Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

for almost 10 years, the québécois collective napalm jazz gets its hands dirty with its unorthodox approaches to improv.' 'mostly activ as a duo with erick d'orion and philémon they like to get different guests like for example a_dontigny, arnaud rivière, erikm or erik minkkinen. limited to 181 copies and coproduced with notype from montréal." (label info)

A sequence of six duo improvisations on tenor saxophone & church organ recorded at St Peter’s, Whitstable in 2009.

A sequence of six duo improvisations on tenor saxophone & church organ recorded at St Peter’s, Whitstable in 2009.

PAT THOMAS (piano and synthesizer), CLAYTON THOMAS (double bass), RAYMOND STRID (percussion) recorded in concert at the 2009 Perspectives Festival, Västerås, Sweden.

An interesting development in recent times has been the transAtlantic and trans-generational connections being made in the improvisation community. The Emanem recording by Steve Beresford with Okkyung Lee and Peter Evans, and George Lewis' collaboration with GIO are just two recent examples that come to mind. At the forefront of this trend is the duo of Nate Wooley (trumpet & amplifier) and Paul Lytton (percussion & live electronics) bringing two of the most questioning minds in improvised music…

Aki Takase's visit to the North East of England resulted in two new fruitful encounters which Chris Trent was on hand to document. The duo with alto saxophonist John Tchicai and the trios with John Edwards (double bass) and Tony Levin (drums) are augmented by solo pieces all taken from the Music Outside Festival of 2008."Creating an arc from disparate, spontaneously generated materials; positing authenticity that recognises the dynamic between jazz and improvised music, A WEEK WENT BY confirms A…

Eight soprano saxophone solos. The 2008 solo concert in Whitstable began as an invitation from artist Polly Read and film-maker Neil Henderson to collaborate on a joint work that included a concert in St.Peter's. These recordings are taken mostly from the concert but, as with LINES BURNT IN LIGHT, one piece was recorded before the audience arrived. These are the first recordings in what has become a series of visits to the church, which has perfect acoustics and is just around the corner from wh…

Three live performances of collaborative electroacoustic compositions from 2007-08, recorded in London, Brisbane and Antwerp, each exploring different points of contact between precomposed structures and spontaneous invention: a duo adrift  (in memory of Paul Rutherford) with pianist Sarah Nicolls, a nonet codex IX (in memory of Mauricio Kagel) with the ELISION ensemble, and a 17-piece group with Ensemble Champ d'Action realising codex VII (to Vinko Globokar).

This music was inspired by Lynn Margulis’ serial endosymbiosis theory (SET), and is dedicated to her and her amazing insights into the mechanisms of biological evolution.In inviting Paul Lytton, Barry Guy, Walter Prati, Marco Vecchi, Lawrence Casserley and FURT, I was trading on the pre-existing musical structures that these musicians brought with them: the solo works of Guy, Lytton , Casserley and myself; the duos with Lytton, Guy, Prati and Casserley, the trio with Guy and Lytton, the trio wit…

Too often, critics make an automatic separation between ‘emotion’ and ‘intellect’, a framework which will get one nowhere with FURT. Instead, their music shows graphically how fused, how inseparable are the two. As Richard Barrett puts it: "The music is motivated by emotional and sensual considerations as much as by anything else. Without wishing to sound too pretentious I think it’s concerned with finding and exploring (musical) states of consciousness to which the word ‘ecstasy’ might well be …

'Objects 1’ is the latest release of Tasos Stamou combining improvised sets and sound installation. This 35 min. piece was live-recorded at ‘6.d.o.g.s’, Athens, using a variety of handmade mechanical and electronic devices. Self-operated cymbals, prepared ventilators and circuit bent toys accompany sampled murmuring whispers that reflect a sound landscape of ritual atmosphere, enriched with a solo of bowed ‘typatune’ toy piano.

Surprisingly good free jazz from this Finnish combo. Very organic sound, there's something unique about them. "One of the hottest shows of recent memory was seeing this burning-free ecstatic force in TAMPERE back in 2008. One of those nights where you just feel that you are beyond this planet's laws of nature and in a world you did not know existed. Now the other foot has dropped, and what seemed impossible now can be held on this beautiful LP. Side Vadelma recorded January 26 in Helsinki. Side…

Awesome 5 CD box set recorded over 3 nights in Oslo on February 19-21, 2009 at Victoria, Nasjonal Jazzscene. This time out the Tentet +1 includes Mats Gustaffson, Ken Vandermark, Jeb Bishop, Joe Mcphee, Johannes Bauer, Per Ake Holmlander, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Kent Kessler, Michael Zerang & Paul Nilssen-Love. 

Musica Improvvisa is a cutting-edge project of multi-sensorial improvisation, an open dialogue among different musical experiences, narratives and aesthetics that charters the unexplored soundscape of the telluric territory of the new Italian improvised Music. Ten groups that spans from the South to the North of Italy, from the well-known to the totally obscure, whose music goes from an harsh assault to the ear to a visionary post-electronic/post everything free-form structure. The brilliant out…

One of the best-remembered Sun Ra albums from the 70s – a really cool little session that features Ra playing the unusual "rocksichord" all the way through! The instrument's a very weird one – kind of like a messed-up electric piano, with lots of cool broken notes and a weird fuzzed-out tone – one that almost feels like a guitar's being fitted into a keyboard, with almost psychedelic results! Ra's use of the rocksichord gives the album a really eerie, outer spacey sound – one that mixes strongly…

"Recorded in April of 2008, Weight/Counterweight, the new release by Bill Dixon marks his return to small group playing, his first trio since the Dixon/Taylor/Oxley Victoriaville recording. The group, assembled by Hall at Dixon's suggestion, marks a new direction in Dixon's instrumentation with no untreated trumpet whatsoever and a barrage on pitched and unpitched concert percussion creating landmark skeletal architecture which Dixon pushes out from into unmediated solos of gravity and we…

This is the work of Rhodri Davies and Louisa Hendrikien Martin. Davies is extremely active in the experimental / improv / avant-garde scene, being a frequent collaborator, usually playing harp and electric harp. Elsewhere, Martin keeps herself busy in the fields of live sound and visual performance. The foundation of the album was a Harp improvisation which was then manipulated electronically, the artists then improvised along with the recording then edited and repeated the process. The r…

A record that's every bit as great as you'd guess from the three artists billed on the cover -- raw guitar from Terrie Ex, offbeat alto sax from Brodie West, and some amazing percussion from the legendary Han Bennink! The record feels very free and improvised -- very much in the best spirit of other Ex/Bennink collaborations, but really taken to the next level with West's contributions -- played with a raw tone that really holds the whole thing together, and sends it back to almost ESP-l…

Revered reeds and drumming duo Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love return to Smalltown Superjazzz with another magisterial set of live improvisations. Released alongside their Chicago Volume, this disc was recorded live in concert at Milwaukee's Alchemist Theater on 10th June 2007 (the Chicago Volume was laid down the following day) and finds these two free-jazz maestros on blistering form. It's a joy to hear how the improvisations evolve - on 'Clean Sweep' the pair …

Earlier this year The Ex toured with a wonderful brass section, which comprised saxophonists Mats Gustafsson and Ken Vandermark, trumpeter Roy Paci and trombonist Wolter Wierbos, fleshing out the core quartet. Thrilling as that show was, however, the horn section were deployed firmly in counterpoint to the Ex’s rhythm throughout. Lean Left is another matter entirely. Recorded live in Amsterdam in March 2008, it’s an exhilaratingly vivid and spontaneous workout focused on just two or three…

The live music experience is what it’s all about! Let’s face it, the recording, the thing (CD, vinyl, ipod), that you’re listening to now is a luxury – a convenient form of storing and a flawed attempt at revisiting the ecstasy of the live experience. Live music is at the heart of civilization and culture. Live music is real music – the recording is simply the run out groove of time, a means to try and capture the experience. This trio is defined by live performance. The relationship between the…

A long overdue meeting of two of the titans of the saxophone. Alan Wilkinson (alto, Baritone & Voice) and Peter Brotzmann (clarinet, tarogato & tenor) together with Willi Kellers (drums) and Simon H. Fell (bass) blow up one hell of a storm. The individuals on this recording consciously commit, putting themselves 'out there', over the edge. The energy, the electricity, generated by saxophonists Wilkinson and Brötzmann, is a result of their fearless approach to the precipice and their willingness …

AMM's performance at the 2009 Freedom of the City Festival with AMM regular members Eddie Prevost and John Tilbury extended with John Butcher, Chritian Wolff and Ute Kanngiesser. "[...] Certainly in places this sounds like AMM through and through. When Prévost and Tilbury are working together it really cannot be anything else. I find myself hearing the connections between these two musicians through everything else, no matter what other sounds are there to be heard. There are the little climaxes…

Sven-Ake Johansson (percussion, and crackle box on one track) and Christine Shenaoui (saxophone) recorded in Berlin 2009.

'Greg malcolm (guitars) and Eugene chadbourne (guitar). Sleeve design - Tomek Mirt. Basing on photo by Bruce Russell. Recorded by Dave Cooper. 33 RPM, black vinyl, 140g. Recorded on January 28, 2009 at Polytech Jazz School, Christchurch, New Zealand.' label info

William Hooker is an artistic whole, a vast circle of vision and execution. A body of uninterrupted work beginning in the mid-seventies defines him as one of the most important composers and players in jazz. As bandleader, Hooker has fielded ensembles in an incredibly diverse array of configurations. Each collaboration has brought a serious investigation of his compositional agenda and the science of the modern drum kit. In this limited edition double vinyl he is joined by two groups of great co…

It was a magical Autumn day in Vilnius - Mr. Howard Riley was giving his rare solo performance at St. Catherine’s Church. The outcome is this two CD set of deep musical contemplation, freedom and lyricism. After the concert Howard Riley said that this was his best solo performance in many years.

Limited edition of 1000 copies. 3 CD Box + a Book. The digipack contains a 115 pages book with 3 essays written by Ed Hazell and Jemeel Moondoc about Jazz Lofts Era in New York City, the Black Artists Movement and musical environment, many beautiful photos, original posters, complete Muntu sessionography etc. CD 1: Muntu Ensemble-First Feeding. With Jemeel Moondoc (alto saxophone), Arthur Williams (trumpet), Mark Hennen (piano), William Parker (bass), Rashid Bakr (drums). Recorded April 17…

The Bohman Brothers (Adam and Jonathan) team up with Leonard Aspen and Roger Boulding to form Ischio Romantico Ð the result is this album called From The Hip which is a combination of the Bohmans' amplified objects and raw electronics and the smooth hypnotic loops and turntable inventions of Aspen and Boulding (who have collaborated extensively with Xentos Jones and Lepke B of Die Trip Computer Die). Urbane Deserts vs Sylphides' is a ballet in four parts. Leonard's libretto (undisclosed) describ…

Tracklisting: "Circe," "The Nile," "Brazilian Sun," "We Travel the Spaceways," "Calling Planet Earth," "Dancing Shadows," "The Rainmaker," "When Sun Comes Out." First two tracks probably made during the same session at the Choreographers' Workshop, late 1962 or 1963. Remaining tracks recorded during different sessions around the same period. The master tape of side B is in stereo; all known pressings of the album are in mono, however. The master tape also includes a rejected take of an un…

Tracklisting: "Circe," "The Nile," "Brazilian Sun," "We Travel the Spaceways," "Calling Planet Earth," "Dancing Shadows," "The Rainmaker," "When Sun Comes Out." First two tracks probably made during the same session at the Choreographers' Workshop, late 1962 or 1963. Remaining tracks recorded during different sessions around the same period. The master tape of side B is in stereo; all known pressings of the album are in mono, however. The master tape also includes a rejected take of an unidentif…

Following the stream of time and the dances of Kâli, the successive incarnations of Bindu, more a crew, sailing, outward bound, an elective community of musicians, than a defined group of people, divulge the logbook of navigation by Hamid Drake. A logbook of boarding sounds, which is not written but delimits and unlimits the narrative space where the drummer and percussionist freely circulate......The third Bindu, dedicated to a rapprochement between “jazz” and “reggae” – neither a recording of …

Seductive but perilous, he Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble's new session under the Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation name is a new combination of drones and jazz. Creating sensual, murky and dark atmospheres, “Succubus” the evolution of this band, with stronger horns and a focus on hypnotic, soundtrack-like material. A deep, dark and yet seductive trip again for the corporation.

“Janne Martinkauppi (as, bs), Taneli Tuominen (ts), Sami Pekkola (as, ts), Jaakko Tolvi (dr), Petri Pirtilä (dr). Recorded 12.Dec. 2007. Recording, mixing and mastering Marko Yiianttila at Studio Kuu, Helsinki, Finland. TAKE YOUR DISSONANCE LIKE A MAN : From time to time, I suddenly realise just how differently it is possible to hear exactly same sounds using the exactly same, god-given hearing devices – your ears, that is. Of course, it's never about JUST hearing, it's always linked to w…

Mats Gustafsson : Saxophone [BarItone, Slide], Flute [Fluteophone]. Recorded live January 22, 2006, at Potlatch Festival, Oranssi, Helsinki Finland. Format : Vinyl, LP, LimIted EdItion. Released date :15 Nov 2007. Genre : Jazz. Style : Free Improvisation. CredIts : Artwork by Matias Pöschl. Mastered by Teemu Korpip. Producer : Olof Madsen. Recorded by Jari Suominen.

THE WIRE'S BEST OF 2010! Jailbreak s the duo of pedal steel-vocalist Heather Leigh and drummer Chris Corsano. The name foregrounds the kind of outlaw violence with which the two reformulate rock-roll instants by bringing free jazz fire power to amp-humping sex beats. Their musical alliance goes all the way back to the legendary Brattleboro Free Folk Fest, the birthplace of the 'New Weird America', where Corsano and his long-term saxophone partner Paul Flaherty joined Leigh and Christina C…

The NNCK are a mysterious bunch. Their ethos seem to be staunchly anti-corporate (or at least, not at all sales driven) as they have no website, low, hard to find pressings of their records, cryptic cover art, and well, cryptic everything. I have no idea who plays on the 6 records of theirs I have (though I assume all the naked men played on the Ken's Electric Lake 2xLP). Aside from that unnecessarily revealing picture, NNCK are a faceless collective of strange, otherworldly, free, avant noise w…

Nectars of emergence is the exciting debut release of Mural, consisting of Australia's foremost improviser Jim Denley (alto saxophone, flutes) with Norwegians Kim Myhr (acoustic guitars, preparations) and Ingar Zach gran cassa, percussion). The trio has performed numerous concerts together since their first concert in Madrid in 2007, and now you can finally hear the music on CD. Aftenposten, Norway said of Kim Myhr and Jim Denley's duo CD: 'Systems realignment helps to save improvised musi…

A pretty darn incredible record from Sun Ra -- with a soulful, spiritual approach that's missing from most of his other albums of the time! The album features Ra playing a good deal of organ (dubbed "intergalactic organ" in this case!) -- grooving soulfully on some short tracks that almost hit a soul jazz mode, and which recall the late 60s experiments of organist Freddie Roach.

Sun Ra was a innovative jazz composer, pianist, synthesizer player, poet and philosophiser who was fascinated by cosmic philosophy. Ra’s fascination with all things ‘cosmic’ combined with his instrumental ability lead to the creation of off-kilter, avant-garde and highly experimental music. ‘The Night of the Purple Moon’ originally cut in 1970 showcases Sun Ra playing the Roksichord (a then state-of-the-art solid-state electronic keyboard manufac…