Jazz & Improvisation / Avant-Garde Jazz

*250 copies limited edition* The quartet of Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Bobby Kapp returns with Synesthesia, a new recording that captures their deep connection and evolving voice in contemporary free jazz. Following the acclaimed Ineffable Joy and Heptagon, the group continues to explore spontaneous composition, open form, and strong collective interplay. This time, the music leans further into a modern jazz language, with sharper focus, clearer shapes, and a refined sense o…

The essence of conviviality. You take a punch, soft as a sock at the end of a jog, but that isn’t the real point here. Even poorly brewed fuel can become a cherished experience when shared in good company, highlighting that at its core, the communal experience lies not in the quality of the beverage, but in the connections it fosters. And so, by evidence of this striking piece of truth, even the occasional misstep in the infusion process can't diminish the warmth and camaraderie that fills the m…

** Deluxe 3LP set, housed in heavy tip-on box with pigment ink foil stamping, mounted film laminated cover painting by Jeff Schlanger, three printed inner sleeves with original notes by William Parker and Alan Licht, original concert flyer re-print and a five photograph portfolio in black envelope ** A legendary concert by one of the great unrecorded bands in free jazz history is here at last. WEBO, the third installment in the Black Editions Archive series of previously unreleased recordings fr…

*100 copies limited edition* Five Nights in the Midwest is a new three-CD release from the improvising trio of bass clarinetist Jason Stein, double bassist Damon Smith, and drummer Adam Shead. Recorded during a December 2025 tour across the American Midwest, the album presents seven extended performances exactly as they occurred—without edits or cuts—allowing listeners to experience the full arc of the tour as it unfolded night by night. The December 2025 run marked the trio’s first tour since 2…

*200 copies limited edition* On Many Roads, their second full-length album, microplastique expands its playful yet rigorous commitment to instant composition, deepening an ethos that treats sound itself as both material and meeting ground. Recorded live across the ensemble’s 15-concert June 2025 U.S. tour, the album functions less as a polished artifact than as a document of encounter—capturing how place, audience, and momentary circumstance all shape what this quartet becomes onstage. Seven tra…

*2005 release. 2026 stock* Kahimi Karie and Mariko Hamada guest as two vocalists on this orchestral work, which marks a dramatic advance from ONJQ. Its many scenes—sometimes hushed, sometimes intense—integrate (and disperse) every sonic possibility—jazz, ambient, rock, voice, noise, etc.—bringing new discoveries to every listener’s ear. Delicate sounds that can be heard if you listen closely. Even accidental onstage noises are intentionally included (you can hear them if you listen carefully), p…

*2006 release, 2026 stock* This is a work that proves the worth of the trio that kept the group alive for 16 years, and at the same time captures a miraculous performance that’s hard to believe was entirely improvised — they went into the studio with no plan and made everything on the spot. Of course there were no overdubs or edits. It might convey the nuance better to call it composition while playing rather than pure improvisation. A series of acoustic treatments by ZAK fully preserves the stu…

*2026 stock* Very special quartet of Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Keisuke Ohta, Shinobu Kawai, Akira Sotoyama. This is real free music from Japan.

*2026 stock* The first duo work by Koichi Makigami and Masataka Fujikake. It contains 9 songs recorded live, all improvised. An improvised sound scroll made up of titles full of mysterious sounds with fantastical and unique ideas. The title song, "Meteor Driver", begins with a reading of a poem from Koichi Makigami's poetry collection "Suprematism" (2019).

**First time Officially reissue. Sourced from the original master tapes and housed in a deluxe gatefold cover. Edition of 500 copies** The Milan based imprint, Dialogo, returns with the first ever vinyl reissue of Spirale’s lone, 1974 self-titled LP. Resting at a fascinating juncture between progressive and free jazz, it was years ahead of its time when it first appeared, rendering it to the shadows for decades, before its ultimate ascent to becoming one of the great holy grails of Italian Jazz …

A mystery begins. A journey. A vision emerges. Free, intuitive music, played spontaneously in the present moment, without any prior arrangements. I invited musicians, some of whom I’ve known and trusted for a long time, such as Fabrizio Ottaciucci, with whom I’ve enjoyed collaborating on and off since 1987. I met Fabio Mina in Bogliasco in 2007, and since then our paths have crossed more and more frequently. He has made a marvellous musical development. Then there’s Francesco, whom Fabio knew, a…

** Limited to 300 double vinyl copies, two inlays with photos and liner notes. Originally released in 1974 on Preiser Records** »It’s Up to You« is a free sound art and performance project by sound artist and singer Limpe Fuchs, sculptor and sound artist Paul Fuchs, and pianist and recorder player Friedrich Gulda, who formed the trio Anima at the time of the recordings in 1974. As musical guests they were able to enlist the trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff, the bassist Barre Phillips, the oud play…

Fuchs is a band that never was. It vanished as quickly as it appeared in the picture, much like the animal that can be seen on this album and after whom it was named. In 2005, Kante singer and guitarist Peter Thiessen travelled to Weilheim to visit Markus and Micha Acher in their studio, where they were joined, among others, by Notwist-affiliated musicians like Cico Beck, Robert Klinger, Carl Oesterhelt and Stefan Schreiber. Spirits were high, but schedules were full: after a week of improvised …

Belonging to an incredible, audiophile reissue initiative dedicated to the seminal Jazz Actuel series - one of the greatest depositories of 1960s free jazz - at long last we're gifted one of the greatest of them all: the first ever fully authorized reissue of Jacques Coursil's towering 1971 LP, Black Suite, fully remastered from the original 1969 analog master tapes. Featuring an all-star line-up of Anthony Braxton, Arthur Jones, Burton Greene, Beb Guérin, and Claude Delcloo, it has long remaine…

Tip! First vinyl re-issue of Evan Parker’s duo with George Lewis. Transferred from the original masters, we discovered that the original Incus LP was cut at the wrong speed - and so, we present the first vinyl issue of the correct masters, or ‘mastas’ as Adam Skeaping, legendary engineer who is also responsible for Six of One and Compatibles, fondly calls them.  Skeaping, always working with the latest in recording technology for the time, has a knack for gaining access to remarkable spaces. Goo…

Double CD documenting the magic meeting of one of the all-time great rhythm sections in jazz: percussionist Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker, with London’s brilliant Black Top (Orphy Robinson and Pat Thomas) and Elaine Mitchener. Across two sets the quintet are infectiously energetic and inspired, striding from synchronised heavy groove to star bright solos, whilst incorporating dub effects, guimbri and sumptuous blues piano playing.  Formed by Orphy Robinson and Pat Thomas but always real…

German saxophonist Luise Volkmann and Brazilian guitarist / vocalist Kiko Dinucci return with intimate, devotional new album Canto de Olho.

*2026 stock* This is the Big Band version by Otomo Yoshihide Special Big Band (OSBB) of the 48-minute suite "Sora to Mirai to," written entirely for this performance. "Sora to Mirai to" was originally composed at the request of conductor Yutaka Sado and premiered by the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra on January 17, 2025, the 30th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Although it is an orchestral work, it includes elements of improvisation; soon after its premiere, Otomo imme…

*Limited edition of 500 copies.* Eiko Ishibashi and Jim O‘Rourke created the installation Lifetime of a Flower for the Dortmund exhibition Flowers in 20th and 21st Century Art. In it they set parameters, but allowed the process itself to literally grow uncontrollably: they planted seeds in the garden of their Japanese house and filmed as the plants grew for the duration of the exhibition. Visitors were able to watch the stream in real time, while listening to a composition that reflected the org…

Two days after his 100th birthday, Marshall Allen started recording New Dawn, his debut solo album. A member of Sun Ra’s Arkestra since 1958, Allen assumed leadership of the band in 1995. Throughout his nearly seventy-year career, Allen has never released a solo album under his own name, and yet, instead of capping such a legendary output, New Dawn seems to herald a new beginning. A love letter to spacetime, it channels a century of musical intelligence into seven tracks, showing Allen at his mo…

We Are Busy Bodies announces the officially licensed reissue of the 1966 cosmic, free jazz album Zodiac by French saxophonist and composer Barney Wilen. The album’s astrological theme and Robert Crumb-esque comic-book style cover art, illustrated by the renowned cartoonist Siné, marks it as a European parallel to the burgeoning counter-cultural happenings of the same period in the USA. The reissue also offers tantalising glimpses of a projected animated tie-in film that never was. Wilen's friend…

* 180 gram vinyl * Herbie Hancock is one of the most prolific jazz pianists of the 20th century. A child prodigy, he played with the greats such as Donald Byrd and Miles Davis. He was one of the first to embrace and master the electric piano, but he always stayed true to the acoustic sound. In fact, he always bounced back and forth between his electronic and acoustic sound, touching upon almost every development in R&B, Funk and Jazz while retaining an original and distinctive voice. Sextant fro…

The 1971 entry point into Herbie Hancock's celebrated Mwandishi trilogy, returning here on vinyl. Mwandishi opens what would become the most adventurous and freely exploratory chapter of Hancock's discography, the first record to officially document the sextet that the pianist would shape into one of the great working bands of early seventies jazz. Recorded at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco on New Year's Eve 1970 and released in March 1971 on Warner Bros, the album marked Hancock's decisi…

*2022 stock. In process of stocking* Following 2016's definitive collection of singles released by Sun Ra from across his illustrious career, Strut present the second volume of the vinyl edition on 3LP format which focus on Ra's later 1962-1991 period. Released sporadically during the three decades and primarily on the Saturn label, the 45s offer one-off missives from Ra's prolific cosmic journey, tracing the development of his forwardthinking 'Space-Bop' and his unique take on jazz and blues tr…

The long-overlooked brilliance of pianist and composer Mike Taylor comes back into the spotlight with the reissue of Trio, the seminal 1967 recording from the Mike Taylor Trio. Originally released on Columbia, this album represents one of the most adventurous statements in British jazz of the 1960s—a work of striking originality that still resonates powerfully today.   Featuring Mike Taylor on piano, Jackie Dougan on drums, and Dave Tomlin on bass, Trio captured an incendiary moment of creativit…

Temporary Super Offer! "After Le Nouveau Jazz was released in early 1967, I worked for two years with Bernard Vitet, Beb Guérin and a few other friends on a happening loosely based on Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark. There was a strong element of theater to it and we presented it in playhouses, museums, public places, institutions… It never made it to wax and I gave up on the idea soon after when Sunny Murray and Alan Silva showed up in Paris in late 1968. I had meant to upend the conve…

The jazz world is set to celebrate one of its most intriguing and visionary figures with the reissue of Pendulum, the groundbreaking album by the Mike Taylor Quartet. Originally released in 1966 on Columbia Records, Pendulum captures the restless creativity and uncompromising spirit of pianist and composer Mike Taylor, whose brief but influential career left an enduring mark on modern jazz in Britain.   Featuring an exceptional lineup with Mike Taylor (piano), Dave Tomlin (soprano saxophone), To…

Originally recorded and released in 1977, the Instant Composers Pool's Tetterettet is the first classic of the band's larger incarnations. Founded in Amsterdam in 1967 by saxophonist Willem Breuker, pianist Misha Mengelberg, and percussionist Han Bennink, Instant Composers Pool (or ICP) was an independent free jazz label and orchestra that would go on to release over fifty albums featuring such pillars of the scene as Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Jeanne Lee, John Tchicai, and Stev…

Members… Don’t! is the tour-de-force new release by acclaimed drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey that offers a bold reinterpretation of Max Roach’s potent album Members, Don’t Git Weary, connecting its message of resilience in the face of struggle to the present day. It follows on a string of albums from Sorey that feature pianist Aaron Diehl, the latest of which – The Susceptible Now (Pi 2024) – received 5-Stars from Downbeat, which describe it as “a garden of sonic ecstasy… Sorey’s trio conjur…

Over two decades guitarist and composer Miles Okazaki has built a body of work marked by rigor and restless curiosity. With Boomtown, his ninth album of original compositions and his fourth as a leader for Pi Recordings, he presents a large-scale, finely wrought, sometimes unruly work that hurtles forward with narrative force. The album continues the themes of Miniature America from 2024, described by pianist Ethan Iverson as “meticulously assembled, absolutely a blast to listen to, and informed…

Originally brought together in September 2015 to perform the Zorn Bagatelles, Julian Lage and Gyan Riley have become two of Zorn’s most trusted and soulful musical collaborators, having recorded over a dozen CDs of his compositions for acoustic guitars both in duo and in trio with Bill Frisell. Seven Sonnets is their sixth CD together as a duo and the music is a lovely series of compositions referencing early music, minimalism, contemporary classical, soundtracks, folk, jazz, and more. Two of th…

*2026 stock* This album is the second release by saxophonist Sachi Hayasaka, following her debut album Free Fight. Most of the music was recorded in Tokyo with members of Stir Up!, capturing the raw energy and spirit of the group. Two additional tracks were recorded in New York at Baby Monster Studio, featuring special guest trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. These sessions added another dimension to the album, making it an especially rich and memorable work. The album was produced entirely by Sachi an…

*2026 stock* A live document from one of the towering figures in Japanese jazz history. By the early seventies Terumasa Hino had established himself as Japan's most internationally fluent trumpeter, a player whose vocabulary moved easily between Lee Morgan-era hard bop, Miles-influenced modal abstraction, and the harder edges of Coltrane-era extended playing. Live! catches his quintet in concert, working through original material at the high temperature his groups were known for: long forms, fie…

Impulse! is releasing a virtually unreleased work by the legendary and late jazz godmother Alice Coltrane, a 1981 recording titled Kirtan: Turiya Sings. The album, to be released on 16 July 2021 as part of the historic label's 60th anniversary celebrations, comprises nine devotional songs originally released in 1982 only on cassette for ashram students. In addition to Alice's voice and instrument, those recordings included parts for synthesizer, strings and effects. In 2004, Alice's son (and pro…

Were you to tap the lifeblood of Chicago music, you would find Josh Berman flowing liberally through its veins. Active on the scene for more than a quarter century, the cornetist, bandleader, and composer has helped retain the unique flavor of the city's soundscape, with particular attention to the music of its jazz past – groups like the Austin High Gang and the Oliver-Armstrong lineage and Freddie Keppard, as well as more recent figures from Lester Bowie to Wadada Leo Smith. But Berman is more…

With Ça commence par la marche (It Begins with the Walk), Jérémie Ternoy presents an immersive work in which repetition becomes movement and movement becomes sonic architecture. Building on a career shaped by major collaborations — notably with Magma — as well as his own projects (Organik Orkeztra, his trio, and TOC), he delivers here a fully realized synthesis of his artistic explorations. The album makes walking its founding principle: moving forward slowly, perceiving the world in its finest …

Big Tip! An essential jazz masterpiece from celebrated Canadian pianist Paul Bley, presented in a deluxe edition. Originally released in 1969 as part of the iconic Actuel series, this definitive remastered edition of Ramblin' invites listeners to experience the artistry of Paul Bley’s 1966 Rome session in unprecedented clarity. Recorded at Studio RCA in the Eternal City on July 1, 1966, Ramblin’ captures Paul Bley alongside the formidable rhythm section of double bassist Mark Levinson and drumme…

Originally released in 2003, With A Heartbeat brings together Pharoah Sanders, Bill Laswell and Graham Haynes in a collaboration that remains as elusive as it is forward-thinking. Now reissued by Glossy Mistakes, the album receives its first official vinyl edition, remastered and available both in standard black and a limited burgundy pressing. At the core of the record lies an unusual but striking element: the steady pulse of a human heartbeat. Rather than a conceptual gesture, it becomes the f…

*2023 repress* Akhenaten was the first album Nat released on the fledgling Gondwana label back in 2009, it was the second release on the label and has remained a hugely popular and much sought after album ever since. Jazzman Records issued a vinyl version in 2016 (which quickly sold out and is now a collector’s item) and Nat reissued a CD version a few years later, but this is a much needed and long awaited new vinyl pressing. Featuring four original compositions the album is a deeply meditative…

2023 much-need repress. Nat Birchall continues apace with his “one-semble” recording projects, this album being the fourth one to feature only Nat himself playing all the instruments. The Infinite presents seven original compositions loosely based around various mystical aspects of the universe. The recording demonstrates Nat’s belief in the music having its own life outside of any human input, and also that it has its own laws and innate sense of balance and form, as does the universe itself. A…