Jazz & Improvisation / Contemporary

Revisited and remastered, with additional takes, texts and photos, here is the very first ECM session, recorded in Ludwigsburg in November 1969, featuring the great American pianist Mal Waldron, whose resume included work with Coltrane, Mingus, Dolphy and Billie Holiday. In his original liner notes, Mal wrote: “This album represents my meeting with free jazz. Free jazz for me does not mean complete anarchy… You will hear me playing rhythmically instead of soloing on chord changes.” As Jazz Journ…

A ravishingly beautiful album by one of the most mysterious, elusive and beguiling figures on the fringes of jazz. "An acrobat’s heart" features the unique vocals and piano playing of singer-songwriter Annette Peacock, performing her own compositions with the acclaimed Cikada String Quartet. If you like An acrobat’s heart, then you’d probably like: Marilyn Crispell, Nothing Ever Was, Anyway Paul Bley, Paul Bley with Gary Peacock Arild Andersen, Hyperborean Bent Sørensen, Birds And Bells Norma Wi…

Tip! A radiant manifesto of artistic freedom, fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s suite but sacred) brings together a composition in four movements written and performed by Jones on alto saxophone, long-time collaborator Gerald Cleaver on drums, and four Vancouver-based string musicians: violinists Jesse Zubot and Josh Zubot, cellist Peggy Lee and bassist James Meger; with original artwork by Stan Douglas and liner notes by poet Harmony Holiday. Commissioned by Western Front, an artist-run center for multi…

Velvele : Beating the usuls of Ottoman/Turkish Music, dividing them by section.

*50 copies limited edition. 2025 stock* Introducing morosphinx, a squeaky trio from Brussels. Recorded in Vilvoorde, on the outskirts of the Belgian capital, this album probes impressions of relative distances within a sound space. morosphinx projects us into a musical context that is both strange and familiar, where sounds blend together and define their own landmarks. The A side of Vilvoorde is experienced as a long, unresolved breath. Silence is its latent base and reminds the listener of it …

*2024 stock* Mathias Eick’s intensely melodic trumpet occupies the centre-stage in this album of self-penned tunes which will appeal to an audience beyond “jazz”. Against the powerful backdrops offered by his sleek, modern band, driven by two drummers, he delivers richly lyrical soliloquies.

Mathias Eick reflects on distances travelled in this intensely melodic set of original compositions, which makes an imaginative journey from Hem, the tiny Norwegian village where the trumpeter grew up, to the vast plains of Dakota in the American Midwest. It was to the Midwest that hundreds of thousands of Norwegians travelled by sea in the 19th and early 20th  centuries – and naturally they took their music with them. In similar spirit Eick, a Norwegian improviser-composer strongly influenced b…

1988 release ** "Sometimes with a touch of disdain, but it’s merely poetic, political reflection on an incomplete world—the only one we know. Beauty and cruelty, joy and sorrow. The piano, mastering every language, responds to the glowing voice of the singer: Romansh, German, English, French. Sweet, strict, harsh, thrilling, playful."

Following his success with “Blow Up,” the once-weekly favorite bassist Isao Suzuki returns with his fourth release under the Three Blind Mice label. The heavy, groovy sound he crafts alongside the eccentric talent Kenji Mori remains timeless and undiminished by the years.

Helsinki tenor saxophonist Jussi Kannaste's debut album as a band leader has been a long time coming. A top musician in the local scene revered by his contemporaries and sought after as a band member,  Kannaste now presents his new work Out Of Self and Into Others on We Jazz Records. His quartet, Kannaste4, brings together Finnish musicians Tomi Nikku (of Bowman Trio) and Joonas Riippa, plus Berlin-based Swedish bassist Petter Eldh (of Koma Saxo / Post Koma and Y-OTIS), and features an all origi…

Joona Toivanen Trio returns to We Jazz Records with their new album "Gravity", out 31 January 2025. A landmark work for the long standing group, the album showcases the forward-looking sound of the band, moving way beyond the basic scope of the "piano trio". There’s a startling sense of telepathy and intimacy at work in the music of the Joona Toivanen Trio, something you can glean from the opening moments of their latest album, Gravity. It’s that rare synergy that can only come with years of tim…

This concert recording from Munich’s Schwere Reiter performance space features improvisation with an expanded palette of possibilities. “To work with these colours is a great challenge and joy!” says bassist Barry Guy of the glowing and ever-changing tints, timbres and tones radiating from Jordina Millà’s freely associative piano.  Like Guy, Millà is both a player of prodigious technical capacity and a fearless improvisational explorer, and her highly creative use of the piano interior opens up …

"Finnish saxophonist Harri Sjöström has been calling Berlin home for nearly 40 years, and for over 10 of them, he has been organizing concerts at venues around the city, featuring a who-is-who of the city's rich improvisation scene and beyond, under the title "SoundScapes." Starting in 2016, he extended the concept and held the first two SoundScapes Festivals in Helsinki, followed by one in Munich, and then, finally, in his adopted hometown. SoundScapes #4 was held over two mid-autumn nights in …

This year we are celebrating the 10th birthday of our label. On this occasion, we have prepared a lot of surprises and very unique musical offerings for you. Here is the first one! What you can expect from the music is perfectly reflected in the album title. Parallel aesthetics which, however, when listened to together become a new perhaps the third aesthetic!One of the most active and respected saxophonists and improvisers on the American jazz scene. An American, Brazilian-born, Jewish-born mus…

"Remedy’s “Hipp Hipp Hooray” honors the 100th birthday of pianist and composer Jutta Hipp, born February 4th, 1925, in Leipzig, Weimar Republic. Consisting of nine compositions loosely related to Hipp’s life story and output, the goal wasn’t to emulate the sound of her day but to get to the essence of Jutta Hipp’s spirit and tell her story through our artistic lens. A multi-level pioneer, Hipp was known as “Europe’s First Lady of Jazz,” the first woman ever to record as a leader for Blue Note Re…

Simon Nabatov - piano, live electronicsMark Helias - bassTom Rainey - drums All music by Simon Nabatov (GEMA) except collectively improvised tracks 4,8,10,12

2006 release  ** "This is the 2nd album by the incredible Polish Jazz ensemble Sing Sing Penelope, led by drummer Rafal Gorzycki and also including trumpeter Wojciech Jachna, saxophonist Tomasz Glazik, keyboardist Daniel Mackiewicz and bassist Patryk Weclawek. Violinist Sebastian Gruchot guests on one track. They play all original music, composed mostly by Gorzycki and Jachna or credited to the ensemble. Stylistically this is an incredible mixture of many elements from Jazz, Rock, Ambient, RIO a…

Norway’s Grand Old Lady of jazz, Karin Krog turned 80 in May 2017, and the Odin label honoured her with a superb 6CD box set overviewing her outstanding career. Karin Krog is one of the great jazz singers. Few others worked within so many different areas of the music and fewer still could have done so with the same assurance, commitment and elegance. Like her peers such as Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen and Terje Rypdal, she is a figurehead for that explosion of Norwegian jazz tal…

Exceptionally virtuosic and sensitive, South African harpist Jacqueline Kerrod is perfectly at home across multiple genres. This is her first recording with American guitar maverick Joe Morris. These are sublimely adventurous improvisations for pedal harp and guitar.

2025 stock A composed improvisation, or possibly the other way around – this is one way of describing the music played by Mats Gustafsson and the Nu Ensemble, a multinational group of improvisational musicians. The saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, born in 1964, became interested in improvisational music at an early age, inspired by among others the German Peter Brötzmann and the Britt Evan Parker. The Nu Ensemble was a loosely structured, irregularly convened radio and concert project built around …

After nearly two years, Okonski returns with Entrance Music — an album that finds the trio at the height of their improvisational prowess and celebrating the spontaneous and meditative. On the heels of 2023’s debut Magnolia, pianist and leader Steve Okonski has reconvened long-time musical collaborators (Durand Jones and the Indications bandmate Aaron Frazer on drums and bassist Michael Isvara “Ish” Montgomery) for another session in the spirit of artists like the Bad Plus, Gerald Clayton, and T…

Temporary Super Offer!  When on January 20 1969 Mike Taylor was pulled from the River Thames – shoeless, alone, confused, ultimately drowned by his own hand – the young pianist and composer was only 31. A cynic might say that hindsight is a wonderful thing and that it was only years later, when fans began to speculate on the fatal glamour of an artist who died so young, that fellow musicians began to recollect him as a genius of modern music. At the time, they might well have thought of him – an…

** Edition of 400 ** NoBusiness Records presents Creation Series by Joel Futterman. All compositions by Joel Futterman. Recording engineer Dr. Benjamin Tomassetti. Recorded at the Paradise Studio, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Each track is complete unedited first-take and is in the orderi n which it was recorded. Photos by Michael Wilderman. Mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios. Design by Oskaras Anosovas. Producer - Danas Mikailionis. Co-producer - Valerij Anosov. CD 1 - Recorded 16th June, 200…

2025 stock “Diary of Dreams” began as a journal of musical ideas. Like dreams that are forgotten soon after we wake up, that’s how I felt my melodies, like memories from dreams that I didn’t want to be forgotten. My wish, was to be moved by the musical outcome which in turn I hoped to move the musicians and ultimately you, the listeners! - Stavros Lantias

The George Kontrafouris Trio, led by Greek jazz pianist George Kontrafouris, features Dinos Manos on double bass and Thanos Hatzianagnostou on drums. Known for their dynamic interpretations and contributions to the jazz scene, they have collaborated with French chromatic harmonica player Laurent Maur, celebrated for his mastery and improvisational skills. Their collaborative album, "Vin Doux," released in 2023, showcases a blend of mainstream jazz with unique harmonic and rhythmic explorations. …

Colorblind…having a decreased ability to see color or differences in color. But…what if colorblind-ness becomes an intention? A conscious choice to not pin a colored distinction on ideas, people, music or life-philosophies? A clean palette of initial curiosity and acceptance, rather than a rigidity of prejudging (prejudice) and labeling. Why pretend to know before witnessing, before engaging, before allowing perception to focus?Doesn’t life ask us to enter, without tinting the supreme arts of kn…

2010 release ** "Firehouse 12 Records welcomes esteemed pianist/composer Myra Melford to its roster with the release of The Whole Tree Gone (FH12-04-01-012), her first recording as a bandleader since 2006. Recorded in the label's own state-of-the-art studio, this is Ms. Melford's second release featuring her eclectic ensemble, Be Bread, a longstanding collection of frequent collaborators that currently performs as an all-acoustic sextet. The Whole Tree Gone documents the latest evolution of eigh…

*2025 stock* Beauty No Beauty is the debut of Andreas Wildhagen’s Spiralis quartet. The lineup features Kasper Værnes on alto and soprano saxophones, Anja Lauvdal on piano and synth, Adrian Myhr on bass and Andreas Wildhagen on drums and compositions. All have collaborated with Andreas in earlier projects, but this constellation is new and some of the members had never worked together prior to the recording, which was made shortly after a few days of rehearsals while everything was still fresh. …

Tip! *2025 stock* Segaki is the second album of the Norwegian-Malaysian trio Hungry Ghosts, consisting of Malaysian tenor saxophonist Yong Yandsen accompanied by the Norwegian powerhouse duo of Christian Meaas Svendsen on double bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. Their debut record has been described as an album with an «unstoppable energy» and like actual hungry ghosts — the unfortunate souls who are reborn as pitiful creatures into their own miserable realm, punished for their mortal vices —…

*2025 stock. 300 copies limited edition* Motvind Records continues to collaborate with musician and composer Signe Emmeluth in an attempt to present art music that emphasizes deep listening, reflection and expressive emotions. Vossajazz is a really cool jazz festival, it has a rich program history and are still holding the line. They’ve commissioned many works from composing jazz musicians, and one of the more unpredictable and surprising pieces that has come in recent years was Banshee by the a…

*2025 stock. 200 copies limited edition* Joel and the Neverending Sextet, led by cellist Joel Ring and consisting of a cohesive group of musicians from Sweden and Norway, takes the listeners on a musical journey through the borderlands of avant-garde jazz. Following their critically acclaimed debut album "Pouring Textures" (2021), the sextet is now releasing their second album, "Marbled," on Motvind Records. The title Marbled evokes associations with flowing structures. Listening to the album, w…

*2025 stock* ‘Name of the Wind’ is Erlend's second album as a bandleader and composer (his debut album, ‘A Glass Door,’ was released in 2018). It presents a new musical direction, featuring electro-acoustic landscapes with sounds, rhythms, and instruments from traditional music in Norway, North India and Morocco on the horizon. The group moves from scenery to scenery so quickly that one wonders if their bandwagon might be a time machine. As they approach you, remember that although they insist, …

As a follow-up to the critically acclaimed debut 'Name of the Wind' from last year, the multi-instrumental ensemble Basspace is now releasing its second album, 'When Light'. Releasing on May 16th, 'When Light' is a compilation of recordings from a chapel, a community house and a church during a tour on the east side of Oslo in October 2023, and the music is based around compositions by Erlend, ranging from jazz to modern chamber music to Norwegian folk. 'Into' reports from the jazz-campfire, whe…

*2025 stock* Chet Baker's voice and trumpet defined cool jazz. How do his stories read in our own mother tongue? Since 2010, Baker Hansen has endeavoured to answer this question in language and interaction, based on the music that Chet Baker played. The songs are timeless and well-known, but the lyrics have been thoroughly and skilfully rendered into dialect by singer Sigurd Rotvik Tunestveit from Ål in Hallingdal. When "The night we called it a day" becomes "Midnight sun" and Columbus and Ediso…

2010 release ** "This project originates from a pleasurable Roman afternoon spent by yours truly with Hubert Bergmann, who – having known that this writer’s spouse is, in essence, an atypical songwriting specimen – thought that some experimentation using her vocalism would have constituted an intriguing attempt to do something singular. Files of Bergmann’s duets with Udo Schindler were emailed, and in a matter of several months Yellerwood recorded and “assembled” a number of parts, adapting them…

Even in the wildly eclectic ICP catalog, this 66th release stands out. Absent are the ‘3 T’s’ (Tristan Honsinger, Tobias Delius, Thomas Heberer); instead, you get familiar guests (Joris Roelofs and Terrie Ex) and the musical direction of ICP co-founder Han Bennink. And then there is the setting: Le Brocope, a gallery, music venue, caférestaurant situated in a tiny village in Holland’s far North. An inspiring location that takes up a central role on Komen & Gaan. The ensemble begins by airing out…

"The road to this collaboration starts at the 1985 Holland Festival, when Hoketus—the flinty post-rock new-music ensemble founded by Louis Andriessen—premiered Rokus de Veldmuis (Rokus the Fieldmouse) by Misha Mengelberg (1935–2017). As Hoketus pianist Gerard Bouwhuis recalls, it generated some minor grumbling within the band; the chipper first movement appeared to mock Hoketus’s hard-edged seriousness. But the second half—“Een hutje van gras” (A Little Grass Hut)—was a wow: a hurtling triple ca…

Instant Composers Pool presents Restless In Pieces, a studio session performed by ICP Orchestra. Recorded October 21 & 22, 2015 by Kasper Frenkel, Electric Monkey Studio, Amsterdam. Mixed and Mastered February 9th, 2016 by Micha de Kanter, Mideka Music, the Hague. Ab Baars clarinet, saxophones; Michael Moore clarinet, saxophones; Tobias Delius clarinet, tenor saxophone; Thomas Heberer cornet, trumpet; Wolter Wierbos trombone; Mary Oliver violin, viola; Tristan Honsinger cello, vocals; Ernst Gler…

*2025 stock* No Base Trio presents their brilliant self-titled debut album. This recording features an energetic and imaginative set of entirely improvised music by one of Puerto Rico’s most creative bands. No Base Trio is the union of alto saxophonist Jonathan Suazo, guitarist Gabriel Vicéns, and drummer Leonardo Osuna focusing on creating music without barriers and consistently pushing boundaries of sound and improvisation. After 10 years of performing at many important venues in Puerto Rico, …

*2025 stock* No Base Trio releases their spectacular and completely improvised works in their second studio album, "NBT II.". The experimental ensemble continues its musical journey by releasing this immersive double album under the radical label Setola di Maiale. Following their 2020 critically-acclaimed eponymous debut album, Setola di Maiale proudly presents Puerto Rico-based experimental ensemble No Base Trio's latest recording, "NBT II." This album features a collection of intuitively power…