“Large-scale improvisation runs the risk of devolving into indistinct masses of sound. While this outcome is not necessarily undesirable, maintaining coherence among more than a handful of improvisers is a challenge. Onceim, a French ensemble of over 30 musicians led by Frédéric Blondy, manages to thread this needle by taking a slow, quiet approach that hides complexity within passages of long-held tones.”-Avant Music News

“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 - compositions, viola, effects, track 2 performed using one of Ken Butler’s hybrid instruments

"What Happens Has Become Now is Jessica Pavone's fifth solo viola album and her fourth for Relative Pitch Records. Over the past twenty years, Pavone has been developing solo music based on the pitches of the open strings intended to accentuate the natural sympathetic resonances of her particularly loud viola. Over the years, she has incorporated and experimented with electronic effects...

Ab Baars-tenor saxophone, clarinet, shakuhachi
Ig Henneman-viola
Ingrid Laubrock-tenor and soprano saxophones
Tom Rainey-drums

“Dutch theatricality meets American resourcefulness on this conclave from four like-minded musicians whose collective tastes veer to the freer end of the improvisational spectrum. As it turns out, shorthand sobriquets for the participants on the CD spine also work as a solid, semi-ambiguous band name. Live @ the Jazz Happening Tampere provides the...

Chris Pitsiokos-alto sax

“This is Pitsiokos' second solo saxophone release for Relative Pitch. His first one, "Speak in Tongues" was a tribute to his forbears on the horn. On "Art of the Alto" Pitsiokos stakes his claim to stand amongst them.”

Peter Evans - trumpets
Tim Dahl - electric bass & microphone
Mike Pride - drumset, glockenspiel & auxiliary percussion

“Pulverize the Sound was formed in the intensely collaborative, hybridized, prolific and promiscuous scene of NYC experimental music. Its members have clocked in time with musicians and bands from a huge variety of scenes, always ending up in a place peripheral to any definable genre.
Collectively, the members of Pulverize the Sound have worked with Lydia Lunch..

Mette Rasmussen - alto saxophone and objects
Paul Flaherty - alto and tenor saxophones
Zach Rowden - contrabass
Chris Corsano - drums, percussion

“A blisteringly sensitive assaultive slow dash concerning the heartbreaking space between and within solids. Two saxes, bass and drums freely improvising a restrained tantalizing acceptance.”

Ada Rave: tenor sax + preparations, soprano and sopranino on track 6

Tenor saxophonist Ada Rave, born and raised in Argentina, decided to move to Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2013. She had heard ‘the call’, followed her musical intuition and became part of the colorful community of Dutch creative improvised music.
Educated in the jazz tradition she started to look for a more personal language. A deep search. Not an easy path to go.
The destination is always changing. Each step

Tomeka Reid - Cello
Isidora Edwards - Cello
Elisabeth Coudoux - Cello

“We maneuver through woody sounds created by individual movements and decisions. Our cello playing is free from classical patterns, a real achievement! It is not natural to develop one's own approach to this high culture instrument. In this trio there are three multi-layered variations of personal expressive will and power.”

“Searching for leadership in a singular sense on Geometry of Caves immediately becomes an exercise in needless futility. The foursome behind the fifty-minutes of freely improvised music is resolute in its acceptance of communal responsibility and creation. Vocalist Kyoko Kitamura sings and speaks in wordless flurries, matching and Taylor Ho Bynum’s brassy exhortations on cornet and either bass or piccolo trumpets. Cellist Tomeka Reid and guitarist Joe Morris worry and pluck their respective strings...

“It’s not a novelty that Canadian-born, New York-based trumpeter Stephanie Richards is a risk-taking artist, considering she has worked with giants of the improvised new music such as Anthony Braxton and Henry Threadgill as well as Kanye West and The Pixies, references in the contemporary rap and indie-rock genres, respectively.
In collaboration with the electronics wizard Dino J.A. Deane, whom she met through the late 'conduction' pioneer Butch Morris, Richards releases her first solo record...

Erin Rogers - saxophones, compositions

"2000 Miles – the second solo album from Erin Rogers – dives deep into the sonic underbelly of the saxophone, uncovering a radiant world of imagination and curiosity, where beauty is served raw. Rogers forges an alternative voice for the instrument, percussively blending tone with mechanism and melody with shimmering vocals, gutturals and breath. Singular sounds erupt into splatters of harmonic partials and multiphonics, while layers of industrial...

“They combine on three long-form improvs, the shortest of which clocks in at just over 17 minutes, giving ample scope for the freewheeling exploration at which all three excel. They take such an egalitarian approach that it's a noticeable event when one drops out. In a favored gambit, Rupp's scratchy staccato guitar textures jostle against extended legato lines from Schubert and Rogers, but that just provides a launching point for further goings-on in which they match dynamics, hit peaks of intensity and...

Sofia Salvo - baritone saxophone

"The first solo release of baritone saxophonist Sofia Salvo, “ROTAROTA” consists of a series of improvised pieces. They evoke emotional memories aspiring to set them free and mutate them into blaring music."

Frank Schubert – alto & soprano saxophones
Alexander von Schlippenbach - piano
Martin Blume – drums, percussion

“The trio is comprised of legend and the doyen of improvised music and free jazz: the pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. The term "accompaniment" is rather unsuitable for the trio: Frank Paul Schubert on alto and soprano saxophone and Martin Blume on drums, act as equal partners. All trio members at ear level are the source of ideas and impulses, their interplay is a subtle.

“‘Root Of Things’ is a good example of how an unconventional arrangement can make very natural sounding music. Bisio’s bass lines syncs up with Shipp’s piano lines then diverge onto its own parallel path only to reunite with Shipp again. Dickey acts not as a timekeeper but a third timbre zone, serving dashes of cymbals and tom-toms in measured portions. Together, the symmetry produces something that doesn’t seem ordered but makes sense.
For ‘Solid Circut,’ it’s Shipp’s turn to begin the performance...

Tamio Shiraishi - alto saxophone

"Tamio Shiraishi has worked out of Queens, NY since the early 1990s and regularly plays solo sets in the NYC subway system which have become the stuff of legend. Much of Tamio's solo aesthetic is built off of interactions with a physical space.
These ten archival duos represent some of Tamio's work with like-minded improvisors."

“Saxophonist Catherine Sikora makes a bold and singular statement with her solo album Jersey. Each of the 13 tracks is both a fully realized and poignant stand-alone monologue as well as an essential link in an intimate and deeply personal artistic expression.
A serene, logical progression of notes transforms the calm "The Knowing of Sums" into a passionate and blue-tinged improvisation. Energetic and crisp lines weave a graceful melody that returns to the opening quietude. The ardent and...

Chloë Sobek - violone
Tim Berne - alto saxophone

“This is the first collaboration between Australian improvisor Chloë Sobek who plays the Renaissance precursor to the double bass, the violone and New York saxophonist Tim Berne.”

Steve Swell - trombone, pocket trumpet

"Rhina P. Espaillat is a poet whose poem “Why Publish?” (please google it!) imagines how her poetry could touch someone 100 years from now. That poem speaks of her connection with a future reader. It inspired me to see my music the same way and think what it might mean for someone who picks up this recording in the future and connect with it in a way I might not have imagined. It might inspire a future listener to take the risk of creating or doing...

Rob Mazurek-cornet, voice, bells, modular synth, sampler
Thollem Electric-modified electric paino, analog effects

“Only briefly acquainted, McDonas and Mazurek show remarkable responsiveness to each other in these complex improvisations. The nineteen minute opener "Shouts" begins in a haze of electric piano and synth before Mazurek slips into a disembodied wordless chant adding to the otherworldliness of the piece. About fourteen minutes in, the cornet becomes identifiable, the piano's notes..

Reut Regev - trombone, electronics
Igal Foni - drums, percussion

“After over two decades of musical collaboration and shared life, we are happy to finally present our first duo release. Recorded in intimate studio settings right before the pandemic, and then amended over the lockdown in our home studio.
Music is what brought us together in the first place, and it remains central in our shared life. We hope you enjoy our musical moments.”

“Leonel Kaplan plays the trumpet exclusively by focusing his approach on the rustling of the air column, the metaphysics of the tubes in a way (to paraphrase Amelie Nothomb): by playing with multiple pressure levels of the lips and the meticulous closure of the orifices with the pistons, he obtains a range of nuances, dynamics, noise, stamps rather leaded than copper, as they evoke piping.
Birgit Uhler, replies by adding to his remarkable work on the trumpet, the use of a radio, a speaker and...

“Often compared to the late Kaoru Abe, Masayoshi Urabe's solo performances begin and end with silence. Out of the silence the harmonica slowly emerges, erupting into stabs of harmonica and gutteral cries which then give way to punctuated bursts of alto eventually retreating back into the equilibrium of silence.”