Jazz & Improvisation / Free Improvisation

2025 stock “Death Rattle” is the noise of two forces of nature in collision. Like a pair of clashing typhoons, Philadelphia based avant guitarist James Plotkin and Norwegian free jazz drummer Paal Nilssen-Love generate chaos, disturbance and a terrifying beauty in their first ever collaborative recording. Free jazz and metal-edged rock never chimed so exhilaratingly together before. ‘Paal’s precision and constant invention/reinvention is mind-blowing, only matched by its intensity,’ James enthus…

2010 release  ** "Following the success of their 2010 collaborative CD with Nels Cline Singers, Rova returned to the classic acoustic quartet format for the first time on CD since 2007. “Planetary” brings the listener to several of Rova’s music worlds and shows that the band, as always, was still refining that “Rova sound,” still pushing the envelope, and still looking for new sound worlds to inhabit and make their own. This also marks Rova’s reconnection with the Russian music scene. The band m…

2008 release ** "Jack Wright lays down a whole disc's worth of monumentally impressive solo alto sax recordings on The Indeterminate Existence, taking some cues from the idiom-expanding sonic experimentation of Evan Parker, whose vocal-styled squawks and splutters are incorporated into Wright's impressive sense of melody and bebop fluency. Clocking in at over an hour , only the bravest of free improv explorers need apply, but the reward will be ample. Anyone who was floored by Paul Flaherty's un…

1999 release ** "Very idiosyncratic and very beautiful improvisations by one half of the Takla Records collective, these nineteen pieces sound like nothing much else on the planet. Individual notes hang in the air; no particular statement lasts for long, and yet the duo manage to sustain a sense of momentum across the silences. They've programmed unusually long pauses between the tracks, perhaps in an attempt to encourage the casual listener to hear distinct pieces. On in the background, these p…

2025 stock John Blum (piano), Denis Charles (drums), Antonio Grippi (alto sax, alto clarinet), William Parker (bass). Studio recordings from 1998. There are few sessions to rival this one for sheer urgency and gusto. It's as if something pent-up in these four musicians waited for this combination of players to unleash it... the music explodes into action. Pianist John Blum is a secret hero of New York's free jazz community, known as a proficient and forceful improviser in the tradition of his me…

2025 stock We Don't is a previously unreleased 1981 session pairing Jemeel Moondoc with Denis "jazz" Charles (1933-1998). in the 1970s, Moondoc was a member of ensemble muntu with William Parker. Moondoc's quirky & vivid alto style suggests the influence of Ornette Coleman, but the comparison "does not do justice to Moondoc's originality" (the penguin guide to jazz). Moondoc's grandfather, the original 'moondoctor' & the family namesake, sang & danced in medicine shows at the turn of the century…

2025 stock Alan Silva's playing and live composition have been a highlight of the avant garde's living history for the past 35+ years. from his work with sun ra's arkestra, through extended relationships with Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, and Albert Ayler, on into the celestial communications orchestra and the frank wright center of the world band, silva has been one of the music's most consistently valuable thinkers. A child of alan silva's other-worldly strategies for double bass, William Parker i…

Velvele : Beating the usuls of Ottoman/Turkish Music, dividing them by section.

*50 copies limited edition. 2025 stock* Introducing morosphinx, a squeaky trio from Brussels. Recorded in Vilvoorde, on the outskirts of the Belgian capital, this album probes impressions of relative distances within a sound space. morosphinx projects us into a musical context that is both strange and familiar, where sounds blend together and define their own landmarks. The A side of Vilvoorde is experienced as a long, unresolved breath. Silence is its latent base and reminds the listener of it …

1998 release ** "This CD represents the pinnacle of IST's achievements so far. Phil Durrant's Sowari For Ist, concentrates upon texture and timbre as opposed to pitch and rhythm. The resulting music is detailed, fragile, abstract and beautiful, pushing acoustic instruments further into a sound-world more often associated with acousmatic forms. In Mark Wastell's Ritmico the emphasis is upon rhythm and the particular sonorities produced by the percussive possibilities of the wooden parts of each i…

After completing her master's degree at the Anton Bruckner Private University in 2018, Judith Schwarz has been working nationally and internationally as a drummer and composer in the field of jazz and improvised music. Judith is active as an instrumentalist, bandleader and composer in the following projects: Other:M:other, chuffDRONE, Beyond the Beat, Little Rosies Kindergarten, Schülande Engaling, Duo Hofmaninger/Schwarz, Mel*E. She has collaborated with Maria Portugal, Sylvie Courvoisier, Ange…

1999 release **

Alto saxophonist Marion Brown was an initially underrated hero of the jazz avant-garde. It was only after he moved from Atlanta to New York and joined John Coltrane that audiences and critics took notice. Dedicated to discovering the far-reaching possibilities of improvisational expression, Brown possessed a truly lyrical voice. In the early seventies, he played with Anthony Braxton, Andrew Cyrille, Bennie Maupin, Jeanne Lee, and Chick Corea, among others. On this recording he was accompanied by…

"Finnish saxophonist Harri Sjöström has been calling Berlin home for nearly 40 years, and for over 10 of them, he has been organizing concerts at venues around the city, featuring a who-is-who of the city's rich improvisation scene and beyond, under the title "SoundScapes." Starting in 2016, he extended the concept and held the first two SoundScapes Festivals in Helsinki, followed by one in Munich, and then, finally, in his adopted hometown. SoundScapes #4 was held over two mid-autumn nights in …

This year we are celebrating the 10th birthday of our label. On this occasion, we have prepared a lot of surprises and very unique musical offerings for you. Here is the first one! What you can expect from the music is perfectly reflected in the album title. Parallel aesthetics which, however, when listened to together become a new perhaps the third aesthetic!One of the most active and respected saxophonists and improvisers on the American jazz scene. An American, Brazilian-born, Jewish-born mus…

Simon Nabatov - piano, live electronicsMark Helias - bassTom Rainey - drums All music by Simon Nabatov (GEMA) except collectively improvised tracks 4,8,10,12

2006 release  ** "Avant garde jazz, it's all just a load of old guys making squeaky sounds with long pauses isn't it? Well yes, to a point it is but I think Rune Grammofon have taught us that it can, occasionally, be a lot of fun. Over two giant sprawling live improvisations (one 40+ mins and the other 30+), Bob Marsh and co proceed to learn and unlearn their craft, weaving in and out and creating some quite terrifying sounds. You don't need a degree in avant garde musical forms to enjoy this, b…

Yet another triumph from the legendary multi-instrumentalist, Joe McPhee, Corbett Vs. Dempsey drops "The Mystery J", their first ever full-length vinyl release, issued in a limited edition of 500 copies. Recorded in 2014 with violist Jen Clare Paulson and Brian Labycz on electronics, it writhes with bristling tension, while retaining a remarkably minimal form. Visionary experimentalism and freejazz reimagined on entirely singular terms, 'The Mystery J' encounters McPhee producing some of his bes…

2025 Stock. Instant Composers Pool presents Goede Reis !. All music composed by Oscar Jan Hoogland and Han Bennink except Hornin’ In, Epistrophy and Ugly Beauty by Thelonious Monk, Peer’s Counting Song by Misha Mengelberg, Aanhanghuis by Oscar Jan Hoogland, Rhythm Three by Cor Fuhler and Fleruette Africaine by Duke Ellington.  Recorded & Mixed by Marc Schots at Bimhuis, Amsterdam August 13th 2020. Artwork by Han Bennink. Photo artwork by Pieter Boersma. Graphic Design by Emma Fischer.

2015 release  ** "Mexican composer and vibraphonist based in Berlin since 2012, Emilio Gordoa in a duo with guitarist Nicola L. Hein, using preparations to their vibraphones, percussion, and guitar, in an 8 part composition of diverse approaches to improvisation, from exuberant interaction to Reich-like minimalism to cantankerous experimentation, a well-rounded and interesting album."

At the crossroad of different worlds, Hubbub comprises five musicians with activities in various fields. Together, they work on the sound matter to create a moving electro-acoustic space inhabited by layers, distensions, imbrications, pulsations, dots and lines. Thanks to the longevity of the group, Hubbub has developed its own universe, which is more than just the sum of its parts.

Jim Hobbs and Timo Shanko were founding members of the Fully Celebrated Orchestra in 1989. This is their first duo record. Their decades of playing together can be heard in these pieces.

Exceptionally virtuosic and sensitive, South African harpist Jacqueline Kerrod is perfectly at home across multiple genres. This is her first recording with American guitar maverick Joe Morris. These are sublimely adventurous improvisations for pedal harp and guitar.

A compelling collaboration between guitarist Fred Frith and innovative harpist Shelley Burgon — known for her work with Anthony Braxton, Trevor Dunn, and Okkyung Lee — in a series of concise and precise improvisations recorded in Oakland, CA, in 2002 and 2005, as Burgon blends seamlessly with Frith's acoustic guitar to create seemingly telepathic synchronicity and an expansive sonic palette.

The third chapter of this extraordinary trilogy by the world's most extreme musical explorers—John Zorn, Bill Laswell, and Mick Harris.

2009 release ** "When an improvised recording presents itself as a meteor, some foreign object from another civilization, like Days Are Not Days does, we should rejoice that it has entered our atmosphere and like a bolide, exploded upon contact. Okay, this recording by Portuguese saxophonist and flutist Paulo Chagas, and guitarists Samuel Hällkvist, from Sweden, and Stephan Sieben, from Denmark, isn't a bomb. It is, though, an improvised explosive device, pieced together from chamber music debri…

Huge Tip! Deluxe CD edition, in tri-fold gatefold sleeve with outer case. This is a live recording of the Peter Brötzmann Trio (Peter Brötzmann, Sabu Toyozumi, and Jason Adasiewicz) from their performance at the 5th OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival at B10 Live, Shenzhen, in 2015. After the performance, the B10 Live team conducted a warm and friendly interview with the three musicians. The transcribed conversation has been edited and included in the liner notes of this vinyl album.Liu Ying Studio delivered…

Sudden Dusk is the recorded debut of Archer, a working band comprised of four singular voices on the international improvised music scene.

Though short-lived, the New York Contemporary Five brought together NY free players Don Moore on bass, J.C. Moses on drums, Archie Shepp on tenor saxophone, and Don Cherry on trumpet with Danish alto saxophonist John Tchicai, in a remastered edition of their 1966 album "Consequences", expanded with Shepp's revisiting of the material in a sextet with Sunny Murray and Ted Curson.

Tip! *2025 stock* Segaki is the second album of the Norwegian-Malaysian trio Hungry Ghosts, consisting of Malaysian tenor saxophonist Yong Yandsen accompanied by the Norwegian powerhouse duo of Christian Meaas Svendsen on double bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. Their debut record has been described as an album with an «unstoppable energy» and like actual hungry ghosts — the unfortunate souls who are reborn as pitiful creatures into their own miserable realm, punished for their mortal vices —…

Tip! *2025 stock* During three days in June 2021, reed players Klaus Ellerhusen Holm and Andreas Røysum recorded in three different locations in Trondheim: Vår Frues Church, Øra Studios and Bymarka. This was done in close collaboration with sound wizard Kyrre Laastad. The general idea for the record was to present the same material in three completely different acoustic settings. The music explores phenomena such as acoustic space, sound in motion and the perception of depth and dimensions in so…

2010 release ** "This project originates from a pleasurable Roman afternoon spent by yours truly with Hubert Bergmann, who – having known that this writer’s spouse is, in essence, an atypical songwriting specimen – thought that some experimentation using her vocalism would have constituted an intriguing attempt to do something singular. Files of Bergmann’s duets with Udo Schindler were emailed, and in a matter of several months Yellerwood recorded and “assembled” a number of parts, adapting them…

*2025 stock* No Base Trio presents their brilliant self-titled debut album. This recording features an energetic and imaginative set of entirely improvised music by one of Puerto Rico’s most creative bands. No Base Trio is the union of alto saxophonist Jonathan Suazo, guitarist Gabriel Vicéns, and drummer Leonardo Osuna focusing on creating music without barriers and consistently pushing boundaries of sound and improvisation. After 10 years of performing at many important venues in Puerto Rico, …

*2025 stock* No Base Trio releases their spectacular and completely improvised works in their second studio album, "NBT II.". The experimental ensemble continues its musical journey by releasing this immersive double album under the radical label Setola di Maiale. Following their 2020 critically-acclaimed eponymous debut album, Setola di Maiale proudly presents Puerto Rico-based experimental ensemble No Base Trio's latest recording, "NBT II." This album features a collection of intuitively power…

The intrepid free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor produced some of his best work for Blue Note Records, including his explosive 1966 label debut Unit Structures featuring Eddie Gale on trumpet, Jimmy Lyons on alto saxophone, Ken McIntyre on alto saxophone, oboe, and bass clarinet, Henry Grimes and Alan Silva on bass, and Andrew Cyrille on drums. Over the course of four extended original pieces by Taylor—“Steps,” “Enter, Evening,” “Unit Structure/As Of A Now/Section,” and “Tales (8 Whisps)—the band sca…

* Edition of 100 copies, silk-screened cover, hand numbered and intended for musicians and their families. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert. Very Few copies available * Founded in 1969 by the pianist Ole Mathiessen, the bassist Henrik Hove, the saxophonist Jesper Nehammer, and drummer Jon Finsen, Tordenskjolds Soldater was one of the great - albeit short-lived - projects in Copenhagen’s thriving scene of free improvisation and jazz of the late 196…

1992 release ** "When it came out in 1992, Firestorm went quite unnoticed. Many missed this very strong, very untypical string-only free jazz date. Cellist Diedre Murray and bassist Fred Hopkins developed a profound musical relationship in the Henry Threadgill Sextet. This CD was the duo's first release. Murray favors a written-down approach; her compositions lay out melodies, phrases, and sections, but also include lots of improvisation and time stretching, and they require the kind of underlyi…

2017 release ** "Sampler and Zither is a release from Difondo, the Cagliari duo of Sergio Camedda (sampler) and Giampaolo Campus (zither). The group’s name translates as “basically;” it’s a fitting name given their conceptual focus on returning sounds to the things themselves—that is, to the basic elements and materials of their instruments. The group’s specific interest lies in realizing the possibilities inherent in the divergent natures of the two instruments’ timbral profiles and properties.…

* Edition of 300 copies. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert. * Founded initially as the The Beckerlee Quartet sometime towards the late 1950s and early '60s, a time during which time they went through various lineup changes before morphing into The Contemporary Jazz Quartet, in 1962 they began playing the Vingaarden club in central Copenhagen as one of the earliest European adopters of the emerging movement of free jazz. It was there that they came …

2008 release ** "This album brings a performance by the Michael Bisio Quartet, led by the great bassist, with Stephen Gauci on tenor, Avram Fefer on tenor and soprano, and Jay Rosen on drums, and to my knowledge this is only the third release of the band, after their CIMP albums "Connections" and "Circle This" . In line with the Festival's positioning, the music is free, wild, driven by a muscular sensitivity, with emotional outbursts, velvet tonal subtleties, and more contemplative moments. Non…