Experimental / Free Improvisation

**Deluxe gatefold sleeve with varnish effect including a 8 pages photo booklet** In the early 2000s, Tokyo's SuperDeluxe was a meeting point for many experimental musicians, both international and Japanese. This duo sprung from a live collaboration at the venue in 2006, where Machida was experimenting with processed steel pan and Lyall was largely performing using a tabletop guitar setup with a range of electronics. Many subsequent encounters were heavily experimental, ranging from densely layer…

The compilation “Celestial Birds” reveals and focuses on the widely unkown electronic compositions of the AACM founder and jazz pianist Muhal Richard Abrams. #5 in the Perihel Series, curated by zeitkratzer director Reinhold Friedl. Anybody interested in jazz knows that Chicago has always been an impressive hot spot for new talents – and still is. One essential landmark in the history and development of jazz was the founding of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) in …

**Edition of 100 copies on heavy weight 180 gram vinyl, comes in hand-painted cover on thick grey cardboard. In process of stocking.** "Spirits marks the second release of my duo with Christian Wolfarth, though in 2010 recordings of a trio with Christian, Günter Müller and myself (then on electronics) came out as the CD “Limmat” on the Mikroton Recordings label in Moscow. Following this trio CD, Christian and I didn’t play together again until 2016, when we had a series of concerts in Switzerlan…

Legendary drummer, Ikuro Takahashi played in most of the important bands of the psychedelic underground Japanese scene : Keiji Haino’s Fushitsusha, Seishokki, High b, Ché-Shizu, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Kousokuya, LSD March and Nagisa Ni Te, but also with Junzo Suzuki, Tamio Shiraishi, Akiko Hotaka and many others, making it difficult to write a comprehensive list. Ikuro does not make a distinction between the young musicians with whom he collaborates, and the big names of the underground behind w…

Simon H. Fell : double bass. Mark Wastell : violoncello, percussion. Derek Bailey : (virtual) guitar. Will Gaines : (virtual) tapdance. Recorded at Cafe OTO, Dalston, London; 2nd March 2018. An in concert, virtual Company performance from IST (on this occasion the duo of Simon H. Fell and Mark Wastell due to the snow-bound absence of Rhodri Davies) together with pre-recorded fragments of Derek Bailey and Will Gaines. IST’s Virtual Company calls on ‘the powers of improvisation’ (D. Bailey) to int…

**200 copies** Gods of Rain explores textural improvisation for electric guitar and percussion/vocals. Brooding, arcane and foreboding, it navigates the turbulent waters of dark ambient and more abstract electronic music, swamped in swashes of caustic improv. Recorded in Berlin in 2005 without overdubs and live in the studio, this is electrifying listening that knows no boundaries. At times meditative and filigree-like, at others abrasive and drenched in explosions of molten lava. The ultimate m…

The first release from Arkeen – a 7 track, 30 minute full length from Los Angeles based Ted Byrnes. Percussive abuse and aural assault. Fragmented time creating spaces between what you are about to hear, and have heard. The present does not exist. Previous output has been released by Claimed Responsibility, Foul Prey & Absurd Exposition. Ted Byrnes is a drummer/percussionist living in Los Angeles. An alumnus of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, he comes from a jazz background and has s…

Lunar Error is a group of musicians based in Lille. They work in the field of drone, continuum but mainly acoustic. After Sêlêne published in 2017 on the same label, they decided to work with Jean-Luc Guionnet who, here, considers contemporary composition for ensemble as a work both plastic and reflexive, using drawing, writing, typography, diagram, plan, non-idiomatic notation, questions of musical writing, interpretation, as well as individual and collective playing techniques, up to the sound…

About this record and how Limpe and Paul Fuchs got together with Friedrich Gulda: In 1968, the Austrian classical and jazz pianist Friedrich Gulda organized the First International Music Forum of Ossiachersee with the theme "Improvisation in Music -- Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow". During the third edition of the festival, Gulda got to know the band Anima Sound and was fascinated by their "absolute free music", which they played on home-made instruments. Anima Sound was Limpe and Paul Fuchs, who…

The Red Trio: Rodrigo Pinheiro (piano), Hernani Faustino (bass) and Gabriel Ferrandini (percussion), plus two guests; Gerard Lebik (tenor saxophone), and Piotr b (trumpet). Sweeping from turbulent to intimate with with a fluid sort of dialogue that could only come from players well versed in the art of improvisation.

What these performances then, and those in Impression Graz 1962, reveal is a great artist in a period of continued exploration and uncertainties, committed to integrating the exactness of order and the abandon of ecstasy, and reconfirming his improvisational quest as a spiritual discipline. But there were profound changes still to come. - Art Longe The four tracks on this release have been selected from the 1962 concert tape which Hat Hut Records has licensed from ORF Stelemark, Graz, Austria. I…

Temporary Super Offer! Founded in 2005, Studio Dan is a flexible ensemble, operating on the borders between diverse subgenres of contemporary music: improvisation, new music, jazz, art-rock, and others. The ensemble tours internationally. Appearances include concerts at Wien Modern and Ostava Music Days, and venuse such as Kampnagel Hamburg, Kimmel Center Philadelphia, and the legendary Roulette in Brooklyn/NYC. Past guest soloist and collaborations with Studio Dan include also Vinko Globokar, E…

A live album at Kunstraum Walcheturm from Swiss double bassist Daniel Studer's quintet of strings and piano, with Harald Kimmig on violin, Frantz Loriot on viola, Alfred Zimmerlin on violoncello, and Philip Zoubek on piano, performing an inventive set of Studer compositions extending string improvisation to extremes through unorthodox structures and techniques.

The innovative string trio of Daniel Studer on double bass, Harald Kimmig on violin, and Alfred Zimmerlin on cello, develop focused environments of timbre, texture, dynamic and space, seemingly abstract yet incredibly concentrative and virtuosic interaction, here joined by Chicago trombonist and electronics artist George Lewis adding a 4th profound layer to their incredible conversation.

**100 copies** Zarabatana with Bernardo Álvares, Carlos Godinho, Norberto Lobo & Yaw Tembe . Recorded, mixed and mastered by Mestre André. ”The emotion flows from this improv, while maintaining a heterogeneous sound that makes its origins intriguingly difficult to triangulate."

**Last copies available - numbered and signed deluxe edition** A unique collection of historic and recent live recordings that map the many facets in the exceptionally varied musical career of Sven-Åke Johansson from the 1970s to the present day. The seven sessions included here, in total nine LPs, are taken from both historic meetings Ein Abend in Pöseldorf (with Alexander von Schlippenbach) and contemporary solo works and with the likes of Axel Dörner, Rhodri Davis, Rüdiger Carl, and Andrea N…

This is the tenth release in the Supersilent series. Since the very beginning, Supersilent have always moved forward with the greatest integrity. Supersilent's music is collective work, total group improvising, with not a whit of individual grandstanding. They never rehearse as a group and don't discuss the music with each other, meeting only to play concerts or to record. Every recording and every concert is a unique occasion, not to be repeated, and their music lives in a no-man's-land between…

UK-based Alasdair Willis, who makes music under the name The Vitamin B12. Active since the mid ’80s, Willis is primarily known for A legendary 4xLP box set that compiled selections from various free improvisational sessions from his Brighton loft in 1986. In the intervening years, The Vitamin B12 has proven to be an elusive figure in the European free improvisation scene, which also includes acts like Nurse With Wound and H.N.A.S.The Vitamin B12 was formed with the same ease as his childhood pro…

Paal Nilssen-Love with Lasse Marhaug, recorded and edited by Fe-mail/Spunk Hild Sofie Tafjord to create 6 fascinating free-form compositions of sound and texture. "Marhaug and drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen Love have worked together in Vandermark's groups, as well as being co-producers of the annual All Ears improvised music festival in Oslo. Their first recorded duet, Personal Hygiene (Utech, 2005), captured their live duet at the Nu-Music festival in Stavanger and featured their shared aff…

One of the most mythical experimental groups of all time, Musica Elettronica Viva was formed in 1966 by a group of American composers in Rome, its nucleus comprised of pianist Frederic Rzewski, sound improviser Alvin Curran and the improvisatory keyboardist Richard Teitelbaum. Taking cues from John Cage and David Tudor, MEV employed open, limitless structures, using found instruments, toys, a homemade synthesizer and the first Moog to reach mainland Europe. Improv and critical listening practice…

**150 copies** "Astral Spirits describes prolific Russian, Saint-Petersburg-based sax player Ilia Belorukov and Portuguese-Catalan, Barcelona-based drummer Vasco Trilla as “two under-sung heroes of free improv”. Both Belorukov and Trilla like to experiment with different objects and sounds in order to reinvent and enhance the sonic range and imagination of their respective instruments - the alto sax, fluteophone, Belorukov's electronics and Trilla's assorted percussion instruments. Laniakea was …

"Here’s a duo called Cyanobacteria, consisting of Francesco Gregoretti (drums) and Renato Gricco (double bass), teaming up one day in September 2016 with Carl Ludwig Hübsch, a well-known improviser playing the tuba. The duo has a similar background, even if I only heard of Gregoretti before. The five tracks span fifty-two minutes and form an on-going exploration of ideas, textures and all of that within the world of improvisation. It is a meeting of like-minded people, with one foot in a more tr…

Charles Gayle is a saxophonist, pianist, sometimes a clown and radical musical performer wrapped into the body of a humble person living in Downtown Manhattan since the 1960s. As this set attests to, it is sometimes hard to predict what he will do on stage... In all his musical (and personal) life Charles Gayle has remained outside of any form of mainstream, carving his own singular path. There is no player on the scene today with the emotional wallop of Charles Gayle. John Edwards is a t…

A meeting of generations! The mighty Johansson paired with British artist Phillips for a collection of songs from... elsewhere. Johansson's unmistakable sensibility filtered through collaboration. Another essential chapter in an unparalleled discography

Long-form duo work between Balázs Pándi (percussion) and Jon Wesseltoft (electronics), shaped as an open landscape of contrasts articulating space in both time and depth. The two players alternately trade and merge their instrumental identities, generating zones of improvised openness alongside densely constructed electroacoustic narrative. The vocabulary moves between quiet, ritually framed rhythmic space and saturated information, held as deliberate counterweights.

Canadian private press mega-rarity/obscurity from the artistically schizophrenic Bob Bell. Recorded in 1978, Bell splits the difference between his love of basement psych splatter/pummel and squalling free jazz ramble, the former occupying side A with a stunning four-part suite of wasted guitar scuzz and churning Krautrock-like drama with an akin to German Oak, Roland Kirk, Albert Ayler, DNA, Melt Banana (minus the vocals) and Guru Guru. The latter represents Bell as a saxophonist on side B, and…

Killer! 300 copies packaged in a double gatefold ruby recycled cardboard sleeve with silver embossed text on front, including a 32-page booklet. Archival and live recordings from Australia’s premiere prepared acoustic improvising trio. Formed in 2002, Melbourne’s Pateras/Baxter/Brown toured heavily between 2004 and 2008, playing a regular residency at the Empress in North Fitzroy in between extensive European tours. They performed multiple concerts in classical, electronic, jazz, grindcore and a…

In collaboration between Christian Marclay and the London Sinfonietta, some of the world’s most renowned contemporary musicians have been invited to stage performances, including new compositions and live improvisation sessions inside the White Cube. Each performance over the course of the exhibition will be recorded, pressed and screen-printed live inside the gallery. The second performance is with Laurent Estoppey.Laurent Estoppey divides his life between the United States and Switzerland. As …

2026 Repress. Captured live on a single night — 26 June 1963 — at the Ginparis café in Ginza and held back from release until 1972, when Takeshi "Tee" Fujii founded Three Blind Mice and chose it as the label's ninth title, Ginparis Session is the foundational document of Japanese free jazz. The recording captures the 新世紀音楽研究所 (Shinseiki Ongaku Kenkyūjo, "New Century Music Research Institute"), the study collective convened by Masayuki "Jojo" Takayanagi and Masahiko Togashi as a workshop committe…

Probably the first recording (1965!) of improvised jazz combined with electronic music, as well as playing inside the piano and other new music techniques. Bob James (piano); Barre Philips (bass); Robert Pozar (percussion). Also including Bob Ashley and Gordon Mumma (electronic tape collage). The recording is made of an assembly of estranging electronic sound effects, trite sports commentaries, and the music of a beautifully improvising jazz trio. Bob James has, through this convulsion of out-of…

Founded by Lebanese visual artist and musician Raed Yassin and Swiss musician Paed Conca in 2006, Praed is a band whose music can be described as a mixture of Arabic popular music, free jazz, and electronics. Over the years, the duo has collaborated with renowned musicians from across the globe. Praed explore the terrain of shaabi (Arabic popular music) and its interconnectedness with other hypnotic music genres. Through their research and thanks to numerous concerts in various Egyptian cities, …

** Hand-numbered limited edition to 500 copies, contains 64-page book with credits, notes and photos.  200 copies in english version. Slight wear due to storage, reduced price  ** Optical Musics is a pioneering Greek avant-experimental project, founded by Costis Drygianakis and a group of people, formed in Volos. They were early experimenting with musical forms like free improvisation and electroacoustic experimentation etc, creating a highly personal musical idiom. From 1984 to mid-1987 the gro…

"Desire is exploitation," the label notes for this ambitious two disc set proclaims. The demons get in any way they can, through laws that repress or through indulgence that never seems like it will ever be enough. "Demons!" explores the dread that accompanies our facing our own capacity for evil, as individuals and as a culture. Once again, Stephen Moore and Walter Cardew use orchestral and cabaret motifs to propel their horrific tales of sin and revenge. And where better to probe the personal …

In collaboration between Christian Marclay and the London Sinfonietta, some of the world’s most renowned contemporary musicians have been invited to stage performances, including new compositions and live improvisation sessions inside the White Cube. Each performance over the course of the exhibition will be recorded, pressed and screen-printed live inside the gallery. Side A: Elliott Sharp, 'The Hidden Variable'.Side B: Elliott Sharp and London Sinfonietta, 'Glass Call'

In collaboration between Christian Marclay and the London Sinfonietta, some of the world’s most renowned contemporary musicians have been invited to stage performances, including new compositions and live improvisation sessions inside the White Cube. Each performance over the course of the exhibition will be recorded, pressed and screen-printed live inside the gallery. This performance is from Roger Turner.Roger Turner has been working as an improvising drummer and percussionist since the…

2017 release ** Void Transactions is the most recent album of Alterations, released in 2017. Recorded at Cafe Oto during the live performance at Alterations Festival 2016. Peter Cusack: acoustic guitar, field recordings. Steve Beresford: piano, electronics, objects; Terry Day: drums, percussion, objects, balloons; David Toop: electric guitars, bass, flutes, objects.

Released in 1989. A few copies founded in the basement of the label. Michel Doneda (soprano saxophone), Daunik Lazro (alto saxophone), Lê Quan Ninh (percussion). “Here’s an exuberant early Session by three Artists who have become stalwarts of the European Free scene. Michel Doneda is by now almost a household name as a free improvisor considered by some one of the greatest living saxophonists. Lazro and Ninh le Quan , seem almost unjustly neglected by comparison. Le Quan in particular is one of …

Fred Lonberg-Holm born in 1962, composer, improviser. He began formal cello studies at the age of 10. Former student of Anthony Braxton, Morton Feldman, Bunita Marcus and Pauline Oliveros. Fred was active in a number of projects, including the Peter Brötzmann Tentet, XMarsX (with Mars Williams), VCDC, ADA Trio (with Peter Brötzmann and Paal Nilssen-Love), the Vandermark 5, and many others that are still active today. Ongoing projects of which he is a member include Joe McPhee’s Survival …

Fred Frith summarizes the release on his website as "early 80s weirdness with John Zorn." To expand a bit, perhaps "idiosyncratic improvisation with a strange set of tools from two master musicians" would help place the form and ability of the music of Frith and Zorn, who have travelled and performed sporadically as a duo over several decades. These are five fascinating recordings from the blossoming downtown NY scene, originally from two NYC performances recorded on cassette in 1983 a…

CD version. Innersleeve with liner notes and lyrics, as well as photos. With this release, EM Records shine a light into the dark and yet strangely uplifting world of Inryo-fuen's early '80s wonderland: a surreal, adventurously analog, positively negative realm of freedom. Following the EM Records release of Inryo-fuen's enigmatic Ho-aku (EM 1125CD), Early Years 1980-82 collects the band's earliest recordings, originally released on flexi and vinyl, here re-edited, re-mixed and remastered.…