Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Represencing is the 2nd installment of the Joshua Abrams sound world introduced on his 2010 Eremite album Natural Information. Recorded at home in Chicago summer of 2011, Abrams again organizes small group statements around the resonant grooves of the North African ceremonial instrument the guimbri with a unique and broadly assimilative compositional voice. Sources from traditional musics to minimalism, jazz to krautrock, animate Represencing but Abrams is always grounded in the solidity o…

This is the second reissue from the Mali Kunkan label on Kindred Spirits. One of the rarest (that we know about) Malian records, Le Mystère Jazz de Tombouctou gets its first-ever reissue, with remastered audio and restored artwork. For fans of Kanaga de Mopti and the Super Djata Band. Kindred Spirits are proud to present to you this true West African gem. In 1977, the Malian government funded a series of LPs through its Mali Kunkan label. This series highlighted some of the great Malian orc…

Esoteric, modal and deep jazz from the European underground, 1963-1972. At the end of the '50s, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue heralded the revelatory arrival of modal jazz. As the vibrations of these giant steps resonated across the world, European jazz musicians reassessed their bearings and began to steer a new course. Across the continent, they sent roots down into the rich soil of the European folk and Christian liturgical traditions, extended their music along ancient routes of communicat…

Deluxe gatefold double LP version with color inserts and on 180 gram vinyl. As the '60s progressed, cultural and political revolutions occurred both in the U.S. and in Europe. Jazz was both a victim and a savior, with radical developments in the music occurring on both continents. In the U.S., artists took control of their own musical destiny as small labels broke away from the mainstream, expressing new and creative visions of freedom and peace against a backdrop of civil unrest, repress…

180 gram exact 1972 repro reissue. Featuring John Gilmore (tenor sax) and June Tyson (vocal). Tracks: "Universe In Blue Part I," "Universe In Blue Part II," "Blackman," "In A Blue Mood" and "Another Shade Of Blue." The Universe in Blue is a fantastic set. The title cut is just a slow blues soloing showcase with Sun Ra's "intergalactic space organ," trumpet (not sure who), John Gilmore's tenor sax, and back to Ra. June Tyson takes center stage for &"Blackman", giving a particularly impassione…

Preeminent jazz composer/bassist William Parker has been working with large ensembles from the very beginning of presenting his own work as a leader in the mid-70s. His Essence of Ellington project is the very latest manifestation of his orchestral concepts, following in similar form on the extraordinary Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield project which was definitively presented on record by the acclaimed 2010 release, I Plan to Stay a Believer (AUM062/63). The Orchestra here interprets selections …

Glacial is Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), David Watson (Afternoon Saints), and Tony Buck (The Necks). The vinyl edition of the album presents the studio session in two twenty-one minute installments. The album is accompanied by a download coupon for DRM-free MP3s of the complete 48 minute studio session as well as three live bonus tracks.“on jones beach reflects three men at the top of their craft. recorded in 2005 at sonic youth’s echo canyon studios, the album proper is made up of a single tit…

Old and new. This new CD on Matchless by Sebastian Lexer and Christoph Schiller keeps bringing these opposite ends of a spectrum to mind. If Schiller has taken an old instrument, a spinet, and approached it in new ways, then so has Lexer, whose Piano+ digital enhancements of a standard grand piano are as exciting a new development to that instrument as I have seen in years. The music on Luftwurzeln then also spans across that same wide divide. Improvised music in London has been evolving …

The second volume of Eddie Prevost's 2011 series of concerts at Network Theatre, Waterloo, London meeting with remarkable saxophonists, here with John Butcher on tenor & soprano, with Guillaume Viltard on double bass. The concerts are also notable as Eddie Prevost returns to the drum kit to extend the function of the basic jazz element into AMM-style improvisation.

"The Black Motor on Sagittarius (after their 1st qbico release) ! probably one of best & more respected free music outfit in Europe right now, for sure they rules in Finland and especially in their own town, Tampere where they even have i think a bi-monthly night called Black Motor Klubi at legendary Club Telakka... it's for sure one of the tightest group i know of, having the chance to play a lot together and this is clearly manifest when you hear their unfocused playing... their most mature wo…

"Two new side-long improvised tracks by Trulofa Trio rec. this very year ! such fine, young and talented players with their own sound and art too, which best translate their natural music in images of... ghosts, forest's spirits, out there being, waterfalls of glorious light, dancing shadows..." label press

"One day i was going through the records that i bought in betw 2000 and 2010... i gave most of them away and kept only the cream.. among these there was the 1st Elektrodiesel album which came out in 2000 on Synesthetic label on a very heavy slab of wax... so i thought about writing/looking for the man behind it... fortunatly Espen, apart being a really easy going folk, rec. more material from that 1999 Summer Session ! in over 3 days, 2 hours and 40 minutes were put on a cassette dictaphone (no …

restocked, very last around...3rd in a series of 3 solo one-sided LP (previous two on qbico)... this time Mats G on baritone sax render an homage to his own country leading sax player: Mr. Lars Gullin. (label press)

PAN presents a 2CD set from experimental composer/artist/multi-instrumentalist Eli Keszler. The first disc features two ensemble versions of Cold Pin (PAN 021LP), previously released in a 2011 LP of the same title on PAN, plus a 26-minute, previously-unreleased live ensemble recording (mixed sextet and piano quintet; these are captured in contrasting acoustical spaces). The personnel for all three tracks is Eli Keszler (drums, percussion, crotales, guitar); Ashley Paul (alto saxophone, bass…

Blip is a duo collaboration between Jim Denley and Mike Majkowski: two of Australia's most prominent improvising musicians. They began playing together in 2002, as members of The Splinter Orchestra, and formed Blip in 2009. They have been developing their own approach to the woodwinds/strings duo arrangement, deconstructing and reconstructing this format. Blip music focuses on duration, the subtleties of sound, the pitch within timbre and texture, as well as pulse. Wi

Michael Wintsch, piano, synthesizer. Christian Weber, bass. Christian Wolfarth, drums. Ten years ago Michel Witsch (piano, synthesizer), Christian Weber (bass) and Christian Wolfarth (drums) met - 3 musicians who have not only shaped the European scene of improvisation in the most different formations but who also catch an ear with the maybe most relevant aspect in music whatsoever: SOUND. Wintsch, Weber and Wolfrath make music with a breathtaking mental vigor. The long time working band has…

Scraps And Shadows is the second album by the dream pairing of Joe McPhee and Chris Corsano. A follow-up to Under A Double Moon, which featured McPhee’s alto saxophone, Scraps And Shadows finds him largely on tenor. Recorded live in Milwaukee in 2011, the album consists of seven dedicatory pieces, from the delicate balladry of “For Adrienne P” to the appropriately combustible “For Han Bennink.” Corsano’s stupendously detailed drumming and McPhee’s free-soul love cries weave a master latti…

Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love are back with another amazing album. This time a studio recording, recorded in Chicago's Strobe Recording in January 2011. The album contains 10 new compositions of their characteristic soulfully groovy free jazz. Vandermark & Nilssen-Love use free improvisation as a means to explore all levels of dynamics, density, rhythm, timbre, form and tonality. The results of their work are experienced as intense, exhilarating, and boundary breaking. Raw music with brut…

This year marks a milestone for the Chicago Underground Duo.  It is their 15th year together as a band. In celebration of this momentous occasion they have released a new record on a brand new label.Age of Energy is Chad Taylor and Rob Mazurek’s sixth release as Chicago Underground Duo and the twelfth release in the Chicago Underground catalog. Finding time to get back in the studio was a challenge, as Rob has been touring with his trio Starlicker, The Sao Paulo Underground and the Exploding Sta…

What mischief can be made with just cornet, vibraphone and drums. Rob Mazurek has scaled back considerably since Stars Have Shapes, the 2010 record from his Exploding Star Orchestra. His new project, the curiously named Starlicker, is a mere trio, with Chicago vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz and Tortoise drummer John Herndon. But this group emits more sound and energy than do some sextets. Double Demon is Out to Lunch! for a new generation. Powered by Herndon’s hyperkinet…

Altitude is one of two live recordings to be released in July 2012 as part of the celebration of AUM Fidelity’s 15th anniversary. It documents the first-ever performance by esteemed veteran improvisers Joe Morris, William Parker and Gerald Cleaver as a trio during label founder Steven Joerg’s two-week run curating The Stone in New York during June 2011. Collectively, Morris, Parker and Cleaver have appeared on hundreds of recordings, including a variety of prominent releases on AUM Fidelity, but…

Kampanerura is the name of a boy appearing in the children's story Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), Japanese poet and author of children's literature. A boy with pure soul transmigrates and becomes a dissipated man around a trip to the bottom in Asia. From accompanying text by Masayoshi Urabe 'What are my legs on? What are my feet standing on? Sand? I feel something sharp and pointed! And a gentle breeze where am I? The sea? I feel it flowing! I've crossed ove…

Claire Bergerault, voice. Jean-Luc Guionnet, pipe organ. 'Music that proves that improvisation can still offer something vibrant and different. Intense, powerful music that will annoy as many as it delights.' Highly recommended !

Xavier Charles : clarinet, Michel Doneda : saxophone, Jean Pallandre : microphones. Following the first meeting in 1997, they went back to the same places to record again an incredible meeting of soundscape !

Jac Berrocal, voice & trumpet, Jean-Noël Cognard, drums & percussion, Philippe Thiphaine, guitar (from Heliogabale), Quentin Rollet, alto saxophone, Ben Ajrab, bass, Rivkah, voice & keyboard. Limited to 300 copies on pink vinyl in a screen-printed fold-open sleeve Enregistré au studio Pierre Schaeffer, Consevatoire Chatenay Malabry, du 11, 12 et 13 juillet 2011.

Milestone! The music on these six discs comes from roughly the first decade of William Parker's career, one of the most intensely creative periods enjoyed by any musician of any era. William Parker's Centering (No Business CD 42-47), as the subtitle makes clear, is composed entirely of Unreleased Early Recordings 1976-1987. It's six CDs in all, with booklet and attractive slipcase.What makes all that important? It's William Parker the superb bassist, jazz composer and bandleader at his very bes…

It was recorded in Bruxelles 2011, has been mixed and mastered by Sabine Ercklentz. A trio recording of forceful fragility, new sounds mixing, acoustic instruments meeting electronics. Random sounds taken care of. Creating 7 different pieces, each one of them representing its own personality. It is very dense and lo-fi. Christine Abdelnour has been one of the front figures in the last years with her new sounds on saxophone. Andrea Neumann is one of the original creators of the Berlin Scene no fu…

 Mayas frames her instrument not as 88 keys arranged in tidy scales, but as a sonorous tangle of wood and wire, she produces sounds with a wide dynamic range, playing the whole piano, inside and out, including dramatic percussive effects from banging and scraping the frame of the instrument and the strings. Abdelnour has developed extended techniques and complex patterns of sound production, exploring the microtonal aspects of the saxophone and its high-pitched tones. she employs subtle tonguing…

Mats Gustafsson is perhaps the pre-eminent saxophonist of this post-free jazz/improv era. A perfect combination of Peter Brotzmann's fiery passion, Evan Parker's extended technique and Ken Vandermark's willingness to explode genre boundaries, Gustafsson's discography spans over two decades and sports numerous must-hear recordings with a long laundry list of collaborators, including such luminaries as Brotzmann, Vandermark, Joe McPhee, Jim O'Rourke, Derek Bailey, Sonic Youth and The Ex. Illustrio…

A much-needed reissue of Derek Bailey's 1978 2-CD Japanese release on the Morgue label, the first disc a series of studio improvisations and the second presenting two live performances in Nagoya and Kalavinka.Recorded and originally issued in Japan in 1978, the contents of this two-disc set quickly became something of a collector's item as the album quickly went out of print. Happily, the master tapes were reacquired for release on Incus in 2002, providing further documentation of a rich portion…

Chris Abrahams, upright piano. Kai Fagaschinski, b-flat clarinet. Cover painting & sleeve design by Zev Langer. How do you run a duo when both of its protagonists are living at two opposite ends of the planet ? Well, it's not that dramatic. For many years Chris has used his European tours as a springboard for extended stays in Kai's hometown of choice, Berlin. After appreciating each other's work for quite a while they began collaborating at a friend's piano-armed kitchen in 2007. While C…

180 gram vinyl, originally released in 1979 on the FMP label. Peter Brötzmann on soprano, alto, tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet; Harry Miller on double bass, and Louis Moholo on drums. Recorded by Jost Gebers on August 27th, 1979 at the FMP-Studio in Berlin. Produced by Peter Brötzmann and Jost Gebers. "Brötzmann is a musician of character, who has been blazing his own trail for several years now, and it's true to say that he and his companions have created their own musical environment…

180 gram vinyl reissue of this LP, originally released by FMP in 1977. Peter Brötzmann and Han Bennink -- e-flat clarinet, b-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, birdcalls, viola, banjo, cymbals, wood, trees, sand, land, water, air. Recorded open air on a Stellavox recorder by Peter Brötzmann and Han Bennink from May 9th to 11th, 1977 in the Black Forest near Aufen and the Schwarzenbach Talsperre. Produced by Peter Brötzmann and Jost Gebers.

2012 repress, originally issued pre-9/11. "Astounding 1975 Radio Bremen session from Germany -- never before released, by one of the greatest working bands in the history of European improvised music is offered for your consideration on Hunting The Snake. How can you lose? This all-star ensemble features Alexander von Schlippenbach on piano, Evan Parker on saxophones, Peter Kowald on bass, and Paul Lovens on drums and singing saw. A brilliant, previously unreleased 77 minute program fr…

After meeting for the first time in Beirut during the Irtijal Festival 2006, Axel Dörner and Jassem Hindi had their first musical collaborationin Switzerland two years later in 2008. From that time on they have regularly performed as a duo on different occasions.The music of the duo is electroacoustic music with trumpet and electronics, both musicians using their musical equipment and systems in an unusual way, developing their own techniques of sound creation.They are interested in explorin…

The tempered tonalities of Abraham's piano mesh with the atonalities of Brown's prepared guitar and utensils. Through concentrated listening and the implementation of conventional and extended instrumental techniques the resultant tones and textures pull at and morph into each other creating a mysterious sonic world, half here, half there. With combined extensive histories in jazz, improvisation, pop and rock music Chris Abrahams and David Brown together are: 'culture of un'.

Unbalanced Out (Unbalanced In)'. A powerful, challenging 50-minute collaborative piece constructed over a year through file-sharing by a sextet of leading musicians across the world, with Barry Chabala (USA, guitar), Bonnie Jones (USA/Korea, electronics), Louisa Martin (UK, laptop), Tisha Mukarji (Germany, piano), Toshi Nakamura (Japan, no-input mixing board) and Gabriel Paiuk (Argentina, piano)

Hard to believe that this far down the line there would still be unreleased recordings of Albert Ayler, never mind a full live set from the apex of his reign, the glorious 1966 tour of Europe, so I nearly did a double take when I first saw this title listed. The Berlin set which the CD is bundled with turned up in lesser fidelity and in the incorrect order on Revenant’s disputed Ayler box, but the Stockholm set has never even been booted and both receive their first release fully authorised by t…

restocked, sold out at source....Astonishing debut LP by percussionist Ben Hall (Graveyards/Broken Research) and violinist Mike Khoury (Graveyards, Faruq Z. Bey Northwood Improvisers). 'It's not a fear of falling, it's a fear of landing' is simply one of the wildest works of free music we got the chance to experience in recent times.Khoury emits ribbons of lyrical, stream of-consciousness violin playing, alternately letting his notes really hang, or focusing on small, scratchy sounds or di…

This compilation of Echtzeitmusik Berlin has been assembled and designed to become a companion to the book of the same title published in 2011 by Wolke Verlag, which reflects on a multilayered phenomenon within Berlin's musical culture, a phenomenon whose influence and meaning has effects that extend far beyond Berlin itself. Having emerged in the open spaces of the city's east side after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and rooted in a cultural coordinate system made up of squats and free im…