One of the most successful jazz-meets-modern classical albums we've ever heard – thanks largely to the supreme talents of Don Cherry! Cherry leads the large New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra – which includes a large lineup of European free jazz musicians, with Peter Brotzmann, Tomasz Stanko, Manfred Schoof, Kenny Wheeler, Gunter Hampel, Willem Breuker, and Albert Manglesdorf – all conducted by Polish modern composer Krzystof Penderecki. Cherry plays mostly solo on his own composition "Humus", and other tracks include "Sita Rama Encores" (also by Cherry), and Penderecki's "Actions For Free Jazz Orchestra". (Jazz, Out Sound) CD

A landmark moment – both for Brian Eno, and for experimental music in general! Although Eno began his solo run with some searing, guitar-heavy records that were even wilder than his early work with Roxy Music – he also began experimenting with more sensitive aspects of sound on albums like Another Green World and Before & After Science – an approach he takes here to the farthest degree, by opening up himself and creating a whole new genre of ambient music in the process! Gone are the raspy, sometimes nasty vocals – and in their place is virtually nothing – just beautifully open music that uses scores that are somewhat cyclical – but at a pace that's very different than the minimalism of the period – and maybe even more minimal too. The record features four long tracks, one with piano by Robert Wyatt – really beautiful stuff, like some strange dark sonic crystal that fell out of the skies years ago, and which still remains a mystery to all ears that stumble upon it! (Rock, Out Sound) CD

A unique record for Riley, where he collaborates with and writes expressly for the Kronos Quartet, composing several string quartets with his signature minimalist approach incorporating jazz and exotic melodies and large improvised passages. The first album is made up of 3 shorter pieces "Sunrise Of The Planetary Dream Collector", "G Song" and "Mythic Birds Waltz", while "Cadenza On The Night Plain" encompasses both sides of record 2, and goes through quite a few different movements, including "Where Was Wisdom When We Went West?", "March Of The Old Timers Reefer Division", "Tuning To Rolling Thunder", "The Night Cry Of Black Buffalo Woman", "Gathering Of The Spiral Clan" and "Captain Jack Has The Last Word". LP, Vinyl record album