Jazz & Improvisation / Free Improvisation

1993 release **

1990 release ** "A classic of '90s avant garde jazz, True Live Walnuts features Italian percussionist Mauro Orselli joined by British saxophonist Evan Parker and keyboardist Antonello Salis for some of the most fascinating free music of recent years. Performing just two pieces live at the Europa Jazz Festival in Noci, Italy, the three bring about an extraordinary union of disparate voices in a coherent whole. Orselli is stupendous on percussion, where he interacts with Parker as a second horn. T…

1994 release **

2004 release ** "The percussionist as poet, the drummer as sound painter, the composer as storyteller, and the improviser as artist of survival. What Pierre Favre writes for the Arte Quartet is like a choral fantasy, a suite for individualists with a strong collective spirit. Four singers, each with their own utterly unique timbre, a chamber choir with a highly developed sonic sensuality. The percussionist runs his threads between the voices, becomes one himself, creates space, provides the beat…

*200 copies limited edition* Technicolor Band is a revolving-cast, cross-genre improv unit based in Bloomington, IN. The group, initially instigated by multi-instrumentalists David Brown and Caleb Hickman as a regular gathering to explore improvisation behind closed doors, eventually made its way into public via a residency at a 50 cap bar called Orbit Room. Over the next two years a core lineup formed around the quintet of Brown (keys, percussion, tape manipulation), Hickman (alto sax, electron…

And just like that, you’ll never think of improvisation the same way again. GPS is the emerging trio raising the bar for improvised music, and 577 Records is elated to present its debut album, Directions + Destinations. The group includes clarinet wizard Guillermo Gregorio, Yamaha Performance Artist Charley Sabatino on the double bass, and flourishing saxophonist Jeff Pearring. What they make isn’t just music; it’s an unforgettable experience.  Recorded in two sessions a year apart, Directions +…

*2025 stock*  The first release in 24 year from Korea's foremost artist in jazz-tinged experimental / ambient music, Kim Byoung Duk!’ Kim Byong-duk is a Korean experimental / ambient musician who has paved his own artistic path by drawing on various musical styles as well as his roots in jazz and modern music. The 2018 anthology, "Experiment No. X", reaffirmed Kim’s status as one of the most progressive and unique musicians in Korea’s experimental music scene. After 24 since his 4th album "New T…

1994 release ** Audience, All Dax Band, Han Bennink, Steve Beresford, Lindsay Cooper, Tom Cora, Dietmar Diesner, ensemble Eva Kant, Fred Frith, Gianni Gebbia, Lars Hollmer, Catherine Jauniaux, Peter Kowald, Ikue Mori, Butch Morris, Hans Reichel, Riciclo delle Quinte, Wolter Wierbos.

2002 release ** "With a curriculum vitae as one of the original New Thingers stretching back to 1960s membership in the New York Art Quartet (NYAQ) and an appearance on John Coltrane’s ASCENSION, reedman John Tchicai has never lacked for playing partners. Adapting orchestral sequencing plus variations on different ethnic musics to a formula that already reflected his Danish-Congolese background and American experience; Tchicai was a unique presence on the scene. Moving back and forth from Europe…

Big Tip! As poets from Shakespeare to Heine have recognised, “the forest” is not just about grandeur and most expansive of gestures; it is also about intimacy and there is a remarkable intimacy to Christopher Kunz’s and Florian Fischer’s music. The forest is both inhuman, wild, and, because it houses us and to a degree depends on us, profoundly humane. You’ll find these qualities here as well. Focus, breathe and listen. (Brian Morton)

2025 stock ** "ViaLucisTrio is a improvised training with members related to the collective Rare Musics , agency dedicated to promote primarily the free improvisation in Madrid (Spain). The four members of ViaLucisTrio they met in the meetings of improvisers (Tuesday Wednesday), musical call organized by Rare Music; precisely to encourage participating musicians and facilitate the creation of projects such as the group ViaLucisTrio. As well as those demanding musicians in its task and aesthetic …

1998 release ** NOHC is a French quartet featuring Daunik Lazro (alto and baritone saxophones), Denis Colin (bass clarinet), Michael Nick (violin) and Didier Petit (cello and voice).

1998 release ** "Composition No.30, which represents Simon H. Fell's third 'Compilation' for large ensemble, is, in my view, an important monument in the history of late 20th Century music. In this single piece one finds not only Ives, Webern, Cage, Ligeti, Partch, and Boulez, but also Ellington, Mingus, Sousa, Sun Ra, and even a little urban blues. It's as if all of Braxton's varied and copious output were microscoped into one audacious work for large ensemble. Fell seems to me to have created …

Joe Maneri’s last Microtonal recordings from the year 2002. These are not typically arranged songs, but asymmetrical, asynchronous constructs that develop from simultaneous, complimentary but peripheral gestures of the mind and heart. The harmonic contrasts that result from Joe Maneri’s breathy microtones; the fixed pitches, inclining towards atonality, of Tyson Rogers’ piano; and Jacob Braverman’s ambiguously scored percussion color their contrapuntal angles and parallel lines. Layers of energy…

2025 stock ** "What Phil Minton creates with nothing but his voice those "simply unbelievable and uncanny sounds for which nothing comparable exists, far and wide" (Bert Noglik) seems to lie beyond what it is possible. He is the indisputable vocal giant of the jazz avant-garde. He meets a collective of kindred spirits with the ICI Ensemble. Comprising some of the most enthusiastically experimental instrumentalists and sonic artists of the German improvisation scene, this ensemble has been creati…

2009 release ** Paul Dunmall's playing goes from strength to strength. 'Asynchronous' was recorded live at The Europa Jazz Festival, Le Mans in May 2008, and sees Paul in the unmistakable company of longstanding sidemen Paul Rogers and Paul Lytton and the titanic Fred Van Hove on piano.“Dunmall's big, rounded sound and spiralling runs bursting out of a low-key overture, and then engaging in a long, dignified dance with Rogers's dark bowed chords. Dunmall sometimes builds solos in patterns of bri…

2025 stock Suddenly, there was a stick to dig a hole. Now countless years into the future, we await, anticipating more than competition and violence. I am drawn in, and ultimately mesmerised. Later that night, I began to clearly see the de-centralised nature of an awakened awareness, baked to a crisp by a relentless sun on the inside AND the outside. Unobserved, the need for acknowledgement will run away with the spoon leaving nothing to chance. It must be said that no two instances are ever the…

2025 stock ** "On South Bank - the most vital and essential document of Reid and Hebden's five-year partnership-- it feels clear that, at least onstage, they were finally able to go the distance. The invocation "Morning Prayer" opens slowly, circling in space with a meditative calm. For 17 minutes, the pair traces lines around the other's rhythm, Hebden's electronics and keys shaping a cradle for Reid's busy tom-and-cymbal patter, and vice versa. Back in 2006, on Volume 1, "Morning Prayer" felt …

1992 release ** The first in a three volume compilation (each available separately) of 114 improvisers from around the world, covering a wide variety of approaches to improvisation. Includes Henry Kaiser, Splatter Trio, and Randy McKean.

1991 release ** "Jon Rose, Peter Hollinger, Johannes Bauer & Dietmar Diesner live in Victoriaville in 1990."

1998 release ** "This is a change of pace for West Coast musician Steuart Leibig, who is joined here by saxophonist Vinny Golia and drummer Billy Mintz for a mix of Leibig compositions and thoroughly improvised numbers. Leibig leaves his violin at home, instead focusing on contrabass guitars, while Golia muscles his way on baritone and soprano saxophones. The composed pieces are loose constructs; a different course from the leader's earlier penchant for densely layered colors. If the disc has a …

1995 release ** "This engaging little slab reflects a 1995 recording date between Evan Parker's saxophones, Antonello Salis' piano and accordion, and Mauro Orselli's drums and cymbals. Featuring nine variously timed improvisations, this works simply because of the sheer delight and will of the performers. Here, texture means nothing, tonality means nothing, listening means nothing. The reason for being, the raison d'être, if you will, is simply action and reaction and more action. This is consci…

1988 release ** "This is what you get when you put three nutcases like Tony Bevan, Greg Kingston, and Matt Lewis in a room together with their instruments and a case full of toys to play with and turn the tape machine on. Actually, it was recorded live in 1988, so there was the concert's respectability to hold them back somewhat, but not much. This is free improvisation completely realized, articulated, and cacophonously executed in front of a live audience by a group of musical troublemakers wh…

2025 stock ** "The quirky acoustic trio of German improvisers Udo Schindler on clarinet, saxophone, cornet, and Euphonium, Johannes Ollinger on acoustic guitar and toys, and Dine Doneff on double bass, waterphone, and toys, the odd instrumentation adding surprising textures and disorienting angles to really fine dialog, technically, melodically, and eccentrically. Two preformances are captured, one at Pollat Pavillon in Munich, Germany in 2015, the other from Schindler's own Salon fur Klang+Kuns…

2025 stock **

2025 stock ** "Live recordings from Pöllat-Pavillion in Munich, Germany in 2015 from this seriously fun spontaneous collective improvising trio of Udo Schindler on reeds, cornet, euphonium, and monophonic analogue synthesizer, Philipp Kolb on trumpet, tuba and live electronics, and Sebastiano Tramontana on trombone, voice and whistling; expect the unexpected! "

2003 release ** "A lesser-known set from the Art Ensemble Of Chicago – a CD originally packaged with an Italian magazine, now presented here on its own! The performance is from 1997 – and the group features Lester Bowie on trumpet, Roscoe Mitchell on reeds, Malachi Favors on bass and percussion, and Don Moye on assorted percussion – all in a style that shows all the relaxed, confident modes of the group in their mature years. The ensemble's almost more compelling here than on some of their bette…

1996 release (RARE) ** "This encounter between Japanese mystic guitar/hurdy gurdy/percussion and voice demon Keiji Haino (leader of the power rock trio Fushitsusha) is a free for all of textured noise and plucked and bowed notes -- screaming, yelling, hollering, and percussion-like sounds that have nothing whatsoever to do with rhythm. In fact, to be perfectly honest, it is quite difficult to find a language in which to review a music that has no linguistic precepts at all. When Haino is screami…

"We recorded this CD in May 2023 on the magical Greek island of Hydra in the Old Carpet Factory Studio. The title Kouartéto emanates from the cover image by the artist William Pownall who in the true spirit of Hydra has for many years been an important focus for visitors seeking original artistic creations. And so, in this spirit. The music on this CD reflects a multifaceted response to a multicultural and open understanding of how artists can work together. Every project involving these four cr…

Jazz Festivals have often provided the opportunity for a first encounter with musicians that were “on the radar” , so to speak , but for various reasons (often geographical) never came to fruition. Jazzdor in Strasbourg was no exception, and on the 15th November 2023, at the invitation of its director Philippe Ochem, the Trio of Angelica Sanchez, Ramón López and myself performed a set that continued my lifelong association with piano trios. Ramón is no stranger to me and we have collaborated on …

1992 release ** "Descriptive work comparable to film music or the story of Babar... First collective composition of the Compagnie d'Eustache by Jean-François Bovard, Pierre Cochard, Philippe Genevay, Jacques Henry, Philippe Krüttli, Jean Rochat."

*2025 stock* "It was at Ramón’s suggestion that we record as a duo in the downtime of another studio session, and perhaps it was his constellation of drums and cymbals that prompted the thought of a metaphorical planetary system. So Sidereus Nuncius - The Starry Messenger the title of Galileo Galilei’s short astronomical treatise published in early 1610, did not necessarily stretch the imagination unduly – there it was in front of me! Galilei’s telescopic observations of the moon and other celes…

*2025 stock* "Barry Guy and I first met and played together in a version of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble in the days of the legendary Little Theatre Club. The late John Stevens, visionary prophet of the coming music was the key figure at the centre of things who brought us together. “So it goes“ – John often used this figure of speech. I was reminded of this when I was looking through Samuel Beckett’s Collected Letters, hoping to glean some titles, knowing that Barry would be happy with a Beck…

*2025 stock* "Peter Evans and I have occasionally met in larger ensembles for special projects. This particular concert in Uster (Switzerland) within the PAM festival on 18. November 2016, allowed us to delve into the minutiae of duo performance where intense listening and decoding of intentions kept our minds and bodies in high alert. This occasion had us playing somewhat athletically, pushing and pulling ideas around, and to be honest, we both felt exhausted after the concert but also exhilara…

*2025 stock* "This latest release on Maya Recordings documents a new duo collaboration of Barry Guy together with the exceptional Norwegian saxophonist Torben Snekkestad. At convergent boundaries, tectonic plates collide with each other, sometimes slowly, other times giving way suddenly with huge energy being expended. The various plates that encompass this planet either get subducted by being bent and pulled under the crust, or they collide and fold the rock at the boundary creating mountains. …

*2025 stock* Free jazz trio made up of leading improvisers pianist Agusti Fernandez, bassist Barry Guy and drummer/percussionist Ramon Lopez, recorded live in Cologne in 2013. Agusti Fernandez gives some insight into the music, “I believe that the essential thing for us is our shared desire to create an extraordinary, unexpected and unusual moment through music. A moment that cannot, perhaps, be described in words, but which can be perceived perfectly, as one of those fantastic occasions when mu…

*2025 stock* Important for this composition commissioned by the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra from Barry Guy, is the unity of composed and improvised passages, the concern for the capabilities and strengths of individual players, the way in which small groups are part of the larger structures. Based on “Ay, but can ye?” a Russian poem translated into Scots by Edwin Morgan and using images of Wassily Kandinsky, this mostly graphically notated score is a musical adventure for the players as well a…

2025 stock Fish That Sparkling Bubble is a collaborative studio album by Borbetomagus and Voice Crack, released in 1988 by Agaric Records.

2025 stock “Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only (Art. I).” “No acts or activities taking place while the present Treaty is in force shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica or create any rights of sovereignty in Antarctica. No new claim, or enlargement of an existing claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica shall be asserted while the present Treaty is in force (Art. IV ).” - The Antarctic Treaty Talibam!…

1992 release **