A really fantastic set from this Swedish nine piece ensemble – a record that's overflowing with brash performance and unbridled energy – adventurous, but never totally free – and always given the right sort of focus to make things come across with a tremendous amount of power! The feel is almost like a Moserobie Records take on a Charles Mingus style – and the lineup features Martin Kuchen on alto and tenor – who also composed the album's five long tracks – plus Magnus Broo on trumpet, Matthias Stahl on vibes, Goran Kajfes on cornet, Mats Aleklint on trombone, Eirik Hegdal on baritone, Alexander Zethson on piano, Johan Berthling on bass, and Andreas Werliin on drums. If you know any of those players at all, you can imagine the greatness of the group – on titles that include "Adror", "Equality & Death", "Pacemaker", "Disappeared Behind The Sun", and "Love Flee Thy House". CD

They certainly got the "beautiful" in the title right – because although the set's a series of freely-improvised duets between reedman John Butcher and drummer Stale Liavik Solberg – the pair handle their music with a lot more care and sensitivity than you might hear from any other duo! Butcher is especially great on tenor and soprano sax – shaping sounds as much as creating notes – often with an approach that's darkly poetic, and very beautiful throughout – always filled with surprise, and very well matched with Solberg's inventive percussion. Titles include "So Beautiful", "It Starts", and "To Rain". CD

A record that announces its difference right from the very first note – then keeps on setting itself apart with each new musical selection! The group's led by pianist Jonas Cambien – who can play both warmly and starkly – and the sound is balanced between the drums and percussion of Andreas Wildhagen, and the reed work of Andre Roligheten – who blows tenor, soprano, bass clarinet, and flute – often with textural tones that fold in nicely alongside the piano and drums! Yet despite that statement, there's also no set style to the group – as they really explore different interpolations of their instruments on every track – often in ways that seem to have an inherent structure, but which are also strikingly new as well – maybe even more powerful because of their tuneful inclinations than if the musicians were more free-minded. Titles include "Creationism", "Swear Like A Bear", "Unlikely Friendship", "Long Long Long", "Sister You Proved Me Right", "Crib", and "Animalism". CD

The title might be a bit goofy, but it's actually a pretty great way to sum up the spirit of this group – as the contemporary Cortex come from avant roots, but also have a vibrancy that makes their music sound more celebratory than confrontational! The quartet features endlessly creative rhythms from the duo of Olya Hoyer on bass and Gard Nilssen on drums – topped by beautiful interplay between the trumpet of Thomas Johansson and saxophonist Kristoffer Berre Alberts – both players who can sometimes be completely in step with each other, sometimes almost at odds, and individually really work to make the whole record soar when it's time for their solos. Titles include "Mac Davis", "Grinder", "Chaos", "Waltz", "Disturbance", "Obverse/Reverse", and "Off Course". LP, Vinyl record album

Dark tones and textures from this well-matched quartet – a group led by pianist Benoit Delbecq – and featuring tenor from Mark Turner, bass from John Hebert, and drums from Gerald Cleaver – all musicians who really seem to have a strong sense of each others' role! If you know Turner's ability to slowly shift in moody passages, you'll know some of the energy of this set – although Hebert can often provide this rumbling depth that really wins us, and Delbecq can have more angular, powerful piano lines that occasionally redefine the proceedings. Titles include "Broken World", "Rosemary K", "The Loop Of Chicago", "Spots On Stripes", "Dawn Sounds", "Old Vinyl", and "Dripping Stones". CD

With a title and cover like this, we had to check the record out – and the sound within doesn't fail to disappoint! The song titles themselves are extremely political, but the music has a very universal appeal in the freer side of the spectrum – almost a poetic take on the world of free improvisation, with as much tunefulness as unbridled sense of exploration in the musicians! Players include Simone Graziano on piano, Gabriele Evangelista on bass, and Francesco Cusa on drums – working with guest Carlo Atti on saxes. Titles include "Delivering A Load Of Musical Boxes To Wall Street", "Adam Smith Counts Every Penny", "Fiscal Regime In The Life Of The New York Taxidriver/Jazzman", "Sun Ra Vs Donald Trump", and "Accelerating From The Global Society To The Foamed Society". CD

Drummer Nick Fraser leads the group, but we're in love with the contributions of all the individual members – including saxophonist Tony Malaby, who's at his creative tonal best – and the mix of Andrew Downing on cello and Rob Clutton on bass – performing together here in a wonderfully rich texture of strings! The album begins in moody territory, but soon moves into bolder moments – which really draw a lot of subtle emotional balance in the range between the tenor and cello especially – working together to evoke worlds of unseen images, with an offbeat mix of past and future. Titles include "Disclosure", "Skeleton", "Arachnid", "The Predictor", and "Quicksand". CD

The trombone of Steve Swell is a great presence here – balanced alongside the trio of Frode Gjerstad on alto, Jon Rune Strom on bass, and Paal Nilssen Love on drums and percussion! Both Swell and Gjerstad have this way of creating flurries of notes that are mindblowing – fast-thinking, quickly-creative tones that fall from their horns with almost an organic sort of energy – blended together in a magical conflagration of high and low and impulses! Strom's bass shifts nicely – sometimes itself a strong engine of sonic nodes – and the drums of Paal Nilssen-Love are sometimes nicely restrained, before coming on with his trademark boundless energy. The set features four long improvisations – "Bop Stop", "Stop Bop", "Pop Bop", and "Post Stop". CD

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Scandinavian jazz, recorded in Bali – in a great shift from previous volumes in this series – as all musicians play a bit of gamelan as well! Make no mistake, the format is definitely freely improvised music with a strong jazz current – with the mighty Jonas Kullhammar on tenor and flute, Susana Santos Silva on trumpet, Torbjorn Zetterberg on bass, and Espen Aalberg on drums and percussion – working together as a fantastically cohesive unit, with a bold sense of confidence that really shows the players' understanding of each other. Yet there's also a special vibe here – really marking the album as a special outing from the musicians – even if the gamelan is used sparingly alongside the more familiar instrumentation. Titles include "Irama Berat", "Dewas Dance", "Slow Ostinato", "Suling", and "Ilir Ilir". CD

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An incredible solo record from Rob Mazurek – a wonderful change from some of his larger group and collaborative projects – even though we love those a heck of a lot too! This set's a great reminder of the core improvisational genius that Rob's always had, but which sometimes is overshadowed by the group activity on his other records. Here, Mazurek blows cornet alone, and also plays both standard and prepared piano – and colors things with just a dash of his great electronics – often used in more sparing and subtle ways than some of his group efforts. A really beautiful set from a musician who continues to reward us over the years – with titles that include "Twombly At New Church", "Gazing Through Walls", "King Of Rome", and "Sweet Life In Disrepair". CD

Triangulum – a great title for the wonderful energy of this group – which swings perfectly between the three sharp points of Nick Mazzarella on alto, Matt Ulery on bass, and Jeremy Cunningham on drums! These guys are freewheeling, but always soulful – not just because of Nick's well-shaped sense of tone – which can be arch-modern, yet with a surprisingly warm core – but also because the bass of Ulery has this completely rapt (wrapped?) approach – almost like some deep force watching over the whole proceedings, which then seems to set Cunningham free on drums. The group represents an amazing third (or fourth?) wave in the contemporary avant scene in Chicago – the kind of joyous expression that continues to make us proud to live in a city that can create music this wonderful. Titles include "Ringdown", "Reminiscing", "Witch Hazel", "Rhododendron", "Strange", and "Inflection Point". CD

A totally cool combination of musical elements – baritone sax and analog electronics – both played here by Jonah Parzen-Johnson with a style that's unlike anything else we can think of! Sure, saxes and electronics have come together before – ever since Richard Tietelbaum and Anthony Braxton first recorded together back in the 70s. But there's also a very different vibe here that comes both from the baritone, and its deeper sonic range – and the way that Jonah uses his electronics, sometimes with flutteringly rhythmic elements that really make the music shimmer, but without overwhelming it at all. He's also not afraid to blow straight and soulfully at times too – which is especially great when the electronics are more abstract – and throughout, the album's full of these revelatory moments that make the whole thing a delight. Titles include "These Shoulders Those Shoulders", "Cabin Pressure", "I Have Questions", "What Do I Do With Sorry", "Guns Make Us Murderers", and "Too Many Dreams". CD

A strong group statement from Chicago pianist Matt Piet – a newer player on the city's improvising scene, but one who's already making his presence known – lined up here beautifully with heavyweights Josh Berman on cornet, Nick Mazzarella on alto, and Tim Daisy on drums and percussion! The album just features two long tracks – and both of them are maybe more of a nod back at an earlier generation of Chicago improvisers than some of the recent work of the other players – as Piet blocks things out in mood at the start, then builds up a strong energy between all of the players – with Mazzarella sounding especially great in the setting – really coming across with these searing, spiritual tones. Berman is great too – more subtle at times, but also looser and freer too – and titles include "Lost & Found" and "The Last Place You Look". CD

Reedman Alberto Pinton works here in a very full-on setting – a strong quartet with Niklas Barno on trumpet, Torbjorn Zetterberg on bass, and Konrad Angnas on drums – all players who can come out of the gate in a very bold way, but then also create these much more introspective moments of musical interplay! Pinton blows a variety of horns on the record – alto, baritone sax, clarinet, and bass clarinet – all of which create different shades of emotion. And, as usual, Zetterberg is tremendous – maybe one of the great under-appreciated bassists of the past 20 years! Titles include "Overthought", "Marion", "The Long View", "Det Vi Vet", and "Unqueitly/Sabbia". CD

The bass of Eric Revis sounds better than we ever remember – and that's saying a lot, because we've really liked his other records too! Yet here, it almost feels like Revis is out to re-state himself as a musician – coming on strong with a tone that could put him up there with the giants of earlier years – and beautifully matched with drummer Chad Taylor, who's always been an amazing example of that rare quality of being tight and loose at the same time! Ken Vandermark blows tenor and clarinet – but in a way that really seems to respect the path taken by Revis and Taylor – as does the piano of Kris Davis, which punctuates the sound perfectly. Titles include "Sing Me Some Cry", "PT 44", "Good Company", "Rye Eclipse", "Rumples", and "Drunkard's Lullaby". CD

A pretty great little album of solo piano – one that not only has a different vibe, given that Mattias Risberg also uses a moog Taurus – but also because the piano here seems to be both normal and "prepared"! Risberg has a great way of pulling out odd sounds that are still surprisingly tuneful – laying them out in progressions that are often quite angular and jagged, but which have a warm quality as well – almost painterly in the way that Mattias handles his music, with a beautifully personal touch. The whole album's played live, without overdubs – and the Taurus is handled with foot pedals, in a subtle but striking way. Titles include "Marine", "Emerald", "Vermillion", "Cobalt", "Sienna", "Viridian", and "Umber". CD

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A record as enigmatic as its title – slow-building sounds crafted by the trumpet of Yaw Tembe and percussion of Monseiur Trinite – both musicians we don't know at all, but who really find a special space with this album! The sound is very open and spacious – much more in an ECM legacy than the usual releases on Clean Feed – but also with a sound that's individually its own, and which isn't trying to copy the ECM style at all. Percussion is often very spare and stark – not loud, but striking – and the performance appears to be live, in a space that also allows for lots of room echo to expand the individual elements. Titles include "A Kind Of Jester's Kindness", "Delta", "Trial", "King Before Kings", "Inner Suite Three Magnificent Ride", and "No Body". CD

A German disco extravaganza – and a much-needed look at one of the strongest 70s club outlets next to the US! At first glance, the mix of Germany and disco might seem like an unlikely fit – but the German scene gave the world some key disco hits back in the 70s, as well as a huge variety of underground and lesser-known gems! The German approach was often a bit heavier on electronics than the American one – modes that were slightly pulled from prog and fusion that was bubbling around earlier in the decade, then fused into a cleaner, leaner, more rhythmic groove – and often topped with vocals in English, sometimes by American vocalists living overseas. Even the older German instrumentalists got in on the act – and the 70s saw both jazz and easy players hitting a disco groove with a new approach to their music! This great collection – put together by the folks who gave us The In Kraut – showcases all these aspects of the scene, and brings together a few hits with a lot more obscure gems – many of which we've never seen on this side of the Atlantic before. Titles include "Opium" by Peter Thomas, "Philodendron" by Veronika Fischer, "Illegal Toys" by Alfie Khan Sound Orchestra, "Lovemachine" by Supermax, "You've Got The Power (parts 1 & 2)" by Su Kramer, "Fashion Pack" by Amanda Lear, "Weider Zusammen" by Marianne Rosenberg, "Sex World" by Berry Lipman, "Get On The Funk Train (part 1)" by Munich Machine, "I Can't Move No Mountains" by James Last, "Treat Me Like A Woman" by Jackie Carter, "Feedback Brother" by Peter Herbholzheimer Rhythm Combination & Brass, "Disco Cisco" by Carsten Bohn's Bandstand, and "Love In A Sleeper" by Silver Convention. CD