"Among the most artistically successful alchemists of Indie Psychedelic Folk, Maine-based duo Arborea consists of Shanti Curran (vocals, banjo, "banjimer" [a banjo-dulcimer hybrid], harmonium, ukulele, sawing fiddle, and hammered dulcimer) and Buck...

Recorded July 25th, 1970 during Ayler's final concert series. Quite good sound quality for something was sitting in the vaults for 35 years and a minor revelation! Albert Ayler (tenor saxophone, soprano, musette, vocal); Allen Blairman (drums); Steve...

"Michael Snow is a Canadian national treasure, a true Renaissance man. He assembled a stellar group to improvise a sound track for his art film, titled Walking Woman, featuring a silhouette that is rumored to have been inspired by Carla Bley."...

In my opinion, if you have to pick one album to answer the question of "What was Albert Ayler's music all about?", this is that album. As Chip Stern said, "This clocks in at only 29:31, but I guarantee you won't spend a more intense half-hour in your life."

"This 50th Anniversary Expanded Edition includes as a bonus the track briefly substituted for "Spirits" on an early vinyl edition. It is the same tune known as "Vibrations" on the album of that title on Arista/Freedom (aka Ghosts when issued...

Duck Baker – guitar
Derek Bailey - guitar on "Indie Pen Dance" (2002)
Steve Beresford - piano on "Duo for 225 strings" (2009)
John Butcher - tenor saxophone on "The Missing Chandler" (2009)
Mark Dresser bass on "Shenandoah" and "Pope Slark" (1994)
Michael Moore - alto saxophone on "Imp Romp 2" (2008)
Roswell Rudd - trombone on "East River Delta Blues" and "Signing Off" (2002)
Alex Ward - clarinet and Joe Williamson - bass on "Ode to Jo" (2010)...

"In Search of the Mystery, Gato Barbieri's debut album as leader, was recorded March 15, 1967, on the heels of his work on Don Cherry's famed Blue Note recordings: Complete Communion and Symphony for Improvisers. This avant-jazz masterpiece from the...

One of the greats and also one of the most distinctive voices of "American Primvitive Guitar" music of the 60s and beyond!

"Robbie Basho (1940-86), who died young after a stroke, never got his due in the culture at large, but steel-string guitar enthusiasts have known for decades that he was one of the greats of "American Primitivism".
Technically adept and compositionally imaginative, fusing the music of many cultures into a mesmerizing solo style, he has been an inspiration for many; his...

New issue of a classic early free-jazz work, featuring the compositions of Carla Bley and including Marshall Allen, Dewey Johnson, Eddie Gomez and Milford Graves.

"Pianist Paul Bley's early ESP free jazz session combines the influence of the..

“In a two-decade career, Raymond Byron Magic Raposa has recorded six albums as Castanets, another as Raymond Byron and the White Freighter, and has worked with musicians ranging from Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Matthew Houck (Phosphorescent), and Sufjan Stevens, to Liz Janes, Jana Hunter, Nathan Hubbard (Trummerflora, Cosmologic), and John McCauley (Deer Tick). Over the course of that time, his music has been called part of the new weird America movement, freak-folk, psychedelic folk, and indie folk...

Don Cherry (trumpet); Gato Barbieri (tenor saxophone); Bo Stief (bass); Karl Berger (vibraphone); Aldo Romano (drums).

"The final volume of this three-part series, containing two extended performances of 'Complete Communion' and 'Remembrance.'..

“Immortal Light is the debut solo album by guitarist-singer-songwriter Buck Curran. Since 2005, Buck has recorded and performed as one half of the alt-folk duo Arborea. To date, Arborea has released five albums, including 2013's ESP-Disk' release Fortress of the Sun.
Buck's music has developed through a decade of playing with Arborea, and the experience of playing blues and folk throughout the 1990s. He also draws inspiration from the deep well of folk and rock of the 1960s (Robbie Basho...

"Guitar tones linger and reverberate with a mystical translucence"-Dusted.

"Curran's music invokes swarming natural forces, looking for the borderline between the real and the sublime and, maybe, the supernatural."-Jesse Jarnow / Relix

"On Buck Curran's second solo album, Morning Haikus, Afternoon Ragas, the emphasis switches to acoustic guitar, as compared to his first solo album, Immortal Light. Side A, all solo acoustic instrumentals, seems to have fallen out of a wormhole emanating...

"The mournful, elegant tones that neo-folk artist Buck Curran draws from voice and guitar have a capacity to linger in the air long after the notes have faded . . . Curran sings with the gravelly decorum of Mark Lanegan but the songs remain, bewitchingly, just over the next horizon."-Peter Watts, UNCUT (8/10)

“No Love Is Sorrow is the third solo album by American singer-songwriter-guitarist Buck Curran. The album's primary influence draws upon personal experience, along with an idiosyncratic...

There wasn't a hell of a lot going on in music for me in the early 1980's. Even many of the punk bands had died off and in their place were what my wife referred to 'punk disco'. And it was especially grim in terms of what bands were touring around. The one very bright spot on the scene was the pre-Knitting Factory harmolodic/punk funk combination from whence sprang (in alphabetical order, so I am not playing favorites): Curlew, Doctor Nerve, Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society, James Blood....

"Best known for his collaborations with Paul Flaherty, Michael Flower and Thurston Moore as well as a year-and-a-half stint as the drummer for Björk's Volta tour, Chris Corsano is widely considered to be one of the most adaptive drummers of hiS...

"John D. Thomas's band of the 1980s, Serious Business (heard on Serious Business, focused on his fusion and "free funk" compositions played with an electric sound. Extremely Serious Business marked a turning point, a return to a more acoustic setting...

Joe McPhee - tenor saxophone
Louie Belogenis - tenor and soprano saxophones
Joe Morris – bass
Charles Downs – drums

"It is an interesting question how old 'free jazz' is. At some point, even a theme and a plan became optional. In the ESP-Disk' catalog, 'Taneou' on the Giuseppi Logan Quartet's eponymous album sounds like this approach of complete freedom starting from scratch; it was recorded on November 11, 1964. Joe McPhee, in 1967, appeared on Clifford Thornton's album Freedom and.

Bára Gísladóttir - double bass, effects, composition

“Bára Gísladóttir is an Icelandic composer and double bassist based in Copenhagen. She is an active performer and regularly plays her own music, mostly solo or with her long-time collaborator Skúli Sverrisson. Additionally, she is the double bassist of Elja Ensemble. Occasionally, she performs as a soloist with ensembles or orchestras, most recently in her own double bass concert, "Hringla," with the Copenhagen Philharmonic.
Every sound...

Also known as "Burton Greene Quartet".
"Reissue of the 1st Burton Greene album on ESP-Disk, recorded 12/18/65. Featuring Burton Greene (piano, ), Marion Brown (alto saxophone), Henry Grimes (bass), Dave Grant (percussion), Frank Smith (tenor), Tom..

"As one of the most recorded bassists in the ESP-Disk catalog, Henry Grimes made his debut on ESP with Perry Robinson on clarinet, lending his unique Klezmer approach to the New Music. This adventurous album is motivating and inviting to the listener...

"Recorded in Holland on December 21, 1966, Music From Europe was a strong statement of European free jazz from one of its first and strongest leaders. Over the beautifully structured compositional suites are strong blowing and improvising by both the...

"The Rounders first electric outing from '67, and the only one to feature their most cosmos-expanding lineup (including playwright Sam Shephard). This is the sound of speed-shooting hillbillies discovering the secrets of life in the sewers below...

Infamous (that title, baby!), never-before released free-jazz session makes its first appearance here!

"Despite the profound obscurity of Norman Howard’s music, and that of his mate Joe Phillips, it’s crucial as a window not only into...

David Murray - tenor sax
Oliver Lake - flute, soprano & alto sax, flugel horn, talking drum, cowbell
Wadada Leo Smith - trumpet, soprano trumpet, flugel horn, Indian flute
Michael Gregory Jackson - acoustic guitar, vocal, electric guitar, electric mandolin, bamboo flute, timpani, marimba, percussion

"Before his career defining records on Arista/Novus in the 80s and 90s, jazz and fusion guitarist Michael Gregory Jackson recorded his debut for ESP-Disk'. The sessions, recorded in New

Korean pianist Eunhye Jeong is a game-changer. She's jazz from a different perspective. She's a pianist who doesn't sound like anyone else on the scene.
In her liner notes for the release, Jeong writes, "I made my first solo piano recording under the name Chi-Da. Chi-Da and Nolda can both be translated as 'play.' While Chi-Da refers to physical motions that produce sounds by crashing together two objects, Nolda is more associated with playful activities. One may interpret this word as a fun...