“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...

Carmina Escobar : voice sound toys, guitarron
Milo Tamez : home percussion, stones, branches, electronics
Thollem McDonas : synthesizer, vocals, clay pot

“Estamos Trio is an exploratory music ensemble formed through the cross-border Estamos Project founded by Thollem McDonas in 2010. The trio includes Carmina Escobar (vocals, electronics, guitarrón), Milo Tamez (percussion, found objects, electronics) and Thollem (keyboard, vocals, clay pot).
Recorded live at SITE Santa Fe, Dire...

“Sand is a Fields composition for 20 instrumentalists, three singers, and conductor. It combines three areas in which he has often worked: modularity, manipulation of text, and integration of composition and improvisation. Like Fields’ previous modular works, Sand is constructed of units whose interrelationships vary from weak to strong. In performance a conductor spontaneously selects, combines, sequences, and layers modules. Sand also includes improvisational elements within structures and “organic...

“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

Michael Foster: tenor & soprano saxophones, samples, oscillators

"The Industrious Tongue of Michael Foster is a 2-part work probing the most intimate and sensitive glands of the saxophone's internal architecture.
This work is dedicated to several filmmakers whose work explores the erotic extremities and complexities of contemporary intimacy which has served as a focal point of inspiration for this album: Hisayasu Sato, Takashi Ishii, Naomi Tani and Jacques Rivette."

“No surprise in comparing this release to the Rova Sax Quartet. It features Jon Raskin, a founding member of that ensemble, as well as fellow saxophonists Frank Gratkowski and Phillip Greenlief. Recorded on two dates, one in 2007 and the other in 2010, this intrepid trio gives their instruments a workout across nine tracks.
Honestly, limited-palette releases like this can be hit or miss. But in the right hands, three saxes can offer a broad range of pitches and textures. Such is the case for All At...

“Having been recorded live the compositions are free flowing and continuous in sound throughout, with one piece blending into another either through the pieces being merged together through performance, and the possible use of sympathetic editing with Fujiwara’s drums often providing the link. Fujiwara’s drums generate a scattering of sound and the skittering rhythms create great interplay between the guitar and the trumpet. Brandon Seabrook is very deft at carefully using effects to colour the...

Chris Pitsiokos - alto saxophone, electronics
Violeta Garcia - cello

"This powerful first recording between NY alto extreme saxophonist Pitsiokos and Argentinian noise cellist Garcia lives up to its reputation. It is an unrelenting juxtaposition of screeches and squalls, of strings rubbed to their breaking point up against extreme reed skronks. Together they complement and contrast and create an organic noise that is quite thrilling."

“By way of introduction, Gauci parades his easygoing burly tenor saxophone, blending emphatic motifs amid roller coaster lines in a limber double act with Filiano’s nimble-fingered stylings, which fuse melody with rhythmic attack on the opening ‘Epee’. That’s followed by a similarly involved pairing of cornet and bass at the outset of ‘Ghosting’, before Gauci joins to inaugurate a spirited three-way interaction. It’s immediately obvious that as a group they are fully formed, missing nothing, a feeling...

Frode Gjerstad: alto sax and Bb clarinet
Matt Shipp: piano

“The music is fierce with unexpected evolutions, very much in-the-moment, yet quite expressive and focused, varying between intensity and subdued dialogues. Raw and real, full of depth and substance.”

“The disc begins with, "That Was For Albert 10," Golia's tenor wrapping around Bradford's smearing trumpet for a repeating fanfare over the free range drums of Cline and the rambling pulsations of Filiano. Suddenly, the band contracts into "straight" time playing, just ahead of a dual solo by the two horns. Bradford finally breaks loose for a few laps around the field before Golia erupts with a massive tenor solo full of long lines broken up by well-timed screams.
"Otolith" has a vaguely...

Forbes Graham - Trumpet, Drum Machine, Laptop Computer
Brandon Lopez - Double Bass
Cecilia Lopez - Synthesizers

“Forbes Graham (trumpet, drum machine, laptop computer) is joined by Cecilia Lopez (analog synth) and Brandon Lopez (bass) on a session recorded at Firehouse 12 in August of 2021.
Each musician is wholly distinct and themselves on this recording, but their sounds unite to create a dark and quizzical sci-fi journey.”

“The veteran Guillermo Gregorio is back and this is the debut of a duo with the young double bass player Brandon Lopez. The clarinetist after having lived in the sixties in Buenos Aires and later moved to Chicago where for years he was an integral part of the local scene, now lives in New York and among the many and more recent collaborations, the meeting with Lopez is actually worth note. The listening between the two is superlative and the sound produced by clarinet and double bass is warm and...

“Out and unusual compositions from drummer Ben Hall and his sextet with Mick Dobday on electric piano & organ, Anthony Levin DEcanini on electronics, Ronnie Zawadi on percussion, John Dierker on reeds, Mike Khoury on viola & violin, and joined by Joe Morris on guitar, for 6 "Spines", free compositions using odd compositional structures leading to superb solo and group playing. Each Spine presents a unique sonic world, from aggressive playing to abstract and sonically fascinating interludes, with...

“Mary Halvorson is involved in so many side projects it's hard to pick a favorite ; until now. Sifter, her trio with Kirk Knuffke (cornet) and Matt Wilson (drums), has created one of the most inviting discs of the year with its self-titled debut. The compositions are concise. The themes are hummable. The solos never venture too far from home, and yet conversely it's a highly adventurous recording.
This album is loaded with surprises, as on ‘Back and Forth,’ where the main theme goes up and...

“In the Sea’s eponymous new album for Relative Pitch features just a string trio, allowing the players to settle into a chamberlike collision of approaches. Double bassist Nicolas Caloia and violinist Joshua Zubot bring brio and care to Honsinger’s pieces, which draw from classical music, Italian folk, and his aforementioned slapstick aesthetic, loads of nonsensical singing alternately limning pretty melodies and harnessing pure chaos.
Improvisation and attuned interplay between the players define...

“Primitive is Jessen’s first full-length release. A raw solo saxophone recording born out of anger and isolation. At times, it screams violently. At others, it slowly pierces. At all times, it is a reaction to Jessen’s surroundings."

"Kyle is one of the hardest working musicians I have ever met. He labors intensively, always striving to improve his technique.
A dynamic collection, this is an exclamation point on years of development.
At times the pieces are aggressive. The opening of.

Virginia Genta - Amplified tenor and sopranino saxophones
Brandon Lopez - electric bass
David Vanzan - drums, percussion

“This release captures what is sure to become a legendary coupling. Genta and her long-time-partner-in-crime David Vanzan plus one Brandon Lopez, all amasse under the moniker Jooklo Trio. As you can imagine the meeting plays out like a stellar collision, their sonic masses caught in an accelerating spiral and merged in a blast of power and intensity. Amplification...

Anna Kaluza - alto saxophone
Jan Roder - double bass

“Anna and Jan first met in 2004 when they started playing together in different combinations as the Kaluza Quartet (with trombonist Christof Thewes and drummer Kay Lübke), trios with pianst Niko Meinhold or with drummer Michael Griener and various others. In 2020 they played their first duo concert on a boat in Berlin (Hosek Contemporary) and decided to continue with their work as duo. The same year they went to Christian Betz’ studio...

Joe Morris (guitar)
Tomeka Reid (cello)
Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet
Kyoko Kitamura (voice)

“Geometry of Distance is the sophomore album by Geometry. This recording follows their debut album, Geometry of Caves, released in 2018 from Relative Pitch Records. Seth Colter Walls of The New York Times called the quartet's first album a "vibrant new recording", Stereo Gum's Phil Freeman described it as "hardcore improvised music" and Dusted Magazine wrote, "The foursome behind the fifty-minutes.

Masayo Koketsu - Alto saxophone

“The sublime first solo saxophone release of Masayo Koketsu is deeply steeped in the free jazz tradition of Japan. From Coltrane's visit to Japan in 1966 to the free jazz exploits of Kaoru Abe, Masayo Koketsu's astonishing solo session marks her as a force to be reckoned with. A single 46 minute piece of achingly beautiful wails and declarations punctuate the bedrock of silence then retreat back. A singular effort.”

“Recorded at the end of a 2014 US tour, Buoyancy is the second duo release from saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer Tom Rainey, a team who have collaborated on so many recordings that it’s really gotten hard to keep track of them all. Last year they played together on at least three records, including Laubrock’s Ubatuba project and the under-recognized trio album Hotel Grief (with Mary Halvorson).
What’s clear in this more intimate format is the undeniable rapport Laubrock and Rainey possess...

“This is a very intimate record; the recording makes it so. Recorded and mixed by Andy Taub, mastered by Weasel Walter, no less. Closely miked sax, Laubrock’s slightly hollow, dry tone, even austere, on the way to haunting. What you hear is breath, space, muted tonguing, a hint of the room echo, a squawk here, a gently laid tone there, a very personal saxophone. Rainey’s brushes are sweet, just enough, not too much. His cymbal touches and rim hits are measured, chasing after Laubrock, occasionally...