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Jazz & Improvisation /

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The saying goes that, given typewriters and an infinite amount of time, a roomful of monkeys could write the complete works of Shakespeare. By that logic, if the same chimps were given a table-full of consumer electronics and a couple of hours, they …
More is more
Solos for piccolo trumpet and trumpet, recorded 11/9/05. Peter Evans is an astonishing new voice on that most demanding of instruments -- the trumpet. This set of solo improvisations locates Evans at the centre of the next generation of players.
1968
An expanded reissue of the only published recording by one of the pioneering free improvisation groups, The People Band's self-titled album, originally released in 1970. Containing musicians that also worked with Pete Brown, Mike Westbrook, Ian Dury,…
Gheim
"In 1983, Paul Rutherford was performing with a trio that was very different in style from the highly abstract Iskra 1903, the trombonist's main trio vehicle for a long time. This group, billed simply as the Paul Rutherford Trio, is busier, wilder, m…
Rogues
Paul Rutherford (b. 1940; d. 2007) and Paul Rogers (b. 1956) are two of the finest improvisers around, both as soloists and as group members. They are also two of the finest exponents of their respective instruments. Putting two excellent musicians…
The gentle harm of the bourgeoisie
Reissue of the definitive solo trombone album, from 1974, with additional material from the same sessions. His first album of this sort, it has been described by Derek Bailey (rather famously) as still the best record of solo free improvising you are…
Papajo
Recorded on 19 March 2002 live at MIB, Bremen
The beloved music
The most thoroughly realized blueprint for a post-hardcore take on improvised jazz to date from the duo of legendarily long-serving New England saxophonist Paul Flaherty and young firebrand drummer Chris Corsano. Forsaking the call and response modes…
Most Materiall
"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 struc…
America 2003
From last year's North American tour: Evan Parker (saxophones), Alexander Von Schlippenbach (piano), Paul Lytton (percussion) in concert recordings at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans and the Seattle Asian Arts Museum.
Out to lunch
2nd works is the covers of famous Eric Dolphy's Out To lunch! otomo's post-modern interpretation of Dolphy's compositions by Orchestra is very beautiful and intensive. Gazzelloni is translated to hardcore punk version, or Straight Up And Down ? Will …
Dentro
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 e…
Adult guitar
Adult guitar is a startling anthology of twenty unreleased tracks from Noël Akchoté's first twenty-one years of recording. Adult guitar (it is twenty-one years, after all) is the first record to attempt to represent the breadth of Noël's music. The p…
Wrong Shape To Be A Storyteller
Recorded live in Jersey City, NJ on 8/8/2004.Mixed and mastered at Amme Studios in NYC 9/1/2004
Aporias
Tatsuga Nakatani (drums, percussion), Raymond MacDonald (alto saxophone), Neil Davidson (guitar), Peter Nicholson (cello), and Nick Fells (laptop.) Recorded December 2004, Glasgow.
Music + one
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 f…
Yesterday night you were sleeping at my place
Flute, harp and percussion are the principal instruments on this recording, though you’d be hard pressed to identify them during the opening measures of “Hamida”, the longest track on the CD. But the buzzing, pulsing drone with which it begins gr…
1968-1971
Music Improvisation Company: 1968-1971 - one of the earliest recorded examples of the European school of Free ImprovisationImportante e fondamentale ristampa di uno dei primi dischi della Incus, Music Improvisation Company 1968-1971 (Incus 1971). La …
Duo/Deep sea
Precious document of early Japanese improvised music scene. Tensional performance of heavy sounds from reeds and bass.
Gobbledygook
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…
The hands of Caravaggio
A staggering achievement, one is tempted to call The Hands of Caravaggio the first great piano concerto of the 21st century. The work is the brainchild of Keith Rowe, eminence grise of MIMEO and co-founder of AMM who, inspired by the recently discove…
Flore de cataclysmo
This trio features very distinct musical personalities and caught us off guard simply by its appearance at all, but we sure did smile when we heard it as we knew it would pack the goods. Both Zach (percussion) and Doneda (reeds) lay sturdy frameworks…
From between
'It gives me great pleasure to announce the first release of the new label 'substance over surface editions' - SoSEDITIONS - an offering of recent live and studio recordings by the improvising trio of Michel Doneda, Jack Wright, and Tatsuya Nakatani.…
Number nine
Two Toronto musicians and a visitor from London formed this trio that has worked on both sides of the Atlantic. Group improvisations on acoustic guitar, alto saxophone and percussion that cover the whole gamut from dense high-energy to sparse interac…
Hidros One
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 …
Windows: The Music Of Steve Lacy
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…
Solo
Urabe is the ONLY Japanese player with the ability to soar beyond where Kaoru Abe left off, and for anyone with even the slightest interest in the possibilities of human breath and forged brass this is an essential and tremendously exciting document.
Agape
Martin Küchen: prepared and non prepared alto saxophone. David Stackens: guitar, low-budget electronics. Recorded at Fylkingen, Stockholm by Andreas Berthling, 16th of May 2004. Mastered by Andreas Berthling, David Stackens and Martin Küchen.
Amoungst English Men
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 c…
Leopardo
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 w…
The hearing continues
The hearing continues. The playing continues. The listening continues. The music continues. The London Improvisers Orchestra (LIO) continues to play the first Sunday of every month (except December & January) at the Red Rose. Every concert is differe…
More together than alone
Soprano saxophonist Lol Coxhill always sounds good regardless of what area he is playing in and who he is playing with. This present collection just features his free improvising, but with a variety of partners. The late Hugh Davies was a master inst…
Out to launch
Two complete solo soprano saxophone concerts, from Chicago and London, show that Coxhill is as inventive as ever some four decades after his first solo performances. In between there is a 10-minute improvisation by an impromptu 13-piece orchestra. 77…
Digswell duets
The 39 minute duet with Simon Emmerson is an early example of interactive saxophone and electronics, wherein Emmerson modifies Coxhill's sound, and Coxhill reacts accordingly, etc. The 34 minute duet with pianist Veryan Weston is an early example of …
s/t
Pascal Battus: guitar and electronics. Thierry Madiot: trombone and tubes. Seijiro Murayama: percussions and tubes.
Conduction #41: new world, new world
1995 release ** New World, New World - Opperman Music Hall, Florida State University School of Music; February 4, 1994Jesse Canterbury, clarinet; Mimi Patterson, clarinet; Scott Deeter, sax; Philip Gelb, shakuhachi; Gregor Harvey, guitar; Ethan Schaf…
Conduction #38: in Freud’s garden, conduction #39 & #40: threadw
1995 release **Conduction #38: in Freud's Garden: Muffathalle, Germany; December 11, 1993Myra Melford, piano; Zeena Parkins, harp; Bryan Carrott, vibes; Brandon Ross, acoustic guitar; J. A. Deane, trombone; live sampling; Motoharu Yoshizawa, electric…
Conduction #31: Angelica, conduction #35: American connection 4,
1995 release ** Conduction #31: Angelica Festival of International Music: Bologna, Italy; May 16, 1993 Dietmar Diesner, soprano sax; Peter Kowald, bass; Wolter Wierbos, trombone; Steve Beresford, piano; Hans Reichel, guitar; Tom Cora, cello; Han Benn…