. Rhythmelogic was recorded on April 16, 2016 at their base of activity, Shin-Imamiya Nchichi Building, and was …

The legendary double bass master is not appearing in our catalogue for the first time, but for the first time we have the honour of publishing music that has not appeared on Paul Rogers' albums many times before. A recital for solo double bass! If one could wish for the bass to speak, we believe that it does so most fully and poignantly when played by this wonderful master.

*2025 stock* Normil Hawaiians had a transformative 1982. With two 7” singles and a 12” EP under their belts they suddenly found themselves disillusioned with the increasingly generic sounds surrounding them, so they forced the hand of change and began reaching out with that very hand. The band’s true constant in Guy Smith soon found himself with a new crew of musicians, Simon Marchant, Noel Blanden and Mark Tyler. Normil Hawaiians’ communal take on post punk quickly sprouted leaves from its mout…

'Solo Acoustic Guitar Improvisations VII' is volume 7 in a series Dirk Serries is recording in honor of the Höfner archtop guitars.  A few years ago Dirk fell in love with the acoustic guitar and specifically the Höfner brand for its specific and unique harsher sound their vintage archtop guitars hold.  It's definitely far away from Dirk's electric constructions but at the same the acoustic approach is merely another way for him to express his fascination for sound in particular and how you can …

Recorded June 2023 at the Loundry Room, Hückelhoven Germany.Recorded, mixed and mastered by Peter Koerfer at the Unknown, Döhr Germany. Dirk Serries : guitarJörg A. Schneider : drums

"Long-time collaborators and iconoclastic improvisers, drummer Eddie Prévost and saxophonist John Butcher, met at All Hallows Church, in High Laver, Essex in 2023, using the natural ambience of the space to capture these three improvisations, Prévost playing primarily on a drum kit and both in a more jazz-oriented sax and drum duo, extended by both players' exceptional technique." - squidco.com

"In 2022, Eddie Prévost celebrated his 80 th birthday with the series Towards a Bright Nowhere, a series of July concerts at Café Oto that appeared as both a series of four CDs and a documentary. These two CDs document later duo performances from October 2022 to June 2023 with French pianist Marjolaine Charbin, apparently a recent association, and saxophonist John Butcher, a longtime creative partner. Each emphasizes a different dimension of Prévost’s creativity. He’s credited with percussion on…

AMM collaborates with Sachiko M on Testing (Matchless Recordings), documenting sessions between the British collective and the Japanese sound artist. The work explores intersections of improvised acoustic techniques and sine wave electronics, presenting careful negotiations between established experimental practices and minimalist electronic intervention.

2016 release ** Cardboard sleeve.

This album was recorded at Liu Ying Studio in Shenzhen. An improvised session on acoustic guitar from start to finish, it nonetheless demonstrates a highly original, coherent artistic conception: a distinct “Oriental” aesthetic redefined by Mamer’s own creative vision. In tracks like “Sleepless”, “Man from the East”, and “Backyard”, Mamer ingeniously deconstructs and deploys traditional Han Chinese music scales to serve his own purpose, adding artful ambivalence and rich subtleties to an unmista…

*2024 stock* This series of reel-to-reel tape recordings, to be jointly released by Old Heaven Books and Liu Ying Studio, aims to offer to our listeners the best quality of sound we can achieve so far. Whilst a small part of these releases come from historical archives, the majority are freshly made by musicians we invite to our studio. We record these studio sessions − some of which free-improvised, others more composition-based − on reel-to-reel tapes. With high-quality studio equipment, we ma…

Maxed out and burning hot nasty, Electric Rag brings together the electric organs, electronics and alto sax of Jean-Luc Guionnet, with the closely amplified drums and percussion of Will Guthrie. After years of playing together in the minimalist pointillist free jazz noise core trio ‘The Ames Room’ (with Clayton Thomas on bass) Electric Rag offers up  another point of view on a musical history of nearly 15 years of playing together. The 8 titles of Electric Rag draw on their various experience in…

First time meeting of Sam Wenc (US/pedal steel + objects) and Stefano Grasso (Milan/percussion + recorder). The record is one take, broken into 10 tracks, exploring the boundaries of the rhythmic grid, never quite landing inside it, but hovering on its perimeter, through extended technique, melody, and disharmony.

Pat Thomas, Tony Orrell, and Dominic Lash, known as Bleyschool, here perform as Lifeline, swapping acoustic for electric instruments in a spontaneous blend of noise, dance, and rock—exploring new sounds while maintaining deep musical rapport.

Molly Raben's In the Kingdom of Flowers arrives as one of the year's most revelatory debuts - a breathtaking collection of solo organ improvisations that reimagines one of music's most ancient instruments through the lens of contemporary experimental practice. Released by Pennsylvania's Love's Devotee label in a limited edition of 300 copies, this remarkable album showcases Raben's extraordinary technical prowess alongside her deep understanding of the organ's mechanics, history, and social cont…

Rotations+ is a trio project of Sven-Ake Johansson with German turntablist Ignaz Schick and Austrian trumpeter Franz Hautzinger recorded live at the beloved Berlin experimental venue KM28 in September of 2023. The collective improvisations are instilled with a deep interest in color and timbre, and each track offers a fresh perspective. While Johansson toggles to accordion on the album’s final track, squeezing tender lines alongside Hautzinger’s moody brass and Schick’s scratch-pocked layer of w…

Formed 29 years ago (1996) by Nate Young, Wolf Eyes is currently a duo generally characterized as "noise," though they have called themselves "psycho jazz" (among other things). Extremely prolific, they have literally hundreds of releases and are a towering presence in underground music. Saxophonist Anthony Braxton was an early member of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and has won a MacArthur and been named an NEA Jazz Master, though his work is hardly confined t…

A double LP of acid-drenched improvisation, Improvisations January 1997 finds the GOL Orchestra and the now-defunct Telinga Ensemble navigating the outer limits of psychedelic sound and collective creation.

Bruxelles unites GOL, Mik Quantius (of Embryo), and Dave Nuss (No-Neck Blues Band) for a wild, improvisational journey blending art rock, krautrock, and avant-garde experimentation.

Australian supergroup with Oren Ambarchi, Brendan Walls and Nicholas Kamvissis.

Instant Coffee! is a playful, genre-defying romp through experimental pop, noise, and improvisation, with Instant Coffee channeling the DIY spirit of The Residents and the irreverence of Half Japanese.

CD3 transform familiar sounds into primordial folk art with Rules For Living. The duo's melted reconfiguration of popular styles creates mysteriously ahistorical music - ancient yet pertinent, stripped to skeletal essence.

*2023 stock. 200 copies limited edition* This is one in a trilogy of live recordings made at Ftarri, Tokyo, documenting some of guitarist/improviser Tetuzi Akiyama's outstanding performances of 2021. The CD releases feature covers drawn by artist Shigeo Mizuta. The two tracks on this CD, each around 25 minutes in length, were recorded at Akiyama's duo concert with electronics player Leo Okagawa at Ftarri on June 21, 2021. Okagawa is known for releases on overseas labels of many collage works usi…

*200 copies limited edition* Kobe-based musician Haco is a vocalist and composer who also plays electronics, keyboard, guitar and percussion. Since she launched her musical activities in the early 1980s as a member of the band After Dinner, Haco has been a dazzling presence on the Japanese and international pop/rock/experimental music scenes through her work as solo artist and member of numerous bands as well as collaborations with many musicians.In spring 2002, Haco undertook her first North Am…

The year 2022 was the 10th anniversary of the opening of Ftarri’s physical store in Suidobashi, Tokyo. To mark this milestone, several solo concerts by musicians with whom Ftarri has had close ties since the time of its predecessor, Improvised Music From Japan, were held in the Ftarri store performance space in autumn 2022. The musician who performed on October 3 was Otomo Yoshihide. That day Otomo planned to play turntable only, but when he spotted the store’s harmonium, he had the idea of usin…

*2023 stock. 300 copies limited edition* Guitarist John Russell, a leading figure on Britain's improvised music scene, passed away on January 19, 2021. Born in December 1954, Russell started performing improvised music in London in his late teens, and for many years he toured and gave concerts not only in the UK and Europe but throughout the world. Known as a Japanophile, Russell traveled to Japan for the first time in 2001, and subsequently visited the country many times, including as recently …

''Beingness is the source of inspiration which moves silence towards its manifestations as form in sound. Each gesture animates in the infinite space between thought and non-thought awareness. The fluidity of spontaneous sonic projections reflect the esssential being of nature, which is change'' - Adam Rudolph ''A voyage from the Corner to the Cosmos. As the tracks titles reveal, there's a connection to the authentic spiritual search and devotional imperative in jazz that goes all the way back t…