Experimental / Free Improvisation

Tip! French free vocalist Isabelle Duthoit and trumpeter Franz Hautzinger recorded these highly unusual duos to celebrate Hautzinger’s 60th birthday year. Using extreme techniques to create 11 uniquely aberrant accompaniments to your most subtle and strange dreams.

Silver Dawn is an ethereal collection of improvised vignettes performed on solo Hardanger d’amore, a sympathetic-stringed relative of the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. Resonant strings and wordless vocals are gently guided by the cyclical momentum of dance and the instrument’s lingering overtones, magnifying moments of transience in suspensions of time.

Conic Tube comes from the idea that the saxophone is nothing but a metal conical tube that amplifies, modifies and pushes the air through the room, if the instrument is just an object and sound is just air and air is inside-out of us, pushing this air becomes the tool to structure our space and surroundings making possible changes on our environment and energies. With this in mind and spirit this record was produced with the intent to fulfill and open new possibilities for the minds and spirits …

The first solo release of baritone saxophonist Sofia Salvo, “Rotarota” consists of a series of improvised pieces. They evoke emotional memories aspiring to set them free and mutate them into blaring music.

Monophonic is the name of the new album by Maria Bertel. As the title hints the album is a study of music played with 'one voice'. The amplification of the trombone mimics the effect of a magnifying glass, that let otherwise inaudible sounds be heard and brought forward. The compositions are long swathes of sound slowly developing, heavily inspired by drone and noise.

"Tenor saxophonist Ada Rave, born and raised in Argentina, decided to move to Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2013. She had heard ‘the call’, followed her musical intuition and became part of the colorful community of Dutch creative improvised music. Educated in the jazz tradition she started to look for a more personal language. A deep search. Not an easy path to go. The destination is always changing. Each step made will call for a next step. A slow process of collecting material, sounds, techni…

Recorded and mixed at Sonoscopia May 2022  by Gustavo Costa (drums and percussion), Ignaz Schick (electronics and turntables), Henrique Fernandes (acoustic laptop, amplified objects and doublebass), Vicente Mateus (drums and feedback), João Ricardo (electronics).

Limited to 50 copies and hand numbered. João Ricardo, electronics Gustavo Costa, laptop Ján Solčáni, electronic circuits and radio.

Huuuuge Tip! Gustavo Costa is a central figure in the experimental Portuguese scene, being active as a musician, composer and promoter for the past three decades in diverse musical configurations, and also renown as one of the leaders of Porto’s collective Sonoscopia. Following his first solo percussion record Entropies and Mimetic Patterns, released in 2020, on Natura Mimesis the original composition techniques, which are mostly based on musical transcriptions from natural phenomena, are now ap…

Third in a series of ten reissues of the cult French underground Futura label. Featured on the legendary Nurse With Wound, this is one of Steven Stapleton’s favorite. Semool were the trio of Philippe Martineau, Olivier Cauquil and Rémy Dédé Dreano. Comprising Philippe Martineau, Olivier Cauqui, and Remy Dede Dreano, Semool turned in a pretty hard to swallow set of tunes, recorded between 1969 and 1971. For the most part, the disc is populated by a series of cut up and spliced together tape pie…

Souffle Continu Records present a reissue of Jean-Francois Pauvros and Gaby Bizien's No Man's Land, originally released on Un-Deux-Trois in 1976. Whether it is with the label Palm, or for Un-Deux-Trois, Jef Gilson has produced some of the best albums of French free jazz and improvisation. But that's not all: he also offered perfect recording conditions enabling some of the fresh young talent to emerge, including Daunik Lazro, André Jaume, and Jean-François Pauvros, all three of whom released …

Douglas Ewart is no stranger to present moments. He has been a creative force – and AACM pillar – for decades and brings his life-affirming energy and formidable artistic prowess to bear wherever he goes. Emphatic Now finds him in Provo with fellow improvising gurus, Christian Asplund and Steven Ricks. The E A R Trio (get it?) found time to record their musical encounter at Brigham Young University during Ewart’s 2022 residency there (12 years in the making). They planned for a long session in M…

A radical album with uncompromising blasts of atonal electric guitar, free-form sonic explorations and richly layered passages. "Have you ever imagined what a meeting between the Silver Apples and Sonny Sharrock would sound like? In 1974, Jean-Jacques Birgé, one of the first French synthesizer players (ARP 2600) along with Francis Gorgé, virtuoso guitarist, created some unique improvised pop music.The unreleased and flamboyant recordings featured on Avant Toute would be the source for the cult 1…

"Sweet dreams, come back!" The title, the last line of Matthäus von Collin's poem set by Schubert in 1825 as Nacht und Träume, suggests longing for night's return upon waking. Magnus Granberg's 2021 composition takes Schubert's song as departure point, fragmenting its rhythmic phrases into tiny cells and extracting tonal structures to create a new modal framework. The result exists at the intersection where composition meets improvisation, realized here in two versions across this double album. …

Barre Phillips was the first musician to record an album of solo double bass, back in 1968, and he has always been an absolute master of the solo idiom.  In March 2017, Barre recorded what he says will be his last solo album, the final chapter of his “Journal Violone”: it is a beautiful and moving musical statement.  All the qualities we associate with Barre’s playing are here in abundance – questing adventurousness, melodic invention, textural richness, developmental logic, and deep soulfulness…

Antenna showcases David Virelles’ mastery in fusing Afro-Cuban spirituality with avant-garde innovation. This reissue highlights its hypnotic rhythms and spectral harmonies.

*2024 stock. 200 copies limited edition* "If you are seeking to learn how the manipulation of the sparsest sounds can be formed into something entirely engaging, or to witness how true musical artists can compose fully-realized works without once leaning on the riff-and-hook formula, perhaps you are prepared for Governed By Decay. As a bonus, those who purchase the vinyl release will also receive a nearly 30-minute continuation of the record on a CD that will not be available individually otherw…

*200 coipes limited edition* Tomas Järmyr & Dirk Serries’ The Void of Expansion is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year with a new album called Escaper on Dunk! Records and a tour they just did throughout Belgium, Poland, Germany, and Norway (Oslo).  This 3rd studio album departs gently from their predecessor Governed by Decay with a more direct approach in building up the guitar soundscapes and the interaction with the majestic and versatile drumming of Tomas Järmyr.  Still very expansi…

*250 copies limited edition* Alvear, Bondi & d'incise consists of Cristián Alvear from Chile, and Cyril Bondi and d'incise from Switzerland. The three musicians collaborate frequently in duo and trio formats. This album documents a duo performance by Alvear (guitar) and d’incise (vibraphone, electronics) of “Sleepless Night” (2022), a work by Spanish composer/sound artist Clara de Asís; and a trio performance by Alvear (guitar), Bondi (vibraphone) and d’incise (electronics) of “uno, dos o tres e…

*250 copies limited edition* Masahiko Okura, a reed instrument player and composer who has been performing actively since the 1990s, has previously released a number of solo and collaborative albums on Ftarri’s sister labels, Hitorri and Meenna. Percussionist Naoto Yamagishi lived in Europe for several years in the 2010s, and since then has been engaged in wide-ranging activities inside and outside Japan, frequently carrying out overseas tours and organizing concerts in Japan featuring musicians…

*2024 stock. 250 copies limited edition* Beau Beaumont is a sound artist based in Liverpool, England. In summer 2023 she spent two months on a residency program in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture. During that period she invited Tokyo-based musicians Leo Okagawa and Masatake Abe to make a recording with her at her Matsudo accommodation, "Paradise Air." This CD’s one track is 60 minutes, 10 seconds long. Beau Beaumont and Okagawa use electronics, while Abe plays electric bass. The music’s core is a powe…

*2024 stock. 250 copies limited edition* Born in 1964, Tetuzi Akiyama is a guitarist/improviser active inside and outside Japan. Masahide Tokunaga, who was born in 1982, is an always-original alto sax player. Masatake Abe, born in 1993, is an innovative electric bass player on the jazz/improvised music scene. These three musicians of different generations performed together at Ftarri, Tokyo, on June 6, 2021. This CD contains two improvised pieces (about 25 minutes each) from that concert.This is…

*250 copies limited edition* Ai Watanabe is a Tokyo-based composer. After studying at Tokyo College of Music’s graduate school, she went to France and completed a graduate program at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris, and subsequently earned a doctoral degree at Tokyo University of the Arts. In recent years Watanabe has been focusing on electroacoustic music using field recordings as additional materials, earning high praise inside and outside Japan. Kokichi Yanagisawa is a guita…

*200 copies limited edition* Aquiles Hadjis was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. In 2009 he moved to Tokyo, and in 2017 he received a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the Department of Painting at Tokyo University of the Arts. Still based in Tokyo, he is engaged in creative work in the fields of film, painting and music. Antonio Mazzei, also from Venezuela, is a pianist and composer. He studied with Fred Hersch and Kevin Hays at New York's New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and has since continued …

*200 copies limited edition* Canadian musician Lee Noyes (born in 1977) lived in New Zealand from the mid-1990s to the 2000s and subsequently moved to Sweden, where he continues his work on the improvised/experimental music scene, playing electronics, percussion and other instruments. American guitarist Barry Chabala (born in 1961) has released numerous recordings on improvised/experimental music labels such as Erstwhile Records, winds measure recordings, and Another Timbre. Noyes and Chabala ha…

*200 copies limited edition* Ongoing since 2014, Mushoku In Excursion is a duo project by Takahashi 'Takakhan' Seiji and Yuko Nexus6. Kyoto-based Takahashi has planned and organized a wide variety of performances and events. Yuko Nexus6 is a performance artist/writer who lived for a long time in the Kansai area and now resides in Tokyo. The creation of this album began with the two making a one-hour recording by the Uji River in Kyoto. The tape became a foundation over which Yuko Nexus6 (piano, …

The mystical figure On Ka'a Davis returns for his second CD on Tzadik, and his first in twenty-five years - Blending the psychedelia of Sun Ra with Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix, this is an epic, direct from the ever-growing counterculture of Downtown New York - Performing on guitar, synth keyboard, programmed sounds, and percussion On is joined here by Don McKenzie on drums and Ali Ali on trumpet. Years in the making the music is wild, varied, and intensely felt. A New York Underground classic! …

Still Valentine’s Day 1969’ is the highly anticipated live recording which was recorded at the same night as John Fahey’s seminal release ‘The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick’ by influential solo guitarist Sandy Bull. Bull took elements of so many different kinds of music (Arabic, folk, jazz and Indian just for starters) and combined them to forge his characteristic style which would see him garner rabid fans with only a handful of releases. This particular recording was taken from a live show at …

Recorded at the Grote Kerk in Den Bosch as part of John Zorn’s 70th birthday celebration at November Music in Den Bosch, this exciting performance pays tribute to one of Zorn’s seminal influences—the 15th century painter Hieronymus Bosch. Performing on two different organs simultaneously, running from one to the other, this is one of the most bizarre installments in the entire Hermetic Organ series. The CD begins with a rare private performance of Zorn alone in the church exploring and stretchin…

Tip! *2024 stock. 300 copies limited edition* "On Live At OTOOTO & Permian, two guitarists from Japan, Taku Sugimoto and Takashi Masubuchi, ask a series of unresolved questions – about time, about interplay, about tonality. Those who know Sugimoto’s music will recognise here a certain tension, and a feeling for the apposite; these two traits have been core to his playing and composing since he first introduced himself to the broader listening public, in the ‘90s, with albums like Opposite. Masub…

A diagonal chance encounter – chromatic undergrowth blossoming to a myriad tints of inner weatherings. Formations, fields, densities gather and dissipate. Outwards inverted, spiralling across. Orange dawn flowers upon the temple of the addicts. Radiating motionless fire. Sipping the morphium of the aether. Choir of the undertow and the roots of the air. Ljubljana-based piano player Neža Naglič (1984) devoted herself to exploring extended piano techniques in the context of free improvised music a…

2024 stock. This is a collaborative cassette released by Japanese experimental musicians Buffalomckee & Yuki Kaneko & Sekiguchi Satoru in April 2023 from Steep Gloss, a British experimental/co-production label.

2024 stock. Source material recorded in Berlin on a warm July afternoon along with some cheap sparkling wine. Arranged, mixed and mastered by Jeff Surak.

"Curington obliterates junk he’s pulled from the internet to create a razor-edged hall of mirrors which Yol’s rants alternately smash through and get consumed by. Curington’s production is completely at one with Yol’s vocal performances, catapulting them into a more frenzied, harrowed place than I’ve heard them go before. The pair conjure absurdity and violence in equal measure. Channeling the ugly feelings of ugly times." - Daryl Worthington for Spool's Out in The Quietus"Everything is arranged…

Manuel Carbone: Synths, cassette loops and samplerssorta opalka: Synths, field recording, object(on II) Roeliff Jansen: Digital sampling(on III,VI) noiserr: Voice, synths, tape recorder (on IV) Chemiefaserwerk: Casio m-10, tape recorderOriginal cover photography: Orland C.Collage and layout: Ross Scott-BuccleuchMastering: C.metaesquema

Teasel is the duo of Gwilly Edmondez (voice) and John Garner (violin) that began playing in 2017. From around 2022 onwards they have focused on just the raw pairing of voice and violin without added electronics and accoutrements. Untreated articulations of air cut with the gaspings of gut in both directions.DREMPT comes from a series of sessions that take these two sound sources as the entry point to an adventure in instantaneous-simultaneous autobiography and its escape from cold hits.

*2024 stock. 250 copies limited edition* In 2023 we wished to properly celebrate the 40th anniversary of ADN’s birth. So, we have contacted groups and musicians that stimulated our curiosity through these 40 years. Some of them are good friends of us, some were already part of our music trajectories; others, never contacted in the past, are near to be seen as our myths. Anyhow to cover our multiple interests we should have brought to your attentionmany more tracks, but we think this is a good sy…

Silvia Bolognesi - Upright Bass, Voice, Poetry, PercussionDudú Kouate - Percussion, Voice, Ngoni, KalimbaGriffin Rodriguez - Electronics, Voice Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Griffin RodriguezRecorded December 14-16, 2021 at Shape Shoppe Paradiso - Siena, Italy

“Peridot dives right in, and so I will. It’s a gemstone, peridot, and may become your favorite gemstone (as it has mine since I’ve dug in to its history and cultural significance). I like volcanoes and volcanic land formations. “Peridot,” the musical piece presented here by Powers/Rolin, is soundtrack to memories of in-person witnessed lava floes and the infinite parade of Herzogian docu-footage of rivers of fire and constructive destruction. There are edits or augmentations evident, creating (o…

In May 2023, the experimental music/acoustic project "Utsunomia" was launched by acoustic geniuses Yasushi Utsunomiya + Gallery Nomart + .es (dot es). MIX". Starting with the simultaneous release of their debut trilogy in May of the same year, Utsunomia Mix has released five albums in six months and two more in the following year, 2024. The Utsunomia Mix series is packed with unique features, including the first-ever combination of live performances, links with contemporary art, and unique recor…