Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Jon Rose, violins. Clayton Thomas, double bass. Mike Majkowski, double bass.Australian string trio Strike combine pure energy, dynamic sensibilities and a bombastic approach to percussive attack Ð diving head first into the chamber. A rare combinati…

A definite set of bare essentials from the Spontaneous Music Ensemble – especially given that at this point, the group was stripped down to just the duo of John Stevens on percussion and cornet, and Trevor Watts on soprano sax! The material was a…

The Topography of the Lungs is finally re-issued. A landmark album in the British avant garde – the first record ever on Incus Records (originally released in 1970) and a monumental set of improvisations between Parker, Bailey, and Bennink, conside…

Two concerts from an eight-year gap in the published recordings of the Iskra 1903 trio of Paul Rutherford (trombone), Philipp Wachsmann (violin & electronics) and Barry Guy (bass & electronics), masterful improvisation blending acoustics and electron…

"Two recordings from the beginning and the end of the longest-lived version of the SME - the trio of John Stevens (percussion, cornet or mini-trumpet, voice), Nigel Coombes (violin) & Roger Smith (guitar). The 1978 Newcastle concert was considered…

Available again SME reveals their free jazz roots with only hints of what was to come. "Pure pleasure is the way one might react to this glorious recording, which lays the foundation for Spontaneous Music Ensemble's more radical works to come. In p…

Hearing Evan Parker make music with Eddie Prévost, on the first of these three lengthy duets recorded in three different London boroughs, is like watching a pair of tai chi masters sparring. Parker’s tenor and Prévost’s bowed and struck percussion…

Ass-whooping live set from the Full Blast trio, recorded in Cologne in 2006: Brotzmann’s work with electric bassist Marino Pliakas and drummer Michael Wertmuller extends his work with Last Exit in that it combines an almost metal/No Wave attack with …

Two key 80s moments from Peter Brotzmann – split together here on a heavy LP! First up is material from the album Low Life – hard-handed work from the duo of Peter Brotzmann on reeds and Bill Laswell on bass – a set that's kind of a side project of t…

Aoyama Crows is the fifth album by Peter Brötzmann's Die Like a Dog Quartet. Saying the music can still surprise would be a lie. But that doesn't mean it lacks excitement, on the contrary. The performance, recorded at the Berlin Total Music Meeting i…

"This is Charles Gayle's most accessible work. Gayle's mastery of free jazz is blended with a more traditional compositional style of jazz on this disc. Touchin' on Trane is composed of five original songs, and even includes ex-Coltrane drummer Ra…

"I would like to make a few notes and hopefully clear up a potential misunderstanding or two. Most importantly, no matter what you think about the original Tristano performances, this music is not "cool" – with feverish intensity, volcanic dynamic…

MM schumend. Wepa. Wirbel und einzelene Schlge für kleine Trommel. Ertrumtes Konzert. 34 Photos - Solo Performance 1986. SJ is someone, who, austere and prosaic, but with subliminal passion pays attention to the \'things\': in particular the la…

Through several duos, a picture of improvised music in Slovenia. Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec, computer & Vid Dra ler, drums, percussion. Andrej Fon, bagpipes, clarinet & Ana Kravanja, violin. Matija Schellander, double bass & Toma Grom, double bass. Samo…

A special 26 only copies box, with an extra LP: SAS #40 with different front cover theen regular ed (paste-on; the carpet motifs are divided in 26 parts, so if you put together all 26 ltd ed, you'll see the full design as on the regular ed) + postcar…

"Collective improvisation based on a Turkish folk tune. One of the most ecstatic piece of music i ever heard (simple as it is) ! suddenly i found myself dancing madly, like a Whirling Dervish... unfortunatly i didn't get Enlightment BUT, it was fun !…

"1st time ever that two of the most legendary figures from the Turkish jazz scene (Okay & Ertunc) play/rec. together, so really an historic event ! classic pn trio + some more ethnic/otherworldly moments. special front cover artwork by Huseyin, who's…

Mindblowing!!!!!!"One day a super nice fellows from Turkey wrote me... Umut ! he enjoyed the one-sided i did by Phill Musra with Huseyin... that's why i always consider myself as a farmer, a plant seeds... well this RARE focus on the Turkey jazz scen…

LP + CD version. Here are two of the planet's most uncompromising and inventive young hornithologists and saxophonists, Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson. Mats Gustafsson is the uncompromising Swedish saxophonist famous for his no-holds barred style.…

A collector's dream come true, Sam Sander's Mirror Mirror is so rare that the recordings on this album have never before seen a proper release and even the cover art had to be created from scratch. An almost unbelievable fact given that it ranks as o…

2009 issue "The album begins with a percussion intro that sounds more like a gunfight than any sort of recognisable drumming routine, and continues to get weirder and weirder from there on. New York avant-garde-ists Zs might be seen as a kind of …

Further to their acclaimed 'New Slaves' LP of spring 2010, Zs offer 'Essence Explosion' backed with new remixes on vinyl from Thee Majesty (Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Bryin Dall), JG Thirlwell (Foetus) and Cex, plus a download code for mixes by …

CD edition "The new Zs lineup (Sam Hillmer, Greg Fox and Patrick Higgins) sounds very much like a new band, at least as evidenced by the Grain EP. The two side-length tracks (coming in at a total of 42-minutes) bear the marks of Zs' sound - repeated…

Terrie of The Ex collaborated with numerous people over the years to get inspiration from and absorbing all elements of all music, but continuing to being raw and unpolished. In meetings with the Norwegian hard-hitting avant-garde drummer, Paal Ni…

2012 Re-release "The Spanish Suite was written to magnify the contribution that Moorish Spain made on the European Renaissance. The relationship of music to cosmic rhythms and harmony was altered from the original state of Spanish music and eventu…

Reissue of this Japanese early '70s performance group. The group's name is literally the icons for a "circle," "triangle" and "square," with "Maru Sankaku Shikaku" substituting as a translation for those images. Circle Triangle Square were a painted …

Five recordings, 2 from 1977 at Tempo Natural and 3 from 1993, where Tony Oxley leads various permutations of improvisers Derek Bailey, Paul Rutherford, Pat Thomas, Matt Wand, Phillip Wachsmann, Ian Brighton. The first track from 1993 brings all …

Eyes closed, ears wide open, we are given freedom to dream the void. Sweeping, intricate, sometimes ominous yet always exuding a warmth and depth of emotion, The Stargazer's Assistant produces pure cinema of sound. For the new EP, David J. Smith (…

The Lammergyer. A spaceship created by a race thousands of generations dead. With a stardrive so shitfire lethal that just to enter an inhabited system was to trigger a fatal ecological cataclysm. Lammergyer. To say it was to hear the slamming of sar…

Of course we know Bocian since their earliest releases, which was all on 7". Now, an impressive catalogue further, they suddenly return to this format, and make two of them. On one hand Bocian is a label for strictly improvised music and on the other…

Finally restocked! "Butcher’s sax ranges from soft, whispery purrs to teeth-chatteringly spiteful blasts. Lehn’s analogue synth leaps in a moment from burbling tones to fiercely sizzling abstraction, and Tilbury slips from his familiar melodic interl…

Stunning work of radical free music by saxophonist Masayoshi Urabe and guitarist Rinji Fukuoka (Overhang Party / Majutsu no Niwa). Recorded in 2004 in various locations (France, Spain, Switzerland and Japan), this album brings together elements of…

"Sometimes there are weird coincidences. When we got new albums on our review list recently, many of them included reminiscences of the golden jazz eras in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Rob Mazurek's Pulsar Quartet sometimes sounds like the seminal Miles D…

Excellent free improvisation from the quartet of Els Vandeweyer (vibraphone), Fred Van Hove (piano / accordion), Paul Lovens (percussion), Martin Blume (percussion) recording at Kunstencentrum BELGIE & Cultuurplatform Motives for Jazz.

"Lava is a wonderfully apt title for this duet between Liudas Mockunas on soprano, tenor and bass saxophones and Barry Guy on bass. The music was recorded live at Kaunas Artists House Concert Hall in Lithuania on the 2nd of April, 2011, and releas…

A previously unreleased concert recording from 1986 of a group of leading out jazz artists (Billy Bang, Fred Hopkins, Andrew Cyrille, &c.). Part of the magic of jazz in New York City is groups of musicians coming together for brief engagements and…

Four extended compositions from the Tubass Quintet led by Szilard Mezei (performing on double bass instead of his usual viola) performing with a heavy group of 4 double bassists and tuba. An unusual configuration playing unusually named tracks (HEP 1…

Very limited 2 LP release of the trio of Thomas Borgmann (reeds), Wilber Morris (bass) and Reggie Nicholson (drums) performing live at the Tampere Jazz Festival in 1999, plus one track from St. Ingbert in 1998.

The Convergence Quartet with Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Alexander Hawkins (piano), Dominic Lash (bass) and Harris Eisenstadt (drums) performing live at the Vortex Jazz Club in November, 2011 as part of the London Jazz Festival.

Sweden's advanced free jazz piano trio Correction (Sebastian Bergstrom on piano, Joacim Hyberg on bass, and Emil Astrand-Melin on drums) are met by fellow Swede, baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, for a stunning album ranging from abstract to hard…