Experimental / Free Improvisation

Double bassist and composer Henry Fraser announces the release of Pneuma, a new solo album out June 12 on Kou Records and recorded, mixed, and co-produced by Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Jóhann Jóhannsson) and Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Marc Ribot). Across eight concise movements, Fraser explores breath, resonance, and the evolving relationship between composition and improvisation, shaping an intimate sonic landscape in which the double bass seems to inhale, bloom into overtones, and dissolve back int…

Tip! Man Eating Tree is the first solo album by Belgian-born, Oslo-based pianist Jonas Cambien. On prepared piano and electric organ, Cambien channels a soundscape of meditative repetition and oscillating rhythms. Cambien's background is dappled with diversity. While training in classical piano at the Conservatory of Brussels, he focused on contemporary repertoire. This would deeply shape his playing and ensuing projects, largely in Norway, where Cambien has embedded himself as a pillar of Oslo’…

On Electric Garden, Sissy Spacek and Smegma blur into a single, unstable organism, trading identities inside a live electro‑acoustic tangle where tape, junk percussion, turntables and guitar debris drift through The Pink House like sentient interference.

On Geometric Reason, Sissy Spacek reroute their long‑running extremism into a jagged strain of musique concrète, splicing voice, electronics and acoustic shards into a volatile collage charged by fire‑displacement, Japanese connections and their enduring taste for rupture.

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the first vinyl reissue of Disappointment–Hateruma, the 1976 ALM Records release by percussionist Toshi Tsuchitori and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The album is notable as Sakamoto's first recording issued under his own name and represents one of the few occasions he explored fully improvised music during the 1970s. It provides a vital document for understanding Sakamoto's early development as a composer and performer, capturing a period when he was experimenting with …

** 2026 Repress ** First released in 2016 and long out of print, Hubris has come to feel like a pivot in Oren Ambarchi’s catalogue - the moment when his fascination with groove, repetition and ensemble friction finally detonated into something both overwhelming and weirdly precise. This new edition gives that record the sonic treatment it always deserved. Working from the original mixes, mastering engineer Joe Talia revisits the album with what can only be called forensic care, teasing out layer…

On Revolutionary Pekinese Opera, Ground Zero - under the ferociously precise direction of Otomo Yoshihide - detonates a cut‑and‑splice orchestra where free improv, noise, opera and plunderphonics collide with undimmed urgency.

Sound fragments unfold across Zurich, making loss, memory, and cultural change physically and acoustically perceptible. In The Rhythm of Design, Zurich-based fine arts duo Michael Meier & Christoph Franz explore urban displacement and its impact on the local music scene.Focusing on six venues that have disappeared or are under threat, the artists collected materials on site—wood, metal, and other architectural elements—and, with the support of professional instrument builders, transformed them i…

London-based musician Luke Cowan returns with SPRiNG!, a release that trades the slow-blooming architectures of Six Places for something more immediate, loose-limbed and provisional. Conceived as the first in a planned seasonal cycle, it documents a moment of emergence: music produced quickly, instinctively, under a set of self-imposed constraints. SPRiNG! begins with Walworth Road, composed in a single sitting in February 2025, built from a tentative improvisation on a sanza acquired in a South…

** Split 7”, Edition of 100 machine numbered copies w inlays ** Unexpected but needed split 7” between the Swedish tape loop & analog synth trio Organ of Corti and San Francisco guitar master Bill Orcutt! The OOC track is a dive deeper into their rather confusing, psychedelic and eternal sound. A true creeper. Orcutt is doing a repetitive guitar attack which is a very addictive piece. So, warning.Organ of Corti was formed in 2022 by Dan Johansson (Sewer Election, Enhet för Fri Musik), Mattias Gu…

*20 copies limited edition* Melantónia presents its first album on the label, a concept LP produced in Matera and inspired by the rock sedimentation process in which the southern Italian city was built. Strata is an experimental electronic music composition combining electro-acoustic improvisation with cutting-edge sound design. This daring project brings together a collective of accomplished musicians and sound designers, who have crafted an immersive auditory experience, building upon the iter…

Invited in September 2011 by sound engineer Philippe Teissier du Cros, double bassist Bruno Chevillon spent two days improvising alone in the Lutheran Protestant Church of Bon Secours in Paris. The building is as much a protagonist as the player — its acoustics shaping every bow stroke, every silence. Twelve tracks traverse extremes: commanding attacks that send sonorities boomeranging through the nave, hushed melodic arcs, raucous physical confrontations with the instrument's body, and the exis…

Julia Eckhardt is a musician and organiser in the field of the sonic arts, a founding member and artistic co-director of Q-O2 workspace in Brussels—a laboratory for experimental music and sound art—and co-director of the Oscillation festival. She received training as a classical viola player and worked in various ensembles and orchestras, including the National Orchestra of Belgium, before founding Q-O2 in 1995 with a few friends to play contemporary music and practice improvisation. Brussels ar…

With Dans-sons as we are, Audrey Lauro, Christian Pruvost and Peter Orins deliver an album shaped by subtle shifts, restrained tensions and slow transformations of sound matter. A music of listening as much as gesture, where each intervention seems to open a new space rather than occupy the previous one. Brought together through a shared practice of free improvisation, the three musicians develop a collective language that is both dense and constantly in motion. The trio never seeks spectacular …

In collaboration between Christian Marclay and the London Sinfonietta, some of the world’s most renowned contemporary musicians have been invited to stage performances, including new compositions and live improvisation sessions inside the White Cube. Each performance over the course of the exhibition will be recorded, pressed and screen-printed live inside the gallery. This performance is from Roger Turner.Roger Turner has been working as an improvising drummer and percussionist since the…

In collaboration between Christian Marclay and the London Sinfonietta, some of the world’s most renowned contemporary musicians have been invited to stage performances, including new compositions and live improvisation sessions inside the White Cube. Each performance over the course of the exhibition will be recorded, pressed and screen-printed live inside the gallery. The second performance is with Laurent Estoppey.Laurent Estoppey divides his life between the United States and Switzerland. As …

Live performances from Elaine Mitchener and Steve Beresford. Recorded live at White Cube on 28th and 1st March 2015. Sleeve artwork by Christian Marclay. Screen printing by Coriander Studio. Hand pressed on The Vinyl Factory Press at White Cube, Bermondsey.Christian Marclay’s exhibition at White Cube and the London Sinfonietta, some of the world’s most renowned contemporary musicians have been invited to stage performances, including new compositions and live improvisation sessions inside the Wh…

This tape is the culmination of a series of collaborative performances between Kevin Coleman and J.W. Bird that took place in the latter half of 2024. It is meant to encapsulate the spirit and energy of those performances; spontaneous and communicative. Musical conversations between banjo and fiddle that left no language off the table. A great combination of elements from avant-garde classical, to American Traditional/Primitive, and free improv, exploring improvisational spaces of widely varied …

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.

“Selections from the Gutter” brings NYC saxophonist Michael Foster with the longstanding rhythm section of Swiss bassist Christian Weber (of Sudden Infant), and German drummer Michael Griener, a longtime fixture of the Berlin scene. The trio brings shocking, visceral energy to a distinct structural awareness; drawing suspense from form in each of the David Goodis-inspired titles. This is improvised music digging deep into a shared sense of history, form, and drama.

Recorded in a neighbourhood church in the city of Ghent, Belgium. Penumbra is a fully improvised album. It was born from a personal urgency of searching for ways to keep creating sound in moments of uncertainty. It grew from a desire to move beyond the limit of a single instrument, to experiment with different materials, objects, and instruments. Merging, melting, creating, sounds, poems, and acoustics that inspire me. Penumbra is a state of uncertainty and urgency, moving with freedom and doubt…

For Hind Rajab is a deeply personal and meditative exploration of sound, memory, and sonic embodiment. Across the album’s intimate unfolding, Khoury draws on extended techniques, silence, and subtle timbral shifts to create a landscape where each gesture resonates with emotional and cultural depth. Inspired by and dedicated to Hind Rajab, the work weaves contemplative lyricism with bold experimentation, revealing the violin as an instrument of both introspective nuance and radical presence. The …

This album is a mix of sounds from paper printers, recorded at two printing houses in Santiago, Chile, in March 2025, and improvisations played with these sounds at the Disonaureo studio in Santiago, Chile, in July 2025.

Rörane showcases an adventurous blend of free improvisation and jazz-rooted exploration from Swedish experimental ensemble stalwarts. Recorded with bassist Nina de Heney, pianist Karin Johansson, and drummer Henrik Wartel, the project melds deep spontaneous interplay with Bothén’s decades-spanning creative voice in avant-improvised music. A boundary-pushing sonic journey that reflects both the collective’s empathic interplay and their shared drive toward expansive musical expression.

*2015 release. 2026 stock* English living legend percussionist, Roger Turner plays in Tokyo lin 2015 and this is one of the live performance in Fukaya city, Saitama prefecture. Roger percussion solo, Otomo electric guitar added and Japanese free jazz patriarch, Sato added, then becomes intense and has musical speed.

*2013 release. 2026 stock* Duo of Jim Sauter from Borbetomagus and Kid Millions from the Boadoms and Oneida ! "The sound of saxophone turning into an extreme noise and brutal raging percussion! Such is the latest noise jazz from NYC!" - JOJO Hiroshige / Hijokaidan. "Jim's sax playing is impulsively domineering in Borbetomagus, which is based on a usually percussion-less trio formation of two saxophones and one guitar; and I was really curious to hear what would happen when it encountered a drumm…

*2016 release, 2026 stock* Guitarist/ daxophone player Kazuhisa Utsubashi and modular-synth player Richard Scott — as the title says, an improvised duo that is an “astonishing presence”! Raw, intense improvisation, yet the beautiful tonal textures created by chance and the humorous sequences are uniquely theirs. The contrast between noisy, high-pressure sections and calm, tranquil passages is also well worth hearing.

*100 copies limited edition* Phil Durrant // amplified objects, electronicsJason Kahn // voiceMark Wastell // percussionCaius Williams // double bass Recorded on September 12, 2025 by Dave Hunt in London.Mix, mastering and cover design by Jason Kahn.

*300 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 …

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 …

Sophie Agnel plays the whole piano. Its body matters as much as its strings. The keyboard's lid is just as good closed as it is open - in fact it’s best slammed open and closed rapidly. Joined by bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble, Three on a Match explodes the piano trio - each player sparking off the other so quickly that it’s impossible to figure out who lit the flame.

*150 copies limited edition* Headlights Recordings presents Manuel Mota's new work 1-7. Manuel Mota is known for the personal vocabulary he has developed for the guitar. His music draws inspiration from a multitude of references loosely rooted in the blues tradition to craft a sound which was highly regarded by Derek Bailey. Actual but transmitting an enigmatic sense of timelessness. The moment of creation- composition, and the instrumental execution- playing, are to him indistinct, and that's w…

Musics for the Savage Planet' is the new album from Bloodcog, part of a year-long project to record a new soundtrack to the 1973 animated movie 'Planete Sauvage' (also titled 'Fantastic Planet'). As well as the full 70-minute OST, 'Musics for the Savage Planet' is compiled from two takes to form 13 discreet tracks. Bloodcog is a band from the North-West of England featuring five of the region's top improvisers, with a sound part rock, part free jazz, part musique concrete, part electronica (and …

*60 copies limited edition*  Benjamín Vergara - trumpetEdén Carrasco - alto saxophone

*2026 stock* The first collaboration between Atsuhiro Ito (optron) and Masataka Fujikake (drums) is a quartet featuring Yasuhiro Usui (guitar) and Hideki Tachibana (alto saxophone). 55-minute sound scroll edited and reconstructed from a live recording at Shibuya Park Avenue Classics.

*2026 stock* This is the first recording by the unique trio of Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar), Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board), and Masataka Fujikake (drums). This is a full album of six songs recorded at the now-defunct Asagaya Yellow Vision and is an isolated work in which the inner universe of the three members is clearly imprinted on the disc.

This is the second album by the trio "Honnomajika Naharu", consisting of Lapis (guitar & vocals), Hiroshi Higo (bass & vocals), and Masataka Fujikake (drums). This is their first release in about a year since their last album (Honnomajika - Naharu X Keiji Haino: FDR-1052), and is a live album with Otomo Yoshihide (guitar & vocals) as a guest. It is another miraculous work, completely different in type from the previous album, as if the multiple layers of expression have been crystallized into on…

On Los Mandatos del Aire, Peruvian flautist Camilo Ángeles deconstructs his instrument into a bridge between worlds, channeling Amazonian cosmology and ayahuasca visions through extended techniques, microtonalities, analog processing and reverb‑chamber acoustics in dialogue with Musuk Nolte's photography.

On Nuó Xiǎng, Camilo Ángeles and Qiujiang Levi Lu forge an electroacoustic ritual: custom DSP, live processing, extended voice and augmented flute merge into abstract yet visceral soundscapes, echoing ancient Nuó ceremony while stepping beyond any fixed genre.

Over the last couple of decades Magda Mayas has developed a rigorous and distinctive prepared piano practice, working inside the piano with great musicality. The music on Chant captures a dramatic expansion of the pianist’s vision. Reflecting her devotion to social and musical communities through recent stretches of political upheaval and the disruption of the pandemic, she’s found solace in harmony and repetition, and after a period of exploring such sounds with clavinet and Fender-Rhodes, she …