Jazz & Improvisation / Free Improvisation

1994 release ** "Hooker's music is good, unabash ed free-jazz improvising. He and Lawrence make an effective duet: Hooker's rolling bed of drumming avoids direct comment on Lawrence's strong, Lyons-inflected alto. Of the trio and quartet tracks on the album, Pralaya and Radiance are probably the strongest. The horn players get their solo moments and do well with them, but the music is framed to emphasize the group, and that's where a listener's ears are drawn. There's good group improvising to b…

2002 release ** "The drummer and band leader Lucas Niggli, with his trio ZOOM and quintet Big ZOOM, provided the big surprises at many festivals last year: the band's concerts in Moers, Saalfelden, Willisau, Münster, Schauffhausen count among these festivals' highlights. «Unbelievable how the genre-idioms from blues, rock and jazz styles are paired up among each other in the controlled gesture of new music,» said the journalist Marcus Maida after the performance at the Moers Festival. «Everythin…

1995 release **

What happens when you bring together familiar faces at London experimental music venue Café OTO, Charles Hayward (drummer Abstract Concrete, This Heat) and John Edwards (double bass), and the Total Refreshment Centre (hub of new london jazz scene recording studio ) like Alabaster DePlume (singer and saxophonist) and Danalogue (synths from Soccer96, The Comet is Coming), and the learning disability autism art scene like singers/spoken word artists Sebastian Golgiri and Dean Rodney Jnr (Fish Polic…

1997 release ** Daniel Carter, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, trumpet, piano, voice - Randall Colbourne, drums, piano - Paul Flaherty, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, voice - Raphe Malik, trumpet, piano - Sabir Mateen, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, piano, voice.

1997 release **

2003 release ** "“The human voice must not be limited only to a conventional language, but is an inexhaustible source of natural musical instruments. If it is coupled with jazz it becomes a double musical instrument”: Mimmo Rotella dixit, and here is a combative group of Italian jazz musicians, stimulated by the maestro in his eighties, puts the theory into practice. The Rotella Variations therefore materialize in nineteen episodes of mostly short duration, often introduced or concluded, contami…

1993 release ** "This aggressive trio of improvisers is unified by one idea throughout this session: that none of them gives a damn what the other thinks. It's a liberating notion and one not often seen on the other side of the Atlantic. In this set of tracks, the ancient drummer of British free jazz, Tony Marsh, is pitted in with the ever-youthful Paul Rogers and the energetic youngster Simon Picard on tenor. Marsh is the key to the communication as well. His swooping cymbal work and shifting f…

Tip! An orchestra that played for Nazis. A silence that lasted for generations. A work that lets this silence speak, sing, and scream. Motvind Records presents John Andrew Wilhite’s monumental piece, Bristol Silence, written for the Motvind Festival and premiered at Hotel Bristol in Oslo in the summer of 2023. In this work Bristol Silence, the double bassist and composer brings to light a chapter of Norwegian music history that has remained in the shadows. Wilhite writes: "Having known that Nazi…

*2025 stock* A beautifully recorded session at Germany's Club Lila Eule for Radio Bremen from 1969 by the Marion Brown Quartet, his touring band at the time with AACM legendary drummer Steve McCall and German double bassist Siggi Busch and trombonist Ed Kröger, performing eight solid free jazz pieces including "Ode to Coltrane" and "Juba Lee"; a spectacular addition to Brown's discography.

2010 release ** "One of the most hypnotic current albums comes from Switzerland: No wonder, given that so many exciting niches live here, where culture and mentality stand for free spirit, which is evident time and again in the music created there. Ruedi Häusermann, Marco Käppeli, and Claude Meier form what we might call a chamber music, folkloristic, and imaginary trio. In the broadest sense... Ruedi Häusermann, the initiator and creator of the Ume songs, uses various flutes, clarinets, bariton…

2009 release ** Rhodri Davies: Harp, electronics - Stéphane Rives: Soprano Saxophone - Ernesto Rodrigues: Viola - Guilherme Rodrigues: Cello - Carlos Santos: computer, electronics.

1991 release ** "Combining rhythic rock strength with the unrestrainable consequence of free improvisation. In the course of playing, amazingly sharp contours arise. There is no expression for style that can describe this audacious mixture of precision and imagination. Music as a celebration of the moment with the undertone of euphoria, reflection, pure desire and wild anger. Mobile architecture, movable sounds, moving and hair-raisingly beautiful. Jon Rose: Cello, Violin, Keyboards - Peter Holl…

Bomb! *100 copies limited edition* Aftershock marks the fierce vinyl debut of Finnish trio The Fuckings, a privately issued LP (edition of 100) capturing four slabs of unrelenting, high-intensity free improvisation. Recorded in Helsinki in November 2024 and released in April 2025, the album is a visceral tribute to the legacy of boundary-pushing sonic violence. Composed of Janne Martinkauppi (saxophone), Ilkka Vekka (guitar), and Petri Pirtilä (drums), the group channels a storm of raw interplay…

1989 release ** "The Nichols program, recorded in 1984, was by a band with Sean Bergin (alto sax), Michael Moore (alto sax), Maurice Horsthuis (viola), Toon de Gouw (trumpet), Han Bennink (drums), Ernst Reijseger (cello), Paul Thermos (alto sax), Steve Lacy (soprano sax), Larry Fishkind (tuba), Misha Mengelberg (piano), Wolter Wierbos (trombone), and Garret List (trombone). The Monk program, from 1986, consisted of Ab Baars (soprano and tenor sax, clarinet), Michael Moore (alto sax and clarinet)…

2012 release ** "Dutch duo’s one and only release, from 2012.  And quite a good album too! Henk Bakker (bass clarinet and electronic treatments) and Jelmer Cnossen (percussion, Ableton Live) somehow created a subterrestrial sonorous organism with a logic of its own. "

2013 release ** "“Two for Joyce – Live in Trieste”, a new cd from Long Song Records/Audioglobe is the successful account of their performance. 50 minutes of improvised music, a long track of music that shows the vast range of their abilities wonderfully. According to some, Tippett gives his best both alone and in a duo, which is not to diminish his excellent work to date in many ensembles. He is a profound and inventive pianist, austere and grandiose at the same time, as when there’s a waterfall…

2016 release ** "After the highly praised trio CDs, Odyssey and ITHAKA, the composer and bassist Barry Guy presents a new CD – Deep Memory – with the same trio members, pianist Marilyn Crispell and percussionist Paul Lytton. For his new compositions, Barry Guy was inspired by Irish painter Hughie O’ Donoghue - all titles on Deep Memory courtesy of the Irish painter Hughie O’ Donoghue’s Berlin exhibition (2007) entitled “Last Poems”. A music has emerged of a tense and lacerating beauty. Tonal pai…

2005 release ** "Duo Nueva Finlandia is pianist Eero Ojanen and bassist Teppo Hauta-aho, who have both represented the top of Finnish modern Jazz since the early 1960s. After often playing together during the 1960's and 1970s, they went their separate ways for many years, but started again playing together first as Trio Nueva Finlandia (with saxophonist Seppo Paakkunainen being the third member) and more recently as a duo. Short Stories is the result of an impromptu session from June 1998. It is…

2005 release ** "Matt Heckert has been working as a performance and sound artist since 1978. In the 80"s he worked as one of the directors of Survival Research Laboratories building robots and designing soundtracks for the performances and for film. In 1989 he began working on the Mechanical Sound Orchestra, a group of computer controlled mechanical sound instruments. He has presented this in the USA and in Europe since that time, working solo and in collaboration with others."

2015 release **  "A three part improvised work for viola, trombone, electric guitar and double bass from, respectively, Ernesto Rodrigues, Eduardo Chagas, Abdul Moimeme, and Joao Madeira, an ascending conversation that uses innuendo, mystery, subtle movement, silence and swells to create atmospheric environments, each "voice" shifting enigmatically in sublimely hazy ways."

2003 release (RARE) ** "Matthew Sperry was a great bass player and human being. He had an absolutely original approach to prepared double bass - like no one else, really second only to Barry Guy. He had a strong technical command of the instrument as well. He played on some Tom Waits albums, but was focused on improvised music."

2013 release **  ""Colors in Water and Steel" is a collaborative musical album by Richard Bonnet and Hasse Poulsen. This album is known for its radical and experimental musical style, incorporating preparations, effects, and improvisation on guitars. It was released under the label Hôte Marge (Futura Marge). The collaboration between Hasse Poulsen and Richard Bonnet in this album showcased their innovative approach to music, creating a unique sonic experience that combined elements of improvisat…

1992 release **

2014 release ** "Trees brings together an unusual quintet of string trio—viola (Ernesto Rodrigues), cello (Guilherme Rodrigues) and double bass (Gianna de Toni)—with soprano saxophone (Christophe Berthet) and electric bass/objects (Raphael Ortis). The five tracks contain a deep range of sounds from all of the instruments: Sparse textures evoking creaking wood and the rustling of dry leaves (Ancient Trees); long bowed tones from the cello and double bass and suspended harmonics (Whistling Trees);…

Reissue, Remastered, Stereo, 180g. on British Jazz Explosion series. Off Centre, the 1969 debut from The John Cameron Quartet, stands as a vivid and essential snapshot of late 60s British jazz, now reissued on vinyl for the first time in decades by Decca. Led by renowned pianist, arranger, and composer John Cameron, the quartet features an all-star lineup: Harold McNair (flute, tenor sax), Danny Thompson (bass), and Tony Carr (percussion). Originally released on Decca’s progressive Deram imprint…

2025 stock Divine Madness is a captivating archival release from the visionary Russian composer and pianist Sergey Kuryokhin, presented by Old Heaven Books. This collection spans four tapes, offering a rare glimpse into Kuryokhin’s experimental genius, where avant-garde jazz, improvisation, and electronic experimentation collide. Known for his fearless creativity and theatrical performances, Kuryokhin’s work here embodies the raw, unbridled energy of his artistry—sometimes chaotic, always mesmer…

2025 stock In 2014, Tatsuya Yoshida participated in the first Tomorrow Music Festival, and his improvisation with Mamoru on the night of the performance was the first time the two musicians collided, and the improvisation, which lasted less than 30 minutes, brought the audience's perception of “improvisation” to a new level. The last two improvisations in Ruins Alone: Tomorrow's Ruins were recorded live at that time.

2025 stock “Regarding the title of the album what I found by looking further is ‘Inside Out’. To explain in a few words from Hungarian: at the base, there is ‘itt’ = ‘here’, and ‘ott’ = ‘there’. From ‘itt’ derives ‘ide’ = ‘from there to here’, from ‘ott’ follows ‘oda’ = ‘from here to there’, so there is a dynamic in ‘ide’, which there is not in ‘itt’, which is stable. ‘Kint’ is ‘outside’. ‘Idekint' therefore means, that we are outside and we invite to be outside (while ‘Odakint’ would mean that …

2008 release ** ""Nicola Cipani's "Ill-Tempered Piano" is a suprising and playful album of solo improvisations played on broken and untuned pianos. Cipani's accomplished melodic and rhythmic approach and his responsiveness to each instrument's raw potential set this project apart. The recordings were made over the span of two years in different New York City warehouses, on several keyboard instruments (among the pianos you hear also a clavichord), some of which are so damaged as to be hardly rec…

2004 release ** "Hemophiliac is an experimental musical act. This group is billed as improvisational music from the outer reaches of madness. Mike Patton does voice effects along with John Zorn on saxophone and Ikue Mori on laptop electronics. Volume 6 of John Zorn's 50th birthday party series of concert CD's (ten volumes in total) is the first fully commercially available showcase for the trio's mad improv collision."

2007 release ** "Improvisations between jazz, minimalism, cosmic influences and acid rock; few are the possible comparisons, above all probably Sunburned Hand Of The Man. The music creates a decidedly hypnotic but also tribal effect, all immersed in a spatial atmosphere in which dilated and rarefied sounds are lost around percussions that oscillate between hypnosis and obsession."

2010 release ** "The duo's music is rarefied, in the sense that it's highly personal and hardly rife with echoes of the familiar. Such is the other worldly aspect of "First Marriage" that it's barely possible to tell which instrument is responsible for what. This has the effect not merely of confounding expectations but also of establishing the territory in which both players are naturally at home. Their dialog, as is so often the case in this highly specialized form of improvisation, is as purg…

2010 release ** "over 2 years in the making, to much togethers is the follow up album to ashley paul’s 2008 ‘d.o.l’ release. patiently crafted and paced to much togethers continues on ashley’s unique path of ‘song’ style. combining clattering strings, (her custom green-box string set up), psycho acoustic sustain and decay, bowed metal, expressive saxophone, subtle and ear grabbing sense of color and distant voice all slowly creating mood and thought provoking miniatures, that succeed in fitting …

2025 stock New music from Paul Flaherty, with Sam Gas Can and White Limo. Pressing of 500 copies, cover art by Joshua Burkett. Like all of the greatest live "festival" records -- Woodstock II (Cotillion '71), Mar y Sol (Atco '72) & 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival (Blue Horizon '69) -- Mystery Triangle is an especially exceptional souvenir for those people who were there when it happened. But unlike dud compilations, Mystery Triangle provides a truly fine sonic gush for even those of us who w…

Stardust is a rare live recording that reunites three pioneers from the dawn of Japanese jazz: Masayuki Takayanagi (guitar), Ryozo Sugiura (vibraphone), and Hideto Kanai (bass), captured at Yokohama’s Stork Piano Lounge in December 1979. Unlike the intense, driven performances Takayanagi was known for in his “New Direction” and “Second Concept” projects, this session offers a relaxed, intimate atmosphere-full of warmth, camaraderie, and spontaneous musical dialogue. Listeners can even catch the …

A vital document of late-period Japanese jazz innovation, Holy Holy captures Masayuki Takayanagi in a moment of creative transition. Recorded live on December 8, 1985, at Aketa no Mise, this session features Takayanagi’s razor-sharp guitar in dialogue with two double basses: Nobuyoshi Ino and Toru Saitoh. The result is a soundscape of overwhelming depth and intensity, where the deep, undulating resonance of the twin basses intertwines with Takayanagi’s incisive lines. On Holy Holy, the trio reim…

2009 release (VERY RARE) ** "Drummer Tyshawn Sorey is a very interesting young player. In only a few years, he's made a substantial impact on the East Coast scene, playing with saxophonists Anthony Braxton, Steve Coleman, and Steve Lehman, trumpeters Wadada Leo Smith and Dave Douglas, pianist Vijay Iyer, and many others. As that list of collaborators and employers should imply, Sorey is a cerebral and introspective player whose work frequently eschews traditional swing for a more fractured, impr…

Elisabeth Flunger - bass drum Dominic Lash - double bass Kathryn Williams - bass flute "Recording the Dissenting Voices confirmed the extent of their divergence from The Future That Never Was. Music always has something to do with the sonic architecture of instruments, but it is also about the fantasy with which musicians like Dominic, Elisabeth and Kathryn choose to play." - Christopher Fox

A cornerstone of avant-garde jazz, B-X0 NO-47A captures Anthony Braxton at a pivotal moment in his career and in the history of the Association For The Advancement Of Creative Musicians (AACM). Recorded in Paris in 1969 and newly restored from the original master tapes, this classic session finds Braxton leading a quartet of fellow AACM visionaries: trumpeter Leo Smith (before adopting the name Wadada), violinist Leroy Jenkins, and drummer Steve McCall. The group’s instrumentation is strikingly …