Jazz /
Innocent as Virgin Wood
**300 copies, 2019 stock** "In its essence, free improvisation is a leap into the unknown. A question mark. And while it is possible to reproduce previously used ideas, in its purest sense it takes balls to accept its challenges, for the simple fact that the performer is out there alone, even when playing with others. Free Improvisation is being naked on a stage. The unavailability of form and reassurance about what is happening next cannot be underestimated. In improvised music, the musician is…
Quartet & Quintet - Double Vortex
**300 copies, 2019 stock** "Understated, tightly controlled, minimalist music always gets the better deal. There is something mature and cultured about an artist who distills and reaches for the essence instead of provoking and dabbling in exuberance, volume and a cluster of diverging ideas. In a world that is nearly driven to total chaos by a maddening abundance of impulses, Goethe’s worn out adage - that it is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself - has become the ultimate compl…
I
**300 copies, 2019 stock** "(...) Lisle, Serries and Webster reconvened again in October 2015 for another studio recording at the same studio in London, now calling themselves the Kodian Trio. This trio is supposed to be a working group and is already touring the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.The interplay on their debut release is much more energetic and experimental than the one explored on Apparitions. Serries and Webster alternate the leading roles, both sounding aggressive and assertiv…
Apparitions
**300 copies, 2019 stock** "Apparitions, unlike the volatile spirit of Live at Café OTO, stresses a different approach for this set of four collaborative free improvisations. Here the four musicians explore a kind of a slow-cooking interplay, a calm and conversational one. Apparitions begins and ends with the minimalist I and IV, where all restrain their playing to low whispers, skeletal guitar lines and brushing of the cymbals, building the tension tension patiently and methodically until reach…
Cinépalace
**300 copies, 2019 stock** "Dirk Serries and his wife, double bass player Martina Verhoeven, meet British tenor sax player Colin Webster, who also participated in the Dead Neanderthals’ Endless Voids, for a live improvisation, recorded at the DIY club Cinépalace in Kortrijk, Belgium in May 2015. A month earlier Serries performed with Webster in a quartet that was recorded as Live at Cafe Oto, and released on Webster’s Raw Tonk label. This recording, titled after the club name, highlights the hig…
Cult Exposure
**300 copies, 2019 stock** "This free improvised sax-electric guitar duo has nothing to do with previous duos of similar instrumentalists. The meeting between the muscular Brötzmann-ian sax wails of American, Amsterdam-based sax player John Dikeman, known from the free jazz bands Cactus Truck and Universal Indians, and the reserved, serene playing of the effects-laden guitar of Dirk Serries forced the two to transcend any possible comfort zone. On the first piece the two still struggle to find …
A Paradigm of Suspicion
Threnody is the unmissable force from three prominent improvising musicians: Martin Küchen (saxophone), Johan Bertling (bass), and Steve Noble (drums). Previously established as a trio formation under their full names, the trio has released their first album Threnody, At The Gates on Trost in 2017 (TROST 156CD/LP) and now call themselves Threnody. Personnel: Johan Berthling - double bass; Martin Küchen - retardophone, sopranino-, alto-, and tenor saxophone; Steve Noble - drums. Recording by Dani…
III
Kodian Trio's third studio album -- apply titled III -- and their second for Trost Records, was recorded in one intense live session at the White Noise studio in The Netherlands during a day-off on a European tour. The shared experiences of the road, studio, and travel evinces a group sound which is constantly shifting, solidifying, and disappearing completely -- true to the essence of free improvisation. On this album the trio shows the core strength as a unit gained from their live experiences…
Reality and Other Imaginary Places
This album was recorded during Thollem McDonas's 2017 residency at Brooklyn-based multi-discipline mecca Pioneer Works. It's the second by Radical Empathy, which combines three uncategorizable improvisors. Michael Wimberly has been astonishing folks since his days in Charles Gayle bands and Steve Coleman & Five Elements in the early '90s, and has gone on become a composer and educator of note. Nels Cline has spent decades changing people's ideas about the role of the electric guitar in multiple …
New Improvised Music From Buenos Aires
ESP-Disk' has a little bit of history with Argentina -- the label issued Gato Barbieri's first international release, and their Steve Lacy album was recorded there -- so the label couldn't resist putting out this compilation of 2012-17 recordings (most previously unreleased) from the Buenos Aires scene.In his liner notes, compiler Jason Weiss writes, "In June 1966, just as General Juan Carlos Onganía was leading a military coup d'état, Steve Lacy's quartet arrived in Buenos Aires: not exactly sa…
Live!
2024 restock **300 copies** Great live set with a sextet featuring the cream of young jazz Sweden playing the music of South African jazz legends like Chris McGregor, Louis Moholo and Dudu Pukwana. Nice spiritual / cape jazz vibes through all four sides, listen to The Bride and Khanya Apho Ukhona. With Sebastian Bergström, Elin Forkelid, Konrad Agnas, Ville Bromander, Niklas Barnö and Anna Högberg. Comes in beatiful gatefold cover, with insert and bonus CD."The group Oya Sextett plays Chris McGr…
Blue Cat
**400 copies** Blue Cat is a great live recording taken in June 1991 by Frode Gjerstad in Albany, London, during a UK tour. Musicians on these recordings are: Bobby Bradford - cornet, Frode Gjerstad - alto saxophone, Kent Carter - acoustic bass, John Stevens - drums. Mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios, design by Oskaras Anosovas. Though not specifically billed as such, this archival release from NoBusiness captures a recording from a 1991 UK tour of the group Detail in a quartet formation …
The Aiki
**300 copies** Masahiko Satoh is a Japanese jazz pianist, composer and arranger. Yoshisaburo 'Sabu' Toyozumi is one of the small group of musical pioneers who comprised the first generation playing free improvisation music in Japan. As an improvising drummer he played and recorded with many of the key figures in Japanese free music including the two principal figures in the first generation, Masayuki Takayanagi and Kaoru Abe from the late 1960s onwards. The Aiki was recorded live on the 26th Mar…
Reptiles
**300 copies** Reptiles was recorded on 14th November, 2017 at Splendor, Amsterdam, Netherlands by Marc Schots. Bones are Ziv Taubenfeld - bass clarinet, Shay Hazan - double bass, Nir Sabag - drums. Mixed by Marc Schots. Mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios. Design by Oskaras Anosovas.
Catenary Oath
**300 copies** NoBusiness Records delivers the latest Anthony Coleman solo piano album recorded on February 14th 2018 at Jordan Hall, Boston by Jeremy Sarna. Coleman is an avant-garde jazz pianist; during the 1980s and 1990s he worked with John Zorn on Cobra, Kristallnacht, The Big Gundown, Archery, and Spillane and helped push modern Jewish music into the 21st century.Recording session produced by Ted Reichman. Music by Anthony Coleman, except Something To Live For by Billy Strayhorn, Just Frie…
Blue Shots From Chicago
Blue Shots From Chicago is the newest release by the Juan Vinuesa Jazz Quartet, recorded on 30th May, 2018 at Jamdek Recording Studio, Chicago, IL by Doug Malone. Personnel on this album includes: Juan F. G. Vinuesa - tenor saxophone, Josh Berman - cornet, Jason Roebke - bass, Mikel Patrick Avery - drums and percussion.All music and arrangements by Juan F. G. Vinuesa. Mixed and mastered by Alfonso G. Rodenas, Los Angeles, CA. Cover photo by Juan F. G. Vinuesa. Group photo by Mikel P. Avery. Line…
Brain In a Dish
Steve Swell - tromboneRobert Boston - piano, organMichael Vatcher - drumsAll compositions by Steve Swell (Steve Swell Music BMI), Robert Boston (Entropee Music ASCAP), Michael VatcherRecorded on August 16th, 2018 at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, New York by Jim ClouseMixed by Jim ClouseMastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudiosLiner notes by Ed HazellPhoto by Peter GannushkinDesign by Oskaras Anosovas
Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis
Matana Roberts returns with the fourth chapter of her extraordinary Coin Coin series — a project that has deservedly garnered the highest praise and widespread critical acclaim for its fierce aesthetic originality and unflinching narrative power. The first three Coin Coin albums, issued from 2011-2015, charted diverse pathways of modern / avant composition — Roberts calls it “panoramic sound quilting”—and ranged sequentially from large band to sextet to solo, unified by Roberts’ archival and oft…
Su Mimmi non si spara!
The music of Italian cellist Francesco Guerri obliterates the line between contemporary classical music and free improvisation, sculpting spontaneous invention into startling, unpredictable compositions.On his striking third album, Su Mimmi non si spara!, Guerri presents a dozen innovative pieces that span a wide range of stylistic approaches and technical challenges, invigorated by the physicality of his virtuosic playing and the deep emotional bond he maintains with his instrument. Su Mimmi no…
Positive Force
**CD version** From Milan, Italy, Al Doum and The Faryds return with a brand new LP of immaculate beauty. Fusing together free jazz, psych, eastern and Indian influences Al Doum and The Faryds create a mesmerizing mixture: the continuous, fluid sound of "Positiva Force" perfectly succeeds in expressing the parallel influences of ecstatic eastern/african sound and of the contemporary free, energetic, spirited sound, with a nice jagged, if not toxic guitar phrasing. Limited to 200 copies only“This…