Chrome Hill Duo:
Asbjørn Lerheim electric baritone guitar, electronics
Roger Arntzen double bass, electronics

Dōjō
Michiyo Yagi electric 21-string koto, electronics
Tamaya Honda drums

"A Norwegian jazz-rock quartet steeped in Americana that has spawned six albums and countless live performances, Chrome Hill has been an integral part of the lives of Asbjørn Lerheim and Roger Arntzen for over two decades. In 2014 Lerheim and Arntzen found an opportunity to visit Tokyo and...

Asbjørn Lerheim baritone guitar
Atle Nymo tenor saxophone
Torstein Lofthus drums
Roger Arntzen double bass

"That’s not news now: Scandinavian jazz is in love with Americana, importing aspects of Country & Western and Appalachian folk, and even using its instruments, in projects gradually difficult to categorise. Each project still individually unique, and like their fellow countrymen Huntsville, who mixes banjo and pedal steel guitar with Indian tabla machine and shruti boxes...

"Percussionist and composer Domen Cizej’s vision surpasses the limits of the ordinary. On his debut Introducing Domen Cizej, the Amsterdam-based artist introduces himself in full range. A box set of five albums, each with a different ensemble, message, and power, offers an opportunity to hear Cizej’s vision in depth and in totality. The box set opens with the thunder of an eight-member percussion ensemble that can be experienced as a “body in a repetitive coordinated motion, aiming at transcending its...

Cameron Ralston bass
Jason Scott saxophone
Bob Miller trumpet
Alan Parker guitar
Toby Summerfield guitar
Scott Clark drums

"I've been watching drummer and composer Scott Clark for a few years now & he is really developing into a major force in music. This is composed free-ish jazz and includes two electric guitarists which give it more of a rock / postrock feel than most free jazz. One of the guitarists is the great Toby Summerfield of Algernon and Larval!...

Zack Clarke piano and electronics
Chris Irvine cello
Charlotte Greve saxophone, clarinet, flute
Nick Dunston double bass
Leonid Galaganov percussion, waterphone, shakuhachi

"Mesophase is a term used in physics describing a state of matter that is neither liquid nor solid, sharing properties of both while defining a state unique unto itself. By extension, the concept can also apply to a reconciliation of emotional polarities or conflicting ideas. Zack Clarke leverages the idea of a...

Alberto Conde piano
Carlos Barretto double bass
Alexandre Frazão drums
Guest artist on Embalo para Bernardo: José Valente viola

"By this time, the usual listeners of the Clean Feed catalogue are familiar with the name of the late Portuguese pianist and composer Bernardo Sassetti – the Lisbon-based label released five records with his name. Among those listeners, many musicians from other countries admire his exquisite and very personal writing and his astonishing work with the black

Sean Conly double bass
Michaël Attias alto saxophone
Satoshi Takeishi drums

"No one gets a free ride in life. Sooner or later, everyone ever born has to deal with their own share of obstacles, rocky roads and missteps. it is in those times that our true selves emerge, our mettle tested and formulated. In those moments, the best we can do is stay true to our selves and our beliefs, and surround ourselves with a community of strong likeminded individuals and comrades....

Taylor Ho Bynum, cornet, flugelhorn / Harris Eisenstadt, drums / Alexander Hawkins, piano / Dominic Lash, double bass.

"The same ocean separating the Old Continent and the New World can join the musicians of both shores. From the United Kingdom..

Thomas Johansson trumpet / Kristoffer Alberts saxophones / Ola Høyer double bass / Gard Nilssen drums.

"Cortex? No, this isn’t jazz of the cerebral kind – even considering that the approach in “Avant-Garde Party Music” is very much the intelectual one coming from the bebop / hard bop era (when the music seated its users, inviting them to listen and not prioritarily to dance) and approaching our times through the free jazz evolutive line. Avant-garde the music certainly is, but you can still party..

Thomas Johansson, cornet / Kristoffer Alberts, tenor and baritone saxophones / Ola Høyer, double bass / Gard Nilssen, drums.

I saw this wonderful band open up for Bushman's Revenge and they were a great, great outfit. Anything by them comes....

Thomas Johansson, cornet / Kristoffer Alberts, tenor and baritone saxophones / Ola H�yer, double bass / Gard Nilssen, drums.

"Ornette Coleman�s partnership with Don Cherry had in the frontline formed by John Zorn and Dave Douglas in the band Masada a welcomed heritage. Now is Cortex�s turn to continue that lineage concerning the interactive work between an alto alto and baritone (Kristoffer Alberts) and a trumpet (or, in the case of Thomas Johansson, a cornet). With double bassist Ola H�yer and...

Mário Costa composition, drums and electronics
Marc Ducret guitar
Benoît Delbecq piano, prepared piano, analog synthesizer and electronics

"In just a few years, Portuguese drummer Mário Costa became a serious case of success in the international jazz scene. We noticed him first playing in two key records to understand the rich reality of creative jazz in Portugal, “Nebulosa” and “Partícula”, as a member of the band lead by Hugo Carvalhais. In the second of these albums, the soprano...

James Carney, piano / Stephan Crump, double bass.

"If you still think there's an untraversable frontier between the so-called mainstream and the so-called avant-garde, it's because you're not noticing what's going on. And what's going on is....

Joachim Badenhorst clarinet, bassclarinet, tenor saxophone
Eirikur Orri Olaffson trumpet, electronics
Sean Caprio drums, guitar, lead vocal on track 5
Brice Soniano double bass
Pascal Niggenkemper double bass
Frantz Loriot viola, lead vocal on track 7
Nico Roig guitar, vocal impro on track 7
"Recorded live in the Ljubljana Jazz Festival (Slovenia), the Carate Urio Orchestra isn’t really a big band – and indeed it can sound like one – but a septet. One piece can go from the most...

Darren Johnston, trumpet / Aram Shelton, alto saxophone, Bb clarinet, bass clarinet / Lisa Mezzacappa, double bass / Kjell Nordeson, drums, percussion.

Great new band with some familiar names; all play great, but Darren has released a previous...

Ingrid Laubrock, sax / Kris Davis, piano / Mat Maneri, viola / Tom Rainey, drums / Trevor Dunn, bass.

I know I say this a lot, but holy moly, what a great band of players!

"Over the last couple of years in New York, one method for...

Kris Davis, piano / Ingrid Laubrock, tenor saxophone / Tyshawn Sorey, drums.

"This exciting new trio release sees Drummer Tyshawn Sorey, pianist Kris Davis and reedist Ingrid Laubrock, all extremely thoughtful and engaging composer-improvisers...

Fulco Ottervanger, piano / Lieven Van Pée, double bass / Simon Segers, drums.
"After the acclaimed partnership with Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva, put to record in “The Detour Fish” (2014), the Belgian trio De Beren Gieren is back to explore new territory. The main focus is still on the piano-double bass-drums format, but now, as the band announces, «adding an electronic sediment to our acoustic trio sound to create a multilayered, kaleidoscopic work of art». The music keeps flowing...

Bram De Looze piano / Lester St-Louis cello / Daniel Levin cello / Flin Van Hemmen drums / Bo Van Der Werf baritone saxofone / Robin Verheyen tenor and soprano saxofone / Gebhard Ullmann tenor saxophone, bass clarinet & bass flute

"Only 24 years of age, Belgian pianist and composer Bram De Looze is no longer a new value demanding our attention: he is one of the most notable musicians of a new generation dedicated in Europe to jazz. After the success of his LABtrio, Septych represents his upgrading...

Mark Turner tenor saxophone
Benoît Delbecq piano
John Hébert double bass
Gerald Cleaver drums

"'A thoughtful chill runs through the music of Benoît Delbecq, a French pianist of investigative temperament and crystalline technique. There’s a ton of compressed energy in his playing, but he projects an unflappable calm". These lines from the New York Times in 2010 by jazz critic Nate Chinen offer a pertinent description of Delbecq's music. Delbecq is a multi-awarded Parisian pianist and

Frantz Loriot viola
Antoine Chessex tenor saxophone
Cédric Piromalli prepared piano
Christian Wolfarth percussions, cymbals

"Der Verboten is a new version of the partnership between violist Frantz Loriot and pianist Cédric Piromalli originally called Treffpunkt, the German word for “meeting point”. Originally they had the contributions of Mikko Innanen and Christian Weber. When the guests became Sam Kulik and Brad Henkel, the name changed to Kaijo, which is, simply, the term...

Michael Dessen, trombone and electronics / Christopher Tordini, bass / Dan Weiss, drums.

"Though outside the New York spotlight, California-based trombonist Michael Dessen has crafted a unique body of music, garnering a steady stream of acclaim..

Michael Dessen trombone and computer
Christopher Tordini bass
Dan Weiss drums

"Praised as a "musician for this moment" (Downbeat) for his imaginative work with music technology, trombonist Michael Dessen culminates over a decade with his electro-acoustic trio in this fourth Clean Feed release, an homage to the late Yusef Lateef.
After studying with Lateef for several years and making his debut as an improviser on one of Lateef's albums in 1996, Dessen has since carved his own...

José Dias guitar

"Here’s a solo guitar album that matters and makes a point. And here’s a good surprise, marking a turn in the musical career of Portuguese guitarist José Dias (also a researcher of the Contemporary Arts Department at Manchester Metropolitan University), who has been until recently committed to inoculate a sense of modernity in the tradition of jazz. The focus now goes way beyond the post-bop format of his previous records, either because the vocabulary is related to rock...

"Lingering melodies, dreamy abstractions, and clever instrumentations characterize the music of Jorrit Dijkstra. In his new suite of compositions "Pillow Circles", he matches four American musicians from the New York and the Chicago scenes, Tony...