Experimental / Free Improvisation

In the space of a couple of years, Stephen Grew has recorded three absolutely sparkling solo piano releases for Discus Music. All three are spontaneous improvisations arising from years of practice and refinement. Grew is a massively undervalued artist - follow the story he tells across this release and its two predecessors and I'm sure you'll agree. Stephen Grew writes: "Recorded in the Great Hall, Lancaster University, on the 22nd November 2024. This music was recorded on a Steinway D and what…

"We use the same method of what we did on Responses (Zappak, 2022): being in a place for a whole afternoon, but not playing together. We took turns on recording solo piece, and each session was a responses to the former one. Even the length was same with the former album (each one 7 minute). Only one difference: on this time we played outside but last time we played in room. There were lots of limitations from the lack of alternation electric power (and also the hot temperature and mosquito). Bu…

Formed 29 years ago (1996) by Nate Young, Wolf Eyes is currently a duo generally characterized as "noise," though they have called themselves "psycho jazz" (among other things). Extremely prolific, they have literally hundreds of releases and are a towering presence in underground music. Saxophonist Anthony Braxton was an early member of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and has won a MacArthur and been named an NEA Jazz Master, though his work is hardly confined t…

The debut album from Whitney Johnson & Lia Kohl has evolved over several years from their initial practice of free improvisation on viola and cello into (for the moment), this: a neophonic orchestral expression. At once stimulating and soothing, For Translucence is a living, breathing meditation in which layers of acoustic strings, synthesizers, field recordings, radio and sine waves illuminate each other as they twine and grow.

*200 copies limited edition* In February 2019, multi-instrumentalists Maurizio Abate and Luca Venitucci crossed musical paths as part of an artist residency at Standards in Milan. Over those few days, their respective instruments engaged in a dialogue, shaping sounds and structures within the space that housed them. While working on the post-production of the recorded material, Abate and Venitucci enlisted the valuable and decisive collaboration of fellow like-minded musicians Roberto Laneri and…

Marking the final chapter of a visionary trilogy, “Papotier” sees Pancrace return in full force. A haunting exploration of breath, language, and acoustics, recorded around a historic Silbermann organ in Alsace, the album is a radical statement of sonic identity - fragile, fearless, and gloriously unclassifiable.

The first few minutes of ‘3 × hullo, hullo’ sound like a little mole creeping up through the soil. The little thing hoes and scoops up some sand, building a small pile of dirt. But then, anger... because this drives them mad—those who want their lawns clean and spotless. A clean lawn: a desire we inherited from the Brits. Dumped into our collective consciousness by humorless Victorians who enjoyed having their black pudding on the lawn. An uninspired impression from their misreading of Italian p…

Tom Jacques and Eunsil Noh met recently on Tom’s first trip to South Korea. Their meeting was marked by instant musical chemistry and camaraderie. Their duo project, Oh ! Pebbles, consists of their complimentary singular practices in musical improvisation. Their sound centers on fusing minimalistic noise coming from mundane objects triggered by vibrating mini-motors and the re-actualisation of the storied history of voice art in the Pansori tradition. This combination, often supported by harmoni…

Bolide is an electro-acoustic improvising unit, formed in Brighton, UK, in 2007. Originally coming together under the name Bolide Awkwardstra, the group's inaugural performance was at the Colour Out of Space festival in 2007, followed by a show in a local park playing a soundtrack to an infants' football match. Ever since, Bolide have oscillated between these giddy poles. Somewhere along the way, it was decided that awkwardness and sketchy puns should no longer be a barrier to progress.

Tip! *250 copies limited edition* The Kriego is the joint project of musicians and sound artists Fernando Feria & Emiliano Cruz. Born from cultivating similar creative interests in sound art, improvisation, and composition, the duo weaves a sound born of noise, ambient, and free improvisation; exploring various formats and using the electric guitar as their main mean of expression. The project emerged in October 2021 in Mexico City with the presentation of their album I at Casa Patricio, later p…

Open to the Sea was born around the musical experiences of Enrico Coniglio, here playing piano and synths, and of the music wizard Matteo Uggeri who adds his world of samples, noises, field recordings and recorded instruments played by friends. The first CD is a re-edition of the double mini-cd “Watering a Paper Flower” where an echoed piano goes through delicate and enchanted sound tapestries, remembering a river slowly flowing to the sea. The second CD, with the participation of a third musici…

Circle was a short lived group formed in mid seventies by Ruggero Tajè and Riccardo Sinigaglia, both pupils of Angelo Paccagnini and later composers and professors of electrinic music at Milan conservatory. Paccagnini was one of the great italian post weberian composers along with Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna and Giacomo Manzoni. Ruggero and Riccardo joined theit friend Roberto "Brillo" Gotta who played double bass in Gaetano Liguori's group and other jazz groups in the Milano area. "Brillo" Got…

*2025 stock* Something about eating roses Sean… First it’s 2004. Anthony doesn’t even have a piano for that trio gig… Oh no! Nonetheless, something happens in that old damp cellar of Cave12 and some connections are made for ever. In 2006 “The Same Girl” comes over to Australia with Gilles Aubry and myself; we spend a few nights at your place on Hardware Lane. It’s now 2007, it’s around my birthday and we’re emailing about a Buttercup Metal Polish tour. You offer to help out for some contacts and…

*100 copies limited edition* Electroacoustic improvvisation between: Alto Saxophone, Voice – Jun-Y CiaoElectronics, Voice – Yan JunViolin – Matthias Kaiser  recorded in 2017, Cologne

*180 copies limited edition* sub jam is pround to announce the very first recording work by one of beijing's most active musicians and performers zhao ziyi. ziyi was born in 2007 in beijing. he has a strong desire of swallowing whatever he need and of turning himself a nameless formation of the cheapest noise, embarrassed silence and a mirror of the witnesses' own existence. by playing and recording this piece he stands with all of us, who can't bear the meanlessness of time and words any more. …

Tip! *180 copies limited edition* Sub jam is proud to announce the release of the first full-length album of the one and only Ake. Ake is a typical self empowered avand-garde artist of today's china. she start to play music with her totally unskilled violin and a desire of being exist and a planty of still time, as the only valuable propoty of many people, in around 2016. she is part of the new/no wave of performance art and the newly reflourishing fluxus spirit. this album is mostly a collectio…

Big Tip! *200 copies * In the mid-70s in Northern New Jersey, some friends and I formed an ensemble called Atomic Squawk, with which we used our extremely limited musical techniques to play the sorts of whacked-out sounds about which none of our fucking peers gave a rat's ass. “Funny” talking blues, free form skronk, vaguely detourned covers of Beefheart and the Velvets -- these were our stocks in trade, and much happy time was whiled away in Randy Charles' basement drinking and making noise, si…

This recording is roughly 80 minutes of the A&E three day performance superimposed. Performed by Paul McCarthy (Adolf / Eva) and Lilith Stangenberg (Eva / Eve).

*20 copies limited edition* Melantónia presents its first album on the label, a concept LP produced in Matera and inspired by the rock sedimentation process in which the southern Italian city was built. Strata is an experimental electronic music composition combining electro-acoustic improvisation with cutting-edge sound design. This daring project brings together a collective of accomplished musicians and sound designers, who have crafted an immersive auditory experience, building upon the iter…

'Solo Acoustic Guitar Improvisations VII' is volume 7 in a series Dirk Serries is recording in honor of the Höfner archtop guitars.  A few years ago Dirk fell in love with the acoustic guitar and specifically the Höfner brand for its specific and unique harsher sound their vintage archtop guitars hold.  It's definitely far away from Dirk's electric constructions but at the same the acoustic approach is merely another way for him to express his fascination for sound in particular and how you can …

Tip! "I first played with Magda in 2012 in Zürich. Since then, we've had further concerts together in Germany, Australia and Switzerland. It would be fitting that this, our first release, would be recorded at the Werkstatt für Improvisierte Musik Zürich, the same room where we originally first played together thirteen years ago." - Jason Kahn Jason Kahn // electronicsMagda Mayas // piano, objects

*60 copies limited edition* "After our first concert together in Savignone in Feb 2020 just before the pandemic stopped everything , we had a second chance to play again thanks to Matteo Casari and Disorderdrama in Genova as the opening act for “75 Dollar Bill. The venue was packed full, the air was full of energy and anticipation and everyone listened with open ears and hearts. I tried a new tuning on my double bass to match the Bb tuning of Andy’s guitar, and I think things worked out well. I …

Rotations+ is a trio project of Sven-Ake Johansson with German turntablist Ignaz Schick and Austrian trumpeter Franz Hautzinger recorded live at the beloved Berlin experimental venue KM28 in September of 2023. The collective improvisations are instilled with a deep interest in color and timbre, and each track offers a fresh perspective. While Johansson toggles to accordion on the album’s final track, squeezing tender lines alongside Hautzinger’s moody brass and Schick’s scratch-pocked layer of w…

"The current release consists of the Schindler-Damon Smith-Sandy Ewen trio and the friends I have brought in: Karina Erhard from Munich, Jaap Blonk from the Netherlands, Sebastiano Tramontana from Sicily. The three concerts are from my presentation format LowToneStudies. I have been organizing my concerts myself for many years, financing them myself, as the music and sound art that I prefer is completely ignored in Munich, the richest city in Germany. Not only in terms of support in many respect…

Holidays Records is on fire! Hot on the heels of their recent incredible vinyl releases of the Italian sound artist and musician Ezio Piermattei’s “Gran trotto” and the duo Acchiappashpirt’s “Ninulla”, they return with one of their most important and captivating releases to date: Hartmut Geerken’s “Requiem for the Snake of Maidan”, a mind-blowing body of archival recordings from the 1970s, made on a stony ridge in the Hindukush mountains of Afghanistan, encountering the artist locked in a sprawl…

** Edition of 150 copies ** Pak Yan Lau: dismantled toy pianos, wind up toys, popping candy, bow, toy spring reverb, Buddha Machine, Tamayura bell, Japanese iron wind chimes, electronics, voice. Recorded and mixed at Outlau’d Studio, Brussels, in August 2020. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Cover illustration by Eleusi.

New collection of Adam Bohman's signature cut-up found text pieces and intricate close-mic'd improvisations with homemade stringed instruments and small objects. Guaranteed to get your mouth watering and head spinning. While the ordinary well-adjusted citizen is liable to whitey within 30 seconds, those of us with stronger constitutions will be unfazed by the regressive babbling state you may find yourself in. Hold fast, you are one joyous step closer to enlightenment. "Adam Bohman has been oper…

*100 copies limited edition* Solo. Acoustic but with unexpected sounds, without unnecessary virtuosity but full of surprises. Characterized by cowbells which, however, instead of being played, in the course of the concert are hung from the body and allowed to resonate. Soft, not aggressive. Melodic and full of noise. Dirty; and the dirt is the interesting part of it. An unshouted cry. A rustic in search of shibumi.

Ava Mendoza has never made an album quite as personal as her second solo full-length, The Circular Train. Through her decades of collaborations with Nels Cline, Carla Bozulich, William Parker, Fred Frith, Matana Roberts, and Mick Barr—plus years leading her power trio Unnatural Ways and playing in Bill Orcutt’s quartet—the guitarist’s name has become synonymous with virtuoso technique, raw passion, and visceral resonance, a player pushing the edges of the guitar’s possibilities. Along the way, f…

Bomb! * Edition of 200. Hand-made covers (each one is unique), comes with a postcard. *  At the end of October 1973 Ricky Reets Hubba-Hubba Band was disbanded. It had been decided that what was needed was “a band without Musicians” and many wild experimental jam sessions took place. Finally on November 23 a particularly inspired jam was named “Cat Cheese” and the band SMEGMA was born. Although we had only been playing music together (or at all) for a few months, we decided to record a full lengt…

Tip! The difficult to classify musical practice of Don Brown & Dan Reynolds is presented here in this unauthorized 2008 live recording of an 8 piece ensemble realizing 4 different compositions at a Grange Hall in Gresham, Oregon. An outstanding group of musicians/others, who were very active in the Portland region during the time and receptive to the ideas of Brown and Reynolds, assembled to record these 4 works which were composed decades apart. An essential piece of the Brown/Reynolds/Old/Holy…

Huge Tip! Limited Edition Green Petrol Grey Marble Color Vinyl LP. Full-color cover artwork printed on Italian fine art 250g linen textured paper; hand-pasted on pro-printed reverse cardboard jackets. Includes two inserts. Cover artwork by Roberto Opalio (35mm slide film, Indian ink drawing). This vinyl-only follow up to the eponymous 2018 CD-only album is in memory of Auko Dijkstra, one of My Cat Is An Alien's first fans, who founded Aukam Records in 2023 appositely to release this LP in collab…

Over top of Gillespie's nimble, pointillist drumming (he also plays piano and harpsichord), Hunerberg employs flute, organ, bass and balloon (that's not a saxophone on "Cucumber"). The disorienting opener "Cro Magnon/Two" recalls Kraftwerk precursor the Organisation, or contemporaries like Faust. There's a strange, disconsolate atmosphere to the proceedings, almost as if the air had been sucked out of a recording session booked for some avant-garde jazz heavies. Instead of Impulse, Phase Murmur …

4CDs box set with 120 page book. A monumental box set marking the 80th birthday of one of the most singular voices in improvised music. The Heraclitean Two-Step, etc. collects four CDs of solo soprano and tenor saxophone recordings spanning three decades - from a 1994 session at the Unitarian Chapel in Warwick to performances captured between 2018 and 2024 at Arco Barco in Ramsgate by Filipe Gomes. This is Parker at his most focused and uncompromising, working that extraordinary circular breathi…

Aura captures the unmatched synergy between two of AMM's core figures, percussionist Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury, who also explores the harpsichord in this release. Recorded in the acoustically rich setting of The Sibelius Museum in Turku, Finland, this album offers a meditative, deeply intimate experience through extended improvisations that emphasize AMM's ethos of creating expansive, ambient soundscapes. With Prévost's textural percussive approach and Tilbury's subtle, evolving cho…

Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records have the pleasure of unleashing the sizzling contact high sounds of Yerba Mansa’s new LP release - ‘Gravity’s Joke’. As the heppest of you undoubtedly know, Yerba Mansa are Edwin Stevens (guitar and member off - Irma Vep, Klaus Kinski, The Web of Lies ) and Andrew Cheetham (drums - Richard Dawson, Jane Weaver, Waterless Hills) as well as both been members of Desmadrados Soldados de Ventura, and are purveyors of raging, mind-bending primitive garage infused …

*200 copies limited edition* Beijing-based Sun Yizhou (born in 2000) represents the young generation of artists on the Beijing improvised/experimental music scene established by Yan Jun, Zhu Wenbo, and others. He also runs a label and organizes events. Using electronics, Sun produces unexpected sounds through unconventional operations, nonetheless creating works with splendid overall structure. On July 3, 2023, Sun Yizhou gave a solo concert at Ftarri, Tokyo. It was such a great performance that…

*199 copies limited edition* Originally named „Merz“, this album should have been Merzbow's first vinyl release, but never came out on vinyl. So actually "Yantra Material Action" is „Material Action 1“, recorded in 1981 - with sticker and insert

Almufaraka brings together the breath and voices of Gaëlle Debra, Patrick Guionnet, and Maryline Pruvost, alongside the sound textures of skins, wood, and metal played by Peter Orins. This quartet explores all technical means to create a music that is both archaic and avant-garde, drawing inspiration from a mythical primitive tradition. By recreating a form of serenity, the music immerses us in an original sonic imagination. The recording offers a journey through the full sound spectrum, from th…

When the quartet of Luke Martin, Gabriel Salomon, Klaus Janek and Andy Graydon gathered to record an afternoon of sessions in Andy's studio, it was both the result of years of cultivation and an afterthought. Klaus and Andy had been long-time, and now long-distance, collaborators since their shared years in Berlin. That city was also where Andy was introduced to Gabriel at one of his solo performances by their mutual friend, the painter Paul McDevitt. Years passed, and cities. After meeting and …