John Zorn:
The Song of Songs [CD + CD BOOK] (Tzadik)

A rich all-vocal rendering of the Bible's sensual Song of Solomon, featuring five distinguished female voices with narration by Barbara Hannigan and Mathieu Amalric, and guided by Jeremy Fogel's new translation, this lush limited-edition CD book highlights one of Zorn's most evocative and beautifully realized creations in a single extended work. ... Click to View

John Zorn (Marsella / Smith / Roeder):
Nocturnes (Tzadik)

Exploring the tradition of night music with subtle, dreamlike elegance, Zorn’s latest piano-trio work — the fourth in his series with Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, and Ches Smith after Suite for Piano, Ballades, and Impromptus — unfolds as a lyrical and expressive creation performed with seemingly telepathic, virtuosic, and finely nuanced interplay. ... Click to View

Amir ElSaffar / New Quartet:
Live at Pierre Boulez Saal (Maqam Records)

Blending Arabic maqam with jazz-inflected improvisation, ElSaffar's new quartet — joined by Tania Giannouli, Ole Mathisen, and Tomas Fujiwara — delivers an intense and expressive live performance whose spontaneous, newly composed material unfolds with lyrical depth, microtonal color, and dynamic interplay, captured at Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal with additional alternate takes. ... Click to View

Amir ElSaffar / New Quartet :
Live at Pierre Boulez Saal [VINYL] (Maqam Records)

Blending Arabic maqam with jazz-inflected improvisation, ElSaffar's new quartet — joined by Tania Giannouli, Ole Mathisen, and Tomas Fujiwara — delivers an intense and expressive live performance whose spontaneous, newly composed material unfolds with lyrical depth, microtonal color, and dynamic interplay, captured at Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal with additional alternate takes. ... Click to View

Ziv Taubenfeld Full Sun (Taubenfeld / Moore / Buis / Ku / Chientaroli / Heggen / Govaert):
Nomads (Full Sun Records)

Recorded live at the Bimhuis, Ziv Taubenfeld's Full Sun gathers Michael Moore, Joost Buis, Yung-Tuan Ku, Nico Chientaroli, Rozemarie Heggen, and Onno Govaert for a slow-unfolding suite steeped in polyphonic colors, lyrical interplay, and spirited homage to Jimmy Lyons, Duke Ellington, Sun Ra, and Misha Mengelberg, shaping a warm, exploratory, and deeply communal sonic journey. ... Click to View

Sophie Agnel:
Learning [VINYL] (Otoroku)

Recorded in two powerful live sets at Café OTO, Sophie Agnel's first solo LP channels her post-recovery reinvention into a fiercely physical language for prepared piano, unleashing dense sound masses, interior textures, and sudden moments of clarity as she reshapes the instrument into a raw, personal terrain of gesture, resonance, and fearless exploration. ... Click to View

Amanda Monaco (w/ Michael Attias / Sean Conly / Satoshi Takeishi) :
Deathblow [VINYL] (Genevieve Records)

Long delayed but bursting with life, guitarist Amanda Monaco's freebopping quartet — Michael Attias, Sean Conly, and Satoshi Takeishi — delivers a sharp, melodic, and mischievously adventurous set, blending playful grooves, quick-turn interplay, and Monaco's distinctive compositional voice into a vibrant, high-spirited vinyl debut from her Deathblow project. ... Click to View

Jurg Frey with ensemble]h[iatus:
Je Laisse A La Nuit Son Poids D'ombre (Another Timbre)

A brooding work for ten musicians, Jürg Frey's crepuscular score intertwines Japanese haiku and poems by Anne Perrier through hushed voices, fragile instrumental colors, and suspended textures, inviting ensemble]h[iatus, led by Le Quan Ninh and Martine Altenburger, into a slowly unfolding landscape where uncertainty, breath, and quiet tension shape a haunting world on the edge of darkness. ... Click to View

Santiago Fischer Diez :
Songs (Another Timbre)

Blending acoustic trio writing, subtle electronics, and everyday vocal gestures, Argentine composer Santiago Diez Fischer's decade-spanning set of five works for Gyre Ensemble shapes a raw, sculptural, and "punk-poetic" sound world where baritone sax, accordion, and percussion merge with the composer's vocal and electronic interventions to reveal music poised deliberately between rough material and refined form. ... Click to View

Rempis / Adasiewicz / Corsano:
Dial Up (Aerophonic)

Two fiercely intuitive trio sessions drawn from concerts in Chicago and Milwaukee by Dave Rempis, Jason Adasiewicz, and Chris Corsano, capturing the group's Chicago-forged, ego-free interplay as they shift effortlessly between surging, full-throttle improvisation and finely detailed, pointillistic exploration, always prioritizing collective motion over individual display. ... Click to View

Yong Yandsen:
Mud (Armageddon Nova)

Harnessing extreme tenor-sax techniques, Yong Yandsen - known for his collaborations with Christian Meaas Svendsen, Paal Nilssen-Love, Rick Countryman, Sabu Toyozumi, &c. - delivers a solo album that immerses listeners in wet, murky textures and grainy, pressure-driven timbres, shaping breath, multiphonics, and noise into an uncompromising sound world that deepens his distinctive improvisational voice. ... Click to View

Naoko Saito:
The Moon In Diffuse Reflection (Armageddon Nova)

Japanese alto-saxophonist Naoko Saito living in Tokyo presents a full solo effort, shaping airy subtones, soft breath, and tentative melodic fragments into a ghostly, introspective soundscape - a contemplative and quietly expressive improvisational voice that marks her emergence as a distinctive new presence on the Deathrash Armageddon roster. ... Click to View

Samuel Reinhard :
For 10 Musicians (elsewhere)

A four-part work for two pianos, clarinets, bass clarinets, violas, cello, and double bass, unfolding through quietly repeated dyads, chance-shaped harmonies, and sparse, non-directional gestures, as Reinhard's ensemble traces near-silent textures that accumulate, recede, and hover in a state of delicate, slowly evolving stillness. ... Click to View

Leap of Faith Orchestra:
Nonlocality Becoming Manifest (Evil Clown)

Boston's Leap of Faith Orchestra unleashes a sprawling large-ensemble improvisation as longtime Evil Clown collaborators sculpt shifting sonorities from an enormous array of winds, strings, percussion, electronics, and auxiliary instruments, creating dramatic transformations through deeply attuned, high-intensity collective interplay. ... Click to View

Expanse:
The Striking Of Solid Objects (Evil Clown)

A richly textural electro-acoustic improvisation from a seven-member Expanse lineup, unfolding through shifting combinations of horns, synthesizers, fretless bass, and a wide array of percussion and auxiliary instruments, all shaped by real-time processing into a vivid and dramatically evolving sonic landscape. ... Click to View

Expanse:
Hue Cycles (Evil Clown)

The Expanse ensemble navigates an electronics-leaning improvisation as horns, bass, percussion, and a wide array of auxiliary acoustic and electronic instruments merge into a continuously shifting sonic palette, with long-time Evil Clown collaborators shaping vivid transformations through deft doubling, real-time processing, and deeply seasoned interplay. ... Click to View

Neurodivergent Orchestra:
Monsters Gonna Monster (Evil Clown)

Blending freely improvised spoken-word banter from Evil Clown leader David Peck, with a wildly diverse mix of winds, strings, electronics, percussion, and humorous auxiliary instruments, as veteran Evil Clown players and newer voices shape an energetic, narrative-driven performance where playful text, shifting sonorities, and spontaneous interaction collide. ... Click to View

[ahmed] (Thomas / Grip / Gerbal / Wright):
Sama'a (Audition) [2 LPs] (Otoroku)

Reimagining and transforming Ahmed Abdul-Malik's Jazz Sahara in their first studio session, the [Ahmed] quartet of Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal, and Seymour Wright ignite four compact, single-take explorations that fuse percussive intensity, kaleidoscopic group interplay, and a fearless reshaping of tradition into dizzying, future-leaning improvisation. ... Click to View

Fred Frith & The Gravity Band :
s/t (Klanggalerie)

A vibrant 2014 large-ensemble performance recorded live in Nijmegen and Moers, with Fred Frith leading an extraordinary lineup including Marie Abe, Kasey Knudsen, Aaron Novik, Lisa Mezzacappa, Ava Mendoza, William Winant, Dominique Leone, Wobbly, Kaethe Hofstetter, and Jordan Glenn in dynamic, genre-blurring interpretations of his Gravity-era compositions. ... Click to View

Elliott Sharp:
Mare Crisium (zOaR Records)

Elliott Sharp unites six electric guitarists in a powerful, overtone-rich work built from droning harmonies, graphic scores, shifting rhythms, and open improvisation, transforming his long-running compositional ideas into a vibrant, resonant soundscape that channels the tension of our present moment into bold, electrifying musical energy. ... Click to View

Anthony Coleman :
Sounding Board (zOaR Records)

Alone with his newly acquired 1947 Steinway Model M, Downtown New York pianist Anthony Coleman crafts an intimate set of solo explorations that probe touch, resonance, and the piano's physical poetry, transforming his long-fraught relationship with the instrument into a deeply personal study of sound, nuance, and the possibilities revealed by playing at home. ... Click to View

Nels Cline / Elliott Sharp :
Open The Door (Public Eyesore)

Recorded across two sessions eight years apart, Nels Cline and Elliott Sharp forge a vivid acoustic-guitar dialogue that blends crisp articulation, percussive attack, spectral overtones, and patient, boundary-pushing interplay, creating a set of inventive, empathetic improvisations that expand the guitar-duo tradition with wit, texture, and fearless curiosity. ... Click to View

Mike Osborne / Stan Tracey:
Original (Cadillac Records)

A powerful 1972 duo performance from alto saxophonist Mike Osborne and pianist Stan Tracey, and the 2nd release on Cadillac Records, recorded live at Surrey Hall and unfolding as a nearly 47-minute continuous improvisation, blending Osborne’s fierce, vocal intensity with Tracey’s harmonically adventurous, percussive drive in a richly inventive and compelling exchange. ... Click to View

Incapacitants:
Chwalfa (Otoroku)

Capturing their first UK appearance since 2016, the duo of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai unleash two blistering sets of "hard noise" at Cafe Oto, forging scorched-earth tape loops, feedback vortices, and pedal-chain eruptions into a ferocious, fire-music-level onslaught that channels pure chaos into a gripping, cathartic sonic upheaval. ... Click to View

Sarah Hennies:
SOVT (elsewhere)

An extended work for piano by Sarah Hennies, SOVT (Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract) transforms the instrument through putty-muted strings and resonant sympathetic vibrations, performed with rhythmic precision by Richard Valitutto in a hybrid piano-percussion sound world inspired by vocal-tract exercises and Hennies' exploration of voice, identity, and embodied resonance. ... Click to View

What Is Music:
Volume 1 Liquid Metal Dreaming (MusicNow)

Duo music from Robert Evans and Laurie Scott Baker for crwth, tambura, lyre, fiddle, double and electric bass and metal percussion, four slowly evolving pieces rooted in the harmonic series and Pythagorean tuning, weaving airy but focused textures of resonant strings and shimmering overtones into quietly luminous, immersive soundscapes. ... Click to View

Ivo Perelman / Nate Wooley:
Polarity 4 (Burning Ambulance Music)

Continuing their ever-evolving duo series, tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and trumpeter Nate Wooley expand their intuitive, exploratory language with a bold new dimension, including the duo's first-ever use of overdubbing to create layered, prismatic improvisations that push their Polarity collaboration into strikingly multidirectional terrain. ... Click to View

Joe McPhee :
Defiant Jazz: a Joe McPhee Taster [VINYL] (Corbett vs. Dempsey)

A vinyl-only sampler spanning 1970-2007, showcasing Joe McPhee's fiercely inventive spirit through funk-driven grooves, spiritual jazz depth, fiery collaborations with Cato Salsa Experience and The Thing, and intimate duo interplay with Paal Nilssen-Love - a defiant, time-jumping portrait of one of improvised music's most dynamic voices. ... Click to View

Eliane Radigue:
Asymptote Versatile (1963-64) (Amgen Records)

An historic world-premiere recording of Éliane Radigue's earliest surviving work, performed at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, where a stellar ensemble realizes her flexible "sonic proposition" through evolving textures, mathematical spirals and dynamic transformations that foreshadow her later visionary soundworld. ... Click to View

Dan Banks / Trevor Taylor / Jose Canha:
UpsideDown | InsideOut (FMR)

An inventive and lyrical contemporary piano trio session from Dan Banks (piano), Trevor Taylor (drums) and José Canha (bass), where agile post-bop themes unravel into spacious free improvisations, balancing lyrical reflection with muscular rhythmic drive as the group twist melodies, textures and momentum through constantly shifting perspectives. ... Click to View