Atavistic
A catalyst for vital experimental works in its hometown of Chicago and throughout the world, Atavistic Records exemplifies what inspires all of us here at Epitonic. Breaking new ground, crossing all boundaries, and recognizing no limits in sight, feeling, and especially sound, Atavistic releases treasure after treasure, disregarding and surpassing both the past and the present.
Han Bennink
Fiery Dutch drummer Han Bennink has been an icon of the avant-garde jazz and free improvisation movements for more than three decades. A true virtuoso, Bennink is a universally respected musician whose talents stretch far beyond free jazz and across the entire jazz spectrum.
Nerve Beats
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2000
The Laughing Owl
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2001
Bride of No No
Bride Of No No is Chicago's newest No-Wave terror troupe. Formed from the remnants of the Scissor Girls, vocalist AZ and cohorts forge chaotically dissonant works of mania and anxiety, offering a glimpse into the poetics of the perverse and sinister.
b.o.n.n. apetit!
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2000
John Corbett & Heavy Friends
John Corbett & Heavy Friends present a collection of sound montage that incorporates avant-jazz noodling, clever samples, diverse instrumentation, and wacky deconstruction into soundscapes that are both silly and creepy.
I'm Sick About My Hat
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1999
Leo Cuypers
Playful Dutch pianist Leo Cuypers crafts playful postmodern jazz that appropriates and tweaks familiar themes and motifs from jazz history and popular culture. Whimsical, delicious, and often strangely familiar.
Heavy Days Are Here Again
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2000
Guillermo Gregorio
Argentine clarinetist and saxophonist Guillermo Gregorio sought not only to stretch jazz beyond its limits but also to reinvent music entirely, establishing new prototypes of sound by exploring the relationships between aural experience, visual experience, and mental life.
Otra Musica
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2000
Haazz and Company
Haazz & Company offers yet another chapter in the secret history of Europe's wild free jazz movement of the '60s and '70s. The remarkably unhinged sextet came together for a pair of mid-'70s sessions to craft two dangerous reed-oriented ad hoc epics not recommended for the weak of heart.
Unlawful Noise
Hal Russell's Chemical Feast
The late multi-instrumentalist and composer Hal Russell was a major figure in the Chicago avant-garde jazz scene during the late '70s and '80s. The Chemical Feast was a precursor to his better-known group, the NRG Ensemble.
Elixir
Han Bennink & Terrie Ex
A sensational pairing of Dutch musical pioneers -- veteran free jazz percussionist Han Bennink and experimental rock guitarist Terrie Ex, the latter long of the anarcho-punk collective The Ex. The duo's guitar-and-drums duets are weird, difficult, and entrancing.
The Laughing Owl
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2001
Sven-Ake Johansson
One of the first free jazz percussionists in the world, Swedish born Sven-Ake Johansson has been doing audacious things on the skins since the late '60s, creating unique meditations on energy transfer and flow, both alone and in ensembles.
Schlingerland
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2000
Lydia Lunch and Rowland S. Howard
With the ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard by her side, Lydia Lunch, mistress of the bizarre, unleashes a ferocious, almost primal force that will leave you feeling like you've been run over by a phalanx of hellish steamrollers.
Shotgun Wedding
Joe McPhee
This brilliant, prolific saxophone and trumpet player frenetically blends free jazz and funk, creating a mix of visceral emotion, complicated ideas, Black Power politics, and sheer passion that is sure to stir the mind and body.
Underground Railroad
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1969
Nation Time
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1970
Trinity
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1971
Moslang & Guhl (Voice Crack)
Möslang and Gulh, aka Voice Crack, are a pair of troublemakers from Switzerland who explore the sounds of waste -- literally -- by creating orchestras our of broken consumer electronics and useless everyday objects.
Knack On
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1982
Mount Everest Trio
Who knew that three Swedish guys who look like they could be in a metal band could make such beautiful, positive, and creative jazz? Download a long-buried treasure from the outer realms of outstanding improvisational music.
Waves From Albert Ayler
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2000
Nachtluft
Calling all percussion enthusiasts, noise-rock lovers, and free improvisation freaks. This '80s Swiss trio combines electric and acoustic percussion and tape machines to make some mighty strange, often creepy music.
Belle-View I-IV
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1986
Poem Rocket
Terrific, edgy art/noise rock with strangely tuned, slashing guitars at the forefront, dueling male/female vocals somewhere in the midfield, and a host of unexpected instruments and effects dressing up the background. Naturally they're from New York.
Psychogeograpy
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2000
Lee Ranaldo
Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo does what he does best, producing cryptic spoken-word pieces and tons of noise. Ranaldo is joined here by Sonic Youth band mates Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley in his ongoing efforts to redefine the word "experimental."
Dirty Windows
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1998
The Ascension
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2003
ROVA Saxophone Quartet
A study in diverse saxophone sound and one of the most creative avant-garde jazz projects of the late 20th century. For over two decades, ROVA has been exploring sax dynamics, achieving a splendid balance between formal composition and free improvisation.
As Was
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1981
Schlippenbach Quartet
The Schlippenbach Quartet was one of the great free jazz ensembles of all time, featuring German pianist and band leader Alexander von Schlippenbach and English free jazz sax great Evan Parker. The group's wild, heady stew of free improvisation and classical elements was hair-raising and enticing.
Hunting The Snake
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1975
Starship Beer
Get drunk in deep space! Starship Beer is coming to take you away (well, actually, they came for you already, back in 1979 -- where were you?) with a way-far-out blend of very avant-garde Beefheartesque skronk and Ayleresque noise, plus a healthy dose of stoned childishness. "Nut music," they called it.
Nut Music 1976-1980
Steam
Comprised of members of the avant-garde jazz quintet The Vandermark Five and pianist Jim Baker, Steam takes you on a sparkling, vivid ride through jazz history, only occasionally dropping you or lifting you into the air with challenging experimental moments. The experience is exhilarating and unparalleled.
Real Time
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1996
Swans
The Swans are perhaps the darkest and most disturbing group in the history of the underground. Their pounding stream-of-consciousness and overall sickness disregarded all the swagger of The Birthday Party and cut to the bone of Sonic Youth's noise, delivering something truly horrifying.
Feel Good Now
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2002
Tchicai-Schweizer
In 1975, Danish saxophone virtuoso and onetime Coletrane collaborator John Tchicai and Swiss modern jazz piano impresario Irene Schweizer co-headed a quartet that played at the Swiss Willisau Jazz Festival, a performance that led to the group's one recording, a chillingly lovely piece of post-bop free jazz that feels like a slice of interstellar space.
Willi The Pig
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1975
Luther Thomas/Human Arts Ensemble
This obscure '70s outfit combined massive funk rhythms with adventurous free jazz to produce an indescribably vital, marvelous, rich sound. Unbelievably, these recordings have never before seen the light of day. If you're a fan of jazz, funk, or anything avant-garde -- hell, if you're a fan of music -- you've got to check them out. This stuff cooks.
Funky Donkey
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2001
Clifford Thornton New Art Ensemble
Regarded as one of the most criminally overlooked artists in the history of free jazz, trombonist Clifford Thornton served as a session man for the likes of Sun Ra and Archie Shepp before forming his own New Art Ensemble. Thornton's single recording with this lineup is a brooding and unpredictable -- and often oddly elegant -- round of complex improvised jazz.
Freedom & Unity
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1967
Tricolor
This whimsical, atmospheric avant-jazz trio will make you feel like you're emerging from a dark, cobwebby room into a bright sunshiny land, full of labyrinthine pathways and reflecting pools. You'll be reminded of something familiar from your childhood, but you won't quite be able to put your finger on what it is.
Mirth + Feckless
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1999
Nonparticipant + Milk
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2001
The Vandermark 5
The Vandermark 5 is the primary project of the avant-jazz icon and MacArthur Genius
Fellow Ken Vandermark. This quintet takes time and melody to the brink of destruction
by mixing avant-garde and traditional jazz with experimental rock in unprecedented and unexpected ways.
Simpatico
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1999
Burn the Incline
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2000
Acoustic Machine
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2001
Ken Vandermark's Joe Harriott Project
Ken Vandermark, one of today?s most important jazz figures, performs and interprets some of the earliest European free music recordings first written and performed by Joe Harriot in London in the early 1960?s.
Straight Lines
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1999
