Experimental / Free Improvisation

The trio of Neil Metcalfe, Philipp Wachsmann and Emil Karlsen has been working together as Spaces Unfolding since 2021. Created initially as a vehicle for acoustic exploration, the trio’s debut album ‘The Way We Speak’ was recorded in the acoustics of London’s St Mary’s Old Church. This time the trio is joined by Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (electronics), a practitioner offering multiple dialogues between instruments and electronics. Expanding on the initial idea of acoustic influence, the trio is…

Super Tip! The musical world of Sonorhc is oriented to collective improvisation and the research of tones; they create a sound full of invention, rich technically, made by many differents instruments which incorporated judiciously elements from the rock music, free-jazz, acid-psych, concrete, ethnic and experimental making them as one of the most atypical French Underground group, and seems somewhere more closer to the German “krautrock” bands like Between, Agitation Free, Deuter, Limbus 3, Dzya…

300 copies only! First-ever vinyl pressing of the band's inaugural EP, 'Sleepy Jazz for Tired Cats', featuring new artwork and mastering by Marta Salogni. Established in 2013 by Valentina Magaletti and Tom Relleen, the duo operated until 2020 as a creative laboratory for the London-based musicians to explore beyond their traditional musical endeavours. They sought to deconstruct their usual sonic frameworks, venturing into a novel and unfamiliar auditory landscape. Their work seamlessly integrat…

Big tip! Lunching into 2024 after after a stellar 2023, Week-End Records delivers one of their most important offerings to date, the first vinyl reissue of Fred Frith’s seminal 1974 solo debut, “Guitar Solos”, in more than 40 years, marking the album’s 50th anniversary. A groundbreaking work in the field of avant-garde recordings that changed everything in its wake, incorporating a startling range of sonorities and approaches within constrained means, to celebrate its half-century mark, Frith ha…

The stable Quartetto that pianist Davide Mosconi, saxophonist Enzo Gardenghi, percussionist Marco Cristofolini, and cellist and violinist Gustavo Bonora brought to life beginning in the late '60s constituted the core of what would, in the early years of the next decade, become the larger improvising ensemble NADMA. The group was also an elegant and accomplished expression of the musical objectives of its members. This music expresses the rich yields that Davide Mosconi cultivated from his explor…

200 copies only! First collaborative outing of the incredible Italian percussionist / drummer / multi instrumentalist Valentina Magaletti and the ever changing (or spinning) Belgian / Icelandic trio Jeugdbrand!2 side long tracks that beg for a spot on a newly published extension of the NWW list in all urgency, with different titles for maximum confusion. A percussive trip, topped by piles of tapes and a vocal mayonaise to slow down to. Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson’s (Stillupsteypa) tape collage wo…

On "Alene Et", Michaela Turcerová, a Copenhagen-based, Slovakia born musician, takes minutiae — the tiniest scrapes and breathiest hums — and distorts them into sprawling, collaged webs that barely resemble the instrument in its natural state. Each shard, when pieced together, makes a rhythmic, undulating sound born from the subtlest motions

Tip! *200 copies limited edition* 20 Year Anniversary! Since 2002, Berlin based musicians Tony Buck and Magda Mayas have been developing their duo music as SPILL — recording, touring and occasionally collaborating with international guests. Having spent the last 20 years establishing their unique approach to the piano and percussion combination, SPILL celebrates this milestone with the release of their 5th album mycelium, on Corvo Records as well as a series of concerts across Germany this comin…

Falter Bramnk, Philippe Lenglet (members of the Muzzix collective), and Samuel Bodart (Numero h.) have known each other for a long time, often crossing paths in various and diverse ensembles (always working with improvisation), but until now, never as a trio! A few years ago, they came together, and after a few concerts, they felt the desire to further develop their work and record it. For this project, they decided to blend plucked/struck strings (acoustic guitar surrounded and enhanced with a …

*In process of stocking* Following their first album, Dave Tucker (Guitar, Electronics), Pat Thomas (Piano & Keys), Thurston Moore (Guitar), and Mark Sanders (Drums & Percussion) decided to “guess again.” In March 2020, Tucker organized this group of musicians for an improvised performance at London’s Cafe Oto on a successful “educated guess.” Organized around a shared appreciation for improvisation and experimentation, that show resulted in the release of a two volume set. The first volume is a…

Tip! Picot is pleased to present the debut solo album by french percussionist Charles Dubois, inaugurating the label’s very first production. Charles Dubois has developed an all-terrain, rudimentary approach to percussion, blending wood, skins, bells, scrap metal, and other found objects. Entirely acoustic, this solo performance on augmented drums explores paradoxical spaces balanced between organic textures, improvised technoid patterns, mechanical movements, and raw sound materials. In this n…

A holy grail of free improvisation/spontaneous music reissued on vinyl for the first time in nearly 40 years, beautiful pressing housed in an elaborate silkscreen print, hand-numbered, and limited to 500 copies* Limpe Fuchs is a legend in the experimental music scene. In the late '60s, this percussionist drummed on self-made instruments, together with her then-husband Paul Fuchs, in the Ensemble Anima, working on the periphery of krautrock and free jazz. During that time, Limpe and Paul Fu…

Tip! A series of ghostly ink drawings and scanographs by eRikm, accompanied by a mixed sound piece, with sound texts freely inspired by fragments of stories about the universe of the Yokai, these ghosts and supernatural creatures that inhabit Japanese mythology, between hypnotizing soundscapes and bewitching instrumental devices. "Or bringing out the invisible, summoning ghosts. Having, to my knowledge, never encountered any ghost or other ectoplasm, the idea of representing some of them in grap…

*300 copies limited edition.* An Island Is An Island is a correspondence musical project of two respectable islanders, Michael Morley (of The Dead C, based on Te Wai Pounamu / South Island, New Zealand) and Joachim Nordwall (Ideal Records, Island of Brännö, Sweden).Two tracks touching the 40 minutes mark are as unique as it can get, magical and just sort of hard to define folktale of hypnagogic dream landscapes full of haunting micro tones and fragments of cursed melodies.While listening to this…

The meeting of AMM guitarist Keith Rowe with Burkhard Beins on percussion, two studio sessions and one live recording, sparse and subtle improv of the highest standard.

*100 copies limited edition* Selection of eight moments of cybernetic self-hypnosis, observe a tiny point and enter it. Associate sound impressions and abstract emotions, Nocola Henry's laboratory avatar.

Temporary Super Offer!  "I ask how CALATO's use of graphic scores help them break down the divisions between  contemporary composition and improvisation? “We started as a noise improvisation band,” they respond. “We spent several years playing together without any kind of parts or scores, just working deeply on listening to each other, reacting and generating a kind of togetherness that made it possible to create live music in a very fast and intuitive way.” Then they started investigating diffe…

Tip! Here's the last will and testament of Usurper. The final curtain on two decades of heroic toil in the experimental/noise/improv/no-audience underground. Over the course of their twenty year existence, Usurper developed into one of the most original and uncompromising groups to emerge from the early 2000's sub-sub underground, always pushing themselves (and audiences) to new territory. They were fearlessly experimental, with seemingly limitless reserves of creativity. Their performances were…

Ted Byrnes is a drummer/percussionist living in Los Angeles. An alumnus of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, he comes from a jazz background and has since made his home in the worlds of free improvisation, new music, electro-acoustic music, and noise. Ted primarily works in ad hoc improvisational settings, but has long standing improvisational groups including duos with Jeff Parker, Chris Cooper, Charlie Mumma, Sam McKinlay, William Hutson, and a trio with Jacob Wick and Michael Foster…

A Bright Nowhere - Journeying Into Improvisation is an important audio-visual record of a landmark series of four concerts staged in London in 2022 when more than 30 musicians joined improviser, percussionist and animateur Eddie Prévost to mark his 80th birthday. The film takes a close look at improvisers who create music in the moment, free from the authority of a composer, score or conductor. Ranging from profound delicacy to subversive atonality, the “awkward wealth” of this music raises vita…

*80 copies limited edition* Recorded in autumn 2022 in the Baraque district, Louvain-La-Neuve (BE) edited and mixed at Atoma by Célia Jankowski & Valentin Noiret. Text side A taken from the children's catalogue of the first exhibition of Jean-Marie Massou's work at the Musée Arts et Marges in Brussels.

*75 copies limited edition* The unearthing of a song as a communal ritual, speaks of an intention that no longer sees itself but simply sees. “el rostro descubierto” embraces this way of seeing. Through streams of autonomy, impulse, and idiosyncratic sensibilities, the quartet coalesces around a commitment to the rigor of exploration and inquiry. The result is a collection of songs that reflect vulnerability, patience and care while exuding a binding trust in the process of collective creation. …

*Limited to 100 copies* "On the solo bagpipe release "Air Drain" Henry Birdsey (Half of Tongue Depressor) creates deep, haunting pieces that entrance the listener. Simple forms that evolve with breath and time."

*Limited to 70 copies* "Electric Shahi Baaja and Gaz recordings from southern France. Pushing out towards the reaches of stringed-instrument technique. Playing with structure and typical/a-typical sound. Based in tradition processed to confuse." - Sound Holes

*Limited to 100 copies* "This is the good stuff. Metal objects and lap steel guitar. Inhale deeply" - Sound Holes

*Limited to 100 copies* "Al Jones and Zach Rowden played a series of gigs down the west coast of Canada & the US last year. Here are a couple of those tape mangled sets." - Sound Holes

*Limited to 60 hand-numbered copies* "Ali Robertson used to be an improviser but he's not anymore. Ask him for the score for this tape so that you can play along at home." - Sound Holes

*Limited to 100 hand-numbered copies* "This is the first recording in 10 years after a hiatus of activities asBurried Machine, and also be the first release under my real name, Shin Chida. This is a collaboration release with Tom Karlsson who is a Swedish artist and also experimental musician, for the second time since my last release as Burried Machine in 2013, Stoned Mirror." - Shin Chida

De L’Angle Mort Trio is Claire Bergerault, Patrick Charbonnier & Lionel Marchetti. The three musicians collaborate for the first time as a trio. Their music explores new aspects of electroacoustic music, combining improvisational musical techniques with live electronics and dance music forms. “Aigue – Marine” consists of three compositions based on voice, electronics, accordion, and rhythmic elements. Claire Bergerault, Patrick Charbonnier & Lionel Marchetti improvise in a spontaneous way, creat…

Recorded in May of 2002, almost a year after Fennesz' surprisingly successful (commercially) release, Endless Summer, one might have expected that this pairing would produce an intriguing collision of opposing forces. On the one hand you have all the pop-influenced, steamily melodic and erotic explorations that Fennesz had developed in the prior years. Countering that, one could readily imagine Keith Rowe as saboteur, finding rifts in the smooth mass to deviously penetrate and deflate. This does…

Full Spectrum Records hails the coming end of winter with a mighty new work from Darcy Spidle’s long-running chik white moniker: ‘Wind Wound.’

Tip! Jean-Luc Guionnet & Jean-philippe Gross - AngleElectric surgery & saxophone hypnosis.Mental fusion & mountain structures.United forces, eyes in hands.Free 2024 tips: buy two copies and recreate your own psychoacoustics beats at home to impress the whole crowds during parties.

Led by his childhood experience, Jorge Queijo prints memories of travels and paths on the album themes with no limits in the discovery of new spaces and sound possibilities of the instruments used.

*2024 stock. 150 copies limited edition*  Susana Santos Silva: Trompete, Flauta Irlandesa, Caixa De MúsicaJorge Queijo: Bateria, PercussãoCarlos Guedes: Electrónicas Convidado Especial: João Menezes – Electrónica on “Desert Rush” Gravado na NYU, Abu Dhabi, 2017, por Sami NacachMasterização: Miguel CarvalhaisCapa: SupercobraDesign: Jettoki DB

Raw sounds from spontaneous playing, singing, and shouting by children aged 5 to 7, recorded on various occasions at home and in public spaces. They use (sometimes brutalising) pianos and synths, electric and acoustic guitars, percussion instruments of all kinds, analogue gear such as radios, vacuum cleaners, and old TVs, as well as anything else they can lay their hands on.

*200 copies limited edition* In 2019, ‘porous structures’ was released, the first album by the quartet Machtelinckx/Badenhorst/Cools/Gouband. The album won the Klara for ‘Best Belgian Jazz CD’. In September 2024, ‘porous structures II’ will be released, a new album by a quartet led by Ruben Machtelinckx, this time in the company of Fredrik Rasten, Frederik Leroux and again Toma Gouband. What remains is the choice for acoustic and fragile sounds, comprehensible to the listener but with an underly…

Carla Boregas is a Brazilian musician, composer and sound artist. By merging synthetic and acoustic instrumentation and techniques, Boregas builds up sonic scenarios driven by an invisible force, where the sensation of presence and discovery lies between density and delicacy. Her work spans composition, improvisation, performance, sound installation and radio art, and aims to transport the listener to different subjective perspectives of time and space, to invoke memories and to reflect about th…

"Surrealistic games helped us to compose this album: the collective collage in the two longest pieces of the album, the exquisite corpse in the central short pieces, and in all, the automatic writing whose musical equivalent could well be free improvisation. In the scorching heat of a Valencian August, we raised two electric totem poles. Dr Truna's took the form of his cosmic bull, a great roaring and improvising sculpture; mine, equipped with blowers, was made for the occasion and then dismantl…

Since emerging in the early 1980s the French bassist, composer, and vocalist Joëlle Leandre has ignored the gaps between improvised and composed music, jazz and new music, inventively braiding post-Cagean concepts with the free jazz ferment she witnessed first-hand growing up in Paris. Accordion master and fellow countryman Pascal Contet was initially rooted in contemporary music, helping to bring it back as a viable, versatile instrument in experimental music, but throughout his long career he’…

Flute, harp, drums: a rare combination that this trio turns upside down. In the wake of John Zorn's experiences on the borders of jazz and noise, the collaboration between Delphine Joussein, Rafaëlle Rinaudo and Blanche Lafuente aims at pushing their instruments beyond their limits, with the enthusiasm of a mad scientist... It is no coincidence that the three musicians, considered the missing link between Nirvana and Sun Ra, have already aroused a big curiosity and are constantly touring accross…