Jazz & Improvisation / Contemporary

A fourth collection of Keith Jafrate's soulful music and poetry in the grand lineage of spiritual jazz, performed once more by a team of top drawer northern UK players who can interpret this music with power and sensitivity. With their fourth album on discus Uroboro continue to expand composition into improvisation, or perhaps set it free to become improvisation, or perhaps sabotage it with improvisation. by way of explanation, they offer an absorbing set of eight new pieces, four vocal and four…

*2026 stock. 500 copies limited edition* Lynx started in 2004 and is a doubledrumleadrhythmsectionpowerband. Based on Antonis’ compositions the music is developing in collective improvisations. Combination of arithmetical structures and spontaneous decisions. Hypnotic melodies, ecstatic drumming and extended sound trips. Studio prize 2005 of the Culture Senat in Berlin! Cool dark sounds in Jazzy and Latin ways!

'Tapestry: Koto' is a 3-album series produced by Nippon Columbia in the mid-1970s dedicated to one of the main instruments of Japanese traditional music: Koto. The beauty of the trilogy curated by composer Kiyoshi Yamaya, whose chapters are respectively dedicated to Sea, Hillside and Country, lies in the fact that they are a modern translation of tradition using newer and more avant-garde sound idioms, integrating the koto with jazz musicians. An original mix, a 'crossover’ that allows for the a…

The Köln Concert (50th Anniversary Edition) by Keith Jarrett celebrates one of the most legendary solo piano performances in jazz history. The 2025 special release includes remastered audio on double LP, newly curated liner notes, archival and contemporary photos, and exclusive bonus materials. Marking half a century since its epochal live recording in Cologne, the edition underscores the enduring impact and emotional allure of Jarrett’s improvisatory genius.​​

Moses Yoofee Trio, the Berlin group of pianist Moses Yoofee, drummer Noah Fürbringer and bassist Roman Klobe, came up through clips of their jams posted online, which drew a following and led to the 2023 mini-album Ocean on LEITER and a German Jazz Prize for live act of the year. Their 2025 debut album proper, MYT, expanded the improvised concept with fuller arrangements, landed on year-end lists and a German Jazz Award nomination, and sent them touring through Asia, the US and Europe. Chasing L…

This is not a Ben Vida, Booker Stardrum, and Will Epstein record; it’s a Play Time record. That’s a subtle but important distinction, for a couple reasons. One, the sound of Magic Object—a polymetric blend of improv and pulse minimalism for saxophone, drums, and Moog—doesn’t really sound anything like any of their many other ensembles or respective solo projects. And two, it was only while making Magic Object, their debut album, that Play Time realized they were a band at all. Let’s back up. The…

*2022 stock* Amazing 1976 record by drummer George Otsuka, Physical Structure is an amazing jazz-fusion record featuring Fumio Karashima on piano and Fender Rhodes and Shozo Sasaki on tenor sax. Check the surprising and sublime cover of Naima which alone justifies to get this record! Personell list: George Ostuka (drums), Shozo Sasaki (tenor and soprano sax), Fumio Karashima (piano, electric piano and synthesizer), Mitsuako Furuno (bass), Norio Ohno (percussion).

Imada's last album for TBM. The lyrical and flowing solo opening "Maki" is a reprise of the title track from his first solo album (JVC), the title track from TBM5003 (2), a reprise of TBM14 with electric piano (3) (2), a reprise of the title track from TBM5003; (3), a reprise of TBM14 with electric piano; and (4), an ethereal synth piece." - Koki Hanawa

*2022 stock* "Hidehiko Matsumoto Quartet – Sleepy released by Three Blind Mice. Album recorded in 1976  and it was DSD mastering from the original analogue master tapes. This record, made in 1976 in a one-horn quartet setting, showcases Matsumoto’s brilliant playing on both tenor saxophone and flute. He is a true master of both instruments and it is a great pleasure to hear him beautifully recorded by the people of Three Blind Mice. A masterpiece, with great sound." - Audiophile Music

*2022 stock* "Mindblowing sounds from Japanese bassist Isoo Fukui – one of a handful of 70s players on that scene who really helped reinvent the sound of his instrument in jazz! Isoo really drives the group here up from the bottom – by playing both bass and cello with these well-inflected notes that are heavy on soul and rhythm, and which often enforce a modal sensibility that's carried out perfectly by the vibes of Kazuhiro Matsuishi and piano of Hideo Ichikawa! A few numbers feature guitar fro…

*2023 stock* "This album, the first under the band's name in six and a half years, is a jazz alternative album with a multilingual and hardcore taste that differs greatly from previous albums.  The recording for this album started in June 2020, during a period when many of our activities were being cancelled due to Covid-19. It had been a while since I last met or played with the members of this band, with whom prior to the pandemic I would regularly get together for gigs at various venues or tr…

This 2013 debut album by South Korean bassist and composer Kim Sung-Bae is a remarkable masterpiece. Anchored by a two-horn quintet, the music blends Eastern and Middle Eastern modes with spiritual jazz, weaving a soundscape that is deeply emotional, beautiful, and profoundly moving. The overarching narrative carries an epic, cinematic scale that commands repeat listens. From the sublimely beautiful, oriental-tinged piano trio masterpiece ‘Eastern Restaurant’ to the spellbinding Middle Eastern m…

On Volume 3, Secular Music Group expand to a five‑piece and turn a single 4‑track tape machine into a labyrinth: live, no‑rehearsal performances that swell from lean modal vamps into ten‑part sound worlds where library funk, holy minimalism and jazz coexist.

Mondays at Enfield Tennis Academy, x2 LPs of long-form, lyrical, groove-based free improv by acclaimed guitarist & composer Jeff Parker's ETA IVtet is at last here. Recorded live at ETA (referencing David Foster Wallace), a bar in LA’s Highland Park neighborhood with just enough space in the back for Parker, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, & alto saxophonist Josh Johnson to convene in extraordinarily depthful & exploratory music making. Gleaned for the stoniest side-length cuts fro…

Wrens creates music that is modern and without immediate comparison. This is revolutionary art, both musically and lyrically. Had Miles Davis lived to be 100, continuing on his path of repeatedly changing the direction of jazz, it would be easy to imagine that by 2026 it could have sounded like Wrens, not only because of the heavily affected and brilliant trumpet playing, but because it feels so contradictory to the institutions that breed much of this music today. When asked about the meaning b…

"A fine musical trio is always more than the sum of its individual parts, and over two decades the grouping of pianist Michel Reis, bassist Marc Demuth and drummer Paul Wiltgen has developed a distinctive character that hasn’t simply yielded a number of fine recordings, but has helped to set Luxembourgish jazz on the international map. Now, working with an orchestra conducted by Vince Mendoza --who also penned some of the arrangements --and with guest saxophonist Joshua Redman, they have deliver…

In June of 2013, a new label for improvised music was born. After years of working with other labels in the “business,” saxophonist and label founder Dave Rempis saw the writing on the wall that many of those outlets for underground music would soon go belly up. With shifting modes of consumption and distribution due to the wave of digital options drowning out traditional music media, it became clear that artists working outside of the mainstream would have to take over their own production and …

The debut album from a free jazz piano trio founded by up-and-coming drummer Masatsugu Hattori, featuring pianist Nana Omori and bassist Masashi Kato, the album includes seven tracks that span free jazz and ambient/electro.

Sirenjaw documents the first meeting of three musicians who, while previously connected through various collaborations, had not performed together as a trio before this recording. The project brings together long-standing musical relationships: Lukas Koenig and Vinicius Cajado share a deep-rooted connection within the Viennese music scene; Koenig and Kit Downes have collaborated both live and on record; and Downes and Cajado have recently worked together in a range of ensemble contexts in Berlin…

Trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire and guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson's album Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings is due June 12, 2026, on Nonesuch Records. The album features four new compositions by each musician as well as one collaboration. The album track “Soundcheck“ is available today and can be heard below; you can pre-order the album here. The duo, long admirers of each other’s musicianship, met at Halvorson’s Brooklyn apartment and began playing together periodically, going back as fa…

Tip! "Belonging is a studio album by American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, recorded over two days in April 1974 and released on ECM later that year—the debut of Jarrett's "European Quartet", featuring saxophonist Jan Garbarek and rhythm section Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen. Because Jarrett's contract with ABC/Impulse! prevented him from performing with the quartet under his own name, the group became known as the 'Belonging' quartet." - Wikipedia

On Grzybnia, Błoto return from a three‑year silence with their most concept‑driven set yet: a darkly glowing, mycelium‑inspired tangle of jazz, house and techno pulses, where four players improvise like a single underground network branching in all directions.

2025 stock  A breathtakingly beautiful document of new compositions from a founding member of Chicago's AACM and one of the world's most important contemporary creative musician/composers. Featuring his ensemble Nda-Kulture and the California E.A.R. Unit, Tao-Njia blends jazz, blues, poetry and the cultural traditions of Africa, Asia, Europe, Indonesia and America into lyrical and profoundly moving music. Wadada Leo Smith-trumpter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser-has been active f…

On Alea Iacta Est, John Zorn hurls the piano concerto into a maelstrom: Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, Ches Smith and Sae Hashimoto navigate four years of volatile writing where ferocious counterpoint, free‑jazz impact and sudden lyric calm collide with game‑like inevitability.

The premier ensemble of Radical Jewish Culture, Masada is one of Zorn’s most popular, personal, long-lasting, and powerful projects. Here you find the mother lode—the long-awaited Tzadik release of the original quartet’s first studio recordings. Released in Japan by DIW from 1994–1997 and previously available only as hard-to-find Japanese imports, all ten CDs are presented here in their original configurations accompanied by an 84-page booklet filled with photos, scores, and over twenty essays o…

Louis Matute unveils Dolce Vita, a bold and vibrant album. Recorded at the legendary La Frette Studio, this record blends Honduran heritage with Brazilian influences, merging jazz, groove, Caribbean rock and vintage textures into a poetic and deeply committed work. Having gained recognition at prestigious festivals, Matute collaborates here with remarkable artists such as Joyce Moreno, Dora Morelenbaum, Gabi Hartmann and Rico TK. In March 2025, Louis set up camp at La Frette, a rock-tinged, vint…

**CD Version* “Peace is not the word to play” rapped Large Professor on Main Source’s 1991 debut album. His plea to stop abusing the word “peace” simply for rhetoric flair sounds just as valid in today’s genocidal world as it did in the streets of New York over 30 years ago. For Oiro Pena to name this album Béke, meaning peace in Hungarian – or white people in French Caribbean creole – it seems like they finally have something to say. With this group/concept/project called Oiro Pena, circling as…

Sven-Ake Johansson has referred to the book of compositions used for his Stumps project as the magnum opus of his small group writing. The top-notch quintet he assembled for the project includes some of his most trusted collaborators in trumpeter Axel Dörner and double bassist Joel Grip, complemented by the involvement of two younger but equally compelling French improvisers, pianist Simon Sieger and alto saxophonist Pierre Borel. A set of recordings made at the Berlin club Au Topsi Pohl were re…

Despite a 40-year age gap and the vast distance between Japan and Greece, pianist Masahiko Sato and guitarist Giotis Damianidis reveal themselves as kindred spirits on Thousand Leaves. Capturing their very first meeting—recorded live on February 2, 2024, at Jazz Spot Candy in Chiba, Japan—this album is a testament to the power of improvised music to dissolve boundaries of geography and generation. The rapport between Sato and Damianidis is so immediate and intuitive that one might imagine a much…

“Radiance” is the first album of solo piano improvisations from Keith Jarrett in a decade. The last such was “La Scala”, recorded 1995, released 1997. (In between, in 1999, Jarrett issued the home recording “The Melody At Night With You”, a solo album of standards and folk songs). Four years ago, Jarrett told interviewers it was unlikely he would return to solo piano performance. Having been sidelined for several seasons by illness, he had attempted two solo concerts in Japan in the autumn of 19…

** Edition of 300 copies. Hard cardboard gatefold cover ** To Keith... “You were so afraid of death, you spoke about it often… often with lucidity, with reason, but this fear disappeared very quickly when you sat down at the piano… There, the demons vanished, The ghosts disappeared, the beauty s 'installed… Your piano, you caressed it for so long, barely out of adolescence. In 1975, in Nancy, you deployed nearly a hundred feet to play your music, this "Septober Energy", the energy that one has a…

A cross-generational summit between the legendary pianist  Marilyn Crispell (member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet and Reggie Workman Ensemble) and Midwest improvising trio of bass  clarinetist Jason Stein, bassist Damon Smith, and drummer Adam Shead delivers all the range and expressivity one would expect from such seasoned players. The concert captured on Live at the Hungry Brain moves organically from searing free jazz to contemplative, lyrical balladry, all of conceived in the urgency of the…

*100 copies limited edition* "When AJ Lee stepped back into the ring in September 2025 - after a ten-year break - she introduced herself to a new generation of fans with the words: 'If you haven't heard of me, I am your favorite wrestler’s favorite wrestler.' That is exactly what came to my mind as a lead for this blurb when Pokusa asked me to write it. Because that’s what they are: your favorite indie darlings' favorite indie darlings (even though no one uses that term anymore, let alone identi…

Recorded at Studio Grez, Brussels, on March 10th, 2025, by Augusto Pirodda and Giotis DamianidisMixed by Augusto PiroddaMastered by Titos Kariotakis at Royal Alzheimer HallArtwork by Peter Jacquemyn Design by Jeroen Wille

Tip! *100 copies limited edition* "A Decent Run is the result of a journey that began in 2000 and was recorded in 2024, seven years after the death of Tom Raworth, whose poems I used as the basis for ten tracks—ten songs—to which I added two pieces by Steve Lacy. It is a journey through many different kinds of music, lyrics, images, and sounds, yet one shaped by a single principle: the idea of music and improvisation as a collective, choral process, in which space and prominence are given to ind…

SML is a Los Angeles based quintet featuring Anna Butterss, Jeremiah Chiu, Josh Johnson, Booker Stardrum, and Gregory Uhlmann.

*2026 stock. 300 copies limited edition* Since their formation in 2009, the Samuel Blaser Trio has been captivating audiences with their innovative sound and dynamic performances. Blaser Music is thrilled to present their second official release, a limited edition 10-inch blue vinyl that captures the essence of their artistry. This album was recorded during their recent tour in the UK, with a special stop at the renowned Steve Winwood Studio. The recording sessions were beautifully captured by J…

Trombonist-composer Samuel Blaser is one of jazz's most prolific voices, with 34 recordings as a leader or co-leader since 2008. On Rosina, he delivers his most personal album yet — eight originals drawing on Italian folk melodies and a deep reconnection with his family roots in Emilia-Romagna. The album takes its name from his maternal grandmother, Rosina Pierina Scarpioni — a wartime Resistance fighter who later moved to Switzerland, and a woman he never had the chance to meet. Reconnecting wi…

*2026 stock* Recorded in January/February 2013 by Martin Ruch at Funkhaus Nalepastrasse, Berlin, Germany with two Schoeps mk4 microphones on a boom, in ORTF or XY con guration, and Sound Devices – 702T or Zoom H4N recorder

Recorded live at Radio Studio Zurich on February 19, 1968, nearly seven months before Santana, previously considered the trio's debut , Bird Food is the earliest known document of the Pierre Favre Trio. The tape lay dormant in the drummer's personal archive for over half a century, until Pierre Favre and trombonist Samuel Blaser uncovered it while sorting through old recordings. The trio brings together Pierre Favre on drums, Irène Schweizer on piano, and Jiří Mráz on bass, who would later becom…