Jazz & Improvisation / Contemporary

2025 stock Elastic Jargon is an album by Dutch composer and violist Maurice Horsthuis, released in 2007 on the Data label. The project brings together a unique ensemble of string players, with Horsthuis as the sole composer, exploring the boundaries …

2025 stock In the ever-mutable landscape of Dutch jazz, Joost Buis’s Astronotes stands as a testament to the playful collision of composition and improvisation. Released on the Data label in 2004, the album finds Buis—trombonist, composer, and bandle…

2025 stock In the shadowy interstices of contemporary jazz and free improvisation, Slang by Elastic Jargon emerges as a document of restless inquiry and coded communication. Released on the Dutch label Data in 2010, the album is a cryptic dispatch fr…

Jinya Disc presents Live at freedom by New Directions, recorded live on 25 April 1981 at Takasaki. The album includes 4 tracks performed by Masayuki Takayanagi - Guitar, and Hiroshi Yamazaki on drums. Masayuki 'Jojo' Takayanagi was a Japanese jazz / …

Taken from Abdullah Ibrahim’s summer 2023 sold-out headline date at London’s Barbican Centre, the new album “3” follows suit and is spread across two performances – the first is recorded without an audience ahead of the concert straight to analogue o…

"This album is the most personal I’ve made to date. Named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon poem from the 9th century AD about the former glory of an unnamed ruined city, “The Ruin” is inspired by the feeling of living in England (“a country that feels li…

This recording is an experiment in composing from percussion first. To feel movement in harmony and arrangement through the improvising senses of a percussionist. The melodic and harmonic elements appeared instantly after recording the percussion wit…

Two legendary souls, one timeless rhythm—Just Us celebrates the enduring bond between Heikki Sarmanto and Juhani Aaltonen. Born from spontaneous sessions and inspired compositions, these eleven tracks capture their unmatched musical chemistry. A test…

* 75 copies limited edition * In times of vinyl shortage and production backlog, resourcefulness is key. In keeping with his well-established practice of replacing original materials with surrogates to generate new sonic experiences, Sven-Åke Johanss…

Lucifecit’s debut “Devoção” blends anthems, mantras, and hypnotic grooves—homage to a forgotten deity. Led by Lobo (bass), Pereira (drums), Almeida & Tembe (trumpets), it fuses spiritual jazz, punk-Gnawa bass, modal forms, and radiant horn improvisat…

1995 release ** Conduction #28: Cherry Blossom: P3 Art and Environment, Tokyo, Japan; March 28, 1993Yukihiro Isso, nokan; Shonosuke Okura, ohtsuzumi; Makiko Sakurai, shomyo, music box; Michihiro Sato, tugaru syamisen; Kizan Daiyoshi, shakuhachi; Yuji…

Anna Webber & Angela Morris - tenor saxophone, flute, conductorJay Rattman - alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, clarinet, fluteCharlotte Greve - alto saxophone, flute, clarinetAdam Schneit - tenor saxophone, clarinetLisa Parrott - baritone saxophone,…

A monumental 9CD set, Piano Music (1968–2000) captures Anthony Braxton’s uncompromising vision for solo piano: dense, notated landscapes performed by Geneviève Foccroulle with rare clarity. Eschewing jazz convention, these works map a radical terrain…

Secular Music Group’s Volume Two, featuring new members, was recorded live to analog tape with vintage gear. This LP tightens structures, foregrounds piano, and blends spiritual jazz, folk, and 70s library influences for a timeless, contemporary soun…

2016 release ** "With America’s National Parks, visionary composer and Wadada Leo Smith offers his latest epic collection, a suite inspired by the scenic splendor, historic legacy, and political controversies of the country’s public landscapes. Writi…

1992 release ** Christy Doran on acoustic and electric guitars and delay devices.

1989 release ** Heupel studied flute at the Cologne University of Music. From 1980 to 1985, he was a member of the multimedia group Boury. Since 1984, he has also performed as a soloist with his own compositions. He has toured Asia, Africa, and Latin…

German pianist Georg Graewe reunites with drummer Hamid Drake and bassist Brad Jones in a fiery 2024 trio debut at Konfrontationen Festival. Capturing the spirit of his 1990s Chicago collaborations, More Than Anything showcases masterful free improvi…

Saxophonist Steve Lehman and trio, with Mark Turner, celebrate Braxton’s 80th in a live set: intense emotion meets cool articulation and rhythmic mastery.

Sudden Dusk is the recorded debut of Archer, a working band comprised of four singular voices on the international improvised music scene.

1995 release ** Quinzaine de MontrealThe Spectrum, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; April 11, 1992Tristan Honsinger, cello; Martin Schütz, cello; Eric Longsworth, cello; Michelle Kinney, broom-cello; Ken Butler, broom-cello; Helmut Lipsky, violin; J. A. Dea…

1995 release ** The Akbank Conduction, Akbank IIIstanbul, Turkey; October 16 & 17, 1992The Süleyman Erguner Ensemble: Hasan Esen, kemence; Mehmet Emin Bitmez, ud; Göksel Baktagir, kanun; Süleyman Erguner, ney; Lê Quan Ninh, percussion; Bryan Carrott,…

1995 release ** Conduction #31: Angelica Festival of International Music: Bologna, Italy; May 16, 1993 Dietmar Diesner, soprano sax; Peter Kowald, bass; Wolter Wierbos, trombone; Steve Beresford, piano; Hans Reichel, guitar; Tom Cora, cello; Han Benn…

1995 release **Conduction #38: in Freud's Garden: Muffathalle, Germany; December 11, 1993Myra Melford, piano; Zeena Parkins, harp; Bryan Carrott, vibes; Brandon Ross, acoustic guitar; J. A. Deane, trombone; live sampling; Motoharu Yoshizawa, electric…

1995 release ** New World, New World - Opperman Music Hall, Florida State University School of Music; February 4, 1994Jesse Canterbury, clarinet; Mimi Patterson, clarinet; Scott Deeter, sax; Philip Gelb, shakuhachi; Gregor Harvey, guitar; Ethan Schaf…

"A standard takes on a new shape when it is realized through Trio New York’s methods. Their improvised preludes promote refreshed readings studded with bright accents and pungent embellishments, reinforcing the qualities that have enabled these tunes…

“We are in the business of transformation, applying our knowledge of improvising together for twenty-five years, interwoven with our resonance with these melodies and forms. We have found our collective way with honouring what these pieces express to…

"Christian Weber said in an interview for “Jazz’N’More": No matter how I move along the timeline, my attention is focused on what is to come. At the same time, I always keep in mind what happened before, without analyzing. This way, I avoid the impro…

"It is not easy to find a description of what constitutes “the art of the duo” in jazz or improvised music. Suffice to say that any credible description would have to encompass the duo of Gallio and Turner, their approaches to playing together and th…

"It is a message, and you will hear it sounding firmly through the various pieces that make up The Human Factor, that tells us much about how we might live together: sharing, giving way, simple giving, lifting up, helping ... above all, listening ...…

"Given their distinct backgrounds and individualistic sense of creative process, it’s not surprising to discover that the sounds Levin, Mariam and Miguel generate do not fall into common improv tactics, stylistic clichés, or the isolation of chance.…

"Dialog: Two Rooms One Vibraphone 1 to 6 & Five Interludes differs, however, from the classical Greek idea of dialectics, that of thesis-antithesis-synthesis, in one respect. There is thesis, from Armaroli, and antithesis, from Parker, but it is a th…

Temporary Super Offer! 'The music on this CD is an impressive document of such a search for meaning and artistic legitimacy. It doesn’t want to add something even louder to the supposedly spectacular. On the contrary: Here, it is about the subtle int…

Temporary Super Offer! 'The CD’s title is borrowed from computer language: STRG + X is the key combination for “cut to the clipboard” to be temporarily stored and pasted somewhere else at a later time. Perhaps the most important quality of this caref…

Temporary Super Offer! The Thing started as a recording project in 2000, for the newly formed label Crazy Wisdom, run by Christian Falk, Conny Charles Lindström and me. I wanted to put together a trio, to record some Don Cherry pieces and since I had…

"Live from the Archives" by Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band is a live double LP recorded at Blues Alley, Washington, D.C., in 2000. Featuring a stellar lineup, the album presents a rich tapestry of original compositions and improvisations that blen…

"Baro 101" unites Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen-Love, and Masele Asmamaw for an electrifying fusion of Scandinavian free jazz and Ethiopian traditions. The album’s two expansive tracks showcase intense improvisation, with Asmamaw’s krar injecting uni…

When eminent jazz practitioners with shared histories convene in the studio without rehearsal or preparatory gigs, a perfunctory, by-the-numbers session is often the outcome. That is decidedly not the case on Solid Jackson, whose personnel, four of w…

1998 release (light storage wear) ** "It has always been baffling why the work of certain contemporary composers like Anthony Braxton, whose work spans the jazz and classical genres, has not been more widely performed by musicians outside of their ow…

2005 release ** "Recorded at the Institut fur Elektronische Musik und Akustik in Graz, Austria during the first week of August 2003, Anthony Braxton's (+ Duke Ellington) Concept of Freedom is a dazzling exercise in collective creativity. Braxton does…