Experimental / Free Improvisation

Tip! Recorded on their European tour in October 2022, this is the first release from the trio of Jason Kahn, Franzt Loriot and Christian Wolfarth.

Rachika Nayar’s fragments is a collection of sonic miniatures constructed from guitar loops and in the familiar comforts of her own bedroom. First released as a limited edition cassette by RVNG Intl’s Commend THERE imprint in 2021, fragments (expanded) adds an entire new side of previously unreleased music to the collection, which has been newly mastered by Rafael Anton Irrisari. While growing up and developing a relationship with the instrument and her capabilities, using delay pedals to improv…

Rhythm Ace & Slingerland, a co-production by Ni Vu Ni Connu and Galerie Max Hetzler, is one of numerous collaborations between longstanding friends Oehlen and Johansson, following from their 2003 album Shotgun Wedding, also featuring Mayo Thompson of Red Krayola. This album explores how art infuences music and vice versa – a question often explored in Oehlen’s work. The idea originated from Johansson’s visit to the artist’s studio in 2018. Oehlen showed the drummer his collection of rhythm machi…

"It’s unfortunately rare for an improviser, especially in a solo context, to concentrate on one idea, a single angle of attack, and to work that idea deeply, to discover hidden jewels within a relatively “narrow” range and further, to surprise the listener with unexpected divergencies. Agnas, in the three selections from a live event presented here, does this beautifully. On ‘1992’, he places his guitar on his lap and approaches it as a kind of dulcimer, generating a strong and captivating rhyth…

*2023 stock* "Railing backstage at his musicians between sets, drummer and big band leader Buddy Rich once declared, “There’s no sound in flutes. All I hear is noise!” It’s unclear if Alex Riva ever listened to these covertly made recordings of Rich chewing out his band. But if he had, Rich’s words certainly could have been the rallying cry on Riva’s new solo CD, Solos and More, recorded in Bangalore, India in 2019. Riva plays a wide variety of plastic recorders, the bane of many parents worldwi…

Outstanding violinist and improviser from Serbia Szilard Mezei in his latest studio recording! Alongside him on double bass are Zoltan Zoltán Csányi and percussion painter from Catalonia Vasco Trilla.

** Hand-numbered limited edition to 500 copies, contains 64-page book with credits, notes and photos.  200 copies in english version. Slight wear due to storage, reduced price  ** Optical Musics is a pioneering Greek avant-experimental project, founded by Costis Drygianakis and a group of people, formed in Volos. They were early experimenting with musical forms like free improvisation and electroacoustic experimentation etc, creating a highly personal musical idiom. From 1984 to mid-1987 the gro…

* 250 copies limited edition *  “Espírito Santo” was recorded one October day in Lisbon in the cellar of the “Espírito Santo” building. Formerly a bank, this building had been empty many years and was recently opened again for artists to use as studio and exhibition space. The room we recorded in, resembling at first glance more a cave than a cellar, is remarkable for its acoustics. With eight-meter high ceilings, brick walls and concrete floor we found ourselves dealing with a very responsive s…

At the centre of this release are Vergette's Time and Tide bells: handmade instruments which create sound with the rising sea levels. One of the bells is ringing at any given time of day as the tide wraps around our coast, retreats and returns again. There are eight bells currently scattered across the UK's coasts, each existing as a democratic artwork owned by the local community. Sounds from these bells are collaged with field recordings from the coast and fragments of instrumental improvisati…

*Deadstock. Last 85 copies. In process of stocking* Très toxique is the first ever recording of Un Drame Musical Instantané as a trio, three weeks before Trop d’Adrénaline Nuit, but already a year and a half after Défense De by Birgé Gorgé Shiroc (Nurse With Wound List). On December 21, 1976, it was the first time the three musicians met together in the basement of Studio GRRR. They had no idea what they were going to play, but the session was full of energy. Jean-Jacques Birgé plays the ARP 260…

Ephemeralds is the first recording by Finn Loxbo’s new ensemble Kommun and marks a distinct development in the guitarist’s compositional practice. Performing together with pianist Lisa Ullén, kontrabassist Vilhelm Bromander and percussionist Ryan Packard, Loxbo has set up a situation of intense focus, dissolving individual identities into a collective sound world of resolute clarity. Each musician manipulates a collection of tightly stipulated pitch material whilst bringing the shared timbral qu…

Edition of 50 copies. Collection of improvised and compositional pieces by Fukushima based guitar player. Saito Koji uses guitars, keyboards, effects and field recordings to create minimal sound collages and improvisations.

*100 copies limited edition. In process of stocking* Tsss Tapes presents Troca I​ô​nica by Abby Lee Tee and Philip Sulidae. These two musicians are quite active in the sound art/abstract music circuit, and this is the result of a long-distance collaboration between Austria and Australia, two long pieces of electronic sounds mixed with field recordings, all very calm and dotted here and there with microscopic details.

A powerful collision of musical personalities -- American saxophonist (and Dutch resident) John Dikeman invited avantgarde trumpeter Jaimie Branch, bassist Luke Stewart (Irreversible Entanglements) and drummer Aleksandar Skorić to form a new band project. This quartet presents its own definition of contemporary improvised jazz; with no distinct leader and with tight and supportive interplay, they demonstrate the independent musical voice of each own. Album cover by Jaimie Branch. Personnel: John…

*2023 stock* "I met Joëlle Léandre when she was a visiting professor at Mills college in 2002. This was very exciting, as I had been collecting her albums since I started to play the double bass and she was an important influence on my work. I had a bass lesson scheduled with her the day we lost Maestro Kowald. She was very close to him and it was devastating to her. For me, it meant losing a role model; for her, it was losing a close friend and supporter. We had a long phone conversation and sh…

*2023 stock* "There are some people who are very singular in their conception of improvisation. People whose music embodies them as much as they embody the music. People who take from their life experience and put it into their sonic practice. People who search every crevice of their instrument to find sonic potential. These practices are beyond what may or may not be learned at a conservatory, no matter how deep the teaching goes. Listening to these improvised moments between Sarah Ruth Alexand…

"Sights and sounds move from place to place with promiscuous gesture. Ships, airplanes, and churning whirlpools appeal more to mechanical economies than street feet sharing pulse rate interiorities. The people twist on metric rails. Oxygen converters reflect swinging diatonics. Blackouts resound. Triggers blackout pots, pans, tin cans, and appropriate Lydian roots, talking tanks, and time-sliced wildlife. By 1950, modernist cultural curdling sacrificed aesthetic convenience for intuitive product…

*2023 stock* "From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, Jerome & I toured & recorded with the great Wolfgang Fuchs. It was a formative experience for both of us. All titles are quotes by Fuchs. He was a constant source of wisdom and humor." - Damon Smith

"Applying to their utmost the timbres, textures and tessitura from the double bass and percussion, veteran drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses, and younger bassist Damon Smith play up the instruments' orchestral as well as rhythmic functions. Moses, whose career began in the 1960s, and Smith who has partnered numerous international improvisers have played together in larger groups. But as a duo none of the 14 tracks sound reductionist. That's because each uses his instrument to its utmost. Moses, as he d…

*2023 stock* "This recording is a modern interpretation of sound poems written and performed by German Dadaist Hugo Ball more than a century ago. Those familiar with Ball know him as the author of these innovative works and founder of the Cabaret Voltaire, Dada’s Zurich birthplace. Despite the sound poems’ artistic legacy, they constitute only a small part of Ball’s creative output. The purpose of these liner notes, then, is to consider the complex life and work of the man behind the sound poems…

*In process of stocking* "A double album of electroacoustic improv sessions from Sommerville, MA, centered around electronic artist Andrew Neumann on the Buchla Music Easel--a complex additive analogue synth--heard in quartet and trio sessions with Forbes Graham (trumpet), Sandy Ewen (guitar & objects), Junko Fujiwara (cello), Damon Smith (double bass) and Eric Rosenthal (drums & percussion). Neumann, also an artist, sculptor and installation artist, can be heard on the Driff album Bathysphere w…

*In process of stocking. 2023 stock "Lady Band (of Various Fruit Names) is an all-female experimental music ensemble founded by Sandy Ewen in 2009. Performances are singular, often site-specific events, featuring a rotating lineup (and different fruit-themed name for each show), with members contributing graphic and text-based scores for structured improvisation. Drawing parallels between Ewen's group and Scratch Orchestra, the 1960s-70s London experimental music ensemble Rowe was involved in, S…

Tip! *In process of stocking* "Two distinct session, the first CD presenting free improv trio perfomances in St. Louis, MO between Paul Hartsaw on soprano & tenor saxophones, Damon Smith on double bass and Jerome Bryerton on percussion, the 2nd CD finding Hartsaw and Smith in the studio in Oakland CA for a more experimental session, Smith adding laptop & field recordings and both employing extended techniques." - Squidco

"In this 3-CD set each disc contains one duo session between the three musicians: trombone-bass, piano-bass and piano-trombone. Recorded over the course of Bishop's last year of residency in Boston and soon after Smith had moved to St. Louis, these recordings capture a glimpse of the city's creative music scene at a particularly active time between 2016-22, when, the three musicians interacted frequently in many settings in the Boston area. The Smith/Bishop disc consists of all improvised music,…

*2023 stock* "Explorative improvisation, from mysteriously quiet moments to scrabbling and determined conversation, configured as trios and quintets by Rebecca Novak on piano, cornet, radio & glassware, Danny Kamins on baritone saxophone, Sandy Ewen on guitar, Damon Smith on double bass and Jerome Bryerton on percussion, all bringing unique moments through extended techniques, objects & radio. "Groundwater recharge is an important water management practice in California. ... Recharge can also h…

Entre Pliegos embarks on a quest through shared sonic ancestry to explore the immediacy of communication, invoking a mercurial, yet at times uplifting, musical environ. The drones and growls of low strings flow into explosive electronics, while ecstatic vocal spikes morph into rambunctious linear intertwinings that settle into an interminable, grating exhale. Chilean-based double bassist Amanda Irarrázabal and Brooklyn, NY-based pianist Eli Wallace crossed paths in the summer of 2019, where they…

*In process of stocking* Amgen presents Rhodri Davies's Dwa Dni. Titles borrowed from the works of Lisa Jarnot, Ed Luker, Nathaniel Mackey, Redell Olsen, Sun Ra, Nisha Ramayya, Sarah Riggs and Leslie Scalapino. Telyn clun MOGIC / MOGIC lap harp.

*In process of stocking* Austrian based collaborators of free jazz, improvisation and sound experiments releasing the long awaited debut album of Dry Thrust - the new project by the trio of German pianist and composer Georg Graewe, Martin Siewert (Radian, Trapist, Also) and Dieter Kern (DEK Trio, Bulbul, Fuckhead). Graewe, has since been leading a variety of ensembles since the early 80s - ranging from trio to chamber orchestra formats - which have involved some of the leading instrumentalists i…

*2023 stock* Un Drame Musical Instantané were founded in 1976, featuring Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé. Their aim was to promote collective musical creation, co-signing their albums, which they consider as artworks in themselves, or their live shows which they tried to renew every time they played. Their sound was created with many influences: They borrowed their sources from rock (synthesizer player Birgé and guitarist Gorgé, both authors of the album, Défense de); jazz (t…

Released in 1989. A few copies founded in the basement of the label. Michel Doneda (soprano saxophone), Daunik Lazro (alto saxophone), Lê Quan Ninh (percussion). “Here’s an exuberant early Session by three Artists who have become stalwarts of the European Free scene. Michel Doneda is by now almost a household name as a free improvisor considered by some one of the greatest living saxophonists. Lazro and Ninh le Quan , seem almost unjustly neglected by comparison. Le Quan in particular is one of …

Tip! *In process of stocking* Christine Abdnelnour and Andy Moor have explored the notion of hypnagogia or ‘Unprotected Sleep’ to drive their process for this improvised album, delving in their own experience and memories. Unprotected sleep is commonly defined as an altered state of consciousness that occurs beyond the proper or intended time of waking up, not sleeping in your own safe bed, or even sleeping without a blanket. Being slightly out of phase, one is vulnerable, fragile, but the mind …

Invoking imagery of a narrow, perhaps perilous passage, or its dual meaning, the back of the throat, musicians Amanda Irarrázabal and Miriam Ben Boer Salmón named their collaborative 10-track album, Fauces. In this recording, the duo plays with both concepts in a process of improvisation, creating fiercely lush landscapes, layered with texture, ragged hazy wood against strings. The soundscapes are sometimes imperceptible, shadowy horizons emerging from dim light, and rising, something threatenin…

*200 copies limited edition, CDr format* As an artist and a thinker, Massimo Magee has been consistently drawn towards patterns: traditions, lines of influence, schools and the unexpected intersections of each. This album, Toneflower, presents a solo programme, meditating on many of those concepts. As an entirely improvised set of pieces, it is also inspired by Anthony Braxton’s solo alto tradition and the larger solo saxophone canon. Similarly, it draws from Magee’s prior percussive experimenta…

"In the past two pandemic years we have experienced turmoil that has in a way redefined our relationship towards the human community as such. Our social skills and our ability to share the time and space with others have been seriously crippled, and in some instances made redundant. We have enclosed ourselves in safe spaces, usually in family units, stopped extensive travelling and meetings. The physicality of existence and of being with others changed to encompass different sanitary dispositive…

Tip! *50 copies limited edition. In process of stocking. 2023 stock* "Spectral Evidence (zero193) is a fabulacious piece of untamed, noisy, performance music. Slot this one into your toaster-cassette and you’ll be amazed that only two people are creating this enormous resonating vat of rattlement. Kris Limbach we know from the Emitter Micro label in Berlin. On that label, he’s been involved in some real puzzlers and heavy crunchers of abstract electronic blockery, none more puzzling than the two…

*In process of stocking* “Hermit Music is a collection of spontaneously composed pieces for the double bass and bow. From 2017-2019 I played a series of solo concerts in the US and Europe and wanted to capture the music I was creating at the time, so I planned to record in the Spring of 2020. Just before the Covid-19 pandemic began, my life had undergone some major changes and losses, but when New York shut down in March of 2020, I became deeply depressed and couldn’t bear to play my instrument …

QorusQoros is "outernational" free jazz madness from Lisbon trio Alförjs. It could as well be an ethnographic soundtrack from another planet as the trio of Mestre André (saxophone, electronics), Bernardo Álvares (contrabass), and Raphael Soares (drums) delve deep into the outer realms of what jazz/electronic music can sound like. Urban shamanism, magical practices, and ancient/future world views collide in unsuspecting ways on this out-there tape. A unique sound from a unique trio, Alförjs have …

*2023 stock* "Hello, hope you’re doing well. I just started a little project, and I’d like to invite you to participate. Not to worry, it won’t take up too much of your time. I’m asking drummers/percussionists to record a few short fills or phrases. It can be recorded by simple means; a hand-held recorder or even a phone will do just fine. These gathered recordings will be used as the ‘Lego bricks’ to build a series of short rhythmical collages with. It would be fantastic if you’d like to join t…

** Edition of 300 ** "Jeugdbrand is the voice (Dennis Tyfus) and the beat (Jeroen Stevens) of Antwerp. They perform a sparkling drama, a theatrical tragedy, marinated in our classic Antwerp anarchic sense of humor. Recorded at Joris Caluwaerts’ Finster Studios - a landmark in Belgian music. The music of Jeugdbrand reminds me a bit of the music of the late Ghédalia Tazartès - especially when it comes to reinterpreting and combining musical idioms - but trying to put a direct reference on this alb…

* Edition of 300. Lacquer cut at SST. Featuring cover artwork by Natália Trejbalová. * Riccardo La Foresta is a percussionist, composer and improviser based in Modena (Italy) whose interests range from improvisation and composition, sound performance and sound art. His research led him to use the drum as a wind instrument, drastically moving away from traditional drumming. Recorded by Lorenzo Abattoir’s microphone in a former industrial hangar now base to the OvestLab cultural center in Modena (…