Links:
Improvising musicians - Music writers and journalists - Musicians' organizations - Various resources - Magazines - Internet Radio - Festivals - Concert venues and clubs - Record Labels - Other Musics - Rotterdam and beyond - Antarctica - Non-music
All links open in a new tab or window.
Newly added links / not yet classified
Unsounds
Rudy's Music Source Site
Oro Molido
Oro Molido Música improvisada libre y arte sonoro
Mind Your Own Music
Música Difícil
dunslimitededition.com
culture-tech.org
kraakgeluiden
http://www.geocities.com/improvised_music/
Subterranean Distribution
Newjazzimprov
Maarten Altena
Ray Anderson
Albert Ayler
Cyro Baptista
Konrad Bauer
Han Bennink
Paul Bley
Borbetomagus
Anthony Braxton
Willem Breuker
John Butcher
Eugene Chadbourne
Ornette Coleman
Andrew Cyrille
Bill Dixon
Dave Douglas
Hamid Drake
Ellery Eskelin
Fred Frith
Henry Grimes
Gunter Hampel
Gerry Hemingway
Andrew Hill
Ken Hyder
Susie Ibarra
Abdullah Ibrahim
Hilary Jeffery
Leroy Jenkins
Henry Kaiser
Peter Kowald
Steve Lacy
Oliver Lake
Thomas Lehn
Lê Quan Ninh
John Lindberg
Jon Lloyd
Joe McPhee
Rajesh Mehta
Myra Melford
Joe Morris
Günter Müller
David Murray
Dan Plonsey
Bobby Previte
Hans Reichel
Jon Rose
ROVA Saxophone Quartet
(Helmut) Joe Sachse
Alex von Schlippenbach
Matthew Shipp
Alan Silva
Wadada Leo Smith
Sun Ra and the Arkestra
John Tchicai
Ken Vandermark
Trevor Watts
Michael Zerang
Mike Zwerin - Author of Close Enough for Jazz and La Tristesse de Saint Louis - Jazz under the Nazis; trombone man on Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool; A pioneer of New Journalism in music writing and the first writer to have noticed the Soft Machine.
Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) - Philosopher of Black Aesthetics, poet, playwright, Author of Jazz & The White Critic and Black Dada Nihilismus...
John Sinclair - Poet, producer, professor, panther, political prisoner and panelist John Sinclair continues to kick out the jams...
AACM - Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future. News, artist profiles, sound clips and more.
London Musician's Collective - Events calendar, text & sound archives, good reasons to track down a copy of Resonance magazine, and more.
FRIM - the association for free improvised music in Sweden.
Liverpool Improvisors' Network
Jazz Composers Collective (New York City)
Trummerflora (San Diego, USA)
Rotterdamse Improvisatie Poel (in Dutch only)
Spring Garden Music (Philadelphia)
London Improv - Everything going on right now in London. Articles, event listings, mp3s, discussion forums, links, photo galleries, music and video files.
European Free Improvisation Pages - A veritable encyclopedia with discographies and biographies of more than 100 musicians, information and links to more than 130 independant record labels, audio and video clips, concert listings, articles, interviews, links... Covers mainly European improvisation and artists, but also includes a few non-Europeans with "a strong European connection".
freejazz.org - Freedom in music, in other words Matthew Radey's labour of love, with contributions by everyone who feels so inclined. Up-to-date news, discussions, concert tips and more.
JazzWord - In-depth news site for improvised music. Five stars for this one (whoever may be behind it). Provides "links (updated daily) to important, unique and interesting stories on other sites that may or may not be primarily concerned with music."
Almatour - Interviews and dissertations with/about Anthony Braxton, Peter Brötzmann, Peter Kowald, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Konrad Bauer, Johannes Bauer, Vinko Globokar, Albert Mangelsdorff, Joachim Kühn, Paul Lovens, Eugene Chadbourne, Evan Parker, William Parker and others.
Improvised Music From Japan - Artist profiles, news, concert listings, exclusive recordings... Anyone considering a visit to Japan should throw out all conventional travel books and stick exclusively to this guide. We mean it.
People of jazz index - Just what it says. Information and links to 196 "jazz" artists from Duke Ellington to Otomo Yoshihide. Brought to you by Chicago's Northwestern University, the people who also run WNUR-FM. Includes transcriptions of radio interviews.
All Music Guide - an exhaustive and mostly mainstream music encyclopedia, yet surprisingly complete and well-informed about improvised music, free jazz, and other undeservedly obscure noises. Features reviews by Dr. Eugene Chadbourne.
Restructures - "Creative music forum", a few discographies, and a nice link library.
The magificent melting object - Pleasantly idiosyncratic musical and social observations "posted by Joe Going".
Diapazon (mostly in Polish, with some English pages) - Contemporary jazz reviews, interviews, and other views. Also album cover art, discographies, links, galleries, MP3s, etc.
Musings - Archive of improv record reviews by Richard Cochrane. "In its day, Musings was 'famed' for reviewing just about everything it recieved" (a total of 329 reviews including Derek Bailey, John Zorn, Peter Brötzmann, Anthony Braxton, John Butcher, Eugene Chadbourne, Lol Coxhill, the Ganelin Trio, Evan Parker, Veryan Weston).
Eyeneer Jazz Archives - Includes some biographical notes and links on the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Albert Ayler, Anthony Braxton, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor.
ART.CappuccinoNet.com - "A place for avantgarde, experimental, improvisation music managed by Ge-Suk Yeo a soprano from Korea, living in Hamburg, Germany."
Avantart - Based in Germany and usually gazing eastwards from there. Cornelie Müller-Gödecke's little gift to the world also focuses on visual art, contemporary composition, dance... and traveling through the east.
Musart - "Alternative Canterbury Tales" featuring Lindsay Cooper, Lol Coxhill, Elton Dean, Robert Wyatt...
Zu Casa - "An online laboratory for exhibition, performance, and promotion of experimental and improvised music".
SoundList - "E-mail newsletter devoted to announcements of free-improvisation, experimental music and sound art events in the Toronto area".
JazzNewYork - Art Attack! - "The publication for & about liberation musicians in NYC".
Music Universe, Music Mind - "Dedicated to the Legacy of the Creative Music Studio" in Woodstock, NY.
Other Minds - "New and unusual music in all its forms".
The Wire - "Adventures in Modern Music." All the news worth printing about all the sounds worth hearing. The site features some of the best articles and interviews from back issues.
The Wire Index - Index to back issues of The Wire.
One Final Note - Quarterly internet journal dedicated to improvisation and all things related. Features interviews, reviews, creative writing.
The Squid's Ear - "NYC music magazine covering improvisational, avant, and experimental music from around the world, aiming deep into the conch shell of your cochlea to tickle your tinnitus".
Rubberneck - "The longest-running experimental music magazine in Britain, specialising in improvised musics (improv to its friends), free jazz, avant-garde rock, electroacoustic and contemporary composition; film music is also an interest".
sOuNDz Impossible - "When Jazz Leans into Infinity".
Traverses - "Other progressive musics" (in French).
Opprobrium - Which means "disgrace". Perceptive interviews hidden behind an uninviting interface. Got to earn your way into this one.
Avant - "The Magazine for Jazz, Improvised, Electronic, Experimental and Contemporary Classical Music"
The Improvisor - "Devoted to the music of the moment".
Signal to Noise - "Journal of Improvised and Experimental Music"
Resonance FM - Brought to us by the London Musicians' Collective. "The best radio station in London" says the Guardian newspaper.
WNUR-FM - Chicago's sound experiment. "Jazz" (in the broadest sense) from 5:00am to 12:30pm CST (11:00am to 18:30pm GMT)
Concertzender - Dutch radio station that can be streamed worldwide through the net. Features improvised music every fourth Tuesday of the month at 22:00 Western Europe time (and every fifth Tuesday, which never happens often enough, at 21:00)
Music Unlimited (Wels, Austria)
Free Music (Antwerp, Belgium)
Konfrontationen (Nickelsdorf, Austria)
Kaleidophon (Ulrichsberg, Austria)
Fruits de Mhère (Mhère, France)
Jazz à Mulhouse (Mulhouse, France)
Open Systems (Ruhr area, Germany)
Moers New Jazz Festival (Moers, Germany)
Musique Actuelle (Victoriaville, Canada)
Uncool (Poschiavo, Switzerland)
Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival (SKIF) (St.Petersburg, Russia)
Seattle Improvised Music Festival (Seattle, USA)
High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music (Baltimore, USA)
Vilnius Jazz Festival (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Rumor (Utrecht, Netherlands)
Vision Festival (New York City, USA)
The Candlestick Maker - Michael Zerang's Chicago venue.
Les Instants Chavirés - "Improvised, experimental, improbable and unhoped-for musics." (Paris, France).
Tonic - John Zorn's New York venue
The Velvet Lounge - "Fred Anderson's home for Chicago Jazz."
The Empty Bottle (Chicago, USA)
Bimhuis (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Smorjazz (Delft, Netherlands)
The Knitting Factory (Manhattan and Hollywood, USA)
Alter Schlachthof (Wels, Austria)
Jazzgalerie Nickelsdorf (Nickelsdorf, Austria)
Jazzatelier Ulrichsberg (Ulrichsberg, Austria)
The Vortex (London, UK)
Ongaku (London, UK)
Interzones (Rennes, France)
The Red Room (Baltimore, USA)
Zaal 100 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Overtoom 301 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Poortgebouw (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Worm (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
About Time - Featuring Henry Threadgill, Fred Hopkins, Willem Breuker...
Ambiances Magnétiques - "Where new musics meet". And where the world (Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, Derek Bailey, Hans Koch, Joëlle Léandre, Otomo Yoshihide) meets Québec (Jean Derome, René Lussier, Martin Tétreault and many others)
Atavistic - Recordings by Ken Vandermark, Christian Marclay, Gregg Bendian et al, plus John Corbett's Unheard Music Series (historic re-releases and other lost music by Peter Brötzmann, Fred Anderson, Joe McPhee, Schlippenbach Quartet, Fred van Hove, Irène Schweizer, Han Bennink...)
AUM Fidelity - Music "with a focus on procreative sound and song" by the likes of David S. Ware, Joe Morris, William Parker, Matthew Shipp, Mat Maneri and more.
Ayler Records - "The sounds that really happened and which created an unforgettable music event - never to be experienced again." Besides some rare preserved flowers from Albert, mostly new recordings by Peter Brötzmann, William Parker, Noah Howard, John Stevens, Hamid Drake & Assif Tsahar, Arthur Doyle & Sunny Murray...
Black Saint / Soul Note - Giovanni Bonandrini's classic new jazz label has released since 1975 "more than 600 titles which have built the history of jazz" by Cecil Taylor, Roscoe Mitchell, Andrew Cyrille, Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, David Murray, Rova, Muhal Richard Abrams, Sun Ra, Jimmy Giuffre, Charles Gayle, Steve Lacy, William Parker, Billy Bang, John Lindberg, etc, etc.
Bruce's Fingers - Simon H. Fell's label offers "Contemporary, improvised, experimental and difficult musics" from Fell and various associates.
BVHAAST - Improvised and composed sounds, mostly from Holland, more often than not featuring Willem Breuker.
Cortical - "The true organ of hearing" as resonated by Derek Bailey, Joseph Holbrooke Trio, Terry Riley, John Cage, Hermann Nitsch, Cornelius Cardew...
ECM - In case anyone needs reminding, ECM has brought forth some of the finest recordings of unusual creative music by the likes of Evan Parker, Joe Maneri, Hal Russell, Edward Vesala, Paul Bley, Don Cherry, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Marilyn Crispell, Collin Walcott, Marion Brown, Abdullah Ibrahim (aka Dollar Brand), Dave Holland, John Surman, Leo Smith, Tomasz Stanko, Mal Waldron, Jimmy Giuffre and (even) AMM.
Emanem - "Compact discs of unadulterated new music for people who like new music unadulterated." Centered on, but not limited to, London's vibrant improv scene. Recordings by Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Lol Coxhill, Veryan Weston, Phil Minton, Paul Rutherford, John Butcher, Steve Lacy...
Enja - "Where the music lives": Abdullah Ibrahim, Cecil Taylor, Lee Konitz, Mal Waldron, Sylvie Courvoisier, Ray Anderson, David Murray, Bobby Previte, Michele Rosewoman...
Eremite - Quietly documenting fine improvisations by William Parker, Raphe Malik, Sunny Murray, Alan Silva, Hamid Drake, Fred Anderson...
ESP Disk - The one and only - or so it seems. After a very sketchy presence by this legendary label over the last 30 years, there's something surrealistic about this site announcing: "You may have heard of us, ESP-Disk".
Erstwhile - Fresh sounds by John Tilbury, Thomas Lehn, Keith Rowe, John Butcher, Otomo Yoshihide, Radu Malfatti, Marcus Schmickler, Phil Durrant, Günter Müller, Lê Quan Ninh, Gerry Hemingway, Martin Tétreault, Axel Dörner...
FMP - Since 1969, mainland Europe's original free music label. Peter Brötzmann, Cecil Taylor, Peter Kowald, Charles Gayle, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Phil Minton, Sam Rivers, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Sainkho Namtchylak, Keith Tippett, Xu Feng Xia, Steve Lacy, Hans Reichel, Fred van Hove...
www.free-music-production.de (distribution and communication)
www.fmp-label.de (archive and production)
Grob - "Documents of New Music" by Konk Pack (Thomas Lehn, Tim Hodgkinson, Roger Turner), John Butcher, Derek Bailey, Phil Minton, Eugene Chadbourne, Keith Rowe, Elliot Sharp, Bobby Previte, Peter van Bergen...
HatHut - Also known as HatArt or Hatology. From Switzerland with love. Improvised music and modern composition, filling in the infinity of blanks from John Cage to Albert Ayler.
Hopscotch - Assif Tsahar's home cooking label features mostly music by Assif with contributions from Derek Bailey, Peter Kowald, Rashied Ali, Hugh Ragin, Susie Ibarra...
Improvising Artists - Paul Bley's label features recordings by Jimmy Giuffre, Sam Rivers, Lee Konitz, Paul Bley, Steve Lacy, Sun Ra...
Incus - Derek Bailey's label also includes some recordings Derek doesn't play on. "The policy is centred on improvisation," which shouldn't come as a shock to those familiar with Bailey's music and writings.
Intakt - Barry Guy, Evan Parker, Konrad Bauer, Johannes Bauer, Cecil Taylor, Irene Schweizer, London Jazz Composers Orchestra, Eugene Chadbourne, Jon Rose, Elliott Sharp, Gunter Sommer
Knitting Factory - Documenting more than just every band passing through their venue, with recordings by Charles Gayle, Eugene Chadbourne, Rashied Ali, William Hooker...
Konnex - Features the music of Peter Brötzmann, Anthony Braxton, John Stevens, Cecil Taylor and more.
Leo - Originally a musical refugee's semi-illegal outlet for Soviet underground improvisation. Now mostly a normal (well, sort of) label for all kinds of creative music: Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell, Sun Ra, Evan Parker, Cecil Taylor, Joe Maneri... The label's sporadic re-releases and compilations of vintage Soviet-era samizdat material is especially interesting, since this kind of music is virtually impossible to find anywhere else (and still vastly underrated, even among people who should fucking well know better).
Lovely Music - American new music, composition and improvisation from Alvin Lucier to Roscoe Mitchell.
Matchless - Eddie Prévost, AMM and other meta-musical treasures.
Maya Recordings - Maya Homburger and Barry Guy. Featuring articles, biographies, discographies, news & diary, reviews and photogallery
Moers - The label from the festival. Recordings by the World Saxophone Quartet, Fred Frith, Richard Teitelbaum, David Murray, John Carter, James Blood Ulmer, Vienna Art Orchestra...
Music & Arts - American (and some European) new music, composed & improvised. Anthony Braxton, Peter Brötzmann, Andrew Cyrille, Georg Graewe, Barry Guy, Julius Hemphill, Marilyn Crispell, Don Pullen, Vladimir Tasarov... Plus lots of classical, contemporary, and international music as well.
New Albion - Dedicated to contemporary composition, including the works of composer-improvisers such as Anthony Braxton, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Frederic Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum and Alvin Curran.
Ninth World Music - Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Pierre Dørge, John Tchicai...
Okkadisk - Documenting mainly, but by no means exclusively, Chicago's bustling free music community. Recordings by Fred Anderson, Anthony Braxton, Peter Brötzmann, Marilyn Crispell, Hamid Drake, Barry Guy, Paul Lovens, Evan Parker, Ken Vandermark, Michael Zerang...
Parallactic - Brandon Evans' outlet features work by Anthony Braxton and Sonny Simmons.
Potlatch - Recent recordings by Derek Bailey, John Butcher, Evan Parker, Keith Rowe, Fred Van Hove, Axel Dörner, Steve Lacy, Joëlle Léandre, Michel Dondea, Paul Lovens, Carlos Zingaro... (In case you wonder what "potlatch" means, it's an old North American native ceremony of lavish giving and sharing.)
Psi - Evan Parker's label.
Rastascan - Percussionist Gino Robair's label features recordings with and without Gino: Anthony Braxton, Peter Brötzmann, Hans Reichel, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, John Butcher, Bob Ostertag, Eugene Chadbourne, Rova, Hans Reichel, Gregg Bendian... The label "allows its artists to present their music exactly as they see fit, without compromises."
ReR - or "ReR Megacorp" (good luck, lads). This is basically Chris Cutler's outfit, mainly featuring Chris's projects past, present and future with Henry Cow et al, and some additional stuff by Faust, Biota, Jon Rose, Fred Frith, AMM and Sun Ra.
Revenant - The late John Fahey's label for Music From The Other Side Of The Fence, features mainly re-releases of stuff that would otherwise have gone (inexplicably) lost, from Cecil Taylor to Charley Patton to Captain Beefheart.
Screwgun - Tim Berne's label is also an occasional safe haven for some of his friends.
Silkheart - Just another great free jazz label with pearls from David S. Ware, Charles Gayle, William Hooker, Roscoe Mitchell, Steve Lacy, Matthew Shipp, Hal Russell, Andrew Cyrille, Richard Teitelbaum, Assif Tsahar...
Sofa - New improvised music from Norway (Ivar Grydeland, Ingar Zach, Paal Nilssen-Love) with some reinforcements from Ole Albion (Derek Bailey, Barry Guy, Phil Minton, Tony Oxley).
Thirsty Ear - Adventurous anti-pop label hosting Matthew Shipp's "Blue Series" featuring Charles Gayle and William Parker.
Tzadik - John Zorn's increasingly capacious and diverse label features recordings by John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Fred Frith, Wadada Leo Smith, Milford Graves, Ikue Mori, David Shea, and many many other lesser-known artists who deserve to be better known, which is a big part of what this label seems to be about. With special attention to contemporary composition (as in stuff that's being composed right now), film music, the Japanese cutting edge (ouch!) and "Radical Jewish Culture".
Victo - All roads lead to Victoriaville, Québec (population 40,000) - the label features live and studio moments with Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Derek Bailey, Roscoe Mitchell, Phil Minton, Evan Parker, Sainkho Namtchylak, Beñat Achiary, Joëlle Léandre, Richard Teitelbaum, Fred Frith, John Butcher, Marilyn Crispell, Barre Phillips, Henry Kaiser, Konrad Bauer, Keith Tippett, Charles Gayle, Rova, etc, etc... As well as local heroes such as Jean Derome and René Lussier.
Wobbly Rail - "Improvised music and free jazz" by Wadada Leo Smith, Steve Lacy, John Butcher, Georg Graewe, Paul Lytton, Ken Vandermark...
X-OR - Luc Houtkamp's label includes the music of Mats Gustafsson, Fred Van Hove, Misha Mengelberg, Gert Jan Prins...
The Glenn Gould Archive
The Captain Beefheart Radar Station
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Arditti Quartet
Frances-Marie Uitti
Supersilent
Annie Gosfield
Biota
Robert Wyatt
Music under Soviet rule
Yma Sumac
Vladimir Vysotsky
Morton Feldman Page
Jaap Blonk
Iannis Xenakis
Ensemble Modern
King Crimson's Elephant Talk
Hulloder Soft Machine Page
The Charles Ives Society
Dälek
Pierre Bastien
Gavin Bryars
Carla Bley
Ircam
Krzysztof Komeda
Antarctica on Wikipedia
Antarctica in the News
The CIA report on Antarctica
British Antarctic Survey
Antarctic Treaty info
Scientific Committee on Antarctic (SCAR)
Antarctic Treaty Secretariat
Henry Kaiser in Antarctica (lucky devil!)
Innbetween Another odd couple of artists once stranded in Rotterdam
Zeroglab Károly Tóth, artist, curator, musician
Insect Behavior and Biocontrol Research Unit : Sound Library
Stephen Hawking
Edge web magazine
Hubble Space Telescope Images
More Hubble Space Telescope Institute Images
The Noam Chomsky Archive
Tree of Life Web Project Home Page
Bill Hicks Audio-Video Archive - Sacred Cow Productions
If you think we should exchange links with your site, e-mail us
All words and images copyright 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 by Vanita & Joe Monk
