Sarah Pillow – Wanderer
Three Mingus pieces, one by Gismonti, one by Metheny and Mays, one by Corea. The repertoire is the strong decision on a record that has split the critics.
Kevin Fort & Andy Brown – Chiaroscuro
A Chicago piano and guitar duo that names its model outright: “Undercurrent”, by Bill Evans and Jim Hall. Four originals, four standards, forty-seven minutes.
Ivo Perelman, Elliott Sharp & Cyro Baptista – Triacontagon
Sixty-seven minutes of free improvisation for three, taped in Brooklyn in October 2024. Of the six pieces, only one starts with Perelman’s saxophone.
Brand X – Theory of Nothing: Recorded Live 1977
The tapes of the 1977 North American show came out of Robin Lumley’s attic and Percy Jones has remastered them. Two discs, ten pieces and the crowd in between.
Lau Noah and Michael League release “Come the Night”, six songs recorded in three days
The EP came out yesterday on GroundUP, Michael League’s label. It holds six songs moving between English and Spanish, with guitar, voice and little else.
Joshua Redman previews “God Bless the Child” from the album he dedicates to Sonny Rollins, who died in May
“If Ever You Would Leave Us (we play for Rollins)” comes out on 20 November on Blue Note. The first preview is a tune Rollins recorded in 1962.
Julian Lage releases “Aberdeen”, an outtake from “Scenes from Above”, and announces a trio record for 27 November
“Aberdeen” comes from the sessions for January’s album. And the single arrives with an announcement: “The Reservoir Sessions”, in a trio with Jorge Roeder and Joey Baron.
Employed To Serve release “Absolute Onslaught” with Cabal’s singer, and the joint tour skips Spain
The single has Andreas Bjulver guesting and closes an exchange: in September it was Justine Jones singing on Cabal’s “Hurt Me”.
Carpenter Brut remixes “Devil Is Fine” and Zeal & Ardor put it out ten years after the album
“Devil Is Fine x Carpenter Brut” came out yesterday on MVKA. It closes the tenth-anniversary run for the record that made Manuel Gagneux’s name.
The Mars Volta preview “Voice In My Knives” from their first official live album in twenty-one years
“Lucro Sucio; Unfinished Business” comes out on 20 November on InsideOut with thirteen tracks. It is the band’s first live record since “Scabdates”, from 2005.
Celestial Sanctuary set a date for their third album: “Cradle of the Rotten, Shrine to Those Most Foul” lands on 22 January
The Cambridge four-piece premiere “Lashed By Chain” and put out their first record for Metal Blade on 22 January 2027, nine tracks long.
Insomnium release “Netherworlds” on 16 October and bring it to Apolo in February 2027
The Finns’ tenth album comes out on Century Media with Miiro Varjus producing and Jens Bogren mixing, and it holds the first cover version of their career.
Justin Pierce – Sway
A Dallas quintet debuts with ten standards turned towards the Caribbean and New Orleans. Ashley Pierce sings seven of the ten and only three are instrumentals.
Space Ghost – Back From Reality
Five years of part-time work for forty-two minutes of ambient and downtempo made in Oakland, with PlayStation 2 startup screens as the stated model.
Supereon – Phase I
A Norwegian trio improvising out of a single rhythmic cell. The album opens with the first thing the three of them ever recorded together, bells worked with the left foot.
The Mimas Paradox – Resonance
A Budapest duo’s debut: thirty-seven minutes of electronic prog about a lone voyage across the solar system. There’s a played bass on one track out of eight.
Tinariwen – Hoggar
The Tuareg band’s tenth album, with José González and Sudanese singer Solafa Elyas guesting. Ibrahim Ag Alhabib and Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni harmonise together for the first time in thirty years.
Masayo Koketsu & Nava Dunkelman – Veins of Rain
An alto-and-percussion duo recorded the first day the two players ever laid eyes on each other. Forty-six minutes under nine Japanese words for rain, frost and dew.
Simon Phillips releases the video for “Unstable Grounds”, the second from “Protocol 6”
Simon Phillips releases the whole track on video: he wrote it with guitarist Alex Sill, and Ernest Tibbs, Otmaro Ruiz and Phillip Whack play on it.
Toundra put out “Siete”, their first album without Esteban Girón and the first they release themselves
Seven tracks and forty-one minutes mixed by Santi García in Sant Feliu de Guíxols. The Madrid quartet have left InsideOut and Jorge García has come in on guitars and synthesisers.
Floating Points & San Francisco Ballet Orchestra – Mere Mortals
Fourteen movements and an hour of ballet on the myth of Pandora, with Sam Shepherd playing synthesisers live from inside the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra.
Azar Lawrence – Turn the Music Up
The 73-year-old tenor re-records the pieces from his first two albums with a septet and four guests. Fifty minutes, seven tracks and a density that costs him.
Christopher Lucas Wilson Trio – Wilson’s Way
Thirty-eight minutes of piano trio recorded in Chicago: five originals, two standards and a José Alfredo Jiménez ranchera played solo.
The Crystal Teardrop – Love You More
Twelve songs cut live in the studio, with electric sitar, swarmandal and Hammond organ. The second album by the Stoke-on-Trent quintet, out on Popclaw.
Tu-Ner – Rendezvous Rodeo
Tu-Ner’s second live album: seventy-seven minutes recorded in a single night in Vermont. Of the eleven pieces, three are King Crimson’s and only four are the trio’s own.
Milan reissue Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “1996” and bring it to vinyl in the US for the first time
Out on 11 December, newly remastered, on two LPs and double cassette with the original artwork. It is the record where Sakamoto remade his own pieces for piano, cello and violin.
Bokassa set “Anomalies” for 12 March 2027, with Adrian Bushby producing
Nine tracks with Adrian Bushby at the desk and George Perks mastering. The tour hits the UK in April and the continent in May, with nothing in Spain.
Alex Lifeson puts up $100,000 and the strings from Rush’s tour for two children’s hospitals
Strings For Kids sells the strings he has played on the Fifty Something tour. Net proceeds go to SickKids in Toronto and St. Jude in Memphis.
Crown Lands put out the “Casting Stones” EP and set an “Apocalypse” deluxe edition for 11 December
Three tracks cut at the “Apocalypse” sessions that never made the album. The deluxe, on two CDs, adds four live recordings from Chalet Studios and a live title track.
Steve Babb wrote “Black Light” while recovering from a brain tumour, and Glass Hammer release it on 6 November
A concept album set in 1979 that Babb wrote from end to end in the months after surgery. The band has put out a video for “Lost Horizons”.
Bjørn Riis puts out “Divergence” on 13 November, the four tracks that close the “Fimbulvinter” run
Karisma has it on CD, digital and marbled vinyl. The four tracks were written during the “Fimbulvinter” sessions and finish the run that album opened in 2025.
Power Trip release “Precinct 3” and “Scavenger”, their first new songs since Riley Gale died
The double single is out on Blue Grape Music and is the Dallas band’s first new material since 2020. A full album, cut with Jacob Hansen, is set for spring 2027.
Ian Hill retires from Judas Priest after fifty-seven years and Uriah Heep’s Davey Rimmer takes over
The bassist, who is seventy-four, was the last founder left in the band. Advanced arthritis has ended it, and Rimmer —who already played the London show on 21 September— steps in.
Elton John reissues “Rock of the Westies” with nine piano-and-vocal takes from the 1975 sessions
The fiftieth anniversary edition is out on 20 November on double vinyl, double CD and digital. “Street Kids” can already be heard.
Turnstile close the tour with a free show at the Washington Monument for Palestine, Sudan and Lebanon
It is on 24 October at three in the afternoon and you have to RSVP. Donations go to Human Concern International and are split evenly between the three countries.
Billy Bragg and Wilco expand “Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions” with sixteen unreleased recordings
Craft Recordings puts it out on 11 December as a seven-LP or four-CD box. The first taste is an alternate version of “Against Th’ Law”, from the second volume.
Björk releases the “Orkestral” concert she played with the Hamrahlíð Choir in Reykjavík on 27 November
It comes out on LP, CD, Blu-ray and DVD on One Little Independent. The concert is from 24 October 2021 at the Harpa hall, drawing mostly on “Medúlla”.
Madam Orange debut on 23 October with “Parallax”, eleven movements of bass clarinet, drums and electronics
The Chicago duo is Emily Rach Beisel on bass clarinet and Bill Harris on drums. Half the record was taped live at the Hungry Brain.
Carla Harvey releases “Pretty Girls Do Ugly Things”, The Violent Hour’s first full-length, on 22 January
Eleven tracks written with Charlie Benante, with John 5 and Zakk Wylde guesting. The first single, “Already Dead”, comes with a video shot in a morgue.
Opeth reissue “Deliverance” on 27 November, on CD and clear double vinyl
Music For Nations and Sony are putting “Deliverance” out again on 27 November on CD and a limited clear double vinyl. Pre-orders are open at Burning Shed.