Jazz & Improvisation / Free Improvisation

Theta Seven – OUA’s seventh and final album – arrives a shade under 3 years since its predecessor. As with previous releases, basic tracks, either using simple compositional ideas or freely improvised, were recorded live in the studio by the full band over a frenetic 2 day period. These tracks were radically edited and collaged by Martin Archer, and finally overdubbed and arranged by Martin Archer and Jan Todd working in tandem to arrive at the seamless continuity of sound heard on the finished …

On Shadows, Magnus Carlson & The Moon Ray Quintet reconvene after a decade apart to steep 8 songs in late‑night jazz grain: slow burns, noir ballads and subtly psychedelic covers where Carlson’s voice moves like smoke through the band’s velvet swing.

Super tip! Holy ghost music. The real deal. The sound of four men tearing a hole in the fabric of what jazz was supposed to be and letting something else pour through - something ancient and raw and utterly new. In their short time together, Albert Ayler and Don Cherry created a body of music that genuinely exists in the moment. Oblivious to rules and aesthetic boundaries, they played what they felt on their nerve-ends, embracing mistakes and wrong turns as part of the experience of making art i…

*100 copies limited edition* Confront Recordings, the vanguard of adventurous music since 1996, proudly unveils Be S-Mart, a riveting new album capturing the spontaneous brilliance of improvising masters Steve Beresford, Pierpaolo Martino, and Mark Sanders. Be S-Mart emerges from the heart of live improvisation, where Beresford's eclectic electronics and prepared piano wizardry collide with Martino's bass textures and Sanders' propulsive, ever-shifting drums. This trio forges a sonic landscape t…

Pianist Pat Thomas, saxophonist Seymour Wright (both of [ahmed]) and drummer Paul Abbott - the latter two working as XT - deliver a remarkable set of new music, each, re-imagining improvisation and synthetic ideas with acoustic and electronic tools. This monumental new suite Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary)* released by We Jazz Records on 30th January 2026 is spread across three release formats, the complete album includes more than 2 hours and 15 minutes of music recorded live in London and Zuric…

Pianist Pat Thomas, saxophonist Seymour Wright (both of [ahmed]) and drummer Paul Abbott - the latter two working as XT - deliver a remarkable set of new music, each, re-imagining improvisation and synthetic ideas with acoustic and electronic tools. This monumental new suite Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary)* released by We Jazz Records on 30th January 2026 is spread across three release formats, the complete album includes more than 2 hours and 15 minutes of music recorded live in London and Zuric…

Is an open dialogue of polarity possible? A dialogue of human existence in the cosmos and in nature, set against the backdrop of contemporary technology? That the feeling of being torn or detached is permanently inscribed in human nature is a truism. Yet we don’t always recognize the nature of this detachment—sometimes it seems like a separation from something immense, completely different from what humanity itself is. From a certain perspective, one could say that the many myths, symbols, ritua…

Remedy, the boundary-pushing collective known for their raw improvisational prowess, today announces the release of Remedy + Aki Takase, a luminous fusion of avant-garde jazz and experimental soundscapes. Teaming up with Japanese piano virtuoso Aki Takase—celebrated for her collaborations with legends like Lester Bowie and her pivotal role in global free jazz—this album marks a triumphant meeting of generations and genres. Recorded live in Berlin's vibrant jazz scene, Remedy + Aki Takase capture…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly announces the release of SOM-HI!, a breathtaking new album capturing the raw, telepathic interplay of four European free jazz visionaries: pianist Agustí Fernández, trumpeter Artur Majewski, saxophonist Albert Cirera, and drummer Ramon Prats. This recording erupts with the unbridled joy and ferocity of spontaneous creation, pushing the boundaries of improvisation into exhilarating new territory. Recorded live in Barcelona, SOM-HI! distills the quartet's collective fire i…

The boundary-pushing trio known as Last Dream Of The Morning – featuring soprano saxophone titan John Butcher, double bass maestro John Edwards, and percussion innovator Mark Sanders – proudly announces the release of their electrifying new album, Sharp Illusion. This recording captures the group's unparalleled chemistry in a whirlwind of spontaneous sonic invention. Emerging from a legacy of fearless improvisation, Sharp Illusion distills the trio's decades of collaborative fire into six tracks…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly announces the release of This Anger is a Liar, a searing new album from the powerhouse trio of Portuguese saxophonist José Lencastre, bassist João Hasselberg, and Danish drummer Kresten Osgood. Captured in a single, electrifying studio session, this collection of fully improvised music confronts fury, deception, and catharsis head-on, transforming personal turmoil into collective triumph. Lencastre's tenor sax cuts through like a blade—fierce, lyrical, and unyielding—whi…

Trombone titan Ray Anderson and tenor sax visionary Ivo Perelman invite listeners into the mystical forge of creation with their electrifying new album, 12 Stages of Spiritual Alchemy. Released today via Fundacja Słuchaj, this duo recording captures two masters of free improvisation transmuting raw sound into pure gold across twelve transformative tracks. Anderson's growling, buoyant trombone weaves serpentine lines and thunderous bursts, while Perelman's tenor sax erupts in fiery spirals and ha…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly unveils The 7th Dinner Live, a sizzling live recording from the Joe Hertenstein Trio – drummer/composer Joe Hertenstein, reed master Michael Moore, and bassist powerhouse Michael Formanek – elevated by the irrepressible trombone wizardry of special guest Ray Anderson. Captured in the heat of performance, this album transforms a intimate dinner setting into a banquet of boundless improvisation, where jagged rhythms collide with lyrical invention and raw emotional depth. H…

Fundacja Słuchaj announces the release of Comprehensive, a riveting new album from the powerhouse trio of Joe Morris (guitar), Tyshawn Sorey (drums), and Peter Evans (trumpet). This recording captures the essence of fearless improvisation, where structural precision meets boundless creativity. In Comprehensive, three of contemporary music's most visionary artists converge for a telepathic exploration of rhythm, timbre, and form. Joe Morris wields his guitar as a sonic architect, crafting intrica…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly announces the release of Choreography of Fractures, a searing new album from the powerhouse trio of bassist John Edwards, trumpeter Luis Vicente, and drummer Vasco Trilla. This recording captures the unbridled intensity of live improvisation, where fractures in sound become portals to profound musical discovery. In Choreography of Fractures, Edwards, Vicente, and Trilla forge a sonic landscape that dances on the edge of chaos and control. Edwards' thunderous double bass …

300 copies. Rural psych-jazz improvisations by Finnish bastard sons of Arbete & Fritid! This sextet - featuring Toni Laakso, Janne Martinkauppi, Sami Pekkola, Daniel Stolle, Erno Taipale and Ilkka Vekka - delivers some serious countryside free music madness. If you know Pekkola, Taipale and Vekka from their brutal Ho Chi Moon trio (also on Ultraääni), you know what to expect: freedom music with no compromises! But here it gets even wilder - six heads exploring the zones where Swedish progg, Finn…

2025 repress. Originally released in 2019, this essential 4CD box set documenting one of the rarest trio meetings in the history of European free improvisation is finally available again. Eleven years after the legendary The Topography of the Lungs (Incus, 1970) - one of the landmark early albums of English free improvisation, co-founded the Incus label itself - the trio reunites at 28 rue Dunois in Paris. Almost three and a half hours of non-idiomatic free improvisation captured by Jean-Marc Fo…

*50 copies limited edition* After six years of sonic exploration, David Croshaw and David Cooper unveil their debut album as David / David — Blame Haro, a bold collection that blurs the line between structure and spontaneity. The release also marks the British duo’s debut on 577 Records, introducing their distinctive blend of live improvisation and electronic experimentation to the label’s forward-thinking roster. The duo’s collaboration has been forged through a shared fascination with the mutu…

*150 copies limited edition*  The Belgian free jazz scene of the early 1970s remains criminally under-documented. While Fred Van Hove's participation in the legendary Machine Gun sessions (1968) with Peter Brötzmann, Han Bennink, and Evan Parker placed Antwerp on the international map, a wild ecosystem of temporary combos and performative madness flourished in the shadows. The WIM (Werkgroep Improviserende Musici) collective - founded in 1972 after Van Hove and saxophonist Cel Overberghe refused…

The historical importance, influence, and stature of the Schlippenbach Trio was cemented long ago. Formed in 1970 by German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach in the early days of European free jazz, the group also featured British saxophonist Evan Parker and German drummer Paul Lovens, and soon formed the core of the mighty Globe Unity Orchestra from that point on. As heard on its 1972 debut for FMP Pakistani Pomade - reissued by Cien Fuegos back in 2015 - its foundational music helped establi…

There are musicians who play jazz and there are musicians who expand its very definition. Yusef Lateef was the latter - a visionary who brought the oboe, the argol, the shanai, the bamboo flute and countless other instruments into the jazz vocabulary decades before "world music" became a marketing category. Golden Flower: Live in Sweden presents two never-before-released concert recordings that capture this master at the height of his powers, finally emerging from the Sveriges Radio tape vaults …

Experience a captivating dialogue between clarinet and piano in Music for Clarinet and Piano, a compelling new release by renowned clarinetist François Houle and visionary pianist Georg Graewe. This album showcases a sophisticated interplay of contemporary composition and improvisational mastery, carving a unique space in modern chamber music. François Houle brings a lyrical sensitivity and technical precision to the clarinet, weaving intricate melodic lines with emotional depth. Georg Graewe’s …

"Quartetics" captures a unique encounter between four seasoned improvisers, who first came together in this quartet formation on May 15, 2019. Although new in this configuration, these musicians share extensive collaborative histories: Lash has longstanding collaborations with Reuben and Hanslip, while Hession, Reuben, and Hanslip had already performed and recorded as a trio. The album explores the idea of "The Quartet"—specifically, this configuration of tenor saxophone, laptop, double bass, an…

*50 copies limited edition* On a quiet Tuesday night in April, three musicians—Max Ridley, Eleanor Elektra, and Nat Mugavero—gathered at The Lilypad in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for an evening of deep improvisation. What unfolded was Playing, Praying—an intimate, continuous recording that captures the trio’s shared devotion to sound, silence, and spirit. The album was recorded live as the trio improvised from the heart, pausing only for moments of silence—now preserved as their own tracks. These…

Tip! Edition of 66 numbered copies. Straight outta Jutland comes the new album by Denmark’s Lenny Kalimba. Set your ears adrift in warm scenic sounds, and watch them dance blissfully spasmodic. Homemade flutes, carved from a sacred bamboo bush burning with playful awe, float across the sonic spheres to mind-melt with protofunkoid kalimbas. Electronic beats and acoustic drums swing each other to a higher level of groove. Recorded on tape for a warm listening pleasure, and hereby presented as a ta…

2010 release ** Montréal-based trio Pink Saliva produce music that’s at once intensely deep and readily accessible. Accessible because drummer Michel F Côté lays down earthy rhythmic patterns that sound beamed to the planet through a reverb-y, distant mix. Intensely deep because trumpeter Elwood Epps (aka Gordon Allen) puts so much passion and focus into each and every sound, from kissing lip smacks to achingly beautiful single notes, suspended over the insistent thrumming of Alexandre St-Onge o…

November 1978. Henry Cow disbands after a decade of music that redefined the boundaries of experimental rock. November 2022. Four founding members return to the stage. Not to look back - but to improvise the present. Fred Frith (guitar, violin, electronics), Tim Hodgkinson (keyboards, saxophone, lap steel, electronics), Chris Cutler (drums, percussion), John Greaves (bass, vocals): the original core reunited under the name Henry Now. The key is in the name - as Clive Bell noted in The Wire, this…

*2025 Repress!! 150 copies limited edition* Rich in musical associations yet utterly singular in its voice, joyous with an inner tranquility, the music of Natural Information Society is unlike any other being made today. Their sixth album in eleven years for eremite records, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the first to be recorded live, featuring a set from London’s Cafe OTO with veteran English free-improv great Evan Parker, & the first to feature just one extended composition. The 75-…

26 October 2024, an album comprising a live performance by the Creative Unit of Yosaburō Toyozumi, Namchirak Signho, and Masatsugu Harada with Senko Terukina and Kosei Yamamoto at Gallery Mai within the Mōri Residence in Hofu City, alongside recordings from Masatsugu Harada's studio in Kure City. The performance at Gallery Mai could be described as ‘a once-in-a-lifetime resonance carved in Hofu by masters of improvisation.

2015 release (VERY RARE!) ** Talibam!'s unique handmade / limited-edition packaging for their QR code LP "Translition 2 Siriusness". Unplayable hand-painted record in hand-painted sleeve.

Hikmah is the astonishing new solo piano work from Pat Thomas - virtuosic sound scientist, deep and compassionate thinker, and UK-based musical treasure. A singular album in his now substantial body of work, it marks his first release for TAO Forms. Born in Oxford to Antiguan parents on July 27, 1960, Thomas belongs to a remarkable generation of piano masters. Just over four months separate his birth from that of Matthew Shipp (December 7, 1960) - whose The Piano Equation inaugurated the TAO For…

*2025 stock* "Sadly, many will hear Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt's latest LP, Made Out of Sound, as 'not-jazz,' though it would be more aptly described as 'not-not-jazz.' In a better world, it would warrant above-the-fold reviews in Downbeat, or an appearance on David Sanborn's late-night show (if someone would only give it back to him). More likely, we can hope for a haiku review on Byron Coley's Twitter timeline to sufficiently connect the various improvised terrains trodden by this long-time d…

2006 release ** CDr with stickers in generic plastic bag.

2006 release ** CDr with stickers in generic plastic bag.

Brooklyn pianist Eva Novoa joins saxophonist Daniel Carter and drummer Francisco Mela for the second volume of The Freedom Suite, a set of twelve pieces blending piano, Rhodes, harpsichord, gongs, and vocals with Carter's multi-reed brilliance and Mela's Cuban-inflected drumming, creating an urgent, intimate, and fluidly improvised dialogue of words, sound, and fearless imagination.

1998 release ** "Il Grande Quarto D'Ora is an album by Giancarlo Locatelli and Franco Beltrametti, showcasing a unique blend of Italian musical styles. The record captures a sophisticated and possibly experimental soundscape that reflects the artists' deep musical expertise and creativity. This album likely features a combination of rich instrumentation and evocative vocals, characteristic of both Locatelli's and Beltrametti's styles. Their collaboration suggests a well-crafted musical …

Hobo Duo is: Kevin Cosgrove : drums, homemade percussion Bruno Duplant : electric & acoustic guitar, homemade lapsteel, doublebass, whistle

Kelan Phil Cohran's music for the African Skies program at Chicago's Adler Planetarium in 1993, with the Artistic Heritage Ensemble. Cohran played with Sun Ra's Arkestra from 1958 to 1961 and co-founded the AACM.

The term “private” is used quite liberally in the promotion of rare groove compilations these days. The team at Tramp Records tends to be rather defensive when it comes to such terms. Although, and this should not be misunderstood as arrogance, label boss Tobias Kirmayer & his crew have been doing nothing else for 22 years, strictly speaking. Every compilation series from the Upper Bavarian label, be it the “Movements,” “Feeling Nice,” “Praise Poems,” or “Can You Feel It” series, specializes in …

"When I came to New York City in 1975, after my second period in Paris, I felt as if I was starting again. I didn’t have a band at that time. The Black Artists Group had broken up, or separated—well, it wasn’t much of a “break-up,” but we had come to our musical end, even though one of the last groups I had before returning to New York was with BAG member Baikida Carroll playing trumpet, Peter Warren on bass, and Oliver Johnson on drums. I was basically by myself. I felt eager and anxious to see…