Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

A spare, dark, improvised performance between Hartmut Geerken and Valeri Scherstjanoi – recorded at the start of the 21st Century, but with a depth that goes back to Geerken's earlier work! As with some of his best recordings, there's a quality here that's almost more focused on sound than music – lots of unusual percussive moments and ringing tones – shaped by the freedom of the performance, and slightly augmented by some wordless vocal utterances too! The record is only single-sided – a very u…

"It has always been one of my desires to do an album with Brazilian musicians/flavours... i remember years ago trying to do a free-funk-samba album with saxophonist Ivo Perelman which unfortunatly never happened ?! when Hartmut told me about a very special number that he did with Don Moye and musicians/artists from Brazil under the effect of Santo Daime's sacrament, i sensed that this might be what i was waiting for so long... warning: you'll NOT be able to hear this music seated... hip DJs took…

Recorded 31 March 1983 at Woodland Pattern, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. 'This was a cassette not officially released on Incus or any other label. It was sold by Derek Bailey at concerts. For a short period in 2010 original copies were sold via the Incus website. Now released on CD & Cassette, restored and transferred from the original cassette. The back story : In 1983 Derek Bailey was due to visit Japan for a concert tour and decided to take with him, for sale at the concerts, a cassette …

Black Goddess was written and directed by Ola Balogun (recognized as one of Nigeria's most renowned directors) but shot and cast in Brazil and released in 1978. The soundtrack was composed and produced by one of Nigeria's most successful and original musicians Remi Kabaka (who has played with Steve Winwood, Paul Simon and Ginger Baker, amongst others). The record was originally issued in both Nigeria and Brazil, but recorded in Lagos, using four of the Nigerian music scene's most innovative…

Gatefold 2LP/DVD version. Ambitious, epic and grand in scale, In The Country's previous album Whiteout was an artistic triumph. Always a very powerful and exciting live act, it was only natural that a concert album should come at this stage of their career, after three studio albums and a number of Norwegian, European and U.S. tours. Originally planned as a concert DVD, In The Country invited video director Claus Arthur Breda-Gulbrandsen to bring a crew to film a couple of Norwegian shows i…

'Jean-Luc Guionnet and Seijiro Murayama have been playing and performing a lot over these last past years. Their unique approach is based on space exploration and intensive relationship to sounds and silence. The first piece - Procédé - was recorded live at Radio Slovenija (Ljubljana - Slovenia) on june 2010. The three other pieces - Processus, Procession, Procès - were recorded by Eric La Casa in Paris on december 2010. The main purpose was to work out a specifically designed process for…

'Japanese percussionist Seijiro Murayama has been working in France since 1999. His musical approach is based on extreme attention to the performance space, the energy of the audience and the quality of silence. He is interested in how continuous sounds and microscopic events can delicately revitalize the environment. Now established in Beirut (Lebanon), french saxophonist Stéphane Rives has spent over last ten years developing new sonic array of extended techniques on the soprano. On thi…

An absolutely great (silkscreend, tip-on style cover) reissue of Peter Brötzmann's Machine Gun LP. Peter Brötzmann, tenor sax, baritone sax. Willem Breuker, tenor sax, bass clarinet. Evan Parker, tenor sax. Fred Van Hove, piano. Peter Kowald, double bass. Buschi Niebergall, double bass. Han Bennink, drums. Svenke Johansson, drums. Recorded in 1969 the music still sounds armed and dangerous.

The dialog of two improvising guitarists who, since 2004, have explored "timbres, interspersed with fragments of chords, rhythms and melodies, parallel plays in imitation or opposition". All the pieces that make up this CD are presented here in their entirety. They reflect our mutual explorations discussed in confidence, freedom and exigency since 2005. Dialogues of timbres, interspersed with fragments of chords, rhythms and melodies, parallel plays in imitation or opposition... Conversation…

An intensely personal journey, Charlotte Hug uses extended vocal techniques and an unusual language on the viola, creating an exceptional and unique improvisatory sound world.  Charlotte Hug's third solo (unaccompanied) CD is the first to feature her voice as well as her viola. The two are used together to create an even more complex instrument than before sometimes sounding like a duo performance. Recorded in her home town of Zürich after several visits to Cork in Ireland, she has subtly absorb…

A sequence of improvisations recorded in the warm natural acoustics of St Peter’s Whitstable. This quartet plays music created in the moment. From a starting point of contrasting histories, energies and aesthetics, they weave together, forming a tapestry of colours and dynamics.

"Two improvisations on piano & tenor saxophone, one in concert and the other before the audience arrived, recorded at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam in 2006. The sleeve design is derived from work by the late Tomas Schmit whose work is much loved by both MM and EP."-psi

John Butcher and Derek Bailey first played in duo around 1989, at London's Red Rose Club. Butcher then took part in the 1990 & 1992 (London) and 1996 (Vancouver) Company weeks. Various other playing situations materialised in the 90s, ranging from Saturday afternoons at the Oasis Wine Bar in Hackney, to a quartet with Robyn Schulkowsky in France, and a trio with Joelle Leandre at Tonic in New York in 2000.A comparatively long lived grouping was with tuba player Oren Marshall - which relea…

Milestone! A monographic box-set collection aimed at recounting the most beautiful chapters that revolutionised the history of jazz. This new series was launched in March 2010 with the simultaneous release of four box-sets, including albums by some of the artists who participated in the success of the outstanding labels. A philological work, beginning with the original recordings on multi-track master tapes, patiently integrally remastered paying strict attention to the sound quality. In…

Decades before his time, political and musical revolutionary, Sun Ra, developed a new plane of cultural existence where black people were all-powerful beings from outer space, sending their intergalactic message through jazz music. Recorded live in 1975 at Cleveland's legendary jazz club, the Smiling Dog Saloon, when Sun Ra and his Arkestra descended on the city for a week-long residency. You can imagine how the uninitiated's jaw must have dropped when Ra and his 15 musicians marched out onto th…

Farmers By Nature – drummer Gerald Cleaver, bassist William Parker, and pianist Craig Taborn – a fully-improvising unit, a complete musical collective. Each of these men are highly regarded & admired composers and bandleaders in their own right; their coming together to create new music is always an auspicious and deeply fruitful occasion. Superbly attuned listeners and masterful players of their respective instruments, they are without question one of the finest improvising units / musical grou…

Decades before his time, political and musical revolutionary, Sun Ra, developed a new plane of cultural existence where black people were all-powerful beings from outer space, sending their intergalactic message through jazz music. Recorded live in 1975 at Cleveland's legendary jazz club, the Smiling Dog Saloon, when Sun Ra and his Arkestra descended on the city for a week-long residency. You can imagine how the uninitiated's jaw must have dropped when Ra and his 15 musicians marched out onto th…

Decades before his time, political and musical revolutionary, Sun Ra, developed a new plane of cultural existence where black people were all-powerful beings from outer space, sending their intergalactic message through jazz music. Recorded live in 1975 at Cleveland's legendary jazz club, the Smiling Dog Saloon, when Sun Ra and his Arkestra descended on the city for a week-long residency. You can imagine how the uninitiated's jaw must have dropped when Ra and his 15 musicians marched out onto th…

Heddy Boubaker, alto & bass saxophones. Ernesto Rodrigues, viola. Abdul Moimême, prepared electric guitars. Recorded in Lisbon, 2010.

It has been Chicago, not New York, that has been the confluence of music of Europe, jazz of the Americas, and improvised music. Whereas NYC claims all things to be "New York" (sort of like Al Gore inventing the internet), music makers in Chicago identify and defer to varying regional influences.Such is the case on Cipher, where seemingly disparate forces come together to create heady and engaging music. But then leader Josh Abrams has made a career of such things. He began with the Philadelphia …

2011 release ** "The leitmotiv of this release signed by the Koln-based trio made up of Matthias Muche - talented trombonist and active media artist -, Philip Zoubek - inventive Austrian pianist, who likes to alter his instrument's timbre...what is known as prepared piano - and Achim Tang - experienced bass and double-bass player whose artistic path is rich of relevant collaborations including the ones with Oskar Aichinger, Wolfgang Pusching and dZihan & Kamien, a notorious duo for jazzy disco a…

“Fabulous duo studio session featuring Joelle Leandre on contrabass & voice and Phillip Greenlief on woodwinds & voice. Our good friends Mike Panico & Kevin Reilly - whom you might meet at door of The Stone on various nights - have been talking about starting their own label for the past year. Finally have their first release (and a second of Vinny Golia Qt next month!) which is quite extraordinary. Both Joelle and Phillip are gifted improvisers with long and varied backgrounds. Anyone who regul…

The Guitar Solo album was produced by Takeshi Fujii, the producer of the legendary jazz label "Three Blind Myth", in June 1981.  Takayanagi responded to the request with "Lonely Woman" recorded in August 1982. As stated in the liner notes of this work, Takayanagi said: "In my two years of fighting against illness, my thoughts have changed, and now I'm thinking rather than making a group album. The form of solo would be appropriate to put it together" and he worked on the guitar solo as the first…

The trio of pianist Aki Takase, guitarist/daxophonist Kazuhisa Uchihashi, and trumpeter Axel Dorner in an exploration of informed and exquisite dialog in acoustic and electric improvisation. This trio's musical inspirations give birth to an amazing, extraordinary, mind-boggling mandala of sound. It's an extreme sound that could only be achieved by people engaged in the ultimate sonic and musical explorations. Surrender yourself to the joyful sounds coming out of the left and right speaker…

Spend any amount of time in the company of Keith Rowe and the names of certain painters will arise in conversation with some frequency. Caravaggio, Twombly and, among others, most definitely, Mark Rothko. Just as, long ago, he'd imagined what the guitars in Braque's cubist painting might actually sound like, so, I think, he did with Rothko, often referring to the way the "tinged" the space in which they were hung. For some time, in the early oughts, Rowe tried to place his music in a similar are…

“Michel Doneda soprano and soprano saxophones. Jonas Kocher accordion, objects. Recorded live on 27th november 2009 at Red House, Sofia, Bulgaria. Mastering by Christian Weber. Design: Fabienne Bartel. Limited edition of 160 numeroted copies. Screenprint on sandpaper. The duo explores and questions the sound, listening and space with sound actions simple, minimal and acoustic. Entirely improvised, the duo's approach is in place and time of the concert, thus inviting a real experience of listenin…

Droplets brings together double bassist Dominic Lash with composer Eva-Maria Houben, Taylan Susam, and improvisers Patrick Farmer and Sarah Hughes. At its heart is Lash’s outdoor recording of Houben’s “nachtstück,” where fragile double bass lines merge with the unpredictable sounds of wind, rain, and the wider world. The bass’s deep resonance shares the soundspace with falling rain, creating a duo of musician and nature that is both visually and sonically evocative - every performance choice bec…

'How do you become Peter Brötzmann? How do you become what you are: a painter, a musician, an absolute artist? Europe was nothing but a ruin and shame possessed the heart of the young Germans. They needed to invent, scream, regain a lost brotherhood. Overcome this silence ! That's how some young German, British, Dutch, Belgian musicians made Europe exist long before Maastrich and have kept on cherishing, imperturbably, their freedom! They are no longer twenty-year-olds, but others have followed.…

Under the name Tierce, Jez riley French, Ivan Palacky, and Dan Jones assemble a sonic laboratory for their album Caisson. The lineup holds French’s broad toolbox - field recordings, salt, paper, contact mics, prepared zither, and electronics - alongside Palacky’s signature amplified knitting machine and Jones’s turntable setup. The result, a single extended live improvisation, is a display of ensemble subtlety and the tactile intrigue of ordinary instruments used in extraordinary ways. Recorded …

200 copies, numbered Born in 1970 and based in Lisbon, Manuel Mota is known for his very personal language in guitar playing. His music is part of a tradition rooted in blues and reveals a multitude of influences and historical references being at the same time actual, with an enigmatic sense of timelessness.  This is his last solo LP recorded in a basement of a XIX century house in lisbon - limited 200 copies numbered

A landmark of Afro-centric jazz in the 70s – and the first album by this famous underground collective! Oneness of Juju were a Washington DC-based group that grew out of the ashes of the Juju avant jazz ensemble "One of the most groundbreaking bands of their time. From early avant-garde jazz work on the Strata East label to their later fusions of Afrobeat, funk and spiritual jazz, Oneness stand as a huge influence for today's jazz scene. Released in 1976, the African Rhythms album is Onen…

White vinyl LP release of saxophonist Albert Ayler's quartet with pianist Call Cobbs, bassist Steve Tintweiss, and drummer Allen Blairman performing in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France in 1970 (LP 1 of 2). Just a few months before Albert Ayler presumably jumped to his death from the Statue of Liberty ferry into the frigid November waters of NYC's East River he was on stage for two energy filled nights at the Fondation de Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. Little did he know at the time tha…

Grey vinyl LP release of saxophonist Albert Ayler's quartet with pianist Call Cobbs, bassist Steve Tintweiss, and drummer Allen Blairman performing in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France in 1970 "Just a few months before Albert Ayler presumably jumped to his death from the Statue of Liberty ferry into the frigid November waters of NYC's East River he was on stage for two energy filled nights at the Fondation de Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. Little did he know at the time that the recordi…

Two contrabass players here, Andrew Lafkas, of whom I not really heard I think and Michael T. Bullock, of whom I did hear before, and know as someone who likes his improvised playing to be minimal - to say the least. I think Bullock at times also uses electronics, but I am not if he uses any of that here. Its not mentioned on the cover, nor the fact that this is perhaps a live concert. I do however think this is a live recording, however one with no audience, but a direct-to-track recording of t…

ultralimited lavishly packaged LP (100 handnumbered copies only!),  this ground-breaking electro-acoustic trio made my day. The album is largely improvised, with extracts of Charles Bukowski’s poetic works overlapping on the interweavings and multiple stratified references in the trio’s music. It features a faceted palette of acoustic, analogue and digital colours: drums, metallic objects, ethnical instruments, samples, sequences, filtered voice, pedal effects, vinyls, digital electronic…

Day two of this rare live concert at the Storyville finds Ra and a 19-piece Arkestra again giving the audience a lesson in jazz with tracks like Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'My Favorite Things', Tadd Dameron's 'Lady Bird' and Miles Davis' 'Half Nelson', as well as a taste of his own classics ('Englight(en)Ment' and 'The Satellites')." Clear red vinyl in clear plastic sleeve with blue lettering (limited edition 500 copies).

Quite simply one of Sun Ra's best live albums. This rare recording (originally on Horo records) finds Ra, along with a 19-piece Arkestra, playing a mix of his own compositions ('Images' and 'Lights') along with several jazz standards (including Jelly Roll Morton's 'King Porter Stomp' and Duke Ellington's 'Lightnin''). While Ra's own compositions were usually more avant-garde affairs, he always revelled in playing the classics as well in an effort to give his audience a lesson in jazz histo…

Ressuage: Michel Pilz (bass clarinet), Itaru Oki (trumpet, flugelhorn, reeds), Benjamin Duboc (doublebass, voice), Jean-Noël Cognard (drums, objects), Patrick Müller (electrosonic) and Sébastian Rivas (laptop). Recorded in 2010 by Patrick Müller. Mixed by Patrick Müller. A coproduction by Bloc Thyristors-Bimbo Tower Records.

'Thoughtful improvisation from percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani in a duo with Kaoru Watanabe on shinobue, noh kan & ryuteki, stunningly beautiful passages to active and unusual musical forms. The blending of traditional and radical new styles makes this a fascinating disc, with great communication and excellent pacing between the two players. Recommended for aural world travelers.'

'From Between Trio partners percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and saxophonist Michel Doneda in a duo release of unusual improvisation, the first release on Tatsuya's new Kobo label. Doneda performs on soprano and sopranino, chirping and smearing upper register sounds and laying out long tones that play beautifully to Nakatani's gongs, bows, drums, and inexplicable sound sources. Their long association yields an impressive compatibility and almost telepathic power in discourse. Impressive, un…