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.”

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...

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...

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.”

“Turner's supportive playing is well matched with Van Hove's probing and voluminous drive, and is perfectly in tune during the introspective moments. Both of which occur amply during the 26 minute opener 'Life Dealers'.
The duo's repartee is in fine order from the get-go. For example, about ten minutes in, moments of light pianistic whimsy meets Turner's crisp percussion and the two instruments begin pushing each other to extremes. 'Shopped', the second track, is a concise seven minutes and begins...

“When I first listened to The Hallowed Plant, I was immediately captivated. It’s a work that grabbed my attention and made immediate, intuitive sense. It seems that that the artists had a similar experience; after all, the band recorded it after having only played together twice previously. Chilean trumpeter Benjamin Vergara (trumpet) traveled to Chicago a few years ago and met Chicago-based musicians Keefe Jackson (reeds), Jim Baker (piano/synthesizer), and Phil Sudderberg (drums). It seems the...

Alex Ward: electric guitar

“’Frames” is the debut solo guitar album from composer/improviser/performing musician Alex Ward. The path leading to the making of this album extended through many years, during which Ward’s approach to the guitar in general and solo playing in particular became solidified. Up until his mid-twenties, Ward was known primarily as a clarinettist and his involvement in improvised music was almost exclusively as a reeds player. During this period Ward was also playing...

Marta Warelis - piano

“A grain of Earth’ is the first solo venture and expression of several years of working with instant compositions and the timbral possibilities of an acoustic piano. This has been wrapped in an idea of realities beyond our perception, and a thought that we are a part of a big organism where everything goes endlessly bigger and smaller in scale of size, time and speed. Everything moves in constantly interfering waves of energy; echoing and reflecting, in ceaseless dance of...

“This latest project Battle Pieces combines Wooley's deft touch at extended technique with his composing skills for like players. Recorded live at Anthony Braxton's Tricentric Foundation in 2014, Wooley brings together saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock (Anti-House, Paradoxical Frog, Mary Halvorson Septet), vibraphonist Matt Moran (Claudia Quintet, Slavic Soul Party, Dan Levin), and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier (Erik Friedlander Trio, Herb Robertson Quintet, and duo with Mark Feldman).
The written music and...

Nate Wooley – trumpet
Ingrid Laubrock – saxophones
Sylvie Courvoisior – piano
Matt Moran – vibraphone
“Battle Pieces 4, recorded live at Brooklyn’s Roulette Intermedium in 2018 is the culmination of Wooley’s set of compositions for quartet. The group, after four years of twisting and torturing Wooley’s ever-expanding set of micro-compositions into new and ever-interesting forms, perform an evening length set that moves through the breadth of their collective history as an ensemble.”

“Far too often, the skill and detail informing music such as this is neglected by writers attempting description, no matter how sympathetic, in favor of emotive exposition, essentially stripping the discourse of any freedom the music might offer. There’s no denying that Jack and Ben Wright plumb those psychosocial depths, but they accomplish it in a way that foregrounds something akin to linguistic expression, shoving historical precedent to a hot but distant back burner.
Take, for example, the...