New Arrivals / Last week
Spark Gap
Birgit Ulher and Nicolas Collins are pleased to announce the release of Spark Gap, the first record of their ongoing duo project. Two trumpets, two different approaches: one electronic, the other acoustic. While Collins programmed a computer to imitate hacked circuits and wired to a speaker inside the instrument, Ulher uses metal sheets, radios, milk frothers and other everyday objects to extend her sound palette from brass to silicon. The opposed approaches yield oddly similar sonic results.
Away, I Was
"Over 40 years of sustained performance and publishing, English saxophonist, improvisor and composer John Butcher has shaped much of what the soprano and tenor saxophone can do, and what their roles and vocabulary in improvised music might be. There’s a situated purposefulness to Butcher’s music. It is always concerned with its context, flexibility, space and company: how group playing works and flows; how aspects of improvisation fit into a living musical world; how and what the saxophone can b…
A Window, Basically
Peter Evans and Mike Pride push the outer limits of improvisation. Combining Evans’ explosive trumpet virtuosity with Pride’s kaleidoscopic drumming and percussion work, this collaboration is equal parts high-wire intensity and deep listening. With sharp turns, dense sound clusters, unexpected silences, and moments of raw, unfiltered expression, this is improvised music at its most daring and unpredictable. Whether erupting into chaos or threading through intricate interplay, Evans and Pride pro…
Mnemonist Orchestra
Mnemonists, on the first album called Mnemonist Orchestra, is U.S collective of avant-garde musicians from Colorado, led by Mark Derbyshire and William Sharp. Their music is a mixture of modern classical, experimental sounds, noise, industrial, avant-garde and free jazz. Their releases were published by their own self-produced label Dys between 1981 and 1986. By 1985 the group had split off into separate groups for visual and audio work. From that time, Mnemonists operated only as a visual arts …
Something to Remember
"Something to Remember" marks a significant new chapter for pianist and composer Juan J. Ochoa, exploring the intimate territories between acoustic and electronic sound worlds. Through prepared piano, traditional piano, and subtle electronic processing, Ochoa crafts a deeply personal sonic meditation that bridges experimental technique with emotional immediacy. The album showcases his distinctive approach to the instrument—treating the piano not just as a melodic or harmonic device, but as a com…
Thoughts
"When Freysteinn Gíslason sent me the raw recordings from Sundlaugin in Mosfellsbær, I heard immediately what he and his ensemble had captured: a group of musicians operating at the outer edges of what jazz can contain. My job wasn't to shape these performances in the traditional sense—they were already fully realized—but to bring clarity and force to a vision that refused easy categorization.
Thoughts is an album that exists in extremes. Not the extremes of volume or aggression alone, but of em…
Lanzarote
Italian electronic music producer PSTMRD returns with Lanzarote, his highly anticipated second album arriving February 6. Drawing inspiration from the raw, volcanic landscapes of the Spanish island that gives the record its name, the album unfolds as an immersive sonic journey across seven tracks of detailed sound design and evocative electronic textures. First single "Fullmoon" bridges the rhythmic complexity and textural play of classic IDM with glitch-infused minimalism and warm analog atmosp…
Incommunicable
*2026 stock* "I had in mind recording a monographic disc of Yair Klartag’s music many years ago. After a long period of artistic and practical anticipation, I am pleased to present the recording as the final result of our collective work. In my personal artistic universe, contemporary music represents a moment of aggregation of artists. I believe that this album is the concrete result of this desire and vision of mine: collective energies combined for a single artistic purpose. Not even a minute…
Travessia
*2026 stock* It is an unusually bright afternoon in early March when I am writing these lines, while listening to the debut album by Oksana Shymanska. Joan Arnau Pàmies from Protomaterial Records just sent it to me; it was recorded not long ago at the Auditori Municipal Enric Granados in Lleida. I celebrate it because it represents the culmination of a process that began when Oksana arrived in Catalonia from her native Ukraine. It is also the result of a professional wish: to record an album tha…
Solo 3
*2026 stock* Solo 3 is the first album by cellist, composer and improviser Daniel Brandl on Protomaterial Records. It is the work of a fearless artist. Brandl explores a variety of sounds on the cello using digital editing. The soundscape of the album is rich and diverse: from blues-based tracks like “Drip Drop” to beautiful, ambient-centered landscapes like “Touching Ground.” In several compositions, Brandl overlays recordings of his cello, creating something that is reminiscent of a chamber mu…
Heaven Shines Like Silver
*2026 stock* Stefan Lovin's new album "Heaven Shines Like Silver" is set to showcase his unique ability to merge Romanian folk traditions with jazz, fusion, and free-flowing improvisation. With his distinctive piano work and intricate compositions, Lovin brings a fresh perspective to both the folk melodies of his homeland and the spontaneous nature of jazz. "Heaven Shines Like Silver" captures the complexity and beauty of a sound world where folk music is both grounded in tradition and open to e…
Awareness of the Wind Within
*2026 stock* New York-based electro-acoustic duo NTHNL and Sphente release their debut album "Awareness of the Wind Within," a profound document of their years-long collaboration. Specializing in consciousness-expanding vibrational exploration, Sphente and NTHNL combine gongs and winds in immersive long-form improvisations that blur the boundaries between ambient soundscapes, ritual performance, and experimental acoustics. The gong, manipulated with Sphente’s innovative microphone techniques, fo…