Rare
*2026 stock* “The interaction between the two musicians was quicksilver incisive, with not a false step.” Chamberlain, Mike. « All About Jazz », May 27, 2024
“[...] performance by veterans Sophie Agnel and John Butcher set a high bar for attention to detail and interplay while continually discovering new shapes.” Hill, Eric. « Indie Dependence », May 30, 2024
“These two musicians work together very well, exchanging ideas, creating a fascinating ongoing dialogue.” Gallanter, Bruce. « Downtown Mus…
Felix
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 …
Oblic
"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…
Almost This
"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…
Synàntisi
"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…
foam & mesh
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
Rhizoming
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…
Six or Seven Ways Towards Becoming Undone
The duo of Camila Nebbia and Chris Corsano brings together two fiercely creative voices from the international improvised music scene. Nebbia’s searching tenor saxophone lines meet Corsano’s explosive, highly textural percussion in a set of spontaneous exchanges of raw expression. Their music moves fluidly between delicate detail and surging intensity, driven by deep listening and fearless experimentation. The result is a striking dialogue where every gesture reshapes the sonic landscape in real…
Studio Recording
The new release by Ochibonoame captures the trio’s raw and searching approach. With Makoto Kawashima on alto saxophone, Louis Inage on bass, and Naoto Yamagishi on drums and percussion, the group navigates the volatile terrain of silence and eruptive energy. Their music unfolds as an intuitive dialogue, where fragility and abrasive sonic bursts collide in real time. The result is a deeply visceral document of spontaneous creation, rooted in the underground spirit of Japan’s improvised music scen…
Distractions for Trumpet & Ajaeng
On Distractions for Trumpet & Ajaeng two radically distinct instrumental traditions converge in a study of texture, fragility, and focus. Kelley’s whisper-quiet trumpet tones and microscopic bursts of air intertwine with Kim’s bowed ajaeng, its coarse, resonant grain stretching and splintering in real time. The result is a taut, immersive dialogue that transforms subtle gestures into seismic events and invites listeners into a heightened space of deep listening and unpredictable detail.
Lummernikt
Lummer is the Swedish name for the now protected family of vascular plants (Clubmoss/Lycopodiaceae). Lummer grows slowly and the spores with which it reproduces can take 12—20 years to develop. These spores, known as Nikt in Swedish, were once ground into an extremely flammable light yellow “old woman’s gunpowder” that was used for early theatrical pyrotechnics. Volatile and explosive, Lummernikt requires careful handling. There is something of the small scale dangerous in Finn Loxbo’s Lummernik…
Después De Llover
On Después De Llover, Eli Wewentxu and Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė turn a first encounter into a shared dreamscape, letting kanklės, txompe and violin wander in post‑rain light where plants, pudus and herons quietly rewrite the rules of folk dialogue.
An Afternoon With Victor Dimisich
Big Tip! This is one for the faithful. An Afternoon With Victor Dimisich gathers a set of recordings that until now existed only as rumour - an unearthed afternoon from the legendary pre-Flying Nun underground of Christchurch, New Zealand, surfacing more than four decades after it was first committed to tape, and never issued in any form before now.
The Victor Dimisich Band took shape in 1980, when Stephen Cogle and Peter Stapleton broke away from Bill Direen's Vacuum to follow their own songwr…
All Thoughts Fly
Sacro Bosco (“Sacred Grove”) is the starting point for Anna von Hausswolff’s All Thoughts Fly. Here in solo instrumental mode, the entire record consists of just one instrument, the organ, and represents absolute liberation of the imagination. All Thoughts Fly radiates a melancholic beauty, and is distinguished by fluid transitions of contrasting elements; calmness and drama, harmony and dissonance, much like the place that inspires the music. Sacro Bosco is a garden, based in the centre of Ital…
États des lieux
Invited in September 2011 by sound engineer Philippe Teissier du Cros, double bassist Bruno Chevillon spent two days improvising alone in the Lutheran Protestant Church of Bon Secours in Paris. The building is as much a protagonist as the player — its acoustics shaping every bow stroke, every silence.
Twelve tracks traverse extremes: commanding attacks that send sonorities boomeranging through the nave, hushed melodic arcs, raucous physical confrontations with the instrument's body, and the exis…
Dans-sons as we are
With Dans-sons as we are, Audrey Lauro, Christian Pruvost and Peter Orins deliver an album shaped by subtle shifts, restrained tensions and slow transformations of sound matter. A music of listening as much as gesture, where each intervention seems to open a new space rather than occupy the previous one. Brought together through a shared practice of free improvisation, the three musicians develop a collective language that is both dense and constantly in motion. The trio never seeks spectacular …
Moondog In Europe
Originally released in 1977, Moondog In Europe was visionary composer Moondog’s first release after moving from NYC to Germany. Regarded as reflecting the historicity of his new environment, the album is more structured and formal than most of his previous releases; however, his layered song-cycles are just as circular and experimental, and still backed by a fair amount of tribal percussion.
“Viking I” opens the album with Moondog’s solo celesta playing and retains the quirk and charm of his pre…
s/t
This tape is the culmination of a series of collaborative performances between Kevin Coleman and J.W. Bird that took place in the latter half of 2024. It is meant to encapsulate the spirit and energy of those performances; spontaneous and communicative. Musical conversations between banjo and fiddle that left no language off the table. A great combination of elements from avant-garde classical, to American Traditional/Primitive, and free improv, exploring improvisational spaces of widely varied …
Setpieces
Setpieces captures Cath Roberts & Olie Brice at a new peak of focus and invention, distilling their long-running musical rapport into a set of raw, finely tuned improvisations. Roberts’ baritone lines carve out bold shapes and sudden whispers while Brice’s bass grounds and disrupts in equal measure, creating a vivid, unpredictable dialogue. A striking next chapter for two of the UK’s most distinctive improvisers.
Selections from the Gutter
“Selections from the Gutter” brings NYC saxophonist Michael Foster with the longstanding rhythm section of Swiss bassist Christian Weber (of Sudden Infant), and German drummer Michael Griener, a longtime fixture of the Berlin scene. The trio brings shocking, visceral energy to a distinct structural awareness; drawing suspense from form in each of the David Goodis-inspired titles. This is improvised music digging deep into a shared sense of history, form, and drama.