The score of "Stones" consists of just a few lines of text: Make sounds with stones, draw sounds out of stones, using a number of sizes and kinds (and colours); for the most part discretely; sometimes in rapid sequences. For the most part striking stones wfth stones, but also stones on other surfaces (inside the open head of a drum, for instance) or other than struck (bowed, for instance, or amplified). Do not break anything. Christian Wolff, STONES, (from: Prose Collection, 1968-74) --- Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble: Antoine BeugerJürg FreyChico MelloMichael PisaroBurkard SchlothauerKunsu ShimThomas Stiegler---Recorded by Peter Hecker at atelier bubu, Berlin, 1995. Executive Producer - Peter Hecker. 

“The room I entered was a dream of this room.” “It wasn't the hole in the landscapethat gladdened us,it was the invitation to the weatherto drop in anytime.” John Ashbery (both quotations from: Your Name Here 2000)  “...all the hard dry studied Rules that ever was prescribed, will not enable any Person to form an Air any more than the bare Knowledge of the four and twenty Letters, and strict Grammatical Rules will qualify a Scholar for composing a Piece of Poetry, or properly adjusting a Tragedy, without a Genius. It must be Nature, Nature must lay the Foundation, Nature must inspire the Thought.” William Billings (Introduction to New England Psalm Singer, 1770)  “The responsibility of the artist is to imitate nature in her manner of operation” - Ananda Coomaraswamy, often quoted by John Cage --- Edwin Alexander Buchholz / accordian (bugari bayan anatomic) Joanna Becker / violin --- Recorded in Frankfurt by Hans-Bernhard Bätzing and Thomas Eshler in 2005. Mixed and mastered by Hans-Bernhard Bätzing and Thomas Eshler. Coproduced by Antoine Berger and Hessischer Rudfunk. 

Three works - two for large ensembles of performers on sax, guitar, clarinet, voice, percussion, horn, flute, vibes, and objects that belie the size of the group in its fragile presences, with a shorter trio of Frey, Greg Stuart and Erik Carlson transitioning the large pieces; compositions conceived as both short presences within abundant orchestration.  We tend to connect the aspect of structure with safety and stability;the ephemeral, in contrast, in something uncertain and fleeting, something not easy to grasp. thus structure and ephemerality seem to be opposites. in a musical work, though, the can coexist equivalently.one on the one hand, the sum of constructive processes and clear formal decisions leads to a clear architecture.consistently taking it into spheres of lightness and evanescence.the persuasive, coercing power immanent to structure must be avoided. structure then becomes fragile and permeable, allowing the ephemeral to unfold its presence, and, in this presence, to evoke a gleam of permanence.a substantial part of my work takes place in this intermediate zone.a structure hardly touched gives rise to a music that simply wants sensation. a breeze, light and shadow,spaces of colour, a glimpse, a landscape. - Jürg Frey, sketchbook, 2007. ---  University Of South Carolina Emperimental Music Workshop Ensemble are: Jürg Frey / clarinetPhilip Snyder / fluteRachel Whelan / flute, pianoJames Easteppe / guitarJohn Kammerer / hornBailey Seabury / percussionBrian Bethea / saxophoneGreg Stuart / vibraphone, percussionErik Carlson / violinNikil Sairam / violinLogan McLean / voiceMichael Halbrook / objectsAJ Karp / objectsBrooke Rosenberg / objectsChris Ruggiero / objectsDrake Strobel / objectsEric Dennis / objectsJessica Russell / objectsKallam Ashmore / objectsLauren Phillips / objectsMichael Halbrook / objectsNeil Thomas / objectsOlivia Smithson / objects --- Recorded, mixed and mastered by Jeff Francis at Columbia, SC, April 2016. Made possible by a grant from SC honours college through generous support of jeannette and marshall winn ’74.

The trio of Alan Wilkinson, John Edwards, and Steve Noblecontinue to plot their course ever outward and ever upward. These new songs, recorded in South London at that wonderful performance space -- at the heart of the improve scene here at this moment -- Iklectik, are the very beating heart of improvised music. It's not that they are good, or even representative -- such relative terms fail to express the continuum of which these sounds are a key part. This is music that evades the strictures of scientific measurement or critical theory. It just is. Wilkinson is a master of the tribal, balls-out approach to sax playing. He lets it all hang out. But there is great subtlety in what he does with his horn, in the range of inflection, the space between the phrases, the singing tone. At times he sounds like a tight knit sax section in a swinging big band all on his own. There is definitely jazz in there. Edwards and Noble form the rhythmic base for much that is good and beautiful in the improv scene today. Years of playing together and individual brilliance mean they mesh like the gears of a micro-tuned machine. Together the trio make music. And that is all that needs saying. Personnel: Alan Wilkinson - alto, baritone saxophones, bass clarinet; John Edwards - double bass; Steve Noble - drums.

A pair of solo sets from two of the most individual voices exploring new forms of percussion. Both artists transgress the boundaries between acoustic and electronic, analog and digital, and find themselves in a curious midway between various forms of radical music - free-jazz, footwork, and music concrete.  --- Paul Abbott / real and imaginary drums Jake Meginsky / electronics --- Tracklisting: 1. Paene (Paul Abbott) - 35:282. Live at Cafe OTO I (Jake Meginsky) - 6:233. Live at Cafe OTO II (Jake Meginsky) - 39:28 --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Monday 9th April 2018 by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Artwork by Oli Barrett. 

In 1976, Joe McPhee recorded the landmark album Tenor, kicking off a solo period of finding and refining the distinctive voice that continues to inform his music to this day. Solos : The Lost Tapes (1980 – 1981 – 1984) is a collection of material from McPhee’s personal archives that shines new light on the legendary multi-instrumentalist’s work during this time. “Wind Cycles,” for tenor saxophone, explores the permutations of breath on reed and brass, from quiet whispers to full-throated cries and back again. With “The Redwood Rag,” McPhee takes a jaunty melody and gives it a swinging workout with Steve Lacy-like precision. The free-blowing alto excursion “Ice Blu” is, in McPhee’s words, “a sound which evokes an image, which asks a question ‘What is that?’ and the answer is, a sound which evokes an image which asks a question.” “Voices,” one of his signature compositions, gets a particularly haunting treatment here on soprano, with McPhee incorporating various electronics to mesmerizing effect. All together, Solos : The Lost Tapes (1980 – 1981 – 1984) is the distilled essence of one of the most important creative improvising musicians of our time. “Whether it’s amplifying keypad pops or finding harmonics that split his notes into a mass of complex, unfurling tones, he gets you with a feeling as well as a sound… Although McPhee’s music is without compromise, he’s always struck me an excellent gateway figure for people trying to get a handle on free improvisation because the connections between his confrontational and approachable sides is never too hard to find.” – Bill Meyer, Still Single --- Joe McPhee / saxophones, electronics --- Artwork by Judith Lindbloom