Jazz & Improvisation / Free Improvisation

A fascinating solo album from the Swiss pianist, composer and conceptualist best known as leader of the bands Ronin and Mobile, Entendre offers deeper insight into Nik Bärtch’s musical thinking. As the album title implies Entendre is about hearing as a creative process, referencing the patient unfolding of Bärtch’s modular polymetric pieces, with alertness to the dynamics of touch, finding freedom in aesthetic restriction, serving the flow of each piece’s development while also taking the music …

Kit Downes joins forces with long-time collaborators Petter Eldh on bass and James Maddren on drums for a carefully assorted piano trio programme that treads gentle lyricism and bold creative outbursts in equal measures. Downes, whose prior ECM offering Dreamlife of Debris was termed a “work of otherworldly beauty” by BBC Music Magazine, carves out some of his most compendious pieces to date on Vermillion. Replete with subtle twists and turns, the trio offers its idiosyncratic take on the piano …

Ralph Alessi’s fourth appearance as a leader for the label follows a singular album run that’s been met with nothing but praise from The New York Times to The Guardian. The latter lauded Ralph’s previous recording Imaginary Friends (2019) for its “elegant balance of poignant, playful original compositions and gracefully probing improv” and declared it “his best album yet”. It’s Always Now however brims with arguments that there is a new contender for that title. On his new album, Alessi’s unique…

German-American pianist Benjamin Lackner makes his highly melodious ECM debut with an all-star quartet of trumpeter Mathias Eick, the esteemed Manu Katché on drums and bassist Jérôme Regard. Mathias and Manu share an extensive recording history with ECM and their respectively unique instrumental signatures can be traced across this set of exclusively original material – eight pieces by Benjamin, one by Jérôme. The bassist and the leader’s partnership goes all the way back to 2002, when, in New Y…

There is a searching, yearning quality to Naked Truth, and a raw beauty and vulnerability in Avishai Cohen’s trumpet sound on his most improvisational ECM recording to date.  Very much music-of-the moment, found and shaped in the course of a remarkable recording session in the South of France, Naked Truth takes the form of an extemporaneous suite. For most of its length the Israeli trumpeter painstakingly leads the way, closely shadowed by his long-time comrades – pianist Yonathan Avishai, bassi…

When Circle took the stage in Paris in 1971, they weren't just performing - they were igniting a musical revolution. This extraordinary quartet, featuring Chick Corea (piano), Dave Holland (bass), Anthony Braxton (reeds), and Barry Altschul (drums), represented the cutting edge of jazz experimentation at its most vital. Fresh from their tenure with Miles Davis, Corea and Holland were eager to push boundaries in an entirely improvised context. They found the perfect collaborators in Braxton - who…

Bordeaux Concert is a special document from Keith Jarrett’s last European tour. Each of Jarrett’s 2016 solo piano concerts had its own strikingly distinct character, and in Bordeaux the lyrical impulse is to the fore. In the course of this improvised suite, many quiet discoveries are made, and there is a touching freshness to the music as a whole, a feeling of intimate communication. Reviewing the July 2016 performance, the French press spoke of hints of the Köln Concert and Bremen-Lausanne in t…

Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen, an ECM musician for more than fifty years, is a masterful player who has always welcomed a challenge. His first recording with his new quartet – including rising stars Marius Neset and Helge Lien (both bandleaders in their own right)– is almost entirely improvised. The players make the leap of faith together and find and develop forms at the moment, an object lesson in spontaneous group creativity. Affirmation was recorded in November 2021 at Oslo’s Rainbow Stud…

Improvised music from Sophie Agnel, Kristoff K. Roll, Daunik Lazro.

Sparkling Sessions featuring Jac Berrocal, Vincent Epplay and Tzarina re-Tuned. Recorded on the 8th and 9th October in Copenhagen.

New record from french drummer Luc Bouquet.

3-CDs box-set documents Gush residency at Alchemia club in Krakow in November 2018 celebrating band's 30th aniversary. Gush performs precisely as one might anticipate from a trio of seasoned musicians who have collaborated for three decades. Gustafsson's saxophone emulates the qualities of the human voice, Sandell's piano evokes both lyricism and percussive rhythm, while Strid's drums exude a captivating, enigmatic fluidity in their aesthetics. Their collective efforts yield an intense, abstract…

*250 copies limited edition* Tenor saxophone player Junji Hirose and guitarist Kazuo Imai, both Tokyo residents born in 1955, are two of Japan’s representative improvisers. Revered musicians who have long been leading Japan’s improvised music scene, they continue to carry out a wide range of performance activities with tireless energy. Their collaborative recording "Be Quiet!!!," a trio CD with drummer Darren Moore, was released on the Meenna label in April 2023. One year later, their new duo al…

2024 stock. When the stage is soaked with gasoline, a simple spark of sound from one of them will be needed to blow everything up in the air. That fleeting moment, which barely lasts as long as it takes a note to emerge from the sax, a double bass string to start to vibrate, or to hit a drum head, will now carry on for an hour on the clock. Make no mistake, everything that seems to happen during that time, in fact, is contained in a very single instant. It is a big bang of musical energy expandi…

2024 stock. Natalia Kordiak is one of the most promising vocalists, we believe, not only on the Polish but also on the European jazz scene. Ytinamuh (Humanity) is her new album, the second in her career, recorded with a band composed of Poland's most talented young musicians. Maciej Lewenstein wrote in his review : "A clear Masterpiece, and one of the best Polish improvised vocal records of all times!!!"

2024 stock. "The Session. The day started out a little different - Park West Studio is in Brooklyn and so am I. It's not too far, but I would need to take the subway and walk a bit so I decided to make it easier on myself and take a cab. When I got in the cab, I started to space out and think about the music. The ride seemed like it was taking too long, and I regained consciousness and asked “are we going the right way?” The cabbie got short with me and said we were almost there. He stopped and …

2024 stock. The great maestro Ivo Perelman rarely gives samples of his playing in the setting of larger ensembles. This is perhaps the first time we have had the opportunity to listen to him in the setting of a sextet formation. Especially for this session, the ensemble consists of some of the greatest experts in their instrumental classes. Here, Nate Wooley meets vibraphonist Matt Moran, and all this is set against a backdrop of exquisite string players including Mat Maneri, Fred Lonberg Holm, …

2024 stock. "João Pedro, Silvia, Adriano: three friends, three travel companions, three alchemists capable of giving infinite shades of color to music; listening to them is like enjoying the beauty of an exhibition of abstract paintings, yet full of warmth and sensitivity. A far cry from certain forms of art that are undoubtedly important, perhaps even necessary, but that creep into the darker side of emotions and life: in this case we are in that expressive sphere, so difficult to navigate, whi…

2024 stock. Saxophone player Albert Cirera one of the most important Spanish improvisers works with Ramon Prats fascinating drummer from many years. They both are one of the shinest points on the European musical scene. On the other hand ZARM Ensemble. ZARM Ensemble is an award-winning string quartet started by legendary Portugal violin master Carlos "Zíngaro”, David Magalhães Alves (Violin), Ulrich Mitzlaff (Cello), and Alvaro Rosso (Double bass).From an almost compulsive fascination with sound…

2024 stock. Trumpeter Russ Johnson is a recent Midwest transplant after spending 23 years as an important member of New York City’s jazz community. He has seven recordings as a leader or co-leader and performed on more than 75 recordings as a sideman. Russ has worked alongside many of the legendary figures in jazz including Lee Konitz, Steve Swallow, Bill Frisell, and Joe Lovano. In addition, he has recorded and/or performed with a long list of the most prominent musicians currently on the inter…

2024 stock. Three years ago, the eminent pianist Elisabeth Harnik and the great trombone master Steve Swell released for the first time their joint album Tonotopic Organisation, which is highly regarded by both critics and fans of both musicians. Three years have passed and the duo is now launching the second instalment of their improvisatory explorations. Listen to how the musicians have changed over this time, and how their art has changed. We are happy to give you the Welcome To The Stratosph…

Albert Beger - tenor saxophone, percussionZiv Taubenfeld - bass clarinet, percussionShay Hazan - guimbri, double bassHamid Drake - drums Tracks 1 and 4 recorded on the 10th of July, 2023 at Levontin 7, Tel AvivTracks 2 and 3 recorded on the 8th of July, 2023 at Kitcha Studios by Uri "Momo" BarakMixed by Mike Marciano at Systems Two Recording, New YorkMastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudiosPhotos by Aviad Fuchs

Peter Brötzmann - tenor saxophone, tarogatoToshinori Kondo - trumpet, electronicsSabu Toyozumi - drums Recorded live on October 2nd, 2016 at Roppongi Super Deluxe, Tokyo, Japan by Kunimitsu TsuburaiAll music by Peter Brötzmann, Toshinori Kondo and Sabu ToyozumiMastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudiosDesign by Oskaras AnosovasPhotos by Moto UeharaCover art by Sabu Toyozumi

Derek Bailey - guitarSabu Toyozumi - drums Recorded live on November 2nd, 1987 at IMAI-Tei, Fukuoka City, Japan by Hidenobu EharaConcert produced by Masahiro TomiokaMastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudiosDesign by Oskaras AnosovasPhoto by Yumi Mochizuki at Taruho Jazz, Yamato CityCover art by Sabu Toyozumi

Legendary pianist Matthew Shipp, one of the greatest improvisers Joe Morris and fantastic drummer Jerome Deupree known from iconic band MORPHINE together!

Simon Nabatov has undertaken one of the most unusual projects in contemporary music, an intense scrutiny and setting to music of modernist Russian literature, much of it taken from the years of Stalinist censorship, repression and imprisonment. For 25 years, beginning with Josef Brodsky’s Nature Morte, he has set text in partially improvised settings, including excerpts from Isaac Babel’s grim Red Cavalry and poems by Daniil Kharms and the Gileya group. Along with that largely poetic enterprise,…

In 2019, a year before the onset of the pandemic and three years before the full-scale war in Ukraine broke out, we released Illuminated Silence. This was the first album of a new trio consisting of the young Japanese-born, Irish-based pianist and composer Izumi Kimura and the greats of the improvised music world Barry Guy and Gerry Hemingway. The album was very much liked by listeners and I heard from many of them the question whether there is a chance that this formation will survive, because …

Kamil Piotrowicz - one of the brightest and most acclaimed for his creativity pianists on the artistic map of Poland, an artist associated with the new Scandinavian (Danish) improvised music scene accompanied by equally talented two musicians from Norway, trumpeter Erik Kimestad and drummer Simon Albertsen. The President is their first album recording. The material was created at DKDM studios in Copenhagen and mastered by another Polish artist highly regarded for his directorial efforts, Albert …

You all know Ivo Perelman, one of the world's most ardent and lyrical improvisers. The famous New Yorker in the company of artists he has never recorded with before, the legendary double bassist Mark Helias and the great leader and percussionist at the same time Tom Rainey.The album Truth Seeker is an item that shows Ivo Perelman's playing in a completely unprecedented context. Such fascinating recording sessions are worth waiting years for!

Xavier Camarasa - Fender Rhodes, Jean-Marc Foussat - Synthi AKS, voix jouets and Marc Maffiolo saxophone baryton

Xavier Camarasa - Fender Rhodes, Jean-Marc Foussat - Synthi AKS, voix jouets and Marc Maffiolo saxophone baryton

Flesh and Bones is the latest release from drummer, composer, and poet William Hooker. The album marks his third full length effort for Org Music, following “Big Moon” (2021) and “Symphonie of Flowers” (2019). Hooker has also referred to the new work as his “Black Lives Suite”, a multi-disciplinary event which uses music and poetry to address the social issues of the times. Recorded at NYU Steinhart Studios, the recording features fellow New York based players Ras Moshe, Charles Burnham, On Davi…

Also known as the leader of the jazz trio Inga, Sam Gendel is an L.A. saxophonist who has developed a free and unique sound that has been described as psychedelic, outsider, and meditative, and Shin Sasakubo is a Chichibu-based guitarist. A new album by the duo of Sam Gendel, an up-and-coming saxophonist from LA, and Shin Sasakubo, an uncanny guitarist based in Chichibu, who is also active as a photographer and contemporary artist. The two showed great chemistry in Shin Sasakubo's previous work …

2024 stock. This performance is a second coming together of a rather unusual but wonderful pair; Dame Evelyn Glennie, a household name in percussion, and Szilárd Mezei, a prolific free improviser, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. In 2018, these two artists came together in the Core-tet Project, one of Dame Evelyn’s significant forays into free improvisation. Since then, she also worked with TRIO HLK, but this live performance with Mezei and his quartet is a much different kind of performing…

Patryk Zakrocki - one of the most important improvisers, composers, and sound artists in Poland, and last time also guitarist as well as bassist Maciej Garbowski and drummer Krzysztof Gradziuk, known as the pillars of the best piano trio RGG on the Polish scene, are musicians representing completely different musical worlds. Their first studio meeting is an intimate oneiric improvisation framed by the conventions of ballad and blues. An astonishing encounter bringing music that is not made every…

Legendary saxophonist and one of the most important musicians on the British improvised scene. Member of great bands led by Keith Tippet and Barry Guy including the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, Paul Dunmall on one hand. On the other hand double bass virtuoso, known in the past as a musical companion of legendary trombonist Paul Rutherford and a crucial on the European free improv scene band Mujician, Paul Rogers. On drums Mark Sanders, for sure a key person in the British and European free m…

On a perfectly smooth surface of silence, three hurled stones create their patterns of waves. The lines intersect, unite, cancel out, or reinforce each other. Sometimes, they form together a harmonious pattern. At other times, they express the beauty of chaos and entropy. But they always remain in relation to each other - no movement goes unanswered. No energy escapes into nothingness. These three stones are Scratching Fork. Three musicians with different characters, histories, and registers. Ma…

"There are many illusive or ephemeral descriptions that are often part of how words seek to elucidate the listening experience. In the music we have on this recording from Florestan and the trio he has formed to venture his musical initiatives, words such as space, transparency, suspension, stasis, momentum, tension, multiplicity, flow, cohesion, dimension, release are some of the ingredients that come to mind to articulate the musical experience this recording offers. To me, Florestan’s musical…

Time to start the new year. Legendary trumpeter and jazz great, runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize, winner, Guggenheim Fellowship winner, NEA Jazz Masters recipient, Wadada Leo Smith and one of the greatest authorities on improvised music, educator, our friend, guitarist, and double bassist Joe Morris together! The album is a recording of a concert the two artists gave earlier this past year, on 12 February, during the famous ImprovisatioNOW concert series at Real Art Ways in Hartford, where audie…

2024 stock. This performance is a second coming together of a rather unusual but wonderful pair; Dame Evelyn Glennie, a household name in percussion, and Szilárd Mezei, a prolific free improviser, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. In 2018, these two artists came together in the Core-tet Project, one of Dame Evelyn’s significant forays into free improvisation. Since then, she also worked with TRIO HLK, but this live performance with Mezei and his quartet is a much different kind of performing…