Experimental / Free Improvisation

The hardcore noise improvisation duo featuring Martin Escalante, a ferocious noise saxophonist from Mexico, and Tatsuya Yoshida will release a CD featuring the complete recordings of their live performances in Kobe and Okayama from their previous 2025 tour, to coincide with their second Japan tour this August!

*300 copies limited edition* Pressure is the medium of wind players. Wind instruments all sound thanks to pressure differentials, whether that’s the rush of wind over a lip plate or a steady, buzzing exhalation through pursed lips. Ka Baird and Chris Ryan Williams (HxH) are wind players well- schooled in the power of using pressure and movement to amplify the mystery of an invisible force animating a metal tube. They augment their instruments, flute and trumpet respectively, with electronics, so…

German guitarist Olaf Rupp combines elements of traditional flamenco (rasgueados, arpeggios, picados) with the fractured cadences of Derek Bailey, fusing them together with a blast-furnace tone recalling John Lee Hooker's most blown-out extremes. And yet, despite decades of concerts and releases on FMP and Emanem, often with marquee-grabbing collaborators like John Zorn, Peter Brötzmann, Butch Morris, Paul Lovens and Lol Coxhill, Rupp's music is largely unknown outside of European free improvisa…

On Cooked, Oren Ambarchi folds his all‑star studio jam aesthetic into something gloriously unhinged. Two side‑long epics twist piano ripples, synthetic “voices,” mutant trumpet tones, electric Miles haze and digital pyrotechnics into a foot‑tapping, brain‑scrambling, joyously cuckoo ride that still feels meticulously shaped.

*200 copies limited edition* “For the last 6 years, New York sampledelia and synthesis rhabdomants Nuke Watch, duo of Aaron Anderson and Chris Hontos, also known for alternative projects and spinoffs like Beat Detectives and Weird Shit U.S.A. 2, have consistently composed and released cerebral flows of psychedelic compositions bridging the gap between the post-hippy movement wastelands, the weirdest fringes of urban beatmaking subcultures, and the wild American DIY avant-garde and noise traditio…

*2026 stock* With Unit of Time, Hans Hulbækmo and Egil Kalman aim to show that we can experience the essence of time through rhythm. How can the perception of time—both for the listener and the performers—be turned completely on its head by rhythm? By zooming in on rhythms from traditional music from around the world, the hyper-focused interplay of free jazz, and the rhythmic structures of just-intoned drone music (which is essentially about resonant intervals built on polyrhythms), these gentle…

Double Amps emerged from a very specific situation. In early February 2025 a short tour through Belgium and the Netherlands took place with Dietrichs. For those concerts a dedicated stereo setup using two amplifiers was developed. Around that configuration a structured set with taishōgoto was built – a framework that allowed space for improvisation and for the sound to unfold freely on stage. A few weeks after the tour, circumstances created the opportunity for a concentrated week of recording. …

Sophie Agnel on piano and John Butcher on saxophones, live at the 40th Victoriaville festival on 18 May 2024: spontaneous compositions of inside-piano sounds, extended techniques and quick, attentive interplay.

*300 copies limited edition* Percussionists Mika Kallio and Janne Tuomi have each spent decades at the edges of Finnish improvised music. Oresme, their debut duo on Mustik Motel, takes its name from the 14th-century philosopher who argued that all perceived motion depends entirely on where you stand. Nine tracks navigate that same double territory: outward into astronomical scale and inward toward something quieter and untranslated. Two percussion setups, one vibraphone, and a great deal of room…

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 …

"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…

There aren’t many all-female vocal groups in the world of improvised music, even fewer of them are working bands, and there are very few projects that are anything more than that. VoiceACT, conceived by Anna Gadt, is exactly that. VoiceACT is, above all, a platform for artistic exploration, generally without specific stylistic characteristics, but operating according to the sacred principle of free creation, to which each invited artist contributes whatever resonates in their improvisational sou…

After the wild Afro-jazz fusion of Trancedance (reissued as BT118) and the meditative solo Christer Bothén Donso n’goni (BT133), legendary Swedish multi-instrumentalist Christer Bothén returns to Black Truffle as part of a dream quartet completed by the three members of Ghosted: Oren Ambarchi (guitar), Johan Berthling (bass) and Andreas Werliin (drums). Recorded at a rustic studio built by Werliin and Hans Fredriksson in the sylvan surrounds of Hamburgsund, Sweden across a few days in September …

"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…

"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…

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

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…

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…

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…

The trio of Luciana Bass, Ezequiel Jaime, and Federico Isasti brings together three distinctive voices from Argentina's adventurous improvised music scene. Centered on Bass’s expressive sonic palette, their music is both volatile yet deeply attentive, fueled by Jaime’s exploratory playing and Isasti’s highly responsive drumming. They move freely between sparse textures and intricate collective energy. This release documents a trio deeply attuned to one another, forging form and intensity in the …

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.

Yara Asmar’s new album, “everyone I love is sleeping and I love them so so much”, presents 11 pieces recorded over the past year between the small town of Alfred in upstate New York and Beirut. These sometimes fragile and tentative sound sketches reflect the times as Yara steps out, as if onto ice, into a new life on a new continent. She works with unfamiliar instruments, new materials and new sounds to build on her intimate style; homemade mechanical music boxes and a personal archive of family…

Mitsuru Tabata began his musical career in 1982. Since then, he has played a key role in many of Japan’s most influential underground and experimental groups, including Noizunzuri, Boredoms, Leningrad Blues Machine, YBO2, Zeni Geva, Acid Mothers Temple, and Gaseneta, as well as projects related to tributes to The Stalin centered around Jun Inui. Alongside his work in these seminal bands, he has toured internationally, participated in numerous collaborative sessions, and released a series of home…

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…

Legendary Japanese experimentalist Keiji Haino (Fushitsusha) and London's fearless drummer Steve Noble took to the stage at Cafe OTO in 2012 for a monumental concert - with Haino's extreme treatments of electric guitar, and feedback, with Noble on a lot of percussion... While Haino theatrically sweeps between bleak and uninhibited paranoia, deep-level zoning and bluesy contemplation, Noble's huge set up and graceful approach brings space, light and shade - so much so that at one point Haino unpl…

Futuro Ancestrale, the ensemble around saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Giuseppe Doronzo, was born from the idea to combine contemporary improvisation and non-western music traditions. In Elsewhen, electronics play a central role along with ancestral instruments borrowed from Chinese, Albanian or Chadian traditions. Doronzo's concept of convoking those sounds and cultures in the same musical space is a way to celebrate, and to create a vibrant dialogue between histories.

Danish experimental rock band Echo, Bravo presents "Glasfisk", a powerful new album that explores the space between chaos and clarity. Blending raw energy, poetic lyricism in danish, and adventurous improvisation, the record showcases the band's distinctive sound at its most focused and compelling.Across eight immersive tracks, "Glasfisk" moves effortlessly between intimate moments and explosive sonic landscapes, drawing listeners into a world where melody, noise, and emotion collide. Bold, unpr…

First CD re-issue on Spalax from 1988 of the debut album by one of the weirdest and most radical groups linked to krautrock, the free improvising duo of Paul and Limpe Fuchs.

Shutsumin, the debut recording from the generation spanning duo of Japanese legend Otomo Yoshihide, toggling between guitar and turntables, and rising saxophonist Kei Matsumaru, a native of Papua New Guinea, who moved to Tokyo after studying jazz at the Berkelee College of Music in Boston, where he's become a close collaborator of Eiko Ishibashi in addition to leading his own genre-defying solo projects. Both musicians casually ignore lines between jazz, experimental music, and noise, fashioning…

Double bassist and composer Henry Fraser announces the release of Pneuma, a new solo album out June 12 on Kou Records and recorded, mixed, and co-produced by Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Jóhann Jóhannsson) and Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Marc Ribot). Across eight concise movements, Fraser explores breath, resonance, and the evolving relationship between composition and improvisation, shaping an intimate sonic landscape in which the double bass seems to inhale, bloom into overtones, and dissolve back int…

Tip! Man Eating Tree is the first solo album by Belgian-born, Oslo-based pianist Jonas Cambien. On prepared piano and electric organ, Cambien channels a soundscape of meditative repetition and oscillating rhythms. Cambien's background is dappled with diversity. While training in classical piano at the Conservatory of Brussels, he focused on contemporary repertoire. This would deeply shape his playing and ensuing projects, largely in Norway, where Cambien has embedded himself as a pillar of Oslo’…

Sound fragments unfold across Zurich, making loss, memory, and cultural change physically and acoustically perceptible. In The Rhythm of Design, Zurich-based fine arts duo Michael Meier & Christoph Franz explore urban displacement and its impact on the local music scene.Focusing on six venues that have disappeared or are under threat, the artists collected materials on site—wood, metal, and other architectural elements—and, with the support of professional instrument builders, transformed them i…

London-based musician Luke Cowan returns with SPRiNG!, a release that trades the slow-blooming architectures of Six Places for something more immediate, loose-limbed and provisional. Conceived as the first in a planned seasonal cycle, it documents a moment of emergence: music produced quickly, instinctively, under a set of self-imposed constraints. SPRiNG! begins with Walworth Road, composed in a single sitting in February 2025, built from a tentative improvisation on a sanza acquired in a South…

*300 copies limited edition* Reliques de Roses, musical tandem formed by two household names of the European underground: Laure Boer (Edition d’Art, Arbore...) and Tom Val (Orion Music Workshop, HWYUIOD...). Bridging the Berlin-Paris experimental connection, the duo brings us a collection of nostalgia-tainted songs, noisy improvisations and synth-led talk-over songs. A fragile Art-Folk with industrial touches strongly reminiscent of Vox Populi!, Throbbing Gristle, and in more recent times, DIY h…

** Split 7”, Edition of 100 machine numbered copies w inlays ** Unexpected but needed split 7” between the Swedish tape loop & analog synth trio Organ of Corti and San Francisco guitar master Bill Orcutt! The OOC track is a dive deeper into their rather confusing, psychedelic and eternal sound. A true creeper. Orcutt is doing a repetitive guitar attack which is a very addictive piece. So, warning.Organ of Corti was formed in 2022 by Dan Johansson (Sewer Election, Enhet för Fri Musik), Mattias Gu…

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…

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 …

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 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” 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.