Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

John Stevens (percussion & cornet), Nigel Coombes (violin), Roger Smith (guitar), Colin Wood (cello). The first recording of the 'string' version of the SME, that lasted (minus Wood) until 1992." "We had a willow tree in the back garden and I used to look at the willow tree and the grass and think, well we could be like this. We could be very close to nature if we learned how to just purely interact..." John Stevens. Reissue plus 35 minutes of extra material from the same session. Originally re…

The 1977 Derby concert performance by the SME quartet with John Stevens (percussion, cornet, voice), Nigel Coombes (violin), Colin Wood (cello) & Roger Smith (guitar) features an extended (!) tribute to Anton Webern. The CD also contains also 1984 and 1988 London concert recordings by the trio without Wood." (Emanem)

"The longest lasting and most controversial edition of the SME was that featuring John Stevens (percussion, cornet, voice) with two vastly under-rated acoustic musicians: Nigel Coombes (violin) & Roger Smith (guitar). This selection has an extended home performance from 1980, and three concerts from 1991, one of which has Neil Metcalfe (flute) and John Rangecroft (clarinet) added to the trio. 76 minutes - previously unissued." (Emanem)

All previously unissued recordings, mainly made up of the duo of John Stevens (percussion) and Evan Parker (ss, ts), with Peter Kowald (b) on about a third of it. This marks the earliest to date recordings of Parker and is a tremendous snapshot of some ancient history. "Parker and Stevens seemed to break through to a deeper level of hearing, where a sound was not set against other sounds but rather against the silence around it, so that one gained heightened awareness of its growth and decay, it…

2004 release ** All music recorded at "Garaget", Solna, Sweden. Andreas Axelsson - percussion, drum machines, CD player; Herman Muntzing - flexichord, sampler; Martin Kuchen - soprano and baritone saxophone, found objects.

French guitarist Nöel Akchoté has confounded critics since his earliest releases with his blend of swinging jazz, free improvisation, and art-song sensibilities. Soundpage(s) are going to do more to further that confusion despite the fact that this album is easily the finest and most consistent realization of Akchoté's musical vision to date. This is a conceptual work centered around the soundbites on television news. And as a result, our composer felt given the vast world of soundbites to criti…

This is Bailey's first record with Japanese powerhouse drummer Shoji Hano, recorded at Moat Studios in London in June 2000. Hano is best known outside of Japan for his brief tenure as drummer in speedfreak rock band High Rise.

"The Diary of Dog Drexel" is a suite of five movements, each of which programmatically portrays an emotional state from the diary. One of the ideas behind "Dog" was to thoroughly blend improvised and composed elements. In the first four movements "Conflicted, Pissed, Bummed, and Agitated" there are at almost all times at least one thread of composition and another of improvisation. The balance between the elements shifts steadily. Muddying the waters further is that many of the extended techniqu…

Alessandro Bosetti: soprano sax. Michael Thieke: clarinet. Sabine Vogel: flute. Michael Griener: percussion. Recorded 9/2/2003 by Ronny Trocker at studio P4, Berlin.'Space as a musical parameter is something that has long been neglected in recordings of acoustic improvised music. Since, dynamic, attack, sound-color, rythm and duration are commonly regarded as the elements that constitute and give form to what you find in such a recording, the feeling and the use of space has been seldom fully c…

Alexander Von Schlippenbach (piano), Evan Parker (tenor saxophone), Paul Lovens (percussion). Each year this dauntless and apparently indefatigable trio set out on their winter journey. This record is taken from two December concerts at The Loft in Köln (Cologne) in 2004 & 2005.

2005 release ** Limited edition of 200 copies. "The Iberian trio of Fages, Barberan and Costa Monteiro have been working together in Barcelona for long enough now to have developed a distinct language of tension, scraped metallic dynamics and a rough, textural abrasiveness. A trio with a great, off-kilter and unexpected instrumentation (there can’t be many acoustic turntable/ engines, trumpet and accordion trios kicking about Barcelona – although it’s a while since I’ve been there) they build lo…

The first solo record by the Berlin based master of the bass clarinet.

Trumpeter Ramanan (who doubles on wooden flutes) has been quietly enriching the London scene for some 15 years now. For the first CD under his leadership, he presents his imaginative current quartet which spans the ground between Free Improvisation and Free Jazz. With Marcio Mattos (cello & electronics), Simon H. Fell (double bass) and Mark Sanders (percussion). 72 minutes -- previously unissued.

Derek Bailey, guitar; Barre Phillips, bass. Who's there to know that you passed 'em around (16.01), You'll find my theory is logically sound (16.23), Don't save (10.02), 100 years from today (14.48).Tracks a and b recorded at the Arts Theatre, London on 12 May 1987 by Michael Gerzon; c and d recorded at Hawth Centre, Crawley on 4 September 1988 by Michael Gerzon. Cover drawing (reproduced above) by Tony Mostrom.

Following the success of their very first performance together at the 2004 FREEDOM OF THE CITY festival (heard on Emanem 4215), Roger Smith and Louis Moholo-Moholo went into the studio to record some more. Their second meeting went so well that they recorded enough duo improvisations for a complete CD. The resulting music is heard complete, with Smith on Spanish guitar and Moholo on augmented drum set.

Rhodri Davies : harp. Robin Hayward : tuba. Julia Eckhardt : viola. Lucio Capecce : soprano saxophone, bass clarinet. Recorded on April 2004 in Berlin.

Recorded in the dining room of the Maison Bustros, Beirut, Lebanon on 21 August, 2004.

2004 release ** "The cast of players includes cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, the newest member of Vandermark 5 (plus Wilco, Terminal 4, The Boxhead Ensemble, Pillow, and the Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, to name just a few); Lou Mallozzi, a sound artist from Chicago who lists Mats Gustafsson, Jaap Blonk, Sebi Tramontana, Michael Zerang, and Guillermo Gregorio as collaborators; and Portuguese violinist Carlos Zingaro, who has partnered with the likes of Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, George Lewi…

Homage to Stefano Scodanibbio by Sebastian Gramss and ten other double bassists, among them Barry Guy, Joëlle Léandre, Barre Phillips and Mark Dresser, recorded separately in 2014, plus a 2008 live duo of Scodanibbio and Gramss.

Live recording from Donaueschingen, 17 October 1992: Michael Riessler's project on Abélard and Héloise, with Valentin Clastrier, Michel Godard, Renaud Garcia-Fons, Rabih Abou-Khalil and others, recorded by Südwestfunk.

Duo album by Manfred Schoof (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Rainer Brüninghaus (piano, keyboards), six original pieces recorded in October 1987 and May 1988 at Tonstudio Cornet, Cologne.

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 would likely produce a decent album of electronic, improvised music. I feel safe in guaranteeing, however, that it wouldn't be anywhere as compelling and listenable as the new recording by this quartet of highly developed mammals known as poire_z. Ov…

Recorded on April 26, 2000.

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.

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, Soft Machine, and others, this musical collective coalesced in London in 1968, and soon came to the attention of jazz aficionado Charlie Watts, who financed and oversaw a recording session that October. Improvised, anarchic, and utterly original, …

"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, more energy driven and free jazz-oriented. Joining him are two players that were new to the free improve scene at the time. Bassist Paul Rogers was a young cat, although this recording doesn't let it show. He already displays an impressive musical voc…

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 together does not always make an excellent duo. In this case, it certainly did. All the magnificent music performed one evening in Birmingham is included on this CD in the order it was performed - except that, sadly, a couple of minutes had to be ch…

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 likely to find. Maybe it's the only one... if you're thinking of buying a record of solo improvisation you should try and get this one. It's the genuine article.

Recorded on 19 March 2002 live at MIB, Bremen

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 of countless improvising ensembles, the duo deal more in a simultaneity of sound, an elemental non-stop gush of ideas, rhythms and epiglottal forms that at points feels like a small-group response to the orchestral conceptions of the Peter Brotzmann…

"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 struck, one typically characterised by line, the other by attack, producing in the first pitch configurations, in the second beat patterns (Eddie Prévost doesn't use the specifically pitched mallet instruments). Each player comes with a distinctive sonic …

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.

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 Be Back is translated to improvisation that is swift to respond each other and most beautiful onkyo sound. This is the marvels of jazz! otomo Yoshihide (guitar, conduct on 4), Axel Doerner (trumpet, slide trumpet), Aoki Taisei (trombone, bamboo flute…

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 extensive post production processing composition.

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 project began when Noël dumped ten hours of wonderfully heterogeneous archival recordings in the hands of David Grubbs, who served as project editor and created a number of pieces from the raw material of live recordings. The resulting collection incl…

Recorded live in Jersey City, NJ on 8/8/2004.Mixed and mastered at Amme Studios in NYC 9/1/2004

Tatsuga Nakatani (drums, percussion), Raymond MacDonald (alto saxophone), Neil Davidson (guitar), Peter Nicholson (cello), and Nick Fells (laptop.) Recorded December 2004, Glasgow.

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 for 3 to 4 minutes, as if you were playing music with your shadow. This was to allow room for others to improvise with the recording. To test this, we invited the musicians to play along with one of the tracks at the 21Grand Performance Space & Art Ga…