My picks [From the albums I've heard anyway]:

Scot Ray - Active Vapor Recovery

Impressive Avant-Fusion that strays from convention. Half of it sounds like instrumental out-takes from King Crimson's 1973-1974 incarnation, but better.


String Trio of New York - Gut Reaction

Beautiful live Chamber Jazz...if you're a fan of Jazz, Classical or both, check this out...


Eric Friedlander - Quake

Very nice 'Modern Creative Jazz' from Cryptogramophone, one of the best Jazz labels around. Everything in their catalogue is brilliant.

Granted, it's a small list, but there are only so many CDs I can be expected to own.

on the verge of Jazz, ambience and the avant-garde, I'd like to add Supersilent's "6" to this list just because they are a great band that I have grown to love...this is on the beloved Rune Grammofon label of Norway

Having read a review of that album [Not that I have any reason to doubt your opinions, Equinox. I've found from your posts that we rest on similar ground when it comes to taste in music.] I may just have to go buy myself a copy.

If I were only blessed w/ limitless funds.

You look at this and just have to think, "imagine the number of CDs that could have purchased..."

...granted, you should also be thinking about the senseless loss of human life and how that money could have been used towards any number of other beneficial initiatives...

...but then, also think of all that music

Oh I most definitely understand you there...there's a guy on ebay that has that release on vinyl for around 20 bucks...if you're into vinyl, check it out

I'm looking on getting Supersilent 1-3, but at a very costly price from http://www.runegrammofon.com

glad my suggestion helped you in any sort of way...I like the majority of the artists on that label, especially for what i've heard...Tore Elgaroy's "Sound of the Sun" is experimental guitar/electronics from the best norwegian guitarist ever

anyway, that's not jazz, sorry to clutter up your thread

Yeah, you're definitely cluttering the thread, what w/ the whole 4 posts...

...and if you want to apologize for something, apologize for bringing all these great artists to my attention. Now I'm going to have to start buying up their catalogue...damn you.

And no, thankfully I'm not into vinyl (yet). I've spent far too much money on CDs and legal digital music to switch over...I'd have a nervous breakdown or something. Also, I like the ease of ripping CDs to MP3/AAC [at very high bit rates, mind you] and then storing my whole collection on a single hard disk. It just makes it much easier to manage a 1,500-album collection, you know? And I've never tried it, but I assume ripping from Vinyl would sound terrible.

And now for the main reason for this post, I forgot that this album came out this year, so I have to include it in the list now:

Out Trios, Vol.1 From Atavistic. It really is an amazing recording -- I HIGHLY recommend it. It's a continuous 50 minute improv/composition [not exactly sure which, bits of both I assume] featuring William Hooker and members of Sonic Youth and Mission Of Burma. It doesn't quite fit into any one category of music -- there's elements of free-improv, dark ambient, post-rock, etc...but it would probably appeal to a creative Jazz crowd, so I felt it should go here. Check it out.


Anyway, I suppose that's it...

well i'm up to around 1200 album collection right now and will be rising in the growing months ahead...Did Matthew Shipp or Mat Maneri come out with any albums on Thirsty Ear this year? If so, I'm sure they were excellent!

Apparently so:

Matthew Shipp - Equilibrium [Thirsy Ear]

Mat Maneri - For Consequence [Leo Records]

...and there you go naming off artists I haven't heard again...dammit

Matthew Shipp is a brilliant Piano player...Equilibrium, New Orbit, Nu Bop and Pastoral Composure are all great albums from him...

Mat Maneri is a great violinist...Sustain, Trinity, and Blue Decco are excellent...

check out William Parker as well, they all record for Thirsty Ear from time to time, and even collaborate together...

Matthew Shipp did a hip-hop/jazz album with Anti-Pop Consortium before they broke up...it's quite good if you ask me

Yeah, I already looked into them. They seem like something I could really get into. And my comment wasn't meant to sound as though I was complaining that I hadn't heard of those artists [if that's how you interpreted it]. It was simply that since I now know about them, I'm likely to be impulsive and buy all of their albums...

...and things of this nature tend to do terrible things to my bank balance...

now isn't this so damn true!

also would like to add that Jaco Pastorius's "Punk Jazz Anthology" is a great release of this year...R.I.P.