Jazz & Improvisation / Free Improvisation

Recorded in the dining room of the Maison Bustros, Beirut, Lebanon on 21 August, 2004.

Homage to Stefano Scodanibbio by Sebastian Gramss and ten other double bassists, among them Barry Guy, Joëlle Léandre, Barre Phillips and Mark Dresser, recorded separately in 2014, plus a 2008 live duo of Scodanibbio and Gramss.

Recorded on April 26, 2000.

Recorded on 19 March 2002 live at MIB, Bremen

"Double album, double solos of two distinctive musicians, becoming duets in a relatively rare space between solo playing and ensemble. Reed and percussion start at different places, the working through breath, the other pulse of materials being struck, one typically characterised by line, the other by attack, producing in the first pitch configurations, in the second beat patterns (Eddie Prévost doesn't use the specifically pitched mallet instruments). Each player comes with a distinctive sonic …

Somewhere between Musique Concrete and a kind of abstract improvisational work, using extended techniques and electrification that disconnects sound from any recognisable source. A fascinating first record that sits between studio improvisation and extensive post production processing composition.

Recorded live in Jersey City, NJ on 8/8/2004.Mixed and mastered at Amme Studios in NYC 9/1/2004

2006 release ** Music + One, created in collaboration with Myles Boisen, is a collection of solo improvisations that is meant to be played along with by improvisers. The instructions given to the participants before recording were simple: improvise for 3 to 4 minutes, as if you were playing music with your shadow. This was to allow room for others to improvise with the recording. To test this, we invited the musicians to play along with one of the tracks at the 21Grand Performance Space & Art Ga…

Precious document of early Japanese improvised music scene. Tensional performance of heavy sounds from reeds and bass.

2024 Stock. Minor signs of wear from long-time storage. ** The late Japanese free-improvisation master Motoharu Yoshizawa was a bassist of extraordinary caliber and longstanding avatar of the Tokyo avant-garde scene. This album -- one of his many for PSF -- is a series excerpts from recordings made in New York with his avant-garde sympathizers in the land of the free. Elliott Sharp and Butch Morris contribute stunning performances, as does Tokyo ex-pat Ikue Mori, on this collection of highlights…

2025 stock A composed improvisation, or possibly the other way around – this is one way of describing the music played by Mats Gustafsson and the Nu Ensemble, a multinational group of improvisational musicians. The saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, born in 1964, became interested in improvisational music at an early age, inspired by among others the German Peter Brötzmann and the Britt Evan Parker. The Nu Ensemble was a loosely structured, irregularly convened radio and concert project built around …

What a pleasant surprise! The Swedish multi-reed maestro, he of the coruscatingly wild fluteophone attacks, turns to the relatively calm and linear world of Steve Lacy and finds a very happy medium in this solo release. While he treats Lacy's deadpan and deceptively simple melodies with clear respect, he uses them as jumping off points for his own idiosyncratic deconstructions. On "Deadline," he navigates into a territory of ultra-soft percussive clicks and taps, creating a fascinating spatial f…

2006 release ** Limited edition of 500 hand-numbered copies packaged in special 7" sleeve. "Amongst English Men finds Mark Wastell alone, brooding magnificently in the bottom octave of a superbly recorded Steinway grand piano until his Tilburyesque clangs are eventually lost in a haze of tam tam harmonics and mournful strokes on a tubular bell. It’s deceptively simple to describe but remarkably subtle and compelling to listen to, impeccably mixed and mastered by Graham Halliwell."

Leopardo is a solo recording by the Portuguese guitarist Manuel Mota, who might best be described as a somewhat more fluidly lyrical Derek Bailey. Lovingly recorded on solid body electric guitar, his improvisations have the spiky quality associated with the elder statesman of the freely improvised guitar, but Mota's lines sound as though coated in oil, possessing a slipperiness and liquidity that peeks back at Portuguese traditions. There are very few extended effects employed, the guitar string…

Late-night improvisation captured on a stormy November evening in an old church during the 2006 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. John Butcher's soprano and tenor saxophones intertwine with Xavier Charles' clarinet and Axel Dörner's trumpet across 51 minutes of remarkable sustained exploration that stands as one of the defining documents of contemporary European improvised music. Tempestuous moves between the poles of calm and urgency that the setting might suggest, with the trio navigat…

Double album by Roscoe Mitchell with his four trios (Craig Taborn, Tyshawn Sorey, Hugh Ragin, William Winant and others), recorded live in September 2015 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago during the AACM's 50th anniversary.

Keith Jarrett's solo piano concert of 26 September 2005 at Carnegie Hall, New York: ten improvised parts and five encores, including My Song and Time On My Hands. Released by ECM as a double CD in 2006.

Double live album of freely improvised music by Keith Jarrett (piano), Gary Peacock (double bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums), recorded in April 2001 at Orchard Hall and Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo. Released by ECM in 2002.

Keith Jarrett improvising on two and three clavichords in nineteen pieces, recorded in four hours on 14 July 1986 at Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg, produced by Manfred Eicher. First released by ECM in 1987.

Keith Jarrett's 1976 solo piano studio improvisations in four suites (Staircase, Hourglass, Sundial, Sand), recorded in May 1976 at Studio Davout, Paris, produced by Manfred Eicher. 2CD.

Two complete improvised solo piano concerts by Keith Jarrett: Lausanne, 20 March 1973 (Salle de Spectacles, Epalinges) and Bremen, 12 July 1973 (Kleiner Sendesaal, Radio Bremen). Originally released on ECM in 1973; this is the 2CD edition.

Six-CD box of five complete solo piano concerts by Keith Jarrett, recorded in Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo and Sapporo in November 1976, plus a disc of encores. Produced by Manfred Eicher; first issued on ten LPs in 1978.

Outside of Peter Brotzmann and Derek Bailey, I am not certain there are many players, European or otherwise, that maintain such sustained reverence from their peers as Paul Rutherford. And deservedly so, since I know of very few musicians as uncompromising as the British trombonist.While the trombone has languished in mediocrity over the past three decades, with the exception of a select number, on American shores, the European improvisers who call the trombone their home have continued its forw…

Recorded and mixed in July 2002 at Estudi 84, Barcelona. Thanks to Anki Toner and Jakob Draminsky.

2003 release ** "Justin Bennet, Anne Wellmer and Stephie Buttrich fuse minimal electronica and free improvisation in a set of 16 warped and lovely songs."

Recorded at LOFT Köln on December 14, 1993

First ECM album by the Louis Sclavis Quintet: Sclavis (clarinets, soprano saxophone), Dominique Pifarély (violin), François Raulin (piano, synthesizer), Bruno Chevillon (bass), Christian Ville (drums). Recorded September 1991 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo.

Highlights from small group recordings from the 2001 Freedom of the City festival featuring artists such as Steve Beresford (electronics), John Butcher (saxes), Lol Coxhill (sax), Paul Rutherford (trombone), Phil Minton, and more in various arrangements.

Solo, duo, trio, quartet & octet improvisations by John Edwards (double bass), Sylvia Hallett (violin, voice, sarangi), Marcio Mattos (cello), Neil Metcalfe (flute), Evan Parker (soprano saxophone), John Rangecroft (clarinet), Mark Sanders (percussion), Philipp Wachsmann (violin, electronics). 152 minutes - previously unissued.

Recorded in Paris, May 27th 2001.

Wadada Leo Smith's first ECM album, recorded in September 1978 at Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg, with Dwight Andrews (winds), Bobby Naughton (vibraphone, marimba, bells) and guests Lester Bowie, Kenny Wheeler (trumpets) and Charlie Haden (bass). Produced by Manfred Eicher.

Together Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty have re-written the concept of modern free-jazz with their post-hardcore punk style approach of euphoric togetherness. Ferocious, spontaneous, explosive and aggressively lyrical, they've established their groundbreaking duo with loads of shows and a host of tremendous recordings. When tales of C. Spencer Yeh's Burning Star Core project reached Corsano/Flaherty, the duo were eager to see him jam. Fortunately, fate brought them together at the DeStijl/Freed…

Matchless Recordings presents a live concert by Eddie Prévost and Evan Parker recorded at Gateway Studios, Kingston-upon-Thames, London, on November 10th, 2003. The album includes five tracks performed by Evan Parker - tenor saxophone and Eddie Prévost - drums.

First duo album by pianist Marilyn Crispell and bassist Anders Jormin: four free improvisations and seven compositions by the two. Recorded July 2025 at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano, produced by Manfred Eicher.

New trio of pianist Ayumi Tanaka, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Thomas Strønen: eight collectively improvised pieces and Tanaka's La Source. Recorded May 2025 at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Pianist Lucian Ban and violist Mat Maneri arrange Transylvanian songs and dances collected by Béla Bartók. Recorded live on 29 October 2022 at CJT Hall, Timișoara, for the Retracing Bartók project; produced by Steve Lake.

Second duo album by Trygve Seim (soprano and tenor saxophones) and Frode Haltli (accordion): originals, improvisations, Ukrainian and North Indian songs, a Stravinsky coda. Recorded June 2023 at the Himmelfahrtskirche, Munich, produced by Manfred Eicher. ECM 2813, 2024.