Jazz /
Mountain In The Clouds
Originally released in 1972, bassist Miroslav Vitouš’s acclaimed album Mountain in the Clouds returns to the spotlight as a remixed, expanded edition of his influential 1970 debut, Infinite Search. Widely celebrated as a seminal document in the birth of jazz-fusion, this recording chronicles the early, creative explosion of a new musical era. With Mountain in the Clouds, Vitouš pushes the limits of jazz bass, blending lyrical improvisation and experimental technique to striking effect. The album…
Extraordinary Popular Delusions
Two decades ago, an all-star assembly of Chicago improvisers started a new band, drawing its name from an 1841 book by Charles Mackay: Extraordinary Popular Delusions. With weekly gigs at a spot in Chicago called Hotti Biscotti, Jim Baker, Mars Williams, Brian Sandstrom, and Steve Hunt honed their sound, which could be ferocious or nerdy or diffuse, as they moment required. After a couple years, the quartet moved to a regular Monday session at Beat Kitchen, where they have maintained their weekl…
Mwandishi
This album is one of Hancock's first departures from the traditional idioms of jazz, as well as the beginning of an original and creative style which eventually appealed to a wider audience. In addition, Mwandishi was Hancock's attempt at continuing the musical principles and styles he explored in his previous experiences with Miles Davis. Mwandishi was recorded at Wally Heider Studios Studio C, in San Francisco, California in January 1971, by Hancock's Mwandishi Sextet. The recording incorporat…
Echoes
2007 release ** ""Echoes," a 2006 live quintet featuring Olivieri alongside Innarella on saxophone, Battiston on piano, and the prodigious rhythm section of Parker and Drake. A pulsating energy that free avant-garde revisits with a distinctive, modern harmonic structure, with clear structures that allow for intense improvisational vigor. Five dense tracks of near-perfect dialogue, with Innarella and Olivieri chasing each other in a play of references underscored by Battiston's percussive touch a…
En Corps
2012 release ** "Two for two, Dark Tree. Last year’s Pourtant les Cimes des Arbres was a challenging, powerful piece of music, a perfect snapshot of the bold, demanding improvisation currently being produced on the French scene. It was also a hell of a way to launch a record label. So, even after multiple listenings, it’s still a little hard to digest the fact that their follow-up—En Corps, with Eve Risser on piano, Benjamin Duboc on bass and Edward Perraud on drums—is even more challenging and …
Two Felt-Tip Pens: Live At Moers
Balance Point Acoustics proudly announces the release of "Two Felt-Tip Pens: Live At Moers," a strikingly original album recorded live at the renowned Moers Festival in Germany and dedicated to the late Hans Schneider (1951–2024). The release features the adventurous trio of German saxophonist Stefan Keune, American guitarist Sandy Ewen, and acclaimed bassist and label curator Damon Smith, three master improvisers converging in an equilateral triangle of spontaneous sonic exploration.
"Two Felt-…
Miniature Paintings And The Impossible Warehouse
*2025 stock* Founded in the Winter of 2017 Adam Shead’s Adiaphora Orchestra is a large mixed chamber orchestra performing the compositions and conductions of percussionist composer, and educator Adam Shead. The Adiaphora Orchestra, located in Chicago, IL, is comprised of the cities finest rising star improvisers from a variety of performance idioms and practices. Including a full string, brass, woodwind, auxillary, and rhythm section the ensemble performs what Shead calls “indifference music”. A…
Full Cycle, Thread New.
*2025 stock* Full Cycle, Thread New. is a long form composition in three movements by Chicago multi-disciplinary artist Adam Shead. The piece focuses heavily on concepts of reformation, regeneration, non-linear time dynamics, and cyclical history. Throughout the three movements (which features Shead alongside acclaimed Chicago improvised music stalwarts Jeff Kimmel, clarinets; Ishmael Ali, cello/electronics; Matt Piet, piano; and Andrew Scott Young, double bass.) the quintet effortlessly intertw…
Volumes & Surfaces
*2025 stock* Balance Point Acoustics proudly presents Volumes & Surfaces, a bold new statement in contemporary free jazz from the extraordinary trio of Jason Stein (bass clarinet), Damon Smith (double bass), and Adam Shead (drums). Recorded in Chicago at Elastic Arts and The Hungry Brain, this album showcases three of creative music’s most distinctive voices in full flight.
Volumes & Surfaces reveals the trio’s uncanny synergy, adventurous spirit, and unyielding commitment to improvisational exp…
Sens Radiants
2014 release ** "Recorded at the Écouter pour l’Instant Festival in the summer of 2013, Sens Radiants showcases an hour-long performance of Lazro on baritone saxophone, Duboc on bass, and Lasserre on a stripped-down drum kit. In true European tradition, the trio has always presented a music that seems completely divorced from any of free improvisation’s jazz heritage. Like Portant Les Cimes Des Arbres, Sens Radiants is steeped in rhythm, though not of the toe-tapping, beat-counting sort. There’s…
Moment Précieux (LP)
Original 1987 LP on Les Disques Victo of electric guitar and soprano/alto saxophone duets by these amazing musicians recorded live at the 1986 Victoriaville Festival.
From Now On (LP)
Rare 1967 original first album on ESP by German vibraphonist featuring Carlos Ward, Henry Grimes and Ed Blackwell. One of the most obscure ESP albums, never re-issued on either CD or LP.
Who Is Who? (LP)
The first 1979 LP on FMP with gatefold sleeve original innersleeve by the Orchestra featuring John Tchicai and a host of German musicians, never re-issued on either CD or LP.
In Holland (2LP)
Original 1981 double LP edition with gatefold sleeve on BVHaast of the Kollektief's finest album full of superb orchestrations.
Nipples (CD)
Rare first and only CD re-issue of the essential early manifesto of European improvisation, featuring Brötzmann, Han Bennink, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Fred Van Hove, Buschi Niebergall.
Machine Gun (LP)
Very rare 1972 edition on FMP (with ”Mierendorffstrasse 19” address printed on the back cover) of one of the monuments of European free music by the Octet featuring Peter Kowald, Han Bennink, Sven-Åke Johansson, Fred Van Hove and Evan Parker a.o.. Music has rarely been as wild, energic and free as here.
Machine Gun (LP)
Very rare 1972 edition on FMP (with ”Mierendorffstrasse 19” address printed on the back cover) of one of the monuments of European free music by the Octet featuring Peter Kowald, Han Bennink, Sven-Åke Johansson, Fred Van Hove and Evan Parker a.o.. Music has rarely been as wild, energic and free as here.
Outspan No 1 (LP)
Original first edition on FMP of the 1975 album by a quartet of improvisation giants, including FMP catalogue.
Outspan No 2 (LP)
Original first edition on FMP of the 1975 album by a trio of improvisation giants, including FMP catalogue.
Opened, But Hardly Touched (2LP)
Original double album with gatefold sleeve on FMP from 1980, with original innersleeves.