Jazz /
Naissoo Freeform Quintet
Naissoo Freeform Quintet is a vivid exploration of jazz improvisation and collective creativity, recorded by Estonian keyboardist and composer Tõnu Naissoo and a handpicked ensemble of accomplished local musicians. Captured during two highly spontaneous sessions in Tallinn in July 2024, the album foregrounds the chemistry of the quintet - with Naissoo’s Rhodes, Moog Source, and ARP Odyssey providing the core, and enhanced by the agile bass work of Mihkel Mälgand, the resonant bass clarinet of Me…
Le Cri Du Caire
Le Cri du Caire is a striking mosaic of Sufi poetry, jazz, and spoken word, led by the magnetic presence of Abdullah Miniawy alongside Peter Corser, Karsten Hochapfel, and Erik Truffaz. Fusing hypnotic loops with visceral strings and evocative brass, the album channels the hopes and struggles of Cairo’s youth into a transcendent musical ritual - challenging, inventive, and brimming with emotional intensity.
Hard Vibe
2025 stock Talibam! delights in creating music that cannot be pinned down within the safe-spaces of existing genres. With each new album, Talibam! reinvent their methodological palette in order to bolster a fresh clarity of joyous auditory surprise, something their fans have come to depend on. Talibam! focus on compositional clarity, with reverence for their diverse interest in genre. On Hard Vibe, they push the pulse of motorik rhythm through a psychedelic jazz filter. This time out, they have …
For Sepp (Selections From The Edgar Allan Poe Suite)
Over the course of five decades, the legendary Austrian free jazz collective Reform Art Unit (and their offshoot groups) have collaborated with countless musicians, including Don Cherry, Carla Bley, Evan Parker, and Jim Pepper. Documented collaborations with free jazz notables include Impressions (Kovarik's Musikothek, 1978) with Anthony Braxton and Clifford Thornton; Subway Performances (Granit, 1994) and Illumination (InRespect, 1995) with Sunny Murray; and With Milo Fine (Granit, 1999). Milo …
Descension
2025 stock A harrowing layered work of solo saxophone and electronics, Descension is at once beautifully elegiac and unflinchingly primal. Patrick Shiroishi is one of the key artists to emerge from the current L.A. free improvisation avant-underground; his first vinyl release is a spiritual journey that reveals his deeply reflective and unique musical vision. Descension is a sonic meditation on the legacy of a dark history and its echoing relevance in the present era.
The Bottle Tapes
Selections from the Empty Bottle Jazz and Improvised Music Series (1996-2005) is a six-CD anthology that captures the vibrant, unpredictable pulse of Chicago’s improvisational scene. Meticulously compiled from over 500 performances curated by John Corbett and Ken Vandermark, this box set chronicles a crucial era with recordings from nearly 100 international artists, immersing listeners in the fearless experimentation that defined the Empty Bottle’s celebrated Wednesday nights.
Obliquity
2025 stock Obliquity is a free jazz record, if you'll forgive the use of such a hoary, old fashioned phrase. Its scorching, heads-down momentum, rhythm and drive places it in direct line of descent from the fierce originators of the genre: Ayler, Sanders, Graves, Frank Wright. It also swings. At times it dances.
Obliquity is a free jazz record through the prism of the improvisational movement in Europe, though. This is no attempt at polite revivalism or looking back/up to the 1960s. Wilkinson/Ed…
Free Mammals
2025 stock Reissue of an exceptional album of improvisations, recorded when percussionist Charles K. Noyes was lured to the Bay Area in the summer of 1979 by Henry Kaiser. Noyes and Maercks had played regularly as a duo when Owen was still based in Worcester, MA. But he'd shifted his ass westward in the wake of the Teenage Sex Therapist session (FTR 153-2LP), which had been organized by Kaiser following their collaborations in the band, Monster Island. Half of the album was recorded live at Woo…
Alone We Are Alone As Far Down As the Sediment
2025 stock Originally released February 12, 2022. MANAS -- otherwise known as the duo of iconoclastic guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer extraordinaire Thom Nguyen -- have made tsunami-sized waves in the free jazz and improv scene with their numerous tape and LP releases (drawing praise and support from such luminaries and fellow-travelers as Bill Nace and Ben Chasny) and their face-melting live shows, including high profile touring with Godspeed! You Black Emperor. Back in the summer of 2019 the…
West and East Baying
West and East Baying by Oakland Reductionist Orchestra investigates the porous boundaries between acoustic improvisation and electronic sound, favoring the subtle friction and microdynamics of “lowercase” performance practice. Across two extended pieces—one live, one studio-crafted—this Bay Area supergroup reveals the intricate textures, restrained intensity and deep listening that define the West Coast reductionist scene.
Free Jazz and Improvisation on LP and CD, 1965-2024 (Book)
More copies due in November. 428 pages. This is exactly what we need. Big time. Johannes Rød returns with the massively expanded edition of his essential guide - a monument of discographic research spanning six decades of creative music documentation. 381 pages plus 47 unnumbered pages of label artwork. 185 labels mapped with obsessive detail and passionate advocacy. From the explosive emergence of free jazz in the mid-1960s through ESP-Disk, BYG Actuel, and Actuel, through the European improvis…
Ajomasé
Ajomasé marks the influential debut of Gasper Lawal, legendary Nigerian percussionist, now presented in a vibrant reissue by Strut Records. Originally released in 1980, the album bridges Yoruba traditions and Western funk, propelled by layered drumming and energetic ensemble playing. Each track is infused with rhythmic invention and charismatic flair.
Everything Is Possible
Everything Is Possible, the third album from Peace Flag Ensemble, pushes the boundaries of jazz improvisation and ambient experimentation. Led by Jon Neher’s lyrical piano and complemented by subtle electronic flourishes from Michael Scott Dawson, the group’s ensemble dialogue traverses gentle melodic passages and unexpected textural turns, resulting in a collection that is both introspective and quietly assertive.
Orbital
Orbital is the debut album from Orbital Ensemble, a Toronto-based jazz fusion group melding psychedelic grooves, Brazilian MPB influences, and intricate improvisation. The resulting LP weaves together melodic openness, vintage moods, and crisp ensemble playing, offering an immersive sonic experience that feels both exploratory and deeply rooted.
Mother Africa
Mother Africa by Byard Lancaster radiates with spiritual energy and improvisational daring, weaving together free jazz, blues, and soulful overtones. The album’s exploratory language and deep sense of groove reflect Lancaster’s boundary-pushing ethos, resulting in a vivid listening experience that braids together African themes, fluid ensemble interplay, and Lancaster’s distinctive melodic sensibility.
Us
Us by Byard Lancaster is a vibrant suite of improvisations driven by searching melodic motifs and propulsive rhythms. In a compact yet dynamic trio format, Lancaster’s alto saxophone and flute navigate territory mapped equally by jazz tradition and the pursuit of abstraction, making the album a crucial benchmark for fans of adventurous 1970s jazz.
Sciamachy
At last, the trade edition of Schiamachy has appeared, following the test-press/tour version by more than a couple of months. The album's title is a term used to describe mock battles between warriors. It's a fair description of the music on this record, although it's safe to say the battle was a friendly one. Michael Zerang is a very well-known percussionist, composer and improviser from Chicago, with an amazing jazz-based discography. He previously appeared on the Illinois Glossalia LP (FTR 28…
The Bliss of Bliss
With The Bliss of Bliss, Pat Thomas distills four decades of radical pianism into a transcendent live improvisation. Recorded in Geneva in 2024, the album transforms the solo piano into a realm of shifting densities and ecstatic form, where each note seems to create and erase the space it inhabits.
A Mountain Sees a Mountain
A Mountain Sees a Mountain, the new duo recording by Hamid Drake and Pat Thomas, captures two master improvisers engaged in an intimate yet expansive dialogue. Released in October 2025 via Old Heaven Books, the album bridges African rhythmic philosophy and European avant-piano traditions, achieving a deep equilibrium between motion, meditation, and melodic abstraction.
Rinse Cycle
150 copies only. French saxophonist Sakina Abdou and Philadelphia guitarist Bill Nace present Rinse Cycle, a striking first encounter between two of improvised music's most uncompromising voices. Released October 15, 2025 on Open Mouth Records, this LP captures the duo's incendiary exchange recorded during a U.S. tour that included performances at Philadelphia's legendary Solar Myth. Abdou, whose searing solo work Goodbye Ground (Relative Pitch, 2022) established her as a formidable presence in …