"This 'Aella' release is one of three in a series curated by myself and released by 577 Records. The other two records are of my trio and of Alan Bjorklund's Amygdala. This trio displays the amazing potential of improvised music. Whenev...

One of three albums in a series curated by saxophonist David Schnug and released by 577 Records, trumpeter Alan Bjorklund's Amygdala presents an inventive and adventurous set of compositions, from a succinct 16 seconds to more than 7 minutes on the title track, in a mix of composed and improvised approaches using modern syntax and compositional strategies to compelling effect.

After years of collaboration through New York's Downtown scene, multi-reed & wind player Daniel Carter (also on piano) and drummer Federico Ughi recorded this 2012 studio album, their 3rd duo album together and a great example of their spontaneously lyrical give and take, ability to anticipate each other's momentum, and the deep jazz roots that each brings to their music.

"Concrete Science is not a stiff, cerebral test of complex music. It is the natural unfettered dialogue between three masterful improvisers: saxophonist Daniel Carter, trombonist Steve Swell, and drummer Federico Ughi. Though cerebral i...

A solo sax album of patterns and intersections from London writer, artist & musician Massimo Magee, influenced by a wealth of sources from Braxton to Stockhausen, each of the five parts of "Toneflower" affected through mic placement as Magee builds to wild expressiveness, transforming round tones into stratospheric pitches, using circular breathing for extended expressiveness; stunning!

Inspired by the work of Lennie Tristano, Brooklyn-based saxophonist and wind player David Schnug steps out as a leader in the first of three albums (along with Aella and Alan Bjorklund's Amygdala) in a trio with bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Max Goldman, each of the 7 amusingly titled pieces employing a different compositional concept.

"Bonus material from the album Songs For Four Cities. Exclusive limited edition of 20 hand-numbered copies."-577 Records

"On the first piece of this album, "Talk in Play, People On Mercy", you will hear a rare wall of sound created by two acoustic instruments : Federico Ughi's drums and Gene Janas' bass. For close to nine minutes they bury every aspect of...

An epic story in symphonic rock style from pianist, drummer and composer Risa Takeda, telling the fantastic tale of a dramatic confrontation between an Emperor and a Sorcerer, through eleven compositions of a contemporary classical and theatrical nature, using modern synthetic sources in active and complex orchestration as the plot advances.

Recordings from the 2022 Japanese New Music Festival Japan Tour from the trio of Tsuyama Atsushi on bass, guitar & piano, Yoshida Tatsuya on drums, synth and vocals, and Kawabata Makoto on guitar, bass and vocals, selecting the best tracks from the tour into a collection of 15 psychedelic, progressive, experimental and uncategorizable rock forms!

A live recording at Koenji Jirokichi in 2022 between Magaibtusu leader Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins, Korekyojinn, Koenji Hyakkei, PYN, &c) and pianist Kazuto Shimizu (Arepos, Chakra, Hikashu, Killing Time, Lars Hollmer's Global Home Project, &c), both on vocals as they unfold a playful and technically incredible set of "Doodads", "Watchamacallits" and other wonderful curiosities.

Fifteen rock instrumentals between drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and pianist & keyboardist Risa Takeda, generally high-speed, technically superb and melodically infused pieces of imaginative creativity with a quirky sense of humor, augmented with Yoshida's vocalizing and effect processing from both; includes a download sheet for 15 high-def movies, one for each track on the album.

One of a pair of complementary CDs (Navajo Sunrise and Navajo Sunset) this 2010 trio recording of a live performance at Area Sismica, Ravaldino in Monte, Italy between Daniel Carter on alto sax & piano, William Parker on bass & shakuhachi and Federico Ughi on drums, is a solid example of the sensitivity and collaborative power of the Downtown NY creative jazz scene.

Recorded in Brooklyn in 2009 from the Downtown New York working band of David Moss on bass, Federico Ughi on drums, Matthew Putman on piano, Daniel Carter on saxophone and Demian Richardson on trumpet, this album was self-released by the artists, to Wake Up! the world through solid grooves and hard playing electric jazz of intensely spirited soloing.

Drummer Federico Ughi is heard in three duo configurations of three improvisations each with British improvisers Steve Buckley on alto saxophone and bass clarinet; Rachel Musson on tenor saxophone; and Matthew F. Morris on baritone saxophone, recording in the studio in London, 1998.

The first new Bootstrappers album since 1992, joining band leader Elliott Sharp for this 3rd album are longtime collaborators Melvin Gibbs on electric bass and Don McKenzie on drums, for seven assertive rock-based improvisations fueled by electronics, free jazz, no wave and electroacoustic sound, manifesting a hardboiled NY ethic of focused grooves and free playing.

Including three previously unreleased live tracks, one of Downtown NY's supergroups of drummer Samm Bennett, reed & wind player Ned Rothenberg and guitar & bass player Elliott Sharp's 2nd album is reissued, bringing this collection of seemingly endless possibility in improvisation back to the foreground, sounding as modern today as it did in the percolating creativity of 1987.

An unusual blend of jazz tradition, spoken word and soundscape, presenting mostly as a jazz album with spoken narration from Steve Piccolo (Lounge Lizards) guiding the album with abstract comments that interject with Sergio Armaroli's virtuoso vibe playing, Elliot Sharp adding both acoustic sax elements and inventive sonic environments underpinning many moments; conceptually fascinating.

The fifth album on Leo Records for vibraphonist Sergio Armaroli, and his second with NY guitarist, saxophonist & electronic artist Elliott Sharp and bassist Steve Piccolo, using lyrical interpretations of jazz standards as a jumping off point for experimental and unusual approaches to improvisation, a unique balancing point in a fascinating collection.

Celebrating his 50 years, Norwegian bassist and composer Ingebrigt Haker Flaten assembles a band of diverse background and superb musical skill to tell his story as a tribute to the people, music and places that have shaped him, a work commissioned by Vossajazz and presented as six destinations including Trondheim, Chicago, Mexico City, &c.; a profound and amazing journey in music.

Commissioned by Organ Reframed, the organ-only experimental music festival curated by Scottish composer/performer and London's Union Chapel organ music director Claire M Singer, this piece of deep overtones ascending through octaves was developed with organist Frédéric Blondy at the Église Saint Merry in Paris, this specially packaged release captured at the Union Chapel festival concert in 2020.

A dark trio of NYC heavyweights Tim Dahl and Trevor Dunn on bass and Nandor Nevai ( _ (Underscore)) on drums and conducting, in Nevai's fifth iteration of the _ ("UNDRSKOR") project, following a fusion of forms referred to as 'Neauxtheque' invoking "Danger Classical", the Martial Pop subgenre of Industrial and the virtuosic demands of Technical Death Metal.

Reissuing The Necks 18th album, finding the Australian trio of drummer/percussionist Tony Buck, bassist Lloyd Swanton and pianist/keyboardist Chris Abrahams in a vertiginous 44 minute dark excursion punctuated by cliff hanging moments through homemade instruments and unusual textures, one of the darker and more cathartic albums from The Necks large discography.

An engrossing set of compositions through field recordings captured around the globe, transitioning by passages of trains, trucks and cars and accompanied by unusual percussive elements and strange melodies, as Niblock invites us to a funeral procession, a collective farm, and untold other exotic and fascinating streets and unexpected environments.

With one foot in fusion-oriented improv and the other in psychedelic/prog rock, the 4th album from the Norwegian quartet of Per Steinar Lie on lapsteel & electric guitar, Oystein Braut on guitar, organ & Mellotron, Julius Lind on double bass and Orjan Haaland on drums are joined by keyboard wiz Sigbjorn Apeland and percussionist Stale Liavik Solberg.

The 1st live album from Norwegian pianist Espen Eriksen's Trio with bassist Lars Tormod Jenset and drummer Andreas Bye, joined by British saxophonist Andy Sheppard, for original compositions plus "Rosemary's Baby", captured at concerts from Oslo's Nasjonal Jazzscene in 2018 & 2020, a 2020 concert at Propeller Music Division in Oslo and a 2021 performance in Poznan, Poland.

An optimistic definition of "Defeat" through the exultantly dark and expressive work of Fire!, here as the quintet of Mats Gustafsson on flute, baritone sax & live electronics, Johan Berthling on electric bass, Andreas Werliin on drums, Goran Kajfes on quartertone trumpet and Mats Aleklint on trombone & sousaphone, in five works of richly creative and modern improv.

The 3rd album from the Oslo's Master Oogway quartet of Havard Nordberg Funderud on guitars, Lauritz Heitmann Skeidsvoll on sax, Martin Heggli Mellem on drums and Karl Erik Hornsdalsveen on bass, recorded at their monthly concert series at Kafa Haerverk, joined by flutist Henriette Eilertsen (Billy Meier and Andreas Roysum Ensemble) for four lyrical composed by bassist Hornsdalsveen.

For her 2nd solo record aside from her rock trio, guitarist Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen expands her orchestration to an octet, adding jazz-rock elements while balancing scorching playing with lyrical and open passages, as she pays tribute to Arne Nordheim's 1979 composition for Shakespeare's "The Tempest", and for her own experiences of furious weather in her home town of Ålesund.

The 3rd album from this young Norwegian piano trio led by composer Kjetil A Mulelid with double bassist Bjørn Marius Hegge and drummer Andreas Skår Winther, presenting ten lyrical compositions of strong melodies and solid and expressive rhythmic foundations, a thoughtfully beautiful and sophisticated album of exquisite modern jazz.

Phil Venable, the Chapel Hill, North Carolina bass player known for his work in the free jazz outfit Tragic Assembly, pairs up with Tragic Assembly drummer Charles Chace for an excursion into the outer limits of improvisation, the album title a reference to a medicinal clay and a riff off of the Charles Mingus song "Moanin".

His 2nd album as a leader on Tao Forms, drummer Whit Dickey expands on his previous trio album with Rob Brown on alto sax and Brandon Lopez on bass, adding Mat Maneri on viola, bringing together four collaborative New York players that share a long history, evident in the confident interaction, freedom and momentum this band shows on five conceptually linked Dickey compositions.

Seeking to combine the interdisciplinary practices of Swedish percussionist, artist and philosopher Larsson Andreas Hiroui and his ensemble of Johanna Arve and Johan Jutterstrom into a single method, this extended work compiles their collective history into digital archives that are presented in a layered set of spoken observations and instrumental improvisations.

A scorching studio recording from 2011 recently discovered in the archives from the trio of Elliott Sharp on guitar, Tim Dahl on bass guitar, Weasel Walter on drums, a raging album of free improvisation in the Downtown NY style from three players steeped in expressing instrumental agitation with clarity and conviction - a truly burning power trio!

Joining the Chicago ensemble of Dave Rempis on alto, tenor & baritone saxophones, bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer/percussionist Avreeayl Ra is pianist & synth player Jim Baker, performing at Elastic Arts in July 2021 as the venue reopened after pandemic shutdowns, the significance clear in the spiritual power and inspired performances of all 4 players.

A fully free improvisation of subtly disruptive, extended electroacoustic mastery, recorded during the Svensk Musikvår Festival at Aliasteatern, Stockholm in 2021, in a piece conceived by Mats Gustafsson who performs on saxophone & flute, with Anna Lindal on violin, Mats Lindstrom on electronics, effects & sampler and Joachim Nordwall on analog synths, effects & tapes.

Dave Tucker, a one-time member of The Fall and long-time free improviser involved with the Alan Tomlinson Trio and his own School of Velocity quartet with Evan Parker, John Edwards & Steve Noble, in a duo with double bassist Pierpaolo Martino for 11 succinct and assertive dialogs titled "Melophobia" I - XI, diverse works from active Crimson-esque playing to dark & introspective ruminations.

The 2nd release from the UK collective quartet of Jose Canha on double bass, Trevor Taylor on drums, percussion, Dan Banks on piano and Josh Ison on saxophone, exploring the intersection between freely improvised music and free-jazz, drawing out energetic and subtle moments in lyrical interactions through energetic and focused momentum with a full range of character.

Recording in the studio in Hornchurch, UK in 2022, the open-minded, innately lyrical and freely improvising trio of pianist Dan Banks, long-time collaborator with drummer Trevor Taylor at the latter's Jazz825 club in Southend-on-Sea, and Portuguese double bassist Jose Canhas, are heard in five impeccable contemporary jazz recordings, warm collective conversations of adept skill.

A collective West Coast trio from double bassist Kyle Motl (Treesearch) with cornetist Dan Clucas, also on violin and moxeno (an Andean wind instrument) and drummer Nathan Hubbard, imbued with a spiritual and natural chamber jazz feeling, their improvisations influenced by concepts of daydreams, incandescence and zephyrs; a beautiful and open-minded album.

From the same 2017 session that was released as the album Estuary, this concert in the Philippines between American expatriate saxophonist Rick Countryman and visiting Swiss drummer Christian Bucher expands on the free playing of these two empathetic improvisers, presenting a mix of textural, conceptual, melodic and rhythmic interplay steeped in their personal histories.

Performing on tenor, alto and C-melody saxophones plus alto flute, Paul Dunmall's trio brings together drummer Taymotusz Joziwiak (heard on One Became Many, Unmasked and Awoto) and younger generation bassist James Owswon, for an album of expressive and lyrical free jazz, a well-paced example of tempered collective interplay highlighting all three musicians.

Free string improvisations from Philipp Wachsmann on violin, David Leahy on double bass and Bruno Gustralla on cello, creating subtle and spacious intersections of strings that focus on unusual techniques, melodic fragments spliced over resounding bowing, plucking and instrument errata, while percussionist Trevor Taylor adds sparse punctuation; inscrutably authoritative improv.

A stellar collective collaboration between British and Australian improvisers recorded at the Kazz Lab/Jazz Club, in Melbourne, Australia as part of a joint recording project between MONASH and RMIT Universities, with performers Raymond MacDonald on alto sax, Robert Burke on tenor sax, Paul Grabowsky on piano, Nick Haywood on double bass and Antony Floyd on drums.

"The Demon of Analogy", reedist Udo Schindler on clarinets & saxophone and Michel Withsch performing on a Pleyel piano, take inspiration from the concepts of French symbolist poet Stéphane Mallamé (1842-1989), who considered his texts as instruments of harmonic complexity and ambiguity, interpreted in eight improvisations recorded live at Krailing, in Munchen, Germany in 2016.

Live recordings of two sessions of fully free and uniquely creative duo improvisations by Udo Schinlder on clarinets, saxophone and brass, and Peter Jacquemyn on double bass & voice, recorded on November 29th, 2019 at the 98th Salon für Klang+Kunst Kralling/Munich by Udo Schindler (part one) & on the next day at Galerie arToxin by Gottfried Düren (part two).

Determined and ardent playing like the powerful creep of lava flow as the Brazilian & Portuguese trio of Felipe Zenicola (Chinese Cookie Poets, Paal Nilssen-Love) on bass, Jose Lencastre (Lencastre Nau Quartet) on saxophones and João Valinho (Creative Sources) on drums evolve their tumultuously articulate journey through a molten world of smoldering free jazz.

Two sessions from the free improvising electroacoustic trio of Philipp Wachsmann on violin & electronics, Martin Hakett on synthesizer and Emil Karlsen on drums & percussion, first for three studio recordings in 2019, and then in concert at the 2020 "Sounds Like This" festival at Leeds College for two wonderfully idiosyncratic and masterful conversations.

Quartet, the masterful grouping of Rachel Musson on tenor sax, NO Moore on electric guitar, Olie Brice on double bass and Eddie Prévost on drums, an improvising ensemble of wonderfully unpredictable momentum, from passages of quiet introspection to thunderous density, but always with attentive listening and imaginative responses, heard in this spectacular 2021 concert at Iklektic.

The Summer 2022 issue of Canada's essential music magazine exploring improvised, compositional, experimental and other musical hybrids, this issue with composer Gayle Young on the cover, articles on violist Ig Henneman, composer Du Yun, Mark Ellestad, plus reviews, interviews and a 10-track CD with music from artists covered in the magazine.

Performed with Stockholm musicians including pianist Alexander Zethson, wind player Martin Küchen and trombonist Mats Äleklint, organist Linnéa Talp explores the areas of sound that emulate breathing, push/pull or back & forth motion, in eight beautifully paced recordings led by the organ's rich and microtonal vibrations & timbre and imbued by the contributor's subtle additions.

An active and creatively absorbing duo between Chicago drummer Quin Kirchner and French-based pianist Rob Clearfield, recorded spontaneously during the sessions of The Shadows and The Light, with one extended improvisation per side, alternating between percolating rhythms of quick witted exchanges to gorgeous lyrical moments of hanging piano figures.

A tribute to late experimental sound artist Peter Rehberg (Pita) from collaborators and friends Lasse Marhaug and Jérôme Noetinger, ten recordings of wildly creative, slippery electronics, crunching sound bunts, rapid fire electronic turmoil and tapehead jamming, ending with a beautifully drifting tribute to an artist who widely influenced modern sound culture.

A fully acoustic set of creative free improvisation from the Survival Unit III trio of Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello, Joe McPhee on tenor saxophone & pocket trumpet and Michael Zerang on percussion, performing at the 2018 The Instigation Festival in New Orleans in a set of concerts that also was drummer Alvin Fielder's last concert, to whom this album is dedicated.

Taken from concerts during Thollem's 3-month European tour, at Centro d'Arte dell'Università di Padova; AngelicA at Teatro San Leonardo in Bologna; and Rassegna di Nuova Musica 39, performing on acoustic pianos or a Korg Wavestate, showing his technically impressive, creative drive over a diverse set of approaches to solo piano improvisation.

Berlin-based composer & pianist Quentin Tolimieri's goal for the 15 compositions of "Monochrome" was to hear the acoustic piano differently, removing traditional structures of European harmony, each piece focused on a single or "monochromatic" theme that unfolds over an extended period of time, whether languorous or intensely active, each piece unique and self-contained.

Interested in compositional work involving sound, timing, space, physicality, memory, noise & environment, Dutch composer Reinier van Houdt shares six works developed for erstwhile record's festival AMPLIFY 2020: quarantine, each piece focused on a specific day of the month; and a complementary set of four compositions about everyday recurring situations.

Employing multiphonics, circular breathing and unusual sonic phenomena of immense control over the lowest of clarinets--the bass clarinet and contra bass clarinet--UK-based multi-reedist Jason Alder performs the two-part "Milieu Interiuer" composition by Greek composer Thanos Chrysakis, along with three other Chrysakis compositions for solo and layered clarinets.

The long-standing duet of guitarist Richard Comte and tenor saxophonist Julen Pontvianne (Onze Hours Onze) is a conversation of introspective and resonant repetition around silence, tonal decay, slow call and response and submerged themes, here symbolically immersed as they explore four sunken islands from around the world: Vordonis; Lohachara; Semionovski and Elugelab.

Translating to "Cross Black", French guitarist Richard Comte provides a set of four diverse soundtracks, from deep turbulent darkness and sonic decay to crisply ringing guitar resonance, over which sound poet Sébastien Lespinasse intones with solemn import his dark words of imagery and observation.