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2025 stock In the late 1970s, Amsterdam was a crucible for radical improvisation, and Mistakes—the collaboration between South African saxophonist Sean Bergin and Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger—stands as a vivid document of that era’s restless energy. Released on the Data label, the album captures two musicians at the threshold of their creative powers, forging a dialogue that is as unpredictable as it is intimate.
Bergin, who had recently relocated from Durban, brings a raw, searching lyricism t…
2025 stock Elastic Jargon is an album by Dutch composer and violist Maurice Horsthuis, released in 2007 on the Data label. The project brings together a unique ensemble of string players, with Horsthuis as the sole composer, exploring the boundaries of what can be achieved with string instruments alone.
2025 stock In the shadowy interstices of contemporary jazz and free improvisation, Slang by Elastic Jargon emerges as a document of restless inquiry and coded communication. Released on the Dutch label Data in 2010, the album is a cryptic dispatch from the margins, where genre boundaries are not so much blurred as actively subverted
Elastic Jargon—true to their name—stretch the language of jazz until it snaps, then reassemble the fragments into something at once familiar and alien. The group’s a…
2025 stock In the ever-mutable landscape of Dutch jazz, Joost Buis’s Astronotes stands as a testament to the playful collision of composition and improvisation. Released on the Data label in 2004, the album finds Buis—trombonist, composer, and bandleader—at the helm of a vibrant ensemble drawn from the heart of Amsterdam’s creative music scene.
From the opening bars of “The Eggs,” it’s clear that Buis is less interested in adhering to tradition than in subverting it with wit and invention. The b…
American percussionist Jeff Arnal and German pianist-composer Dietrich Eichmann’s two-decade partnership fuses polyrhythmic structures and vibrant textures in dynamic, improvised soundscapes. "Tides of Unrest" captures their creative synergy in a 2023 session, blending innovation, tradition, and collaboration.
"What we have here is a result of an idea ignited almost 15 years ago with its roots deep in the era of subculture 1990s, when its teenage protagonists started listening to records. But the comradeship between the three of us started in the early 2000 when I was pursuing my first Utopian idea of an art commune in the form of a counter-festival in the Southeastern Slovenian countryside on the border with Croatia. An idea from which, years later, another Utopian project was born - an international…
Bomb! Estonian multi-instrumentalist Misha Panfilov returns with Days As Echoes, a sophomore release that channels the expansive spirit of Krautrock through the lens of contemporary ambient and spiritual jazz. Part of Panfilov's ever-expanding musical universe, the Misha Panfilov Sound Combo delivers six compositions that function as both individual meditations and a cohesive sonic narrative about hope, journey, and human connection. Drawing from an impossibly diverse palette that includes Ethio…
Acclaimed Belgian duo Poor Isa (banjoists Ruben Machtelinckx and Frederik Leroux) present their third album, evolving their minimalist style by collaborating with saxophonist Evan Parker and percussionist Ingar Zach. The result is a rich blend of introspective textures and dynamic improvisation.
*2025 stock* 'From the early years of Norwegian jazz, few albums have stood the test of time as well as the venturesome and subtly psychedelic Plastic Sun. It was the Svein Finnerud's second disc, and was released on Sonet in 1970. Inexplicably for an album of such beauty, it has been a hard-to-find collector's item for decades, having only been reissued once before, in 1998, as a CD on the Norwegian Jazz Federation's Odin label. In April 2018, Odin have reissued it again, this time on CD and in…
One of the most outstanding Bossa Jazz productions from West Germany at the beginning of the 80s! These masterpieces captivate with their stylistic perfection and journey from Bossa Nova to Jazz to slight Disco´n Boogie influence. Its still on of the most DJ spinned Bossa tunes from W.-Germany in the last 30 years!
The two highly talented, creative and sensitive artists Judy (Jude Enxuto) and Ximo (Ximo Gregorio) had lived in Germany since 1980 and performing in several clubs, small art stages a…
Sound Essence is more than proud to presents a very special production from East Germany of the early 70s! One of the TOP Soul-Jazz & Beat combos in the country led by bassist and singer Horst Kruger, recorded two previously unreleased, outrageously good titles here in the newly formed septet format. "Ich will die Zeit nicht bereuen" ("I don't want to regret the time") is probably by far one of the most crispy produced German-language soul beats numbers that existed in the GDR at that time! From…
Here comes a true South American Latin JazzFunk treasure from Argentina!!! Sound Essence is more than proud to present these lost recordings from 1974 to music lovers again in all their glory. Carlos Franzetti, who has once again been in the spotlight in recent years thanks to the re-release of his strong late 70s JazzFusion record "Graffiti", was also in charge of this record called Dedos. The story behind: In 1974, after Carlos Franzetti was living in Mexico and worked as the musical director…
Here comes one of the most exclusive and sought-after recordings of a hotel band from the Caribbean Antilles. The resident and highly talented soul singer Lloyd Baptiste played there during the 70s with his group "The Joys" in the popular hotel called Divi Divi on the then Dutch island of Aruba.
The finest soul, funk and disco filled the repertoire of this outstanding formation. This led to the hotel management sending them to the Pyramid Sound Studio, New York in 1976 for advertising purposes a…
Taken from Abdullah Ibrahim’s summer 2023 sold-out headline date at London’s Barbican Centre, the new album “3” follows suit and is spread across two performances – the first is recorded without an audience ahead of the concert straight to analogue on a 1” Scully tape machine, which had previously been used by Elvis at the famous Memphis-based Sun Studios.
The second recording is taken from the evening’s performance itself with Ibrahim performing in a unique trio which includes Cleave Guyton (fl…
"This album is the most personal I’ve made to date. Named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon poem from the 9th century AD about the former glory of an unnamed ruined city, “The Ruin” is inspired by the feeling of living in England (“a country that feels like a living ruin”), the bleak landscape of where I grew up (Medway towns), and a kind of self-portrait reflecting how we all live amongst the ruins of our past selves both collectively and individually. All the musical material on “The Ruin” is taken…
This recording is an experiment in composing from percussion first. To feel movement in harmony and arrangement through the improvising senses of a percussionist. The melodic and harmonic elements appeared instantly after recording the percussion with Rama Parwata. The additional Tenor Saxophone of Cheryl Durongpisitkul (Sola) and Bass Clarinet of Flora Carbo (Sfondo and Mondo) were the final touches to bring life into the music. The result is a through-composed work, a narrative starting inside…
Organic Music Society is an album by trumpeter Don Cherry. Many critics consider this album the one which gives a fuller picture of Cherry as ensemble leader, spiritualist and cultural synthesizer. Indeed, Organic Music Society is a bold exploration of global musical traditions, reflecting Cherry's vision of music as a universal. Here, Cherry makes a significant shift from his free jazz roots toward a more expansive, world music fusion. Recorded in Sweden, the album features a diverse ensemble b…
Jazz in Silhouette is Sun Ra’s third album, hailed as an early masterpiece blending jazz tradition with innovation. Featuring original compositions, it marks a transitional phase before his avant-garde explorations, showcasing Ra’s talents as composer, arranger, and performer leading jazz into new territory.
For a few fleeting moments during a sunset, the sky is cast a vivid shade of amber. A dramatic flare of colour, a moment belonging to both the day and the night. It is within this vibrant, ephemeral world, that Mongolian-born, Munich-based Enji has written her new album Sonor. Sonor is a record full of life and optimism, from an artist finding the beauty of existing between two worlds, much as a sunset does. Between the cultures of Mongolia and Germany, tradition and innovation, nostalgia and ex…
Wheelhouse reunites as a trio after a decade apart. Their new work, "House and the Home," reflects years of artistic growth, personal change, and enduring bonds, capturing the essence of shared musical evolution and community.