INTERDEPENDENZEN is a selection of 11 solo improvisations that evolved during Maria Reich’s solo impro research. All pieces are uncut and were recorded in different places over 6 months on an iPhone. The situation, the material becomes audible, the wood, the bow hair, the room, the recording device, the musician. "There is no part of me that is alone…."

Mature Defense Mechanism is an improvised experiment in the relationships between rock and jazz characterized by whimsy amidst seclusion. It’s natural territory for guitarist Kirsten Carey and drummer Aaron Edgcomb, who are both gaining reputations for adventurous and wide-ranging approaches to music making.

Unknown Rivers is bassist Luke Stewart’s debut for Pi Recordings. An omnipresent and galvanizing force on the music scene, Stewart is a leader or co-leader of such bands as Irreversible Entanglements, Exposure Quintet, Blacks’ Myths, Heart of the Ghost, and Remembrance Quintet. He is also among the most in-demand collaborators, having performed with the likes of David Murray, Nicole Mitchell, Moor Mother, Jaimie Branch, Nate Wooley, Ken Vandermark and countless others. Stewart is also a curator and presenter of multiple concert series in New York and Washington, D.C., a writer, activist, producer and D.J.

Trumpeter Steph Richards’ latest full-length, Power Vibe marries avant garde and cinematic moods with an infectious and patently pleasing tunefulness. “Sensory electronics” –– subtle but compelling textures and tactile rhythms which are physically triggered by drum-mounted sensors –– compel fascination here, interweaving a kind of aural hyper-lucidity throughout the record.

After eleven albums with a varying ensemble size, Martin Küchen’s Angles returns with The Death of Kalypso, its most ambitious statement to date: a jazz opera for our times. Joining forces with vocalist Elle-Kari and Angles pianist Alexander Zethson, who wrote the string arrangements and band notations, Küchen adds another volume to the band’s sizeable, yet coherent catalog, which merges infectious free jazz grooves with tumultuous emotional cadences that reflect both human and political concerns.

Aki Takase releases the second album with her commanding band, Japanic. On Forte, the leading figure of European improvisational jazz once again demonstrates her energetic, radiating nature, joined by her distinguished bandmates – Daniel Erdmann, Dag Magnus Narvesen, Carlos Bica and DJ Illvibe –, and two guest artists, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Nils Wogram.

Bernd Haas' NOW focuses on atmospherically dense free improvisation. What is commonly referred to as "new improvisational music" or simply "improvised music", which emerged from free jazz with links to the ideas of representatives of contemporary classical music (Cage), can be located in the border area of jazz and new music.

We hear juicy, fine and atmospheric jazz from two such unusual imitators, musicians and wonderful instrumentalists. Familiar themes take on completely new colors in their interpretation, especially since the closeness and intimacy of this musical encounter can be heard in their duo.

Revered vocalist Randi Pontoppidan and leading vibraphonist Martin Fabricius proudly present the culmination of a blossoming musical relationship of the past eight years. Blending acoustic and electronic timbres, free improvisation and ethereal composition, their otherworldly universe ‘Clouds’ is set to release on the 12th of April.

The blues is full of the mystical and the hidden. Bluesmen hid magical objects like rattlesnake rattlers in their guitars, which would augment the supernatural sounds of their strings with the sympathetic resonance of the snake. The devil appeared as a snake to Eve, and to Robert Johnson. In Fire Lapping at the Creek we hear these resonances from a distant time and place, from this deepest wellspring of American music making.

When Carla, Nick and I has completed our previous work “The Scale” in 2021, I felt this was such a unique work in its scope and feel – prog, pop, abstraction and chanson – that it would be very difficult to follow up such a definitive statement.

Life Is Funny That Way is the major new work from acclaimed and singular singer-soundartist-lyricist-bandleader Fay Victor. It is both a loving celebration and thorough reconsideration of jazz composer Herbie Nichols' rich legacy & a powerful work of art from a formidably talented and forthright black woman. This landmark work is also the first time that a full program of lyrics have been written & recorded for Nichols’ compositions. Victor's innovative arrangements are brought to vibrant life by Herbie Nichols SUNG, a dedicated and profoundly gifted quintet of veteran jazz performers.

Two side-long outtakes that didn´t make the main tribute, but were just too good to be left on the shelf.

Sky Music is a humble and heartfelt celebration of an inspirational artist and truly unique guitarist that hasn´t fully received the due credit and recognition he deserves for over 50 years of excellent music making. Initiated by the experimental US guitarist and lifelong Rypdal fan Henry Kaiser, we put together a Rune Grammofon allstar band including keyboardist and long time Rypdal side-kick Ståle Storløkken (Elephant9, Supersilent), bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Scorch Trio, The Thing), drummer Gard Nilssen (Bushman´s Revenge), guitarists Even Helte Hermansen (Bushman´s Revenge) and Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen, Finnish guitarist Raoul Björkenheim (Scorch Trio) and Swedish guitarist Reine Fiske (Dungen).

Eric Petzoldt (*1990 in Kassel) is a saxophonist, Guitarist and musicologist. In addition to music projects in the fields of jazz and improvised music, he is also active at the Center for Intercultural Music in Kassel. He is currently doing his PhD at Cambridge University on jazz in Morocco. He lives in Rabat and Kassel.