Jazz /
Hyperboreal Trio
Hyperboreal Trio’s debut album unites the distinct voices of Signe Emmeluth, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and Axel Filip—three seasoned improvisers bridging the musical extremes of the north and south through raw, yet meticulously crafted pieces.
Réimsí Géara
Listening closely to the duo of Elliott Sharp and Scott Fields one can hear a compact history of modern composition and improvisation. Although the duo has a sound all its own, under the surface you can sense traces of “New Music,” minimalism, free jazz, and blues.
Poiēsis
In a spontaneous studio session, alto saxophonist Tim Berne met fellow saxophonist Masayo Koketsu and percussionist Nava Dunkelman for the first time, setting the stage for an improvisational encounter full of contrasts and surprising cohesion. Berne’s rich, dynamic tone, provided a grounded foundation, while Koketsu's innovative use of extended techniques and breathy, ethereal sounds—challenged the space with a more experimental edge.
Dunkelman, with her textural percussion, wove between the tw…
A Willing Passenger
Saxophonist Paul Flaherty is New England's purveyor of the ecstatic jazz pulse. Through the years, Flaherty remained unshakable in the pursuit of soul healing and demon dashing through freedom music. Six pieces of alto and tenor saxophone steeped in the theme of loss and channeled through blasting improvisations that showcase his fabulous wailing and inferno of sound to stark bluesy melodies.
"January 20, 2005 was a cold night in Washington D.C. A dozen bands would perform at the Black Cat venue…
El Infierno Musical II
By inevitable coincidence, a street vendor in Buenos Aires became an instrument of providence, when he compelled attention of Christof Kurzmann, sitting outside a coffeehouse. His merchandise were small books of Hispanic writers, and the chosen one that ended up in the buyer’s pocket some eighteen years ago was a collection of poems by Argentinean poet Alejandra Pizarnik. Her works abound with music and sounds or absence of it, appreciating silence. For Kurzmann, this served as a sufficient reas…
Unclassified Affections
Unclassified Affections is the entrancing new release from drummer and composer Dan Weiss that features the convergence of some of the most intriguing musicians on the scene: Peter Evans on trumpet, Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, and Miles Okazaki on guitar. The new compositions, which were written by Weiss specifically for these musicians, range from deep, meditative moments to intense, high-energy peaks, while every track unveils a new layer of exploration.
Brennan’s sonorous mallet work co…
Béke
“Peace is not the word to play” rapped Large Professor on Main Source’s 1991 debut album. His plea to stop abusing the word “peace” simply for rhetoric flair sounds just as valid in today’s genocidal world as it did in the streets of New York over 30 years ago. For Oiro Pena to name this album Béke, meaning peace in Hungarian – or white people in French Caribbean creole – it seems like they finally have something to say. With this group/concept/project called Oiro Pena, circling as a creative vo…
Izba
This time we are presenting another great collaborator that has been a part of our community for many years. Marina Džukljev, pianist from Novi Sad, Serbia. She joined the trio TiTiTi a few years ago as a guest, on their debut record Štafelaj out on Zavod Sploh, and then later she performed with them on many occasions including the Jazz Festival in Cerkno, Ring Ring Festival etc. TiTiTi started as a trio of the Slovenian most prominent brotherly connection, a fiery free rhythm section – Vid and …
Trio of Bloom
A new voice in contemporary improvisation emerges with the Trio of Bloom, uniting three visionary artists at the forefront of modern music: Craig Taborn (piano, electronics), Nels Cline (guitar, effects), and Marcus Gilmore (drums, percussion).
This ensemble is less a meeting of individual virtuosos than the flowering of a shared soundworld—an immersive space where texture, rhythm, and resonance intertwine in real time. Each musician brings a singular language: Taborn’s kaleidoscopic harmonic …
Bone Bells
Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson Present Bone Bells on Pyroclastic Records. Two visionary voices of contemporary music explore new dimensions of resonance, texture, and interplay.
Purposing the Air
"I grew up in a literary household with parents who paid close attention to the written word. My father was a Goethe scholar, and my mother often read to us, pointing out the beauty of the sound of words. I have always felt an affinity for poetry. I appreciate its emotional power to move us and to make us think less literally. Miles Davis stressed the importance of knowing the lyrics to standards, and I’ve always believed that understanding the meaning of the words provides an added dimension wh…
Of The Near And Far
"I’ve always been captivated by the night sky, endlessly wondering about what lies beyond. Amidst the vast expanse of stars, there is a sense of balance and symmetry that fascinates me—an order within the chaos. The innate patterns of the constellations sparked my curiosity, prompting me to explore how these celestial forms might be translated musically.
In the summer of 2024, I developed a process that allowed me to collect pitch and numerical data from constellations. I overlaid the shapes of …
Love is Here - The Complete Paris 1975 ORTF Recordings
Biggest Tip! Limited edition 2-CD Digipak. Includes a 12-page booklet with rare photos from the actual performance by Christian Rose, and an exclusive essay by longtime Down Beat contributorKevin Whitehead. Transcendence Sounds - the groundbreaking new archival imprint from Elemental Music - makes its stunning debut with the complete, previously unreleased concert recording of spiritual jazz titan Pharoah Sanders captured live at Paris's legendary Studio 104 on November 17th, 1975. This extraor…
Beautiful People
Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet is returning with a new, refreshed lineup with a new full-length album, Beautiful People, scheduled for release in October 2024. The album will be distributed worldwide in cooperation with K7!
The album was recorded in December '23 at Polish Radio's S4 studio after a series of a dozen WMQ concerts last fall. Buoyed by the wonderful reception in many cities and hungry for new sensations and sounds, the Quintet recorded this album while absolutely in full throttle.
Beauti…
Pendulum
The jazz world is set to celebrate one of its most intriguing and visionary figures with the reissue of Pendulum, the groundbreaking album by the Mike Taylor Quartet. Originally released in 1966 on Columbia Records, Pendulum captures the restless creativity and uncompromising spirit of pianist and composer Mike Taylor, whose brief but influential career left an enduring mark on modern jazz in Britain.
Featuring an exceptional lineup with Mike Taylor (piano), Dave Tomlin (soprano saxophone), To…
Trio
The long-overlooked brilliance of pianist and composer Mike Taylor comes back into the spotlight with the reissue of Trio, the seminal 1967 recording from the Mike Taylor Trio. Originally released on Columbia, this album represents one of the most adventurous statements in British jazz of the 1960s—a work of striking originality that still resonates powerfully today.
Featuring Mike Taylor on piano, Jackie Dougan on drums, and Dave Tomlin on bass, Trio captured an incendiary moment of creativit…
Movement
Originally released during one of the most fertile periods of post-war British jazz, Movement by the Joe Harriott Quintet stands as a bold statement of artistic independence and innovation. Showcasing Harriott’s unique vision, the album bridges the lyricism of modern jazz with an avant-garde sensibility that still resonates today.
Harriott, an alto saxophonist of Jamaican origin who established himself as a pioneer of the British scene, leads a stellar ensemble through a set of forward-looking…
Off the Record
The source material is drawn from moments of pure improvisation, recorded live in performance, shaped as much by the room and audience as by the musicians themselves.
Live 1963 (The Lost Recordings)
This is a hitherto unknown recording of the influential Danish composer, pianist, and bandleader Jeppe Zeeberg, dated November 9, 1963. On this recording, Zeeberg is accompanied by a band comprised of several of his generation’s finest musicians. Inspired by the Ellington/Mingus traditions and the new sounds of free jazz emerging from overseas, Zeeberg was the rare individual who could straddle different styles in one performance – even within a single composition. This concert, recorded at Havn…
Feelings
Feelings marks Jake Henry’s long-awaited return as a leader, more than a decade after his debut with Sweet Talk Glitterbomb. This album is a deeply personal exploration of the intricate harmonic language and angular counterpoint Henry developed during his formative years as a guitarist. Drawing on the frenetic energy of math rock, raw intensity of metal, and chaotic textures of noise, Henry recontextualizes common song form into a bold, genre-defying soundscape.
The quartet—featuring Brian Krock…