“Contrabassist Joélle Leandre and West Coast woodwind player Phillip Greenlief work out 11 different compositions between their two respective instruments and voices on That Overt Desire of Object. The flexibility and space that each provides the other seems to be reflected in the line note comments about the negative effects of greed. The title is a variation of the Luis Bu±uel movie That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), with a playing field that appears a bit more level when compared to the bassist's...

Robbie Lee - sopranino saxophone, tuning forks with live electronics

“Robbie Lee is an improviser and sound creator in New York City, performing on an eclectic range of instruments, across the fringes of creative music in many scenes. On Prismatist he plays only two things: sopranino saxophone and tuning forks with live electronics. They are like two currents alternating through the album, a double helix of contrasting extremities. The sopranino, even higher than the soprano saxophone, twists...

Jon Lipscomb - guitar

"Jon Lipscomb's dissonant tones push the guitar to its limits, the power and energy of his improvisations is visceral."

Brandon Lopez - bass
Steve Baczkowski - saxophones
Gerald Cleaver - percussion
Cecilia Lopez - synthesizer (track 5)

“Brandon Lopez works at the fringes of jazz, free improvisation, noise and new music. This collaborative powerhouse never lets up with underground sax hero Steve Baczkowski and Gerald Cleaver who is among the most agile and wide-ranging first-call musicians on the 21st century jazz scene.”

CECILIA LOPEZ: Electronics and processing
INGRID LAUBROCK: Soprano and tenor saxophone

“MAROMAS is the debut recording of the duo of Ingrid Laubrock and Cecilia Lopez. Recorded in April 2022, the album is a collection of improvised pieces for tenor and soprano saxophone, processing and electronics. Maromas refers to the doing of tricksters, conjurers and acrobats. The music is dark, harsh but also playful in its pirouettes. The electronics process the saxophone as much as the saxophone...

Ramon Lopez – drums
Mark Feldman – violin

“One of the most prominent violin players, Mark Feldman, meets one of the most creative and innovative drummers, Ramon Lopez. The results of this magic encounter consists of seven tunes. Seven pearls of contemporary improvisation, where the synergy and energy, abstraction and melodic concept, lyricism and powerful expression unite forming a gigantic superposition.”-Maciej Lewenstein.

“This offering could be depicted as a pulsating mist of near static incandescent vapor. Spiral Reflector starts things off with Lubelskis briskly bowed violin drone taking the fore, backed by Naces subtle volume swells and amplifier manipulation. Mazed finds the duo further probing at the veil. The modulated drones interweave in an unsteady interplay of dipping intonation that is both fascinating and disorienting. In Re/Fract/Ed Nace provides a subtle underpinning of persistent tremolo to Lubelskis gruff...

Don Malfon - alto and baritone saxophones

“The music on Mutable is a totally acoustic sonic exploration. It is an investigation that has led to the development of certain extended techniques in order to discover the ultimate limits of the sound of the saxophone and to try to create new sounds on the instrument.”

Joanna Mattrey: viola, stroh violin

“Veiled is Joanna Mattrey’s first solo release. Joanna Mattrey is a violist active in both the new music and free improvisation communities who's playing often incorporates textural gestures, preparations, and electronic alterations. She is searching for moments of ceremony and ritual in a modern soundscape.
Mattrey has played with such luminaries as Marc Ribot and the Young Philadelphians, Mary Halvorson, John Zorn, Erik Friedlander, Nick Dunston and...

Magda Mayas - piano, composition
Angharad Davies - violin
Anthea Caddy - cello
Aimée Theriot - cello
Rhodri Davies - harp
Zeena Parkins - harp
Michael Thieke - clarinet
Christine Abdelnour - saxophone

“Magda Mayas composed this piece for an octet comprised of a who's who of the avant-garde. The score consists of 12 photos taken over an hour or so, observing the merging waters of the Rhône and the Arve rivers, the artificial wall dividing them, the earthy,

Keir Neuringer-sax
Rafal Mazur-bass guitar

“The aptly named release Diachronic Paths by the free improvising duo of Keir Neuringer and Rafal Mazur continues the transformation discourses of their evolving musical language. One that is based on their dialogue of discovery.
Keir Neuringer, a Philadelphia-based saxophonist lived in Krak≤w and The Hague for a time and established a strong relationship with the Polish bassist Rafal Mazur.
Each piece presented here is an enervating...

Virginia Genta - amplified and processed sopranino saxophone
Michele Mazzani - electric guitar and electronics
David Vanzan - electronics
Matteo Poggi - electronics

“This recording comes from a memorable show the band performed during their first (and so far last) tour in France. The concert had been a heavy mass of around 90 minutes, of whom only a part was caught on cassette, as nobody remembered to flip side when it was time. Anyway what got recorded is here, and it's still...

“Look Like is the first complete solo release from bassist and vocalist Kelsey Mines. A series of improvised solo-duets, Look Like explores how listening to our on-going internal dialogue helps us conjure honest, outward expressions.”

“I must confess this is my first exposure to Crothers' music. What is most attractive to me is the obscurity of her antecedents. With words, Crother's makes sure you know of her debt to Tristano. Sonically, there is additional debt to Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk and Andrew Hill. Certainly you'll hear others, though probably not any one clamouring atop the other. Whoever you hear, you will hear them assimilated by a consummate musician and wonderfully able operator of the instrument....

“'Blues for Katie' opens with Greene's simple figures and simpler variations allowing Moondoc space to breathe. No pyrotechnics in his blues, this is straight soul, almost dipping into a sound like southern gospel. It's a lovely opener and one that Moondoc lends to Greene for a quick solo with a few snapped strings before he closes the spiritual.
'Spiritual Melody (Swing Low, Deep River, Wade In the Water)' carries the gospel sound a bit further - no surprise, given the title. This is a more isolated..

“Using a multitude of extended picking techniques, moods, atmospheres, hell, even fully fleshed out novels were seemingly created in an instant. Some that he showed us early on were revisited, only twisted and turned inside out creating yet further ideas. My experience to all this was one of surrender, letting go and finally full engulfment into the sonic maelstrom. Spanish themes occasionally popped their heads up only to be quickly supplanted by what sounded like a vicious bowing technique of a...

Fred Moten - words
Brandon Lopez - contrabass
Gerald Cleaver - drums

“Critic and theorist Fred Moten joins bassist Brandon López and drummer Gerald Cleaver for a conceptually rich, politically weighty album that asks timeless questions without overexplaining.”-Pitchfork

“Lopez and Cleaver have been improvising together as a duo for a number of years, over which they’ve developed a secret, unspoken language of organically growing repetitive figures in a wide range of sonic...

Camila Nebbia: tenor sax, spoken word, fx

“Una ofrenda a la ausencia (an offering to absence) explores in depth the rawness, harshness and roughness of sound embracing the intense and unfiltered expressions that emerges from absence.”

marta warelis - piano
onno govaert - drums
wilbert de joode - double bass

“Recorded live in the period in-between lock-downs. waive captures this special moment of the first concert experience since the covid-19 outbreak for all who were present in the room that night. Recorded when we had to slow down, abandon, sign out, solo, let go, waive.. but when we also could just look, welcome and surrender to the everblooming.”

this live performance was recorded on october 12th 202

“There are obvious factors that set these two free improvisers apart. Courvoisier's approach is more steeped in contemporary classical music. But this does not prevent them from overcoming their differences and finding common ground. In fact, thry don't even need any time to size each other up. The pianist's blunt attack is immediately on display, and the saxophonist is quick yo put his screechy warbled tenor lines against her heavy and potent clusters and runs.
Patker's generous sound on the tenor...

“Pavone composed four distinct pieces for In the Action, all employing extended bowing techniques, and focusing on in repetition, song form, and sympathetic vibration, with clever usage of effects. The first one "Oscillatory Salt Transport" suggests a series of gentle, resonating waves that somehow bridge between the strict, highly disciplined minimalism of New York and sensual, folk melodies of the British isles. This piece actually refers to the waves of the ocean and how they are essentially pushing...

Jessica Pavone – viola, voice

“As both an instrumentalist and composer, Jessica Pavone explores the tactile and sensorial experience of music as a vibration-based medium.
Since 2012, she has established an individual body of material for solo viola, concentrating on these elements of performance. The structured yet indeterminate pieces stem from intensive long tone practice and an interest in repetition, song form, and sympathetic vibration. "When No One Around You is There but Nowhere to be.

Barre Phillips: double bass
John Butcher: saxophones
Ståle Liavik Solberg: drums

“Comprised of tracks recorded in Münich and Oslo, this is the debut of this collaboration between improviser and doyen of the double bass Barre Phillips, British saxophonist John Butcher and Norwegian drummer, percussionist and improviser, Ståle Liavik Solberg.”

“This new kid on the block saxophonist often works solo and gets a lot of attention. Pitsiokos' saxophone draws equal measure from Peter Brotzmann, John Zorn and Ornette Coleman. His sound has the Brotzmann lung capacity, the Zorn fluttered notes and the blues tinge of Coleman. This one was recorded live in New Haven CT in January 2019.”

“It's a rare and wonderful thing where you are so challenged as a listener that you are not sure of what's happening, but you know you need more. This happened to me during the 2011 Vision Festival when on one of the nights when the power trio of Peter Evans (trumpet), Mike Pride (drums) and Tim Dahl (extremely electric bass) shredded the atmosphere of the sweaty auditorium.
Now several years later, with the squishy gift of memory and time, I am listening to Pulverize the Sound's debut album with...