European Free Improvisation Pages

Begun in January 1995, EFIP was intended to be a comprehensive information resource for all aspects of the type of music known as European free improvisation. From January 2007 it is being updated approximately every two months (for rationale, please see bottom of this page).

Every effort has been made to check the information on this site as far as possible; in most cases the information has been sourced from the musicians themselves.

• I used the word Brötzoganza a couple of years ago to indicate the number of new additions to my Peter Brötzmann discography and it seems appropriate to use it yet again now. A number of people have helped get this back on track - PB himself; Paal Nilssen-Love; Zlatko Kaucic, Kurt from Atavistic and e-mailer David Olofsson. So here goes: The damage is done by McPhee/Brötzmann/Kessler/Zerang, double CD on Not Two Records; The fat is gone with Paal Nilssen-Love and Mats Gustafsson on Smalltown Superjazz; and Woodcuts, a duo with Paal Nilssen-Love on the same label; Lost & found, a solo from 2006 just out on FMP; The brain of the dog in section, a duo with Fred Lonberg-Holm on Atavistic; A night in Sana'a with Michael Zerang and Yemeni musicians on ARM; Volda, the second trio CD with Michiyo Yagi and Paal Nilssen-Love on IDIOLECT; and two meetings with Zlatko Kaucic, both released on Splasc(H): Tolminski punt; and the 30th anniversary concerts.
• The first new label added this month is Amirani, a young Italian label with around 20 recordings: Gianni Mimmo's One way ticket; the self-titled Bespoken; KURSK_ with the DVD Truth in the end; Gianni Mimmo/Andrea Serrapiglio/Francesco Cusa with A watched pot (never boils); GenoaSoundCards from Esther Lamneck/Claudio Lugo; Wanderung from NovoTono; Esther Lamneck/Eugenio Sanna with Intentions: an improvised cycle; Airchamber3's Crumble; a wide range of musicians reflecting On war; reFLEXible with Realgar; the Anthony Braxton Quartet's 6CD-box Standards (Brussels) 2006; Cono di ombra e luce by EA Silence; Serendipity by Gianni Lenoci/Carlos Zingaro/Marcello Magliocchi; Eclipse by Ear&Now; the trio Forgiving July Live at Novarajazz 2008; Thollem McDonas/Nicola Guazzaloca with Noble art; and No room for doubt by Five rooms (Gianni Mimmo/Angelo Contini/John Russell/Jean Michel Van Schouwburg/Andrea Serrapiglio).
• The second new label, just started up, is Jedso by Joe Williamson and so far there are two improvised releases: The inhibitionist, a solo by Joe Williamson and The king of herrings, a trio with David Stackenäs and Phil Durrant.
• No Business Records from Lithuania has been extremely busy lately with a string of new releases, in particular, the very impressive 3CD box set, along with a book, of Jemeel Moondoc's Muntu Recordings; and then there's Vladimir Tarasov's Thinking of Khlebnikov; the Curtis Clark Trio with Táág; and Howard Riley's 2CD Solo in Vilnius. There are also five new or recent releases from Intakt/Maya: Elliott Sharp/Carbon with Void coordinates; Omri Ziegele's Where's Africa Trio with Can walk on sand; the Sylvie Courvoisier/Mark Feldman Quartet's To fly to steal; Ken Vandermark/Barry Guy/Mark Sanders with the 2CD Fox fire; and Agusti Fernandez/Barry Guy with Some other place. And there have been three new releases from Mutable: Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell with Spectrum, two orchestral works and one improvised duo; Connie Crothers/Michael Bisio in Session at 475 Kent; and Fred Ho and The Green Monster Big Band with Celestial green monster.
• Three new Urs Leimgruber CDs have been added: OM: a restrospective on ECM; Albeit by Urs Leimgruber/Jacques Demierre/Barre Phillips on Jazzwerkstatt; Fritz Hauser's Deep time on Deep listening. There's a new, beautifully-produced, vinyl LP (only; and only 500 copies) of John Edwards and Chris Corsano on Dancing Wayang Records - with notes by Evan Parker - Tsktsking; two recent Lawrence Casserley discs: Crystalline strata on Sargasso in trio with Rainer Bürck and Martin Bürck; and in duo with Jeffrey Morgan on Konnex: Room 2 room; and Paal Nilssen-Love's Townhouse Orchestra (a quartet with Evan Parker/Sten Sandell/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten): Belle ville.
• Other new or recent releases are: a re-issue of Anthony Braxton and Ran Blake's A memory of Vienna on hatOLOGY; Carve on LJ Records by the improvised duo of Lisa Ullén and Nina de Heney; Think about it on Textile by the George Burt/Raymond MacDonald Quartet with Michael Zerang and Fred Lonberg-Holm; Windfall on Evil Rabbit by the duo of Ab Baars and Meinrad Kneer; the latest Activity Center release - lohn & brot - on absinthRecords; a CD issue of Calling down the flevo spirit on Atavistic/Unheard Music Series by Kees Hazevoe and Han Bennink; two Ayler Records releases: Joel Grip/Didier Lasserre/Niklas Barnö with Snus, and Free Unfold Trio with Ballades; and on SLAM, Greg Morgan with Domino.
• Finally, I would like to thank Rocco Stilo from Italy who let me know about several web sites on the Independent Record Labels page which were no longer operational and had either died or changed their addresses. Now all changed. Which is not to say that the whole thing is now error-free!

COPYRIGHT!! I don't want to get heavy with this but the work involved in setting up this site and maintaining it on a regular basis is substantial so copyright in this material rests with me (and contributors). At the same time, I'm happy for the information/files on these pages to be used in any reasonable way. However, this limited use should also acknowledge both me and the musician/label from where much of the data originally arose. Feedback would also be appreciated to know how any of this is being used elsewhere.

Statement, January 2007: Started at a time when the web itself was new this seemed a fairly modest aim but the availability of cheap digital media and the explosion of recordings that has resulted means that I have been chasing the vanishing tail of comprehensiveness for too many months now to have any expectation of ever catching the beast up. At the same time, my increasing responsibilities at the University of Sheffield are such that I don't have the spare time to go chasing the rareities that at one time seemed so exciting and appealing. So, while keeping the site going, I am going to have to cut back in a number of ways. I am not sure entirely how this will shape up though one immediate effect will be a replacement of the upcoming concerts section by a simple list of venues and contacts (no big surprise as this has already proved difficult to update). Content will probably be scaled back to ensure that everything fits within the scope of the site and my updates may no longer be monthly but when I can manage to do them (two-monthly?). I'll have to see how this goes...

p.stubley@shef.ac.uk