One of the most compelling albums ever recorded by guitarist Eugene Chadbourne – a set billed as "free improvised country and western bebop" – and which features Chadbourne serving up these wild variations on tunes by Carl Perkins, Roger Miller, David Allen Coe, Bobby Bare, Merle Haggard, and other country music legends! The album's much more Eugene than Nashville – although Chadbourne does sing lyrics on all of the tunes, but in a way that's very offbeat and hardly unlike the originals at all – as is his guitar work, which is acoustic and all twisted and turned up in all the offbeat phrasings you might expect! Much of the record is Chadbourne on vocals and electric dobro – but the set also features some drums by David Licht, saxes from John Zorn, and cello from Tom Cora. Titles include "The Last Word In Lonesome Is Me", "I'm The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised", "Georgia In A Jug", "Motel Time Again", "Dang Me", "Window Shopping", "Jealous Loving Heart", "Mr Record Man", and "Swingin Doors". CD

Amazing solo work on cello from Okkyung Lee – material recorded after a particularly difficult stretch in 2020, as Lee was initially trapped in Korea, away from her instrument – then returned to the darkness of New York during its worst months of struggle! Yet despite that time leading up to the recording, the session actually feels like one with a new sense of optimism and exploration – all these fresh ideas for expression on the cello, at a level that make this record unlike any other we can think of – especially as there are many moments when the source of the music feels very unfamiliar, which are then balanced by more straightforward notes. Titles include "Burning", "Lorelei", "Drifting", "Mountains", "Grey", and "Pisces". (Jazz, Out Sound) CD

A set of free improvised duets that are so fierce, they've been kept from the public for decades – finally seeing the light of day in this long-overdue package! Percussionist/electronicist Paul Lytton is a player known to many, and known for his always-incredible ear for sonic intensity – yet we've maybe never heard him this intense before, working alongside guitarist Erhard Hirt, a player with an approach to his instrument that's unlike anyone else in the free jazz universe at the time! Hirt often plays with a great sense of noise – not as bombastically as Sonny Sharrock, or as rock-influenced as some of the others – but almost as if he's using his electric guitar as the gateway to some darker universe, opening a passage that Lytton dives in to follow very quickly with some especially great electronics. Even the percussion has this electrified spark – and titles include "Orbod", "The Sensitive Stickler", "Don't Wait Too Long", "Deder", "Clip", and "175". (Jazz, Out Sound) CD

Maybe one of the most beautiful records we've ever heard from the mesmerizing Zeena Parkins – a set of solo work, mostly done on her electric harp – an instrument that she hasn't used in awhile, but which is wonderfully reawakened here! There's a sonic sensitivity to the record that really brings us back to why we first fell in love with Parkins so many years ago – and the electric harp sounds hardly like you might guess from an instrument of such a name – as Zeena turns it into a conveyor of all sorts of sounds and tones, with extra help from percussion, assorted pedals,a nd some found objects! The album features ten tracks, all really beautiful – making this one of the real standouts in this Black Cross series. (Jazz, Out Sound) CD

Free jazz, and lots lots more – a lost nugget from an especially creative period in the Dutch scene, headed up by cellist Tristan Honsinger! At some level, the music echoes other improvised work by Honsinger – but at others, it also reflects the criss-crossing of genres and scenes that were taking place during these key years – a point after which free jazz had established itself, post-punk had opened up new waves of expression, too-prog tendencies had settled down, and the higher art world had opened their arms to embrace them all! The songs are both instrumental, and feature occasional vocals from Tiziana Simona Vigni – whose role with the sextet is not unlike some of Irene Aebi's performances with Steve Lacy, although maybe a bit more freewheeling and open-ended – more in a Recommended Records vein – a label that might have been a good home for this set, were it not issued by Data Records. In additional to Honsinger on cello and additional voice, the record also features Toshinori Kondo on trumpet, Jean-Jacques Avenel on bass, Sean Bergin on saxes, and Michael Vatcher on percussion – on titles that include "Quandro Era Estate", "Picnic", "Violets", "Teeth", "Orient Express", "Laly", "Romy", and "After The Rain". (Jazz, Out Sound) CD

A brilliant series of creative performances pulled from Option – a weekly music salon hosted organized by Chicago avant jazz talents Ken Vandermark, Tim Daisy, and Andrew Clinkman – featuring contributions from some of their greatest contemporaries, and a few older legends too! Most of the material here is free improvisation, but the scope is also nicely wide – with a mix of elements that really keeps things interesting, and which also makes for a hell of a double-length record, even if you don't care at all about the weekly event! The set features performances by Susan Alcorn on steel guitar, Wayne Horvitz on piano with Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon, Ladonna Smith on violin and vocals, Havard Wilk on piano, Gerry Hemingway on percussion and electronics, Lou Mallozzi on electronics and turntables with Douglas Ewart on reeds and percussion, Greg Kelly on trumpet, Bonnie Jones on electronics, Ingrid Laubrock on tenor, Kris Davis on piano, Sandy Ewen on guitar, Louise Dam Eckerdt Jensen on alto and Kent Kessler on bass, and the trio of Booker Stardrum on percussion, Beth McDonald on tuba, and Dave Rempis on alto. (Jazz, Out Sound) CD

A pretty great solo performance from the legendary Thurston Moore – recorded at the Art Institute Of Chicago, as live accompaniment to the film Street, by James Nares – and maybe some of the most compelling sounds we've heard from Moore in awhile! The set features just solo electric guitar, in one long track – improvising over the space of an hour, with an especially great ear for sonic textures and very subtle shapes – a gentler, more personal version of the noise in which Thurston has been steeped for many many years – and music that's every bit as beautiful as the images on the screen! (Rock, Out Sound) CD