Jazz & Improvisation / Contemporary

** In process of stocking ** Super cool jazz score by Michel Magne in the vein of 'Take Five'. Super rare too with original copies. Anyone who was into the earlier Jazz Room single release of Take Vibes version of Golden Brown' is going to want to get their hands on a copy of this! Regularly featured on Worldwide FM's / Gilles Peterson's playlist this is a must buy - limited pressing, don't miss!

On October 15th and 16th, 2020, drummer Daniel Villarreal was joined by guitarist Jeff Parker and bassist Anna Butterss for two afternoons of recording in the backyard of Chicali Outpost in Los Angeles. For all three musicians, it was the first ensemble recording session they’d done in-person since the pandemic locked the world down just seven months prior. Some choice moments from these sessions made it onto Villarreal’s critically-acclaimed 2022 album Panamá 77, but most of the music remained …

Co-released in 2011, this 7" features alto saxophonist Paul Flaherty, a major American alto saxophonist active since the 1980s, and Bill Nace, head of Open Mouth, an experimental label in the same country. Includes two improvised tracks with alto and guitar, DL code included.

*2022 stock* Some records tell you what’s what. That’s not a bad thing: there’s a place in music for reportage, for commentary, for what’s going on. But A Love Supreme Electric, the collaborative project between Vinny Golia, John Hanrahan, Henry Kaiser, Wayne Peet, Mike Watt, and John Coltrane’s immortal spirit, starts from a different place. “What if?” it asks. In fact, ALSE asks “What if?” over and over again, joyously interrogating the twin templates of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and Meditatio…

Jesper Nordberg Trio is a group based in Copenhagen (DK) and Malmö (SE), featuring the double bass player Jesper Nordberg, violinist Stefan Pöntinen and trumpetist Ruhi Erdogan. With Nordberg's compositions as a starting point, the trio's playing can be characterized by close interplay, radical shifts, and having elements ranging from experimental improvisation, Balkan music, Scandinavian folklore, jazz and expressionism. Jesper Nordberg's warm tone and rhythmic displacements meet Ruhi's trumpet…

*2023 stock* Spirit Spirit is an improvised suite in nine parts and epilogue by the Scandinavian trio featuring the renowned saxophone player Torben Snekkestad, pianist Søren Kjærgaard, and double bass player Tomo Jacobson. The suite was carefully composed from almost 3 hours of spontaneously improvised studio recordings by the trio. The outcome is a focused, minimal, dark, dynamic, enigmatic 38 minutes of music that unfolds like a ghostly tale. The trio was formed in 2016.

*2023 stock* Lo and behold, the second and final part of the diptych from the unusual free improvising quartet featuring two New York-based viola players Mat Maneri & Tanya Kalmanovitch, and Copenhageners Tomo Jacobson on double bass & Kresten Osgood on drums, is finally here! This time, we enter into a darker, fiercer, seemingly telepathic exchange - a powerful finale to an unprecedented musical journey.

Perhaps for the first time in the history of music, here is two violas, double bass, and drums quartet featuring the New York-based Mat Maneri & Tanya Kalmanovitch, and Copenhageners Tomo Jacobson & Kresten Osgood. Calling their music chamber free improv gives some clues about the sound world you are entering, but it also falls very short in the face of the multitudes presented here. ‘Variations On No Particular Theme’ is a pregnant name in which we can look for the key to this album. Of course,…

*2023 stock* Bloodstock themes, cascading drum fills, pumping bass lines, and flamethrower saxophone cries - Litterjug is a rollercoaster ride of joyful anarchy. Litterjug is a Copenhagen-based contemporary trash jazz trio featuring three original improvisers from Poland, Lithuania, and Denmark. The band's explorations are heavily rock-inspired, with a dose of abrasive free flow improvisations. The trio offers contrast-filled, action-packed music, sometimes rocking a simple groove, and other tim…

*2023 stock* "The West Coast Chamber Jazz Trio, recently formed, remains faithful to its name, in the sense that the undoubted chamber size and the jazz component, apparent in rhythmic melodic lines and improvisation always kept under control, are beautifully conjugated in the narrative modes, colloquialisms and relaxed of the Californian jazz, not only from the fifties and sixties, but also that one of the most recent landings …" - Libero Farnè

*2023 stock* "Celebrating a label's 35th anniversary at a venue as iconic as The Stone in New York City is already quite revealing of the nature of the music to be heard, i.e. definitely unusual and daring, definitely with no piano bar and no noisy cash register... But with the present celebration, there was an added element of surprise, as Andrea Centazzo — founder of the creative Ictus label and curator of the 12 nights Festival (April 1-14, 2012) -- brought for the first time ever to the hear…

*2023 stock* "Celebrating a label's 35th anniversary at a venue as iconic as The Stone in New York City is already quite revealing of the nature of the music to be heard, i.e. definitely unusual and daring, definitely with no piano bar and no noisy cash register... But with the present celebration, there was an added element of surprise, as Andrea Centazzo — founder of the creative Ictus label and curator of the 12 nights Festival (April 1-14, 2012) -- brought for the first time ever to the hear…

* First ever vinyl reissue of highly sought after French experimental jazz from the legendary Jef Gilson Remastered from the master tapes. * In 1971, the day after the death of Igor Stravinsky, Jef Gilson and his Unit (Pierre Moret and Jean-Claude Pourtier) made this curious homage to classical music. It is jazz, contemporary and electroacoustic music that the trio interrogate through a wild ‘noise’ session evoking as much John Cage as Pierre Henry, John Coltrane as the Percussions de Strasbourg…

*Dead stock copies coming  from the artist's archive. Possible wear due to the long storage* Limited and numbered first edition of 300 copies, signed by the artist. This incredible triple LP box contains the masterpieces of the percussive art of Andrea Centazzo. Realized in 1980, this album took Andrea Centazzo at the peak of his percussionist career.Indian Tapes is not, as one might be led to think, an album inspired by the music of native Americans (which consists mostly of simple monadic and …

*Dead stock copies coming  from the artist's archive. Possible wear due to the long storage* Original scene music by Andrea Centazzo with the collaboration of Roberto Mannuzzi on sax and electronics and Alessandra Doria on keyboards for the theatre piece Jacques e il suo padrone (Jacques And His Master) written by Milan Kundera.

* Dead stock copy coming  from the artist's archive. Possible wear due to the long storage *Compositions by Sylvano Bussotti played by percussionist Andrea Centazzo, recorded in 1982.

For their first release, Uroboro play nakedly romantic, passionate music which can also travel strange and disturbing territories. Keith Jafrate's compositions are designed to be completed through improvisation, so in a way they are never finished. But they are far from random, creating focused, narrative music that is lyrical, beautiful and fierce, passing through a range of moods, from balladry to abstraction, via sinuous, funky rhythms and outstanding solo work. Uroboro is Italian for ourobor…

For his third Discus Music, towering free jazz saxophonist Paul Dunmall has brought together an absolutely incredible group of musicians, including saxophonists Soweto Kinch and Xhosa Cole, vibraphonist Corey Mwamba and drummer Hamid Drake. Four punchy compositions and one group improvisation allow everyone maximum space for expression and exciting interaction. Recording session sponsor Tony Dudley-Evans writes: "The music was magnificent, full of energy and the name of the session, Bright Light…

"Un must per tutti i DJ! Un raro capolavoro della Polydor, che include la famosa Raindrops, Raindrops. Un must per chi ascolta Karin Krog per la prima volta. Un must per tutti gli amanti dell'ambient e del crossover." - Makoto Saito

The pianist and bandleader Frank Strazzeri enjoyed a distinguished jazz career. After backing Billie Holliday and Woody Herman, Strazzeri became a mainstay of the west coast jazz scene. His excellent album After The Rain, released by Catalyst in 1976, straddled different styles and moods, Strazzeri’s piano and synth melodies abetted by top accompaniment from Herman’s horn alumni Sam Most and Bobby Shew, playing alongside Cal Tjader’s bassist Harvey Newmark and percussionist Don Alias of Blood Sw…

*2023 stock* Following high praise for her debut release on Nice Music in 2022, a stack of live performances with an ever evolving cast of players and a collaborative release with Simon J Karis, Isobel D'Cruz makes her next move as Hantu - 'Zither Deluxe'. Puzzlingly uncategorisable, 'Zither Deluxe' is nothing short of a post-minimalist masterpiece. A meticulous capture of the Hantu ensemble in peak form, recorded in two continuous takes over a single day by Patrick Telfer (Helen Svoboda, Isolat…

*2023 stock* "The mid 1970s was an exciting time for free improvisation and a great deal was happening all over the world as like minded musicians were drawn to each other by a magnetic pull that had us crossing oceans and large distances of land to work together. England, America, Italy, Germany, Holland, Canada, Japan, Australia and many other territories all boasted scenes of various sizes, and players were mixing and matching in a wide variety of formations, across several generations. Recor…

*2023 stock* "There are no coincidences in life. Everything responds to the principle of cause and effect. In all that exists, what often seems to be the result of “chance happening” always comes from a precise and definite source located “somewhere out there,” but that in fact rests deep within each one of us. Everything is linked. There is a reason for everything that we find on our path, even if we do not understand what its purpose really is at the time of its first manifestation. It is ofte…

*2023 stock* When life started 4 billion years ago, Mars was also a blue planet. It lost its atmosphere and ever since then, there has been red and dead. It’s our own senselessness that we’re pushing our planet in the same direction. It’s a culture crisis rather than a climate crisis, one that can only be solved if we go right to the core of how we live as human beings. Jazz has always had a big spiritual connection with life and our place in the cosmos, searching for answers and finding meaning…

*2023 stock* "I started my musician career in 1970 as devoted jazz fan and hard practicing drummer. But I was also interested in electronics and experimental music, in improvising and composing. My goal was to blend in an unique form of musical expression all my interests, dream that 30 years later, I can happily say that I fully accomplished. Following the previously released Ictus collection in two discs (ICTUS 503) presenting the best of my early music recorded in solo and with my groups, her…

*2023 stock* Katarsis4 - saxophone quartet from Lithuania founded by Arminas Bižys, Kazimieras Jušinskas, Algirdas Janonis, and Danielius Pancerovas. Their music moves between structurally free improvisation, which makes it sound each time differently, as well as academic music and the motives of Lithuanian folk music. The saxophone quartet creatively presents the instrument itself - extending the use of saxophone by unusual methods. Also, the quartet not only uses extended techniques for extrac…

Recorded 9-17-2020 by Jim Clouse at Park West Studio in Brooklyn NY. Kirk Knuffke is one of the most distinctive improvising cornetists working today, becoming a force on the New York scene with his boundless creative virtuosity and comprehensive understanding of the jazz tradition. As a bandleader, Knuffke’s projects include a longstanding quartet with trombonist Brian Drye, bassist Mark Helias and drummer Jeff Davis, and co-leading Sifter with guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Matt Wilson. …

Mototeru Takagi (tenor saxophone) Kim Dae Hwan (percussion) Choi Sun Bae (trumpet). NoBusiness Records in cooperation with Japanese Chap-Chap Records has started a series of releases of unreleased concerts that took place in Japan in the 90s. Concerts were organised by big fans of free jazz and improvised music Takeo Suetomi and Sadamu Hisada. The idea of the series of the concerts was to arrange and record cooperative projects of American-European musicians with Asian musicians, as well as to r…

NoBusiness Records presents Live at Little John, Yokohama 1999 by Mototeru Takagi Quartet. Improvised & composed by Mototeru Takagi, Susumu Kongo, Nao Takeuchi and Shota Koyama. Recorded live on the 25th September, 1999 at Little John, Yokohama, Japan by Susumu Kongo and Nao Takeuchi. Mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios. Design by Oskaras Anosovas. Cover photo by Mitsuo Jofu 上不三雄. Booklet photos - Shota Koyama by Yutaka Narasaki 楢崎 豊 / Nao Takeuchi courtesy of Papillon / Mototeru Takagi by M…

NoBusiness Records presents Rested Turquoise by Szilard Mezei Tubass Quintet. Recorded on 21-22nd August, 2018, KCNS, Novi Sad, Serbia. Recording engineer - Lazar Živanac. Mixed and mastered by Szilárd Mezei & Lazar Živanac. Liner notes by Alexander Hawkins. Cover graphic by Erzsébet Mezei. Photo by Aleksandar Stojković. Design by Oskaras Anosovas. Produced by Danas Mikailionis. Co-producer - Valerij Anosov.Ervin Malina - double bass (right)Ernő Hock - double bass (left)Kornél Pápista - tuba (ce…

*2023 stock* Sampler of some of the most iconic figures in the British jazz scene. Comes with a book of 92 pages that contains the artist' profiles, brief history of British jazz and related discography. Notes on each track written by the composers. English/Italian text.

*2023* "Every now and then a recording comes out which renews the realization of how richly creative improvised music can be. What is intriguing is the idea of the well of introspection that must trigger the musicians’ process. The answer to the question “What comes next?” keeps the listener glued to the music. In the Ictus release, The Soul in the Mist, Andrea Centazzo, on drums, Mallet Kat and percussion, Nobu Stowe, on piano, and Perry Robinson, on clarinet, render the anticipation of “What c…

*2023 stock* "In ancient Rome, chariot racing was one of the most popular forms of entertainment. Young nobles used to fiercely race their chariots around the 7 hills of the city. People on their path had to scatter to get out of the way, as they stopped for no one.  But the event always generated strong spectator enthusiasm. In today’s New York, as this “Centazzo Invasion Orchestra” concert was progressing that evening at the Stone, I suddenly had a vision of such a mighty show. Like those Roma…

Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids are back with their first major new studio album in over 3 years, an epic, sprawling new work exploring the future, the past and the urgent reality of the present, ‘Afro Futuristic Dreams’.

There are some jazz musicians long known by cognoscenti for a mere handful of recordings: Dupree Bolton, Earl Anderza, Hasaan Ibn-Ali, Alan Shorter, Dewey Johnson. Add saxophonist Mark Reboul to that list. Before the release of this album, his discography consisted of four tracks on three albums on which he was a sideman. On Higher Primates’ Environmental Impressions (GM, 1987), he plays sax on two of the percussion-heavy album’s five tracks: a fragmentary track, and a sixteen-and-a-half-minute …

"In 2018, I had the good fortune to organize a session with two absolute heroes of music: Anthony Davis, and Kjell Nordeson. I'd been playing with Kjell in various groups for a few years, and had been studying with Anthony at UC San Diego; the three of us had played as a trio a handful of times. For the session, we played some of Anthony's older works, including some which referenced The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. With that idea of literature and music in mind, I brought some mi…

Tip! *200 coipes limited edition* This release is an orchestral expansion of the vocabulary of The Hatch. The duo work of Desprez and Rasmussen extrapolating into two local scenes in Texas in 2019. This album also features Sonic Transmissions artistic director Ingebrigt Håker Flaten who was living in Austin Texas from 2009 – 2020.

*300 copies limited edition* Sam Weinberg is a saxophonist and improviser living in New York City. Recent focus has been material for solo tenor saxophone, and trio music represented on Implicatures (Astral Spirits, 2023) which features Tom Rainey and Chris Lightcap.

In July of 2022, just one month before Jaimie Branch’s death sent shockwaves around the world, the trumpet player and composer was in Chicago at International Anthem studios putting finishing touches on an album. It was a suite of music she had composed and then recorded with her flagship ensemble, Fly or Die, over the course of a residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska. In her wake, the album was near complete, with only mixing tweaks, final titles, and artwork to…

Recorded live in concert with an acoustic string quartet in a colonial-era gaol during Vivid Festival in Sydney 2022. Godtet is: Godriguez: guitar. Andrew Bruce: keys. Dominic Kirk: percussion. Jan Bangma: bass. Tully Ryan: drums. Strings: Novak Manojlovic: Composer, conductor, additional synthesiser. Jack Ward: Cello. Phoebe Gilbert: Viola. Lydia Sawires: Violin. James Armstrong: Violin. Auxiliary live effects and soundscape: Jack Prest