★Fundacja Sluchaj!

"Autumn has always brought me bright thoughts and fruitful encounters. Barry and I, although we had known each other for many years — and although I had grown “into adulthood” musically through the influence of masters like him — had never had the chance to play and record together. Finally, October 2025 gave me this wonderful gift: an extraordinary meeting. Coming face to face with a champion of free improvisation placed me in a position where I had to draw upon all the creativity available — a…

Recorded by Karl Winand and Markus Massinger at artacts – Festival for Jazz and Improvised Music, Alte Gerberei, St. Johann in Tirol, Austria. Mixed and mastered by John Butcher  Sophie Agnel - pianoJohn Butcher - saxophonesPascal Niggenkemper - double bassStåle Liavik Solberg - drums

“Hurtling Between” is an apt description of the way Barry Altschul plays drums: effortlessly moving between swing and free playing. It’s also a fitting analogy for the current historical moment, in which there’s often a feeling of catapulting between awareness and denial. During the pandemic, Joe Fonda asked me if I would join him in a trio session at Barry’s house. We began to play semi-regularly, developing a rapport. Barry’s living room is filled with the accumulated trappings of a jazz life.…

The seventh edition of the Poznań Spontaneous Music Festival unfolded under the motto “Noise/ Silence”, and it was precisely between these two extremes that the story of a certain October afternoon in 2023 stretched out. On the festival’s second day, in the empty hall of Dragon Social Club, before the evening concerts began, four musicians who had never shared a stage before came together. The goal: collective improvisation, without a plan, without a map, with intuition as the only compass. The …

Three distinct musical voices come together on Crapaud, a new album by Tazio Caputo, Lucas Gaudin and Matías Riquelme. The record invites listeners into a world shaped by exchange, curiosity and the possibilities that emerge when artists create together. Rather than following a single path, Crapaud unfolds as a meeting place: a space for ideas to take shape, shift and find unexpected connections. Its title sets the tone for an album that feels open to discovery—one that rewards close listening w…

Threnody is the working free-improv trio of Swedish sax hero Martin Küchen and double bass player Johan Berthling, both also collaborate in Küchen’s Angles groups, and English drummer Steve Noble. The group released its first live album in 2015. This is now, after eleven years the fourth instalment of this extraordinary trio’s musical journey.

Ricercar (from the Italian "ricercare"), meaning “to search” or “to seek”, is a musical form that developed and flourished in a very interesting way in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was practiced by the greatest polyphonists and improvisers of the time: Giovanni Gabrieli, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and, ultimately, Johann Sebastian Bach (the six-voice ricercar from Musikalisches Opfer). It was always about the interaction between instruments, about dialogue, and about finding a common musical path.…

Wadada Leo Smith, Joe Fonda and Reggie Nicholson together. A trio of trumpet, double bass and drums. Six compositions/improvisations – or perhaps six sonic poems – filled with magic, contemplation and deep reflection.

The great master, improvisational pianist, and musical polymath Steve Beresford; John Edwards, one of the most important double bassists on the global free improv scene; and Mandhira de Saram, an exquisite violinist and former member of the renowned Ligetti Quartet, come together. “Felix” is the recording debut of this trio, which, since its formation a few years ago, has become a regularly performing ensemble. Recorded at London’s Vortex club in January of last year, the album demonstrates how …

"Among all the paradoxes of communication, which improvisational musicians explore continuously as connoisseurs to create magic, there is the fact that they speak at the same time (something we are generally discouraged from doing). Not only that, but they have the quartering ability to listen and hear each other while speaking at the same time. Reversal of the situation for better sharing: to hear each other better, to hear everything better, it would really be better if we all got into the hab…

There aren’t many all-female vocal groups in the world of improvised music, even fewer of them are working bands, and there are very few projects that are anything more than that. VoiceACT, conceived by Anna Gadt, is exactly that. VoiceACT is, above all, a platform for artistic exploration, generally without specific stylistic characteristics, but operating according to the sacred principle of free creation, to which each invited artist contributes whatever resonates in their improvisational sou…

In March 2022, Joe Fonda and Silke Eberhard met at the Downtown Music Record Store in New York, and just six months later they were on stage together with Austrian drummer Emil Gross in Berlin. The Josilemi Trio was born. The collective trio's compositions and improvisations are powerful, driving, elegant, structured and refined, combining diverse influences with improvisational inspiration. It is music that is completely connected to the moment and yet totally future-oriented. It is Music for h…

"There is a familiar species of experience. I believe it is nearly universal. Here’s the brief: we have not seen a person in a long time, someone with whom we were once close. For no good reason – no falling out, no unpleasantries at all – our paths have not crossed. Then, in an instant, we are together, thrown or brought or drawn. Circumstance has landed us proximate and here we are, face to face. Within seconds, we recognize the person. I mean really recognize them. Not just their external app…

"In November 2024 (for reasons that we all understand) I recharged the meaning and value of my commitment to play Free Music many years ago. Everyday since I’ve been guided by its inherent support for the rights of all people, non-violence, peace, equitable, moral, ethical justice for everyone, the health of the planet, and the certainty that music might comfort us, enlighten us and even elevate our thinking.
The current criminal world spectacle requires billions of individual and collective cou…

Chinese tradition tells the story of how one day, the Emperor decided to decorate the walls of his new palace. He summoned two of the most famous painters of the time and gave them two months to complete the paintings on the walls. One of the painters immediately got to work and spent two months diligently and meticulously sketching, applying colors, correcting, and perfecting his painting. The second painter arrived a day before the deadline and painted his painting in a single gesture, without…

A cooperation between the two protagonists had been announced for some time. The first musical collaboration as a duo on October 18th, 2025 in Munich was unfortunately cancelled due to unfortunate circumstances. Our alternative was for Sergio to send me 5 vibraphone solo pieces, to which I would communicate with a selection of my wind instruments. Some identical ‘basistapes’ are interpreted by me with different wind instruments. Since a real encounter has not yet taken place, a virtual connectio…

The performance and recording are one continuous set. Track markers have been added for convenience:. 
Liner notes:

 "This project began as Centrifugal Trio, with Bishop, Borghini, and Griener, recorded in the studio zentri-fuge in Berlin in September 2019 and released on the Astral Spirits label.

 For my visit to Berlin in 2022, I wanted to expand the group, and invited the wonderful Mia Dyberg on alto, who I had played with earlier at Sowieso in Berlin, and whose recording Ticket!  (Clean Fe…

What an opportuunity ! On the suggestion of Maciej Karlowski, percussionist Ramón López invited me to play in Lublin Jazz Festival. From a list of great musicians who might join us to form a trio the name of Trevor Watts was one that immediately excited me for quite a few reasons: Firstly, he along with John Stevens , Paul Rutherford , Evan Parker and Derek Bailey allowed me as a novice to enter into the rarified world of The Spontaneous Music Ensemble. I was a total greenhorn in free improvisat…

2024 was for me the year to look inwards and address in my work a couple of personal, somewhat uncomfortable subjects, something I wanted to do for a long time. This double-album is the result of this process. My deep gratitude goes to Benedikt Müller, Hans Martin Müller, Thomas Baerens, Csaba Kézér, Hermann-Christoph Müller, Stefan Deistler, Pavel Borodin, Erhard Hirt, Alex Minkin, Maciej Karlowski, Semafor and all the musicians who made it possible. The fate of my grandfather was shared by cou…

Syrena:re is a concept programme by Ania Karpowicz and Dominik Strycharski for two flutists and tape. It reinvents and recycles musical motifs released on vinyl by the iconic Syrena Rekord label in pre-war Warsaw. The tape features poignant voices of synagogue cantors, fragments of popular songs, and blended sounds of the Shmul Weinberg orchestra. By using extended techniques and a variety of flutes representing diverse timbres, the artists combine the work of memory with unconstrained improvisa…

"A small gift for a great Cecil Taylor history. On 23 April 2016, Jay Sanders organised and recorded a concert whose significance at the time was impossible to estimate. The great Cecil Taylor was accompanied by the wonderful musicians Okkyung Lee, Tony Oxley, Harri Sjostrom and Jackson Krall. After the concert, Cecil announced that it was time to return to the legendary formula he had used several times in his career, which served as an emblem of what was particularly important in his work.   U…

This year we are celebrating the 10th birthday of our label. On this occasion, we have prepared a lot of surprises and very unique musical offerings for you. Here is the first one! What you can expect from the music is perfectly reflected in the album title. Parallel aesthetics which, however, when listened to together become a new perhaps the third aesthetic!One of the most active and respected saxophonists and improvisers on the American jazz scene. An American, Brazilian-born, Jewish-born mus…

Is an open dialogue of polarity possible? A dialogue of human existence in the cosmos and in nature, set against the backdrop of contemporary technology? That the feeling of being torn or detached is permanently inscribed in human nature is a truism. Yet we don’t always recognize the nature of this detachment—sometimes it seems like a separation from something immense, completely different from what humanity itself is. From a certain perspective, one could say that the many myths, symbols, ritua…

Remedy, the boundary-pushing collective known for their raw improvisational prowess, today announces the release of Remedy + Aki Takase, a luminous fusion of avant-garde jazz and experimental soundscapes. Teaming up with Japanese piano virtuoso Aki Takase—celebrated for her collaborations with legends like Lester Bowie and her pivotal role in global free jazz—this album marks a triumphant meeting of generations and genres. Recorded live in Berlin's vibrant jazz scene, Remedy + Aki Takase capture…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly announces the release of SOM-HI!, a breathtaking new album capturing the raw, telepathic interplay of four European free jazz visionaries: pianist Agustí Fernández, trumpeter Artur Majewski, saxophonist Albert Cirera, and drummer Ramon Prats. This recording erupts with the unbridled joy and ferocity of spontaneous creation, pushing the boundaries of improvisation into exhilarating new territory. Recorded live in Barcelona, SOM-HI! distills the quartet's collective fire i…

The boundary-pushing trio known as Last Dream Of The Morning – featuring soprano saxophone titan John Butcher, double bass maestro John Edwards, and percussion innovator Mark Sanders – proudly announces the release of their electrifying new album, Sharp Illusion. This recording captures the group's unparalleled chemistry in a whirlwind of spontaneous sonic invention. Emerging from a legacy of fearless improvisation, Sharp Illusion distills the trio's decades of collaborative fire into six tracks…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly announces the release of This Anger is a Liar, a searing new album from the powerhouse trio of Portuguese saxophonist José Lencastre, bassist João Hasselberg, and Danish drummer Kresten Osgood. Captured in a single, electrifying studio session, this collection of fully improvised music confronts fury, deception, and catharsis head-on, transforming personal turmoil into collective triumph. Lencastre's tenor sax cuts through like a blade—fierce, lyrical, and unyielding—whi…

Trombone titan Ray Anderson and tenor sax visionary Ivo Perelman invite listeners into the mystical forge of creation with their electrifying new album, 12 Stages of Spiritual Alchemy. Released today via Fundacja Słuchaj, this duo recording captures two masters of free improvisation transmuting raw sound into pure gold across twelve transformative tracks. Anderson's growling, buoyant trombone weaves serpentine lines and thunderous bursts, while Perelman's tenor sax erupts in fiery spirals and ha…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly unveils The 7th Dinner Live, a sizzling live recording from the Joe Hertenstein Trio – drummer/composer Joe Hertenstein, reed master Michael Moore, and bassist powerhouse Michael Formanek – elevated by the irrepressible trombone wizardry of special guest Ray Anderson. Captured in the heat of performance, this album transforms a intimate dinner setting into a banquet of boundless improvisation, where jagged rhythms collide with lyrical invention and raw emotional depth. H…

Fundacja Słuchaj announces the release of Comprehensive, a riveting new album from the powerhouse trio of Joe Morris (guitar), Tyshawn Sorey (drums), and Peter Evans (trumpet). This recording captures the essence of fearless improvisation, where structural precision meets boundless creativity. In Comprehensive, three of contemporary music's most visionary artists converge for a telepathic exploration of rhythm, timbre, and form. Joe Morris wields his guitar as a sonic architect, crafting intrica…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly announces the release of Choreography of Fractures, a searing new album from the powerhouse trio of bassist John Edwards, trumpeter Luis Vicente, and drummer Vasco Trilla. This recording captures the unbridled intensity of live improvisation, where fractures in sound become portals to profound musical discovery. In Choreography of Fractures, Edwards, Vicente, and Trilla forge a sonic landscape that dances on the edge of chaos and control. Edwards' thunderous double bass …

The legendary double bass master is not appearing in our catalogue for the first time, but for the first time we have the honour of publishing music that has not appeared on Paul Rogers' albums many times before. A recital for solo double bass! If one could wish for the bass to speak, we believe that it does so most fully and poignantly when played by this wonderful master.

Polish label Fundacja Słuchaj is thrilled to announce the release of "A Modicum Of Blues," an electrifying new album by five powerhouse improvisers: Ivo Perelman (tenor sax), Nate Wooley (trumpet), Matt Moran (vibraphone), Mark Helias (bass), and Tom Rainey (drums). This recording captures the quintet in their purest element—live in the studio, free of plans or constraints, driven only by their joy of spontaneous creation. Renowned for his visionary approach, saxophonist Ivo Perelman assembles a…

Almost two decades have passed since Martin Kuchen, one of the brightest figures in European improvised music, founded the band Angles. Over the years, the band has evolved in terms of its membership and personnel. The Portuguese label Clean Feed has released the vast majority of the group's albums. Now it is time for the latest incarnation of Angles, this time Angles 11, featuring musicians from the core line-up and the oldest companions of musical journeys, as well as ‘fresh blood’. Those we a…

“The Dialogues” recalls the early jazz journeys of its creators, blending decades of musical growth into intimate conversations between violin and double bass. Drawing from jazz, classical, and contemporary influences, the album captures pure, wordless musical dialogue.

Dominique Pifarély, Lina Andonovska, and Izumi Kimura—three versatile, internationally acclaimed musicians—unite in a unique trio project born from a residency.

Jerome Deupree, Sylvie Courvoisier, Joe Morris, Lester St. Louis unite for an album of explosive solos, profound improvisation—a canyon where all musical worlds collide in boundless synergy.

The Lava Quartet—Berlin to Portugal—unites for free improvisation, blending creativity and extended techniques. Their debut album, "Ethereal Chant," showcases boundary-breaking, unpredictable soundscapes.

Long-time collaborators and legends of the British improvised music scene, the great saxophone virtuoso John Butcher and the master of the double bass John Edwards, join forces in a duet journey through a fascinating land of sounds, sometimes undiscovered, sometimes impossible, and always breathtaking.

"None of the musicians need to be introduced to anyone Alexander von Schlippnebach is one of the founding fathers of free improvised music, a great expert on the music of Thelonious Monk and an exquisite piano master, Barry Altschul co-founded Anthony Braxton's first great quartet, a friend and musical companion of Sam Rivers, Chick Corea, Roswell Rudd, Dave Liebman, Barre Phillips, Kenny Wheeler, Andrew Hill, Sonny Criss, Hampton Hawes, and Lee Konitz and one simply of the greatest drummer in j…