“American drummer Chris Corsano and French saxophonist Christine Abdelnour have been working as aduo for several years and perform regularly in Europe. The disc « Quand fond la neige, où va le blanc ?» (Where Does the White Go When the Snow Melts?) is the highlight of their teaming.
The association of the two most talented musicians of the "new" generation offers a music of incredible richness in which the duo merges like tectonic plates of different densities, moving through intricate and complex...

“Gardener starts with a track that is just over a minute long. "Song of the pylon", had me more intrigued than riveted and was followed up with a 15 minute brain teaser "The changes wrought by the recurring use of tools" where harmonium, harpsichord, and piano are used to create an almost jack hammering effect where both musicians, who are credited with all three instruments, throw themes, fragments of ideas, and phrases at earth other at a dizzying pace.
There is some greatness on Gardener like...

Liz Allbee: Electronics, Trumpet, Quadraphonic Trumpet, Voice, Field Recordings, Acoustic Homemade Instruments

“Liz Allbee is fascinated by the guttural, proto-linguistic qualities of musical voices. On Rille she performs with her trumpet, quad-trumpet, voice, and electronics. The pieces range from experimental, electroacoustic, ambient textures merged with dark jazz interludes to even a foray into quasi pop music. But it is all distinctively Liz and forms a coherent organic musical statement.”

I love this album; do you love pedal steel guitar and/or Astor Piazolla? If so, you will love it too!

“It’s wholly fitting that this questing US pedal steel guitarist has chosen to interpret the nuevo tango of Astor Piazzolla on her latest longplayer. The late Argentinean composer presided over a revolution in traditional music by emphasising elements of improvisation, dissonance and counterpoint, while Alcorn seeks the total liberation of her instrument, away from the stifling confines of...

“A trio of adventurous Spanish improvisers, pianist Irene Aranda, bassist Johannes NÄstesjö and percussionist Nuria Andorra channel forces of exploration, energy and elemental mystery on Inner Core, six inventive tracks that plumb their astonishing creative depths with a fervid curiosity.
Fans of free improvisation may recognize these musicians through their mutual connections with pianist Agustφ Fernßndez, currently one of the most highly-regarded performers in this genre. And like Fernßndez...

“AYCH features three of the finest improvisers working today: saxophonist Jim Hobbs; guitarist Mary Halvorson; and cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum. All three come with stellar pedigrees and experience in guitarist/bassist Joe Morris' ensembles, plus Halvorson and Bynum were schooled at the knee of Anthony Braxton. Their previous recording together was last year's Bynum Sextet session, Apparent Distance (Firehouse 12, 2011).
Seven of the twelve tracks presented here are group improvisations, the remaining ...

“Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ is right in Frisell’s wheelhouse as a soulful blend of country, blues and gospel, and he delivers jagged electric phrases that, like fireworks, sometimes end abruptly with a starburst and sometimes zigzag before fading. John McLaughlin’s ‘Follow Your Heart’ is likewise refried and slowly wrung out after sizzling. Baron comes to the fore on fleet but gentler tracks such as Benny Goodman’s ‘Benny’s Bugle,’ Charlie Parker’s ‘My Little Suede Shoes’ and a nifty soft-shoe...

Tim Berne - alto sax Nasheet Waits - drums

“Full of timbral invention, utilising chasms of nihilistic space and a ferocious fervour to their interplay, navigating the no man's land of free form jazz where anything is possible and composition is in real time via high wire reflex and in the moment ideas, recorded live 10/19 at the Sultan Room in Brooklyn.”

Kirk Knuffke-cornet
Art Bailey-accordion
Michael Bisio-bass
Michael Wimberly-drums

“There's much to listen for on "Accortet" - the sound quality is excellent (kudos to Jim Clouse of Park West Studio in Brooklyn, NY), the compositions are thoughtful, and the musicianship unbeatable.
Kurt Knuffke continues to impress in every setting he plays in and Art Bailey's musical palette shows how he continues to expand the vocabulary of the accordion. And the rhythm section keeps the...

John Blum - piano
Jackson Krall - drums

“Relative Pitch Records celebrates its 100th release with a duo recording by Pianist John Blum and Drummer Jackson Krall.
John Blum is an underground legend of the downtown music scene in New York City, known for his high voltage pianism and as a musician who strives for the very personal. His stylistic antecedents are apparent: Boogie-woogie, Stride, Bebop and Free Jazz, but John has absorbed all of these styles to craft a unique voice that...

“On the surface, the album title might be an oxymoron. None of these free-form works resemble traditional ballads, but the young Brooklyn-based duo's ideology and vision is clearly distinct and personalized via these jaunts that to some extent, parallel the British free jazz scene with acidic, creaky and scorching elaborations. There is a consortium of zany nouveau classical music breakouts with bizarre episodic transgressions that tend to hold your attention. At times, the acoustic instrumental...

Peter Brötzmann : saxophone, tarogato, b-flat clarinet
Fred Lonberg-Holm : cello, electronics

“"Memories Of A Tunicate" is the third release and the first studio recording by Peter Brötzmann and Fred Lonberg-Holm. It was recorded in Manhattan at GSI Studios when Peter was in town for the 2019 Vision Festival. These seven pieces move between lyrical spaciousness and no holds bar flying sparks. This is a deep and focused session where they thoughtfully explore their history together."

“Last Dream of the Morning is insistently acoustic, distinctions between free jazz and improvised music fall away here. Kinships and antecedents extend from AMM to Sun Ra and they’re being consistently synthesized and extend into new terrains.
Bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders have become the defining ‘rhythm’ pairing of English free jazz, working together for decades in groups with Evan Parker, Veryan Weston and many others. If this is a first meeting of a trio with Butcher, past...

“They make music that has "length and width and breadth and depth", but no real recognizable shape to speak of. Having "shape" would mean that any of the previous adjectives would have to go, because confining the attributes to the world of Space would limit its possibilities. At the same time, they offer us a glimpse into expanded dimensions of music that Mtume talked about.
Enough philosophised: this is great music.
Taylor Ho Bynum plays cornet, flugelhorn, bass trumpet, trumpbone, John....

Chris Pitsiokos - alto saxophone
Susana Santos Silva - trumpet
Torbjörn Zetterberg - double bass

“Khimaira is a three headed monster. It has a lion head in front, a wild goat head on it’s back and a snake head at the end of it’s tail. It is the offspring of Echidna, the mother of all monsters. The group collaborates to produce eerie organic sounds, howling cries, whispered hums, disturbing wailing, shrieks that die off and reimerge with an intense fluidity. Yet there is an architecture

Greg Cohen-bass
Bill Frisell-guitar

“The sunny lyricism of "Old Gravenstein" sets the bar high from the outset. Frisell takes lead melodic duties while Cohen injects rhythmic impetus, but in truth their lines are but two interweaving threads of the same chord.
The duo has a spring in its step on "California Here I Come," written in 1921 by Buddy DeSylvia, Joseph Myer, and Al Jolson and declared the official state song of California in 1988. Cohen takes his most extended solo of the set...

“Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson’s Crop Circles is an exercise in balance, while still maintaining a great sense of musical freedom. Brooklyn-based Halvorson plays guitar on the collaboration album alongside Switzerland-native and pianist, Courvoisier, also currently working in Brooklyn.
The two work democratically, shifting leads and complementing the other’s sound in a way that seems effortless. Throughout the work, neither artist overwhelms the space and there is an electric ‘push and pull...

“Don’t be fooled by the name; Dead Neanderthals are neither dead nor Neanderthal. What they are is a tight, energy driven cohort of musicians who know how to lay down a good vibe. Worship the Sun, sees Rene Aquarius on drums and Otto Kokke on sax get together for a lesson in genial, improvisational mayhem.
There are just two tracks, the first over 15 minutes and the second just a tad over 17. ‘Worship,’ the first track, is a percussive delight, interspersed with some screaming, devilish sax from...

Tetsu Saitoh - double bass
Frederic Blondy - grand piano
Michel Doneda - soprano and sopranino saxophones

“Michel Doneda recently lost one of his most faithful friends and musical companions, the double bass player Tetsu Saïtoh. Relative Pitch now offers us a superb album recorded on April 16, 2016 on Radio-France bringing together the two improvisers and the remarkable piano explorer Frédéric Blondy.
Spring Road 16 is comprised of two collective improvisations under the title...

Soprano player Michel Doneda and Le Quan Ninh are celebrating a 30 year playing relationship. Doneda's playing can be at turns lyrical, playful, or raucous, and can switch from the liveliness of street melodies to circular breathing, microscopic sounds, or shrieking outbursts. Ninh plays regularly in ensembles in forms that mix improvised acoustic & electroacoustic music, 'performance art', dance, poetry, experimental cinema, photography and video. Listening is their main discipline.
"It’s our...

“Danish saxophonist Signe Emmeluth, who now lives in Oslo after studying in Trondheim, Norway, has made a strong impact on the European free music scene in the last couple of years, not only due to her ferocious sound, but also through a stylistic openness...
This solo outing — a single piece recorded live for Ingebrit Håker Flaten’s Sonic Transmissions Festival — contains its fair share of fire-breathing, with tart boppish phrases ricocheting toward the horizon in upper register sallies, but it...

“Estamos Trio, on the album - appropriately titled - People's History, offers an avant-garde and multicultural reflection with an epicenter in the history of the border that separates Mexico from the United States....led by the North American pianist and composer Thollem McDonas they create music that tries to encourage communication and collaboration between musicians and artists born on both sides of the Mexican-American border to, in this way, develop a better understanding and appreciation among...

“So...Who is this guy?" These words are a touchstone in the liner notes for Mr. Flaherty's first solo release, 2003's Voices. The notes are an insightful reckoning on what it means to be a free improvising artist (he was 54 at that time, and had already been at it for most of his life). He speaks of "the artist in residence", that part of him that just wants to blow, to shed the tired conventions and self-conscious-over-thinking and just play. Play and see where it takes him. Play and chase the coattails...

“Flamingo explores sound, texture and dynamics. Sometimes verging on the threshold of hearing and at other times engaging in dense layers and waves of sound, the music of Flamingo creates a poetic space in which pure sound phenomena step forth on the eternal backdrop of silence.
Flamingo is Chris Heenan on contrabass clarinet, Adam Pultz Melbye on double bass, and Christian Windfeld on snare drum, percussion & objects. On LOUD they expand the trio with sound artist and engineer Roy Carroll. In LOUD...

“New York violinist gabby fluke-mogul is unabashedly experimental on this solo album recorded last summer. Employing extended techniques (rubbing, scraping, sawing, tapping), they extract a full spectrum of unconventional sounds from this conventional instrument. Coupled with occasional vocalizations, threshold is an exhilarating ride.” AMN reviews