Saxophonist and composer Travis Laplante releases his latest project merging compositional and improvisational impulses. He is joined by pianist Erika Dohi, harpist Charles Overton, percussionist Eduardo Leandro, and double bassist Lizzie Burns for an album length piece in three parts that seeks to circumvent the self-critical voice that so often comes with the creative process, and, channeling the 12th century Taoist acupuncture practice that is the source of it's title, to "snap open" the path to connection.

In the ancient love poetry of the Greek lyrist Sappho, trumpet player/composer Matt Holman has found a trove of writings whose emotions and sentiments feel as timely and passionate today as they did when they were written, more than 2,500 years ago. On "the Tenth Music", Holman bridges the ancient with the modern through 16 ethereal compositions inspired by Sappho's writings. Holman's pieces take the fragmentary nature of Sappho's poetry as it has come down to us as a guide for balancing structure and improvisation, clarity and mystery. Holman initially discovered Sappho's poetry through his wife, who introduced him to the Greek poetess during the early days of courtship, the intoxicating period when every aspect of taste and personality is a new discovery. The words that survived from antiquity seemed to reflect his own feelings across a gulf-spanning millennia, while the significant portions that had been lost over time added a sense of entrancing uncertainty. "I sought to evoke the full range of themes in these fragments," Holman says. "Some are passionate and devotional, related to love, and others reflect on the awe-inspiring aspects of nature of the power of dreams. Over the course of two millenia, the human condition has remained fundamentally the same. We are still beholden to our desires, still marvel at a vast sky, still suffer over love both in its anticipation and in its loss. In this day and age, we are inundated with images and reminders of what divides us from each other. Sappho's poetry draws for us the connection between the ancient and the modern, reminding us that even something as simple as a fragment can speak to the depths of our shared humanity."

Importango's Debut Release, Tango for Import, Is Also the First Release on Panoramic Recordings, a New Division of New Focus Recordings Dedicated to a Wide Continuum of Stylistic Diversity. The New York Based Trio - Guitarist Adam Tully, Violinist Machiko Ozawa, and Pianist Octavio Brunetti - Has Been a Fixture in the City's Vibrant, Close Knit Tango Community for Several Years. Importango's Mission Is to Deliver Authentic Tango to Their Audiences, Proudly Standing on the Shoulders of This Rich Musical Tradition. Their Atypical Instrumentation and Diverse Backgrounds Put Them in a Unique Position to Present the Real Tango from a Fresh Perspective, with the Virtuosity Passion, and Respect the Music Demands. Tragically, Octavio Brunetti Passed Away Suddenly from Illness During the Summer of 2014, Just As This Project Was Nearing Completion. Tango for Import Is Being Released in His Honor and in Gratitude for His Transcendent Musicianship.

The Endangered Quartet (Roy Nathanson, saxophones; Curtis Fowlkes, trombone/vocals; Jesse Mills, violin/vocals; Tim Kiah, bass/vocals) is composing and improvising collective of four musicians with wide ranging and extensive careers outside this ensemble. Coming together through a shared affinity for "honest and soulful expression," their eclecticism is on display on this debut album through renditions of music by Bach, the Beatles, and Ornette Coleman alongside compositions by members of the group. "Heart" is a fresh and unique chamber amalgam of vocabulary from the jazz, classical, folk, and Americana traditions, melded together in a debut release that captures the genuine warmth between these seasoned musicians.

‘gathering blue’ is the debut album by contemporary music duo RighteousGIRLS (flutist Gina Izzo and pianist Erika Dohi). RighteousGIRLS champions work at the intersection of contemporary classical music and avant-garde jazz, as part of a growing movement to evolve beyond conventional genre boundaries. A highlight is Vijay Iyer's Accumulated Gestures, in a trio setting with Iyer's drummer, Justin Brown. Other guest composer/performers include rising trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and steel pan player Andy Akiho. Award-winning producer Pascal LeBoeuf contributes the quasi-title track “GIRLS” and a series of interludes throughout. Works by Randy Woolf, Christian Carey, Dave Molk, Mike Perdue, and Jonathan Ragonese round out this provocative release of premiere recordings, all written for RighteousGIRLS.

Ken Thomson, a staple of New York City's contemporary music and jazz communities, is widely regarded for his ability to blend a rich variety of influences and styles into his own musical language while maintaining a voice unmistakably his own. Embracing the combination of complexity in harmony, rhythm, and form while adding a punk-rock aesthetic, Thomson stands alone in his unique corner of today's multifaceted musical world. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, Bang on a Can, the True/False Film Festival, Doug Perkins, Mariel Roberts, and others, and has received awards from New Music USA, ASCAP and Meet the Composer. This newest Sextet recording features ambitious, rhythmically incisive music that flows seamlessly between elaborate contrapuntal textures, edge of your seat unison passages, and blistering improvisations from a first rate band of colleagues.

Dmitri Tymoczko's "Fools and Angels" includes four works for voices and ensemble that demonstrate a wide range of approaches to vocal writing and genre. Reminiscent of the ambitious music of progressive rock bands in the 1970s, Tymoczko borrows and imports stylistic elements at will to serve a larger aesthetic vision that is unbounded by category. The album features performances by Newspeak, Illinois Modern Ensemble, Collide Trio, and several active members of the New York new music community. Dmitri Tymoczko was born in 1969 in Northampton, Massachusetts. He studied music and philosophy at Harvard University, and philosophy at Oxford University. He received his Ph.D in music composition from the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently a Professor of Music at Princeton, where he has taught composition and theory since 2002. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Elisabeth Camp, who teaches philosophy at Rutgers University, their son Lukas, who was born in 2008, and their daughter Katya, born 2012.

Guitarist and composer Ben Verdery's "Scenes from Ellis Island" contains selections of his eclectic solo and ensemble music. Verdery's broad sources of inspiration include world music traditions, gospel, pop music, history, philosophy, and of course virtuosic guitar composition, combining these together in music that resonates with an expansive humanism. Hailed for his innovative and eclectic musical career, Benjamin Verdery tours regularly throughout the US, Canada, Europe and Asia, performing at venues and festivals including Ottawa ChamberFest, 92Y Kaufmann Auditorium, Verona Guitar Festival, Guitar Festival of Belgrade, International Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Taxco (Mexico), Theatre Carré (Amsterdam), the International Guitar Festival in Havana, Wigmore Hall (London), and Metropolitan Opera in New York. As a recording artist, Ben has released more than 15 albums.

This new release is a concept album collaboration between genre-bending jazz artists, The Le Boeuf Brothers, and the contemporary music string quartet, the JACK Quartet. The album’s centerpiece is a narrated arrangement of the Franz Kafka short story, “A Dream.” Paul Whitworth narrates for this recording. The score intricately weaves together three elements: the jazz quintet, a string quartet, and narration, making for a fascinating listening experience. The Le Boeuf Brothers are “talented musicians and award-winning composers who channel their influences, environments, and resources into works that reflect their own identities.” (All About Jazz) Remy is a virtuosic saxophonist and Pascal is an equally adept pianist. They have been praised for their “impressive level of sophistication” (San Francisco Chronicle) and their aim to “pursue a hyperfluent streamlined modern ideal.” (Modern Times) The JACK Quartet is “the go-to quartet for contemporary music, tying impeccable musicianship to intellectual ferocity and a take-no-prisoners sense of commitment.” (Washington Post) The group has won multiple awards, including the prestigious Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award.

Inspired by his childhood growing up in the swamps and bayous of Florida, composer Scott Lee's "Through the Mangrove Tunnels" featuring the JACK Quartet, pianist Steven Beck, and drummer Russell Lacy is an eight movement album length work whose stylistic flexibility facilitates a multi-dimensional portrait of this unique ecosystem. References to the natural landscape and historical context of the region frame the music in this genre straddling work. Praised as “colorful” and “engaging” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Scott Lee’s music often takes inspiration from popular genres, exploring odd-meter grooves and interlocking hockets while featuring pointillistic orchestration and extended performance techniques. His music marries the traditional intricacy of classical form with the more body-centered and visceral language of contemporary popular music, creating a complex music of the present with broad appeal. The Berkshire Edge described the world premiere of his Slack Tide at Tangle-wood Music Center as having “moments both of calm and maximum tension...we’ve never heard anything like it.”

Trumpeter and composer Mark Kirschenmann releases "Cybersonic Outreach," a collection of unedited improvisations. Known for his solo electric trumpet performances, Kirschenmann's use of pedals and plugins expands his expressive palette, allowing him to navigate freely between stylistic idioms and carve out a forward looking aesthetic. Mark Kirschenmann, PhD, whose pioneering live electric trumpet performances are internationally acclaimed, is a composer, performer, and scholar of creative improvisation. He is also the creative force behind the band E3Q (Block M Records), an eclectic jazz-influenced trio with his wife, cellist Katri Ervamaa, and percussionist Michael Gould. Most recently, he released the solo album This Electric Trumpet (Sonikmann Records); recorded with the Nashville-based electronica duo Sub-ID (BFF, 1320 Records); and appeared with pianist Thollem McDonas, bassist Henry Grimes, flutist Nicole Mitchell, cornetist Rob Mazurek's Sao Paulo Underground, saxophonists Oliver Lake and Arthur Blythe, and pianist Iiro Rantala of Trio T�yke�t.

Precipitations features two composer/performers, Steven Ricks and Ron Coulter, who have cultivated sophisticated hybrid instruments that merge their respective instrumental practices (trombone and percussion) with various electronic instruments and manipulations. The spontaneous and unpredictable results are a function of but not limited by their chosen constraints, decidedly shaped by both of their omnivorous appetites for many styles of through composed and improvised music.

Improvising trio Vaster than Empires (Allen Otte, Erica Dicker, and Paul Schuette) formed in Cincinnati where Dicker and Schuette were pursuing doctoral work, and Otte had been a pivotal staple of the new music scene for decades as a member of Percussion Group Cincinnati. The byproduct of their collaboration has been several years of poignant, fresh improvised music informed by their collective experience in many genres of music making. This album chronicles time they spent making music together during the summer of 2021 at Otte's home in the Ohio Valley.

Violinist/composer Sarah Bernstein presents the debut release from her new ensemble, Veer Quartet. Chamber jazz string quartets represent a fascinating sub-genre, a small cross section of string players who are improvisers and have absorbed a diversity of stylistic feels with those inclined to apply those skills to this venerated instrumentation. Bernstein's approach to leading and composing for the group is fresh and unique, eschewing the more overt populism of forebears like Turtle Island String Quartet in favor of an exploration of more progressive spaces, grounded in transparent harmonies, contrapuntal textures, and swung grooves. Her writing is front and center on this self titled album, balancing textural explorations with forward directed impulses.

Composer and guitarist Van Steifel's "Spirits" is his unique take on the studio-instrumental albums of layered guitar by legends like Les Paul, Chet Atkins, and Glen Campbell, filtered through his own introspective and personally spiritual way. Those albums were often a series of vignettes, each tune suggesting a particular location, mood, or flavor. This album turns that form into something akin to journal entries that hint at secrets, idiosyncrasies, and personal rituals. Van Stiefel has collaborated with many leading guitarists including Sergio Sorrentino, Benjamin Verdery, Eliot Fisk, Daniel Lippel, Bryce Dessner, Steve Mackey, and the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet. "Beyond space and time, deceiving in it's simplicity" (BigThink) his music for guitar has synthesized classical forms and techniques with electric guitar, digital, and interactive technologies.

Pianist/composer Cat Toren conjures music as healing force and hope for the future on the second album by her exploratory quintet Human Kind. "Scintillating Beauty" evokes 60s spiritual jazz, sound healing techniques and positive activism. She writes: "Scintillating Beauty illustrates how musical improvisation is a form of conscious communication. We musicians honor the self and honor others with our musical choices, making decisions between active listening and active sound making. We choose to bring our voice to the foreground or to support another voice in the background. We can change the direction of the music, imitate another's voice, or pause in silence. While performing we aim to strip away veils and expose ourselves. Our contributions are made unique by our backgrounds and experiences..."

Composer and drummer Colin Hinton's Simulacra exists at the intersecting edge of experimental improvised music and contemporary composition. Bringing together a band of crack colleagues from the fertile Brooklyn improvised scene, including Anna Webber, Yuma Uesaka, Edward Gavitt, and Shawn Lovato, Hinton's music has absorbed influences from people with whom he has a range of degrees of separation, including mentors Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey, and Eric Wubbels, as well as inspirational luminaries Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Morton Feldman. In the liner notes, Robert Grieve writes, ''How does this singularity for which I am affectionate come to be expressed in what can only be simulated?'' might be how Colin Hinton's Simulacra approaches its realization. Simulation is captured singularity. Recording is one such procedure of capture. The singularity of performance transduced, thereby modulated, into simulacra-in-wav format. Simulacra the record convokes in its capture an affection for the mentors, community, and the lineages within which Hinton situates himself.

Described by the New York Times as a "talented and entrepreneurial pianist" and an "able and persuasive advocate" of new music, Nicholas Phillips' playing has been praised for its "bejeweled accuracy" ( Fanfare) and as "razor-sharp yet wonderfully spirited" ( American Record Guide). He is active as a soloist and collaborative artist, having performed all across the United States, as well as Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa. Phillips is an active recording artist and champion of living composers, having released four previous CDs devoted to contemporary music, including Portals and Passages (Albany Records, 2011), American Vernacular: New Music for Solo Piano (New Focus Recordings, 2014) and Impressions (Blue Griffin Recordings, 2016).

Longtime Metropolitan Opera guitarist and lutenist, versatile and award-winning composer, and mentor and teacher to generations of guitarists, Frederic Hand has enjoyed an impressive and impactful career on many levels. His latest release, Samatureya, features his signature brand of compositions and his fluid, expressive playing. In an era where the performer/composer has been making a much written about comeback, Hand represents someone who has been occupying this role with great success steadily for decades. His compositions defy easy categorization- they draw from various styles including early music, Irish music, new age, contemporary composition, and jazz. Samatureya is a compilation of original works composed for small ensembles and solo guitar. Hand is joined by five extraordinary musicians, flutist Paula Robison, guitarists Joao Luiz and Douglas Lora, flutist Amy Porter and violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez, who along with Joao Luiz are Trio Virado.

Collage Project (Aidan Plank- bass, Dan Bruce- electric guitar, Dan Lippel- guitar, and guests Nathan Douds- drums, Noa Even- saxophone, and Chris Anderson- trombone) was born out of collaborations from the late 1990s and early 2000s in Cleveland, Ohio. Aidan Plank, Dan Bruce, and Dan Lippel gravitated towards each other musically through a shared conviction that free improvising need not be restricted by vocabulary and written material in improvised music need not be confined to conventional forms or stylistic boundaries. Over the last several years, the three have reunited to bring together their diverse sets of experiences in contemporary classical music, jazz, and other stylistic contexts. Off Brand is a recording defined by the unique musical space shaped by these diverse perspectives. Three guests, trombonist Chris Anderson, saxophonist Noa Even, and drummer Nathan Douds, join the trio for this project, bringing their own unique sensibilities.

Frederic Hand has been influencing generations of guitarists throughout his impressive career. A longtime Metropolitan Opera guitarist and lutenist, he also enjoys a flourishing and award winning composing career. This album of Hand’s compositions hearkens to the tradition of the performer/composer- a role in which Hand has been thriving throughout his career. His compositions draw from a variety of inspirations, including Irish music, jazz, early music, and new age. Especially notable is the track For Julian. The work was composed in 2007 in honor of Julian Bream, who was Hand’s teacher while on a Fulbright Scholarship in England. The original composition is for eight course lute, but is performed for this recording on guitar for its greater timbral variety.

Arcomusical, led by percussionist/composer/scholar Gregory Beyer, is an ensemble devoted to the promotion and exploration of the berimbau, an Afro-Brazilian instrument closely associated with capoeira. In his stewardship of Arcomusical, Beyer has carved a unique path commissioning new works for berimbau ensemble and expanding its presence within contemporary concert music. In addition, Arcomusical has established meaningful relationships in Brazil, notably cultivating a sister ensemble in Belo Horizonte. Emigre and Exile is Arcomusical’s third album project. A product of the pandemic that has dramatically shifted all of our lives, it was recorded entirely in multi-track fashion to ensure the safety and well being of each individual musician during the pre-vaccine era in the summer of 2020. It features six compositions by four composers: Jeremy Muller, Alexandre Lunsqui, Matt Ulery, and Arco-musical Artistic Director Gregory Beyer. This album continues Arcomusical’s musical vision to celebrate and highlight the voice of the musical bow through creative and colorful chamber music, incorporating deep influences from the Afro-Brazilian berimbau and its African musical bow cousins such as the Mbundu hungu from Angola, the Tsonga xitendefrom Mozambique and the Zulu umakhweyana from South Africa.

Pathos Trio writes: "When Dark Sounds Collide: New Music for Percussion and Piano is a collaborative project between PATHOS TRIO, and composers ALYSSA WEINBERG, ALISON YUN-FEI JIANG, ALAN HANKERS, FINOLA MERIVALE, and EVAN CHAPMAN, dedicated to presenting newly commissioned works for two percussionists and piano in the form of this full length LP and accompanying music videos produced by Philadelphia based audio/film/videography company FOUR/TEN MEDIA. The commissions featured on this album seek to combine aesthetics of contemporary classical music with the ensemble's interests in dark, heavy, dense sounds drawn from other genres of music such as alternative rock, cathedral music, minimalist music, electronic synth-wave, and more. As a result, each work on this album creates raw, edgy, and powerful soundscapes that will engage audiences in both mainstream and classical/new music scenes. Each composer involved in this album also specifically explores various sound worlds through their own vernacular. Evan Chapman's fiction of light is a minimalist, electronic style rock trio; Alyssa Weinberg's Delirious Phenomena features heavily percussive prepared piano; Alison Jun-Fei Jiang's Prayer Variations is solemn and gloomy with church-like melodies; Finola Merivale's oblivious/oblivion charts a course from calm to frantic; and Alan Hankers' Distance Between Places is our heavy hitting finale to this album. These composers and their pieces exemplify the kind of music making that has energized us to commission and champion these new works. This album has been the product of over two years of collaboration, as we've worked hard to truly push the boundaries of new music in these commissions to deliver fresh, innovative sounds and concepts. We thank you for supporting this music and hope you'll enjoy the journey of listening to each piece on this album!