The second meeting between Kaze and Ikue Mori – with Mori on electronics, Satoko Fujii on piano, Natsuki Tamura and Christian Pruvost on trumpets, Peter Orins on drums. (Jazz, Out Sound) CD

Includes tracks from Candlesnuffer, Brendan Walls, Sue Harding, Oren Ambarchi, Chris Smith, Scott Horscroft, Alan Lamb, Julian Knowles and more. CD

Wild stuff – a soundtrack made up of a number of different avant classical pieces, designed to accompany the film The Female Prisoner. Boulez directs Webern's "Five Pieces For Orchestra OP 10", and Leonard Bernstein directs Mahler's "Third Movement from Symphony No 4". The best part, though, is side two – which features Berio's striking "Visage" – a classic magnetic tape work based on the vocals of Cathy Berberian and filled with nice electronics! LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible juxtaposition of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Ludwig Von Beethoven – not interwoven, as in Stockhausen's famous Kurzwellen Mit Beethoven – but offered up side by side, and played beautifully by pianist Pi Hsien Chen! The CD begins with four "Klavierstuck" pieces by Stockhausen, all relatively short, but extremly bold in the way they mix movement with silence – an approach that is then offset by beautiful sounds from Beethoven's "Piano Sonata Op 101" – in four longish movements with a very lyrical feel, but sometimes the same sort of striking elements as Stockhausen's work. "Klavierstuck 5" follows – a longer variation, with very moody, elegiac passages – then followed by the longer Beethoven "Piano Sonata Op 111", before the CD concludes with the 20 minute "Klavierstuck 6". CD

Wild stuff – and one of the oddest records we've ever heard! The work is truly a Symphony Of Birds – in that all the source material here was recorded in the field, out of the mouths of actual birds – but the overall execution is far different than just a bunch of birdcalls, and thanks to careful studio manipulation, Jim Fassett makes the whole thing sound like a record of analogue electronics! From what we can tell, the album involves Fassett manipulating and re-assembling his bird call recordings in ways that form a whole new kind of music – one that has some bird-like elements, but which sounds hauntingly electronic at most moments – and which comes across in a beautiful array of chirps and cheeps. The package features some notes in Japanese, others in English, lots of photos – and even a massive "disc guide", listing dozens of related albums of field recordings, bird calls, and even whistling! Titles include some initial "Explanatory Comments" by Fassett, plus different movements of the suite. The second half features more birdcall recordings, narrated by Fassett – but presented in a more straightforward way. (Now Sound, Out Sound) CD