Skúli Sverrisson with Bill Frisell - For All Your Flowers (Newvelle Records, 2026)

By Nick Ostrum

For All Your Flowers does not check the usual boxes for my reviews. It is not free jazz or avant garde. It does not really stretch the boundaries, or fuse unlike elements, or shattered the eardrums. Nor is it quiet, or phased, or whatever other attributes I often ascribe to experimental music. What is more, it is guaranteed to get due attention in a variety of other music publications and will likely come to listeners’ ears regardless of what I write. Still, For All Your Flowers presents a blend of crystalline beauty and pastoral expansivism that I find irresistible right now. It captures warm feelings of nostalgia that I have been pining for lately. And it is good music.

None of this should be shocking. Both Bill Frisell and Skúli Sverrisson have catalogs that run decades of years back and albums deep. They have earned their reputations, and I am not sure For All Your Flowers is as much a departure or venture into new pastures than a continuation of the styles and sounds Frisell and Sverrisson have already made their own. As points of comparison, one could include Frisell’s mid-1990s collaborations with Gary Peacock, which are generally more abstract, or the 2021 Sverrisson-Frisell duo Strata, which occupies similar sonic space, but is glitterier. In terms of feeling, however, Charlie Haden and Hank Jones’ 1994 Steal Away , a collection of masterfully performed and unadorned southern spirituals, comes to mind as a reference point. Differences, of course, abound. For one, the songs on For All Your Flowers are primarily penned by Sverrisson, rather than unknown American authors and communal groups of generations prior. The instrumentation is also different with the commonality of bass and the substitution of electric guitar for upright piano. (And Sverrisson and Haden are very different bassists.) However, For All Your Flowers hits me in the same visceral and mistily wistful way. The folky melodic simplicity, the spaces of controlled adornment, and the impressionistic imagery of the hinterland are all there, as is that sense of a time and place past, regardless of where or whether they actually existed. Owning that ambiguity is, of course, what the best art can do. It takes the listener away to a fantasy land to experience vicariously, through sound, image, or narrative, something new and apart from their own lifeworld. Sverrisson and Frisell achieve that, not through uncompromising innovation or eccentric displays of virtuosity, but a shared sense of melody, vision of space. and untouchable precision.

For All Your Flowers is available via Newvelle Records as part of the Newvelle Ten collection.

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Mats Gustafsson / Kimmo Phjonen - Two Balls Are Enough (Trost, 2026)

By Sammy Stein 

Some musicians seem destined to play together at some point. Not always at the beginning of their careers, but as their music develops, it feels as if their paths are compelled to cross. Gustafsson and Pohjonen have been in the other’s orbit for some time, but it took a suggestion from Bogdan Benigar that the duo perform together at the 2024 Ljubljana Music Festival to provide the impetus and foundation of a pairing that has since enlivened stages at events such as the Tampere Jazz Happening in 2024, where their energised performance impressed audiences.

Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen plays the accordion in ways you would not imagine. He creates music that changes how the instrument is viewed. With roots in regional folk and classical music, Pohjonen is also influenced by rock and punk. He has written string music for the acclaimed Kronos Quartet and played in the art-rock band KTU alongside King Crimson percussionist Pat Mastelotto and Trey Gunn.

Pohjonen uses accordions with additions to create enhanced effects, and his delivery has revolutionised accordion music and visual performances. He has, in effect, created a genre of his own, with the accordion at its heart. For the last thirty years, he has toured the world, taking part in events, festivals, and playing in different venues. His solo 5-row accordion project featured extreme and original compositions with effects and performances with lights and sounds. His custom-made accordion, along with his imaginative playing, has given him a renown as one of music’s most intriguing characters. He has released several albums and toured extensively in Europe, Asia, and America.  

Swedish musician Mats Gustafsson needs little introduction to improvised music appreciators and is also known for his experimental music, his diversions into punk, rock, classical, and his dynamic performances. He has composed for orchestras, created solo recordings, and toured extensively, as well as being a writer for jazz magazines.

Both musicians have strong stage presence and dynamic personalities, yet each is capable of pulling back to leave space. Their strong personalities could see them clash, but they also have the altruism and connection to others that true musicians possess, so as a duo, they create music both individual to each musician and that stands as duo work. Their similarities and differences combine to create a connection where they are pushed to excel beyond their normal range. It is clear from this recording that ‘Two Balls Are Enough’ brings together kindred spirits, each of whom contributes equally.

Gustafsson told me, “The duo was initiated by Bogdan Benigar, a mutual friend of Pohjonen and me. I have admired Kimmo for years. He may be slightly from another side of the improvised music spectrum, but the energy he is playing with is very appealing. He has amazing levels of energy, and the vibe and feel of the music is one hundred percent 100 % DIY.

We are both the same age, and both spring from punk rock in our teens. Our stupid interest in ice hockey and saunas unites us even more. This is just the beginning. The way Kimmo is using samplers and electronics with his accordion is heaven-sent.”

Both appreciate the capabilities of their instruments but embrace technology and effects that enhance and work with the sonic measurements of their instruments. Since that inspired curation in 2024, they have been blending their sound worlds, and ‘Two Balls are Enough’ is their first album out on Trost Records.

The opener, ‘Ice Heaven’ is a fierce, sparking, energy-laden piece, with intricate, heavy rhythmic patterns, backed by harmonics between the two musicians that bind and create a wholeness to the divergent patterns. Gustafsson unleashes a stentorian solo, while Pohjonen maintains harmonies and high-energy, powerful lines behind. The unified lines are loud, forceful, and incredibly effective in contrast.

‘Magna’ combines chords from the accordion with electronics and screaming effects across a pounding, intense litany of rhythms. A piece of three sections, divided by total silences, this is an intriguing listen. And wholly irreverent.

‘Snow.Linat’ is gentle, with Gustafsson’s flute floating, whispering over the constantly shifting soundscape foundation. Some sections feel powerful and intense, with the flute slashing through, contrasting with emotive, delicate sections, where the accordion’s voice sings, adorned with breathy vocal tones. The sudden shift to a powerful, pithy solo from the sax is gorgeous, and the intensity becomes palpable.

The title track is a messy, joyful, eclectic mix of pops, whistles, accordion chords, and electronic effects, into which Gustafsson’s flute weaves and dives. The track sums up the essence of the album, distilled into just over two minutes of chaotic mayhem, while ‘Its Body Falls Open’ is a tinkling, high-pitched maelstrom of swirling sounds and effects, topped by Gustafsson’s eccentric sax playing and jittering accordion, with ‘Worn Out Words’ providing more of the same.

‘Slow Down The Beating’ is a track that creates deep impact. It has gentleness, with the flute introducing a melodic section before a percussive deluge of changing patterns. This is backed by intricate beats and rhythms, and a development into a raw, pared-back piece with some beautiful rhythmic clashes and dynamic changes over a steady background beat.

‘Naga’ is an exemplar of interaction between two minds with chaotic intent, yet a definitive directive, the result of which is a confident exchange of ideas, manifestations and rhythms that rise and fall, creating an engaging listen. The musical foundations shape-shift, creating powerful imagery and an aural dynamism that evokes spirit. The tautness of the atmosphere is tempered with melodic lines from Gustafsson, as well as his fulgurating, strident phrasing.

“Backengrillen 1” (maybe named after the punk band Gustafsson plays in) creates epic grandeur yet is surprisingly intimate and filled with rustic beauty. The repeated melody on the sax intensifies and provides a gentler interlude before Gustafsson varies the phrasing, and all the while the rapid accordion runs provide a tight but moving backdrop.

Gustafsson and Pohjonen have been touring regularly over the last couple of years, and the release of ‘Two Balls are Enough’ demonstrates the powerful connection these two musicians have.

I commented to Gustafsson that the accordion was not an instrument I really liked – until I heard this. His response was, “Same here - it was never my favourite instrument, but after working with Kimmo, and also some insane Norwegian players: Kalle Moberg, and Ida Lövli (fantastic!) and Frode Hatli - I had to change my mind. It is a funny instrument!. I never thought I would work seriously with anyone playing it, but ha!”

(Moberg has recorded with Nilssen Love, Hakion thelin and many more, Lovli recorded her debut album Skumring (Twilight) on Lawo Classics, and Hatli is a composer who has released several albums and is part of multicultural projects worldwide).

Recordings like this unite different genres and also expand the possibilities of instruments, and maybe, just maybe, change how we hear and feel music.

To quote Gustafsson – “This is just the beginning.”

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Mats Gustafsson / Kimmo Phjonen - Two Balls Are Enough (Trost, 2026)

By Eyal Hareuveni

The work of Finnish hyper-accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen has never been reviewed on this site. He comes from Finnish folk music but has revolutionized how it sounds, is played, and looks. Pedals and effects augment his accordion, and his own wordless vocals, and it sounds like a mini-orchestra. Pohjonen looks like a modern-day pagan shaman who moves with ecstatic dances and feels at home whether he plays with Kronos Quartet, French jazz drummer Eric Echampard or in the art-rock band KTU (alongside King Crimson alums drummer Pat Mastelotto and Touch guitarist Trey Gunn).

Swedish reed and electronics player Mats Gustafsson, like Pohjonen, is an adventurous, inimitable iconoclast who enjoys turning genres inside out like others do their pockets. He comes from punk rock and free jazz, but just look at his new collaborative projects from last year - the surf rock meets free jazz, The MagNuts (with guitarist Hedvig Mollestad), death metal meets free jazz, Backgrillen, and the free-improv flute duo, Flöjter, with French Delphine Joussein (of Nout trio), that already produced two live albums.

The musical union of Pohjonen and Swedish reed and electronics player Mats Gustafsson was envisioned by Bogdan Benigar, the director of Druga Godba festival in Ljubljana in Slovenia, who invited both of them to the 2024 edition of the festival, without letting them know that this was his plan. Gustafsson and Pohjonen bonded instantly. They share a love for ice hockey and saunas, and are motivated by a great passion - for spontaneous, risk-taking improvisations, creating a community, and cultivating individual and collective consciousness (as Gustafsson says: fighting against local and global stupidities). Throughout their live performances, they sounded like a powerful, raw, and intense sonic entity, Kimmats, and often Gustafsson’s saxes are channelled through Pohjonen’s effects.

Two Balls are Enough is the debut album of Pohjonen and Gustafsson, and it was recorded in a two-day session in Vienna in February 2026 by Martin Siewart (of Radian), with Pohjonen and Gustafsson responsible for the mix. Gustafsson brought to the recording session slide, tenor, baritone and bass saxes, Ab clarinet, flute and slide flute, live electronics, harmonica and organ, while Pohjonen played his electro-acoustic accordion and sang.

Each of the nine pieces sends you into unpredictable, uncompromising, deeply visceral, and wonderful hyperactive territories. Club dance pulse on steroids collides with ecstatic free jazz sax blows. Noisy electronics join a cathartic pagan dance, with Pohjonen’s organ-like chords ascending from hell to dance with Gustafsson’s garrulous baritone sax patterns. A poetic cinematic vision of a snowy Arctic storm. Experimenting with feedback-filled, mutated timbres. A touching, singable folk song. Three pieces were inspired by French poet Danielle Collobert. The last piece, “Backgrillen”, sketches a completely different texture from Gustafsson’s death jazz band, and offers a surprisingly intimate, touching melody filled with rustic beauty. It sounds like these Nordic wolves found a new pack of like-minded partner who enjoy creating a genre of their own.

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Miroslav Vitous, Michel Portal, Jack Dejohnette - Mountain Call (ECM, 2026)

 

By Ferruccio Martinotti

To understand why we're here—we writers, you readers, both listeners to this kind of music—requires skills that we, with a law degree, can't offer. Instead, we’d need to turn, depending on which School of Thought we’re referring to, to Freud or Lacan. What we could try to do is to share what drives us to buy certain records rather than others, excluding the dyschaolic compulsiveness that isn't ours. In short, we could say: 

1) claiming to be completists of some musicians (try that with Mats Gustafsson and then tell us...); 

2) a recommendation from a source (magazine, blog, fanzine, radio etc.) we trust; 

3) the advice (damn, they're NEVER wrong...) from the FJC editors; 

4) taking a leap into the void with an artist completely unknown to us, just to push away our personal horizon or, vice versa, 

5) the need to breathe a little bit in our comfort zone, let’s say, with a reissue of Mingus or Taylor. 

There's reason number 6) for this review: to pay homage to an artist we love, in this case the Frenchman Michel Portal, who passed away at 90 last February. 

While Weather Report was never our cup of tea, we're not so obtuse as to fail to recognize the greatness of Miroslav Vitous, whose bio, from Chick Corea to Miles, is completely pointless to summarize, just as it is for Jack DeJohnette, honored on these pages on the occasion of his passing, in a way only this blog can do. We will always remember Portal as the author of that 1969 Our Meanings and Our Feelings, which represents to us one of the "6 Star Records" to be sent into hyperspace to make aware anyone who should find it of what free music means. His extraordinary artistic career has been enriched by collaborations with the likes of Boulez, Berio, and Stockhausen, which have defined his profile as a forward-looking musician, always respectful of History and Tradition. In our more than humble opinion, he remains a resoundingly underrated musician, so much so that, if memory serves, even our forum archives have no trace of him. Now you know. 

Ten years after his last album with ECM, as the label's liner notes tell us, Vitous creates with Mountain Call, a sort of musical self-portrait that demonstrates his immense talent as an improviser, composer and sampling pioneer. The album strikes a balance between spontaneous improvisation and sequences in which the recording studio's technology is put at the musicians' service, like a canvas on which to paint brand new soundscapes. Miroslav and Jack have not forgotten that they were one of the most thermonuclear rhythm sections ever and the rust of time has not affected their sublime class: “Tribal Dance”, “Epilog” and “Evolution” are there to demonstrate it incontrovertibly. The latter features Bob Mintzer's bass clarinet (Tito Puente, Buddy Rich, Art Blakey, Thad Jones, Jaco Pastorius, and Billy Cobham among his collaborations), while in the five-part suite "Rhapsody" we can hear Esperanza Spalding's vocals, making her ECM debut. The extraordinary bassist/vocalist joins Vitous, Gary Campbell's sax (on record with Randy Brecker, John Abercrombie, Dan Wall, Adam Nussbaum, among others), and Gerald Cleaver's drums (Sylvie Courvoisier, Charles Gayle, Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, William Parker, Craig Taborn) on "Fun and Games," where "call and response" dynamics are inserted within the textures created by Vitous. The keystone, however, lies in the opening and closing of the album, which see Vitous and Portal perform astonishing duo sequences, probably the freest moments of the Czech bassist's artistic journey, since his collaboration with Jan Garbarek on "Atmos." Sheer beauty and irrepressible bliss, period. 

Anyway, forget the trivial and negligible considerations that drew us to this album and, whatever yours, if any, definitely give it a listen: this is a really relevant work that delivers much more than it promises.

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SoundScapes Series: Buck, Duthoit, Sjöström & Kääriäinen

This week's video comes from the SoundScapes Series organized by Finnish saxophonist Harri Sjöström in Berlin. Surrounded by ever changing exhibitions of contemporary at the Wolf & Galentz Art Gallery in Berlin, Sjöström performs with his own ever changing arrangements of top-flight improvisers for his quarterly Soundscapes Series.

Here in an appearance in May is Jukka Kääriäinen (guitar), Harri Sjöström (soprano saxophone), Tony Buck (percussion) and Isabelle Duthoit (voice & clarinet). 

 

Learn more about SoundScapes: https://soundscapesberlin.de/, and more about Wolf & Galenz: https://wolf-galentz.de/.

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A new trove from Udo Schindler and company… (Part II)

By Nick Ostrum

German multi-instrumentalist Udo Schindler has been recording and releasing music relentlessly over the last few years. The reviews below offer a glimpse of just some of his production over the first half of this year.

See part 1 here.

Udo Schindler and Andreas Willers – Analytical Pre-Summer Retreat (FMR, 2026)

Analytical Pre-Summer Retreat captures Schindler (tenor sax, e-flat clarinet, piccolo flute, and cornet) with Berlin improvisor Andreas Willers (guitar and devices) at a live date at Studio+Atelier SCHINDLER in Krailing/Munich in 2025. The two had previously collaborated on 2022’s STORM without WIND and a 2023 trio session with Eric Zwang Eriksson titled Cassiber Complex_Unconditioned Sounds In A Box. As with the other, this one shows range, but a different range than the more restrictively acoustic outings reviewed above. Here one hears how electric Schindler’s trills and flutters can sound, and Willers, with over forty years of electro-acoustic collaboration under his belt, is the person to bring that out. He veers from shreds and electronic chaos to simple repeating clusters and other rummaging to prickly vines with a Scandinavian free rock sensibility a la Tellef Øgrim, Gunnar Backmann, and their ilk. A gritty and textured set that is as much about Schindler’s arsenal (including some nice trumpet work) as it is about Willers’ clattery fretwork.

Analytical Pre-Summer Retreat is available via the arc-musik website: https://arch-musik.de/project/analytical-pre-summer-retreat/ .

Udo Schindler, Harald Kimmig, Eric Zwang Eriksson – Imprints of Experiences (Creative Sources, 2026)

With a total of three members, Imprints of Experiences captures the largest unit of the releases reviewed here, and its sound is correspondingly (and comparatively) full. Schindler deploys a range of instruments, some heard before (clarinets, cornet, saxophone) and one (b-flat tubax) unique to this recording. Harald Kimmig meanwhile contributes an energetic violin and Eric Zwang Eriksson, an array of prattling percussion. Playing live over two nights in Munich in 2024, the trio offers quite a range of sounds. Schindler does his thing, screeching, torquing, huffing, and, now, even singing through an array of horns. Kimmig and Eriksson, however, really distinguish this release. Eriksson and Schindler have collaborated frequently over the last half-decade, and the resulting concordance shows especially in the quieter segments, when Eriksson matches Schindler’s clucks and clicks with a concerted pitter patter of his own. Kimmig, who has a shorter history with Schindler, can also tap raindrops and rustling foliage, but shows he can also drive the trio out of these moments through his sharp and shimmering tremolo, at which points Schindler starts to stretch out into more frenzied spaces. This may be less rambunctious than some other releases, but it is no less probing, and even more entrancing. And some of that pull should be attributed specially to Eriksson and his controlled but curious rummaging. It lays a calm but spumy sediment that gives bubbly rise to the harmonics that fill out the wider sound.

Imprints of Experiences is available on CD and as a download on bandcamp.

PS: I had originally intended to review Schindler’s 2026 releases up through June, however quickly I realized that was a fool’s errand. For those interested, this year he also released albums with Andrea Centazzo and Harnik on Itcus, Nicola Hein and Nikolaus Neuser on Creative Sources, and Flo Stoffner and Michael Wintsch on arc-musik. By the time this review runs, there will likely be others, as well. Happy listening.

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A new trove from Udo Schindler and company… (Part I)

By Nick Ostrum

German multi-instrumentalist Udo Schindler has been recording and releasing music relentlessly over the last few years. The reviews below offer a glimpse of just some of his production over the first half of this year.

Udo Schindler and Elisabeth Harnik – Poetry of Friction (arch-musik, 2026)

To his immense credit, architect of buildings (by day) and sounds (by night) Udo Schindler is tireless and itinerant. He has some of core collaborators – see Harald Kimmig and Eric Zwang Eriksson on Imprints of Experiences below – but, more often, he pushes his music forward by performing with new musicians. Presumably, this forces him and his collaborators to adapt to each other on the spot, and in the process explore unanticipated sonic territories.

Poetry of Friction captures Schindler on tenor sax, clarinet, and cornet in a duo with Elisabeth Harnik on Bechstein piano (in and out) at a May 2025 performance at Musik- & Pianohaus Schwinghammer in Weilheim in Oberbayern, Germany. The affair is largely muted. Both Harnik and Schindler have been studying extended techniques and uncustomary articulations for years, and as should be of no surprise given the title, they continue to do so here, focusing on frictions, burbles, and heavy vibrations rather than anything crisp or ostensibly melodic. If one were to consider this a duel, Schindler has found his match in Harnik, who just as adeptly swings from idiomatic to non-idiomatic techniques. Some passages are blustery and beautiful. Some are hardly audible, roughly textured flutters and other understated soundscaping. Whichever way the duo veers, however, Schindler and Harnik stay linked and measured, wandering wide spaces but most often in tandem, which finds an unexpected potential in the soulful and dramatic climax and release of its final minutes.

Poetry of Friction is available as a download on Bandcamp.  
  

Udo Schindler and Sergio Armaroli – Transalpine Sound Bridges (Munich-Milan) (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2026)

Transalpine Sound Bridges is the oddball of the group. Whereas the other releases were recorded live in studio or in front of an audience, this album came out of a canceled duo gig. As no in person collaboration had (or has yet) taken place, Sergio Armaroli responded by recording a series of vibraphone and percussion solos for Schindler (soprano sax, clarinets, flute, cornet) to improvise over. The result is a music that wafts through space. As the other releases here attest, Schindler can honk, contort, and scream with the best of them. Here, likely inspired by Armaroli’s dreamy runs on the vibraphone, Schindler also shows that he can lean into minimalist, calmer motifs. One hears his expert control, but in restraint rather than this John Butcher-like acrobatics. This album reflects on some remote Alpine mountain range rather than conquering the Großglockner’s peak. In a sense, this is impressionist more than expressionist, which is notable given the improvisations have taken place remotely. It grapples with that tension in the colorful patchworks of yielding and unyielding pastures, unsteady breezes, a panorama of beautiful flowers juxtaposed to barren crags, peace with a soft undertone or playful danger. Consider Transalpine Sound Bridges yet another side of Schindler that ranges from the bucolic and airy to the positively bluesy, coaxed in those directions by Armaroli’s knottily vining solo chasses and the vagaries of circumstance.

Available as a double CD and download from bandcamp.

Udo Schindler and Uwe Oberg – Schädel-Magie (FMR, 2026)

The title, Schädel-Magie, is German for skull magic, which sounds quite macabre. But maybe we should think of it in terms of sounds bouncing around the inner caverns of the head, in the eardrums and the auditory cortex and amygdala, rather than something more sinister. The skull in this analogy is self-evident, and the magic lay in the music produced, received, and processed. (A quick internet search tells me sound processing is an extremely complicated and weird, and in that sense quasi-magical, process, as much higher brain functioning is.) The album, Schädel-Magie, features Schindler on various clarinets and alto flute, and Uwe Oberg on piano (like Harnik, in and out) and captures the duo in studio in 2024. The track titles are untranslatable (or nonsensical?) compound nouns invented by the late German poet Thomas Kling.

If the words themselves do not quite carry over into English (what the hell is a body-branch or night machine?) the collectivity of the sounds are universal and perform a universal linguo-emotive magic of their own. Schädel-Magie begins as a wild and winding romp but quickly dissipates into extended passages of piano and saxophone constructivism. From there, Schindler and Oberg shift into a series of noirish pieces that explore a range of techniques and dynamics, though always drawn to some dark, mysterious corner. Or a winding staircase at the darkest part of night, wherein nothing nefarious has to happen but various anxious potentialities nevertheless reside in its shadows. As much as anything else, Schädel-Magie distinguishes itself from the other albums reviewed here in its mood – even in its tender moments one senses something cryptic, if not also haunting – and its barbed-wire spiraling.

Schädel-Magie is available via the arc-musik website: https://arch-musik.de/project/schaedel-magie/.

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Eyal Maoz, Piero Bittolo Bon, Zeno De Rossi - Forced to Feel (self released, 2026)

By Guido Montegrandi

Improvised free music recording develops around some recurring patterns: the single event in which musicians group, play and then disperse – the recording freezes a moment in time; the long term association – each recording a moment in a sequence sometimes with the risk of developing idioms, of creating a comfort zone at the expense of creative freedom; or a core of frequent collaborators meet a guest / guests - in this case the embryo of an idiom is here but it is tested and mutated by the newcomers.

Forced to Feel offers still another possibility being recorded after the group has “already tested its chemistry on stage (…) at a moment of deepened trust and heightened risk, refining a shared language forged in performance and now pushed further in the studio” (linear notes). What I understand is that they are on their way to create an idiom but are still willing to experiment and take risks… their language is still a virus.

Eyal Maoz (electric guitar), Piero Bittolo Bon (alto and baritone sax, shakuhachi, electronics), and Zeno De Rossi (drums, bells) all come to this meeting from different directions with Bittolo Bon and De Rossi having played together many times in many different contexts, and the results are intense. 

A meaningful use of electronics, a sort of underground groove that flows into this sonic universe, splinters of melody scattered into the noise. In the opening piece, Renato’s 'Arcade,' a set of electronic sounds coming directly from a 1980s arcade creates a foundation on which De Rossi builds his texture and Maoz and Bittolo Bon display their fragments of melodies. 

Music then evolves into a more pensive mood in 'Invoking the Ancestors' - the guitar provides a net of arpeggios and fragmented melodies while percussions, bells and electronics create a field for the alto sax to play a eerie song that dissolves into itself.

In 'Nervous Butterflies' a quasi unison of electronics, sax and guitar open the piece developing a swarm of circular motives that evolve one into the other with the addition of the percussion. Something like a jazz-rock guitar emerges over a riff just to develop into angular sounds that seem nostalgic of other times. The drum than brings the sax into a jazzy atmosphere that seems to freeze into the end.

'Moon Hovering' builds on an obsessive percussive patterns and offers the possibility to mark the essential contribution that De Rossi offers to the trio creating a unifying but open and volatile design that enriches sense of global improvisation. The same may be true for 'Part Hypnosis' where the three musicians seem to find a place of their own.

The baritone sax develops an obsessive melody in 'Flickering Wings,' this slowly changes into a deconstructed blues, sometimes some electronic noise adds an ironic note to prepare the finale with De Rossi again in evidence.

'Pull Me into the Blue Water' contains all of the elements presented so far with the addition of the shakuhachi flute that adds rarefaction to the mix. The guitar reacts with dreamy sonorities, the drum marks its path with a sense of necessity.

That’s it. After many listening sessions, I feel that all of the fragments, the different sounds, the different attitudes gather into sonic nebulas each with its distinctive features but with an overall inner coherence. Undetermined and yet beautiful.

You can listen to and download the digital album on bandcamp.

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Paradoxical Frog: Kris Davis, Ingrid Laubrock, and Tyshawn Sorey: Live at the Village Vanguard – July 21, 2026

By Brian Earley

My daughter and I walked up Seventh Avenue on a balmy, post-thunderstorm July night to one of the most well-known, and most sacred, of all jazz venues on the planet, the storied Village Vanguard, to catch the opening night of a week-long residence by the trio Paradoxical Frog.

Readers of the Free Jazz Blog might care to know this was a historical occasion and one that involved the reuniting of three musicians often discussed here at the FJC: pianist Kris Davis, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, and drummer Tyshawn Sorey.

Behind the famous red doors that evening would perform an avant-garde trio that had not played together in over a decade. And the band’s unconventional leanings are perhaps less alien to the Vanguard than one might first guess. Davis and Sorey have performed at the Vanguard countless times, and Laubrock’s appearance is as rare and welcome as the recent celebrated stint of the James Brandon Lewis Quartet in the West Village club. This is to say nothing of the audience in the house that night: I spotted Sylvie Courvoisier a few seats behind me, and encountered William Parker outside the doors after the first set had concluded. Davis actually opened the show fact-checking the record. “I was corrected on social media,” she said. “It has not been fifteen years since the three of us played together; it has been eleven.” In any case, for listeners to either of the group’s two Cleanfeed recordings, 2010’s Paradoxical Frog, and 2012’s Union, it had been a long wait to hear these three masters perform in this distinct context.

The opening night’s set consisted of four long compositions, all of which have appeared on record at some point. The first performance, a combination of Laubrock’s “Masterisk” and Davis’s “Union” spanned over twenty-nine minutes. Seeing the work live allowed me to confirm just how through-composed these Paradoxical Frog pieces are. Note the extensive paper scores in Davis’s and Sorey’s hands and the extensions on Laubrock’s music stand: a necessary tool to display the lengthy writings of each work without requiring the saxophonist to flip pages of these surprising compositions that challenge functional harmony and defy circular rhythm.

 

The third work was “Whistlings” from 2020’s Blood Moon, the Intakt Records duo of Davis and Laubrock. The live performance, over twice the length of the original recording, featured Laubrock on soprano saxophone and Tyshawn Sorey on a sonic array of material, at times the room so quiet that Sorey’s percussion would consist of simply waving his brushes in the air, an effect that hauntingly filled the room with audible whisperings.

The set concluded with Sorey’s “Slow Burn,” clocking in at over sixteen minutes and featuring the mysterious repetition of single notes on Davis’s piano keys. It was moving to see these three unite again, and I am certain I do not speak alone in voicing my hopes for more work in the future, maybe even a Live at the Village Vanguard recording to place among some of the mythical voices who have passed through that hallowed underground room.

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Fermín Suárez, Shantala Ferreyra, Gonzalo Goicoechea - Las Instancias (625 Discs, 2026)

By Sammy Stein

Las Instancias comprises Shantala Ferreyra on clarinet, Fermín Suárez on double bass, and Gonzalo Goicoechea on drums. Ferreyra is an Argentinian clarinettist and composer who graduated from the Jazz Performance Program at the Manuel de Falla Conservatory in 2024. In 2025, she released her debut album featuring her original compositions performed by her quintet, and in 2026, she was awarded a scholarship to study composition in Basel, Switzerland. Her work combines composition and improvisation.

Suárez is a double bass player, improviser, songwriter, and composer from Rosario, Argentina. His artistic work encompasses a wide range of genres, including jazz, tango, Argentine folk, improvised music, and classical, often mixing, stretching, and breaking the limits between languages and traditions. He co-created the punk-tango and avant-garde ensemble ‘La Rompiente’ for which he composes and arranges. In 2026, he started the solo project ‘Ola de sótano’, a double bass and vocals set with electronics, featuring songs, improvisations and spoken word. He’s also a frequent collaborator of composer and pianist Rocío Giménez López.

Goicoechea is a drummer and educator specializing in jazz. He began his studies at the Leopoldo Marechal School of Arts and later continued at the Manuel de Falla Conservatory. Since 2021, he has performed with a variety of jazz-oriented ensembles.

After a year devoted to live performance and composition, Las Instancias is released by the Argentine label 625 Discos, and captures the result of their ongoing collaboration so far.  

With no harmonic instrument, the trio leans into timbre, register, and the register distances between clarinet, bass, and drums. The pared-back format serves as the foundation upon which the group builds its identity and scribes its musical language.

The ensemble work their way through various compositions (mostly written by Ferreyra and Suárez) that constantly flirt with the edges of jazz and improvised music, exploring their aesthetic possibilities and different orchestration combinations. 

Recorded during a session in Rosario, the album seeks to become a living reflection of a live performance, with all its nuances and dynamism. There are fierce solos rooted in jazz language contrasted with moments of introspection expressed through a more abstract idiom, all while maintaining a strong sense of tension and attention. There is a sense of a group whose members perform in proximity, without separation or post-production tricks. The recording is an intimate encounter between both the musicians and the listener. The absence of a harmonic instrument becomes a presence: a framework that pushes them toward inventive orchestration, elastic structures, and an exploration of musical language.

This album contains some standout solos and ensemble work. There is a subliminal quality to this trio that makes the music fun, as well as profoundly interesting to listen to. Don’t be fooled by the opening bars of the first track. ‘Lampara Nueva’ starts like a traditional jazz piece, but develops into something extraordinary, the dialogue flowing between the clarinet, bass and percussion like water, flowing back and forth, with a swing here, a change there, and something just for the heck of it anywhere you might care to drop in. There is a taste of traditional jazz, particularly in the drum solos that emerge from the ensemble work, particularly in the second half of the number, but there is also much free playing.

‘Mucho Agora Mismo’ starts with a gentle bass solo and works itself into a frenzy, the clarinet delivering fiery solos across the percussion, with many variations in between. This is a track of many parts, blended seamlessly together. Just beautiful.

‘Dos Veces Agosto’ is a track of harmonies, rhythms, and counter-rhythms, with some bass solos, clarinet that works around the theme, and explores many musical avenues, while maintaining a connection with the central theme. ‘En Meyo’ is a clarinet solo track, with Ferreyra meditating on a theme, while ‘Ok/Off’ is a track where all three instruments lock into the same rhythmic pattern, creating a hypnotic dynamic. A bowed bass emerges, warm and resonant, before the trio returns to their lively, idea‑trading interplay.

‘Pegao’ is introduced by a bowed bass solo, over which the clarinet drops, adding light touches and a rapid change of texture, which the drums enhance, adding their own feel and colour. It is worth listening to this for the changes and rhythmic patterns that evolve, disappear, and re-emerge, led largely by the bass, whose voice is central to this number.

The album closes with a second take of 'Mucho agora mismo' which is extravagant and allows each musician to deliver improvised music of the highest calibre.

Las Instancias are three musicians whose shared curiosity has shaped a sound that feels both stripped back and richly alive. There’s a cohesion that makes the music both fun and deeply absorbing. You hear three musicians who trust each other enough to take risks — to push, to pull, to leave space, to fill it, to let the music breathe and then ignite. It’s intimate, inventive, and full of personality.

 

Get it on vinyl here: https://elasticstage.com/625discos/releases/las-instancias-album  

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