A wonderful continuation of the spirit of the previous collaboration between trumpet and flugelhorn player Susana Santos Silva and bassist Torbjorn Zetterberg – but a record that also adds in a cool extra element with the organ of Hampus Lindwall too! The music has this spacious, open quality – these tonefull lines from Silva which flow out in space, but which also have a quality that's not nearly as cold as, say, an ECM session of this type – thanks to the always-amazing, always-soulful work of Zetterberg on bass – who gives the record an organic grounding, which is then supported by Lindwall's lines on organ. And we're not exactly sure what type of organ he's using, but at times it almost feels like a pipe organ – as the sounds have both a depth, and sense of presence that really makes the music unique – even at points when his contributions are very low on the sonic totem pole. Titles include "Stop Chords", "Fiddling", "Distance", "First Initiative", "Second Initiative", "One Note Each", and "One Note Song". CD

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 group who've got a pretty heavy sound for such a poetic name – hardly the lightness you'd expect from the stars – and instead a full-on wave of improvised sound from a mixed electric and acoustic lineup! The group features Kristoffer Berre Alberts on alto and tenor, Jamie Saft on lapsteel and organ, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on electric and acoustic bass, and Gard Nilssen on drums and electronics – all players who use their instruments here more with a sense of sound texture than musicality – sitting in a space between improvised jazz and noise, almost echoing some older New York downtown modes at times. Titles include "A Beautiful Nightmare", "The Art Of Silence", "The Prince Of The Face Of The Bull", "Suspended Veil", and "Minnewaska". LP, Vinyl record album

The album's got a wild west cover, but a rock solid free jazz pedigree – as the music is performed by the trio of Gerry Hemmingway on drums, Manuel Troller on guitar, and Sebastian Strinning on tenor and bass clarinet! The sounds within are often very spacious and open – sometimes working with a very subtle approach, so that the resonance between each element is so gentle, it's sometimes hard to tell where one instrument ends and the other begins! A few points are a bit more wild – there's certainly a few breakout improvisational moments on the set – but the record's real charm is the careful slow brewing of sonic elements, on titles that include "Kill Button", "Big Blind", "Third Man Walking", "Range Of Hands", and "Reraise". LP, Vinyl record album

A record that comes on with the frenzy of an Ornette Coleman Quartet session – and one with a very similar lineup too – given that Nate Wooley is on trumpet, Chris Pitsiokos is on alto, Brandon Lopez is on bass, and Dre Hocevar is on drums! Yet the sound is freer, and bolder too – as the instruments flurry together in clusters, then burst out into incredible sonic territory as the set moves on – with moments that include Wooley blowing fast and tuneful with a mute, like some speed freak Miles Davis – or hitting these popping, punctuated sounds that are really unusual. The record's one that really keeps us on the edge of our seats – and furthers the sense of surprise that can make real jazz improvisation so special! 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

Peter Brotzmann led group consisting of Toshinori Kondo, Massimo Pupillo and Paal Nilssen Love. CD

A really old school trio setting – one that has a loose, open, freely exploratory vibe that really takes us back to the loft jazz generation – as the musicians work in very creative territory that really shows their individual spirits, yet still also come together strongly as a whole! Joe McPhee is great on tenor and trumpet – and really reminds us of those tremendous textures and tones he started developing in the late 70s – and the rest of the trio features Pascal Niggenkemper on bass and Stale Liavik Solberg on drums – both younger musicians, but equally creative in the setting. Titles include "i", "A", and "Zero Supreme Love" – the last of which is dedicated to John Coltrane. CD

A trio of live performances from this excellent trio – material recorded in Oslo, Ljubljana, and the North Sea festival – brought together here in a really wonderful package! The first CD features just the trio – Gard Nilssen on some incredibly dynamic drums, working with Petter Eldh on bass and Andre Roligheten on tenor and soprano sax – a group who really find a new way to open things up past the original trio mode of Sonny Rollins in the 50s, but without the oft-trod territory of the familiar avant power trio too. The group is joined by Fredrik Ljungkvist on tenor and clarinet on the second CD – and we always love Fred's work on any session, this one included. The final CD features a quintet – with the presence of Jorgen Mathisen on tenor and clarinet, and Kristoffer Berre Alberts on alto, tenor, and baritone – which really ups the reed power of the album! A heck of a lot of music in one short space – all free, but nicely structured into songforms too. CD

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

Three horns, no piano, and plenty of imagination – a triple-length set that really opens up new possibilities for improvisation, by a quintet that features Mats Aleklint on trombone, Martin Kuchen on alto, sopranino, and flute – and Kjetil Moster on tenor and clarinet – alongside Olay Hoyer on bass and Dag Erik Knedal Andersen on drums! The tracks are very long and flowing – almost with the organic quality of spiritual jazz, but maybe a bit more outside too – very open in the way the musicians come together, almost blossoming like individual flowers in the same garden – rather than trying to challenge each other for primacy or time in the light. Titles include "See Don't Tell", "Hear Don't Say", "Towards The Uncool", "A Clandestine Jazz Operation", and "Myriads Of Space (parts 1 to 4)". CD

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

Tenorist Kjetil Moster works here with a great trio of musicians from the Chicago scene – Jeff Parker on guitar, Josh Abrams on bass, and John Herndon on drums – the last of whom comes as a bit of a surprise on a date like this! Yet the drums are often a very important part of the sound here – as they're sometimes full-on and rhythmic, other times more muted but a strong part of the structure of the performances – which allows for some especially creative moments from Parker and Moster, who find these really cool ways to bring unusual sounds from their instruments together! Abrams is a delight, as always – definitely much more on the avant side of his spectrum – on titles that include "Dig Me Out", "Orko", "Pajama Jazz", "Anicca", and "Island Life". CD

The legendary Pharoah Sanders joins the Chicago/Sao Paulo Underground – and the result is one of the most striking records in years from everyone involved! Pharoah blows with this really open, searching sort of tone – wonderfully concerned with sound texture at points, and not nearly as straight a some of his other sessions in recent decades – definitely drawing strong inspiration from the freewheeling work of Rob Mazurek on cornet, flute, and electronics – with additional electronics from Guilherme Granado. Drummer Chad Taylor provides a firm grounding for the experiments – as does bassist Matt Lux – and the group gets some Sao Paulo touches touches Mauricio Takara, who also plays percussion as well. Tracks are all relatively long – cosmic and open, with a stunning mix of acoustic and electric elements – and titles include "Spiral Mercury", "Primitive Jupiter", "This One's For All Mothers", and "Asasumamehn" – two of which are not on the CD! LP, Vinyl record album

We love the Trespass Trio – a group that offers up a very fresh setting for some musicians we first discovered in the Moserobie side of the universe – bassist Per Zanussi, drummer Raymond Strid, and reedman Martin Kuchen – who plays baritone, alto, and sopranino saxes on the album! Zanussi can have a deep bass sound at times, but also bows his instrument at points – with this beautiful current of melancholy – and there's a loose, almost ragged quality to the music that we never would have expected from the musicians years before – a mode that's powerful at moments, but maybe even more compelling when it opens up into some bluer currents of sound. Titles include "Sounds & Ruins", "In Tears", "Centers", "The Spirit Of Pitesti", and "Fri Kokko". CD

The title might be a bit of a joke, but the music here is something else entirely – tremendously well-formed, well-played work from a group headed by bassist Mark Dresser – who also wrote all the material on the set! There's almost an AACM vibe to the whole thing – a mixture of larger concepts and individual spirits, always coming together in a highly collaborative way – and shining in the brilliance of players who include Nicole Mitchell on flutes, Marty Erlich on clarinet and bass clarinet, Michael Dessen on trombone, Joshua White on piano, David Morales Boroff on violin, and Jim Black on drums and percussion. The woodwinds have these shading, sliding qualities that are completely sublime – and often echoed, and augmented by the violin – in work that takes us back to the 70s brilliance of players like Leroy Jenkins or Billy Bang. Dresser's presence is felt strongly throughout – and titles include "Sedimental You", "Newtown Char", "Two Handfuls Of Peace", "Will Well", and "Trumpinputinstoopin". 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 Rova Sax Quartet not only pay tribute to the late Steve Lacy – whose work on soprano sax was such a huge influence on their sound – they also reunite with guitarist Henry Kaiser, a Bay Area associate from the early days who was a key part of their scene! The quartet rework the songs that Steve Lacy first presented on his groundbreaking Saxophone Special album – but the presence of both Kaiser's guitar, and analog electronics from Kyle Bruckmann really make the whole thing sound quite unique – certainly in a mode that Lacy would approve, but also with maybe more of the noisy elements that marked the generation or Rova and Kaiser's early improvisations. Titles include "Staples", "Swishes", "Sops", "Dreams", and "Snaps" – plus bonus tracks "Cliches" and "Sidelines". CD

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Layers of sound from this mighty heavy trio – saxophonist Jorgen Mathisen, bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen, and drummer Andreas Wildhagen! Side one features the blistering "Momentum" – a tune that's awash in these sheets of notes and textures from Jorgen on tenor – with maybe a bit of a break in the middle for the bass, before Mathisen then takes on a more pointed, spiritual journey on his horn! Side two features three shorter tracks – "Gaining", "Maintaining", and "Snake Ballad" – which have even more abstract sonic expression from the group! LP, Vinyl record album

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