New and updated edition of Johannes Rød’s landmark guide to Free Jazz & Improv labels originally compiled and published in 2014 (copies of that first edition will set you back $$$), and now hugely expanded for this new edition. Spread over 428 pages, we’ll wager it’s the kind of thing anyone who is a regular follower of this site will obsess over - a curated label-by label breakdown of key imprints operating in free/spiritual jazz and improvisation and related areas of the avant-garde, experimental, contemporary and modern composition, with labels including Another Timbre, Black Truffle, ECM, ESP-DIsk’, Improvised Music From Japan, Incus, Otoroku, P.S.F., Saravah, Smalltown Supersound, Strata-East, Treader, Tzadik and countless others - 185 labels in total. Each label has a description followed by a line by line detail of relevant releases on the label, by year and catalogue number, beautifully designed by Kim Hiorhøy like an artist’s notebook, and printed on artisanal uncoated paper for added tactile wonder, with many cover images included too.
Here’s what Johannes Rød has to say about this new edition:
This book is both a revised new edition, and a continuous extension of my book published by Rune Grammoon in 2014: Free Jazz and Improvisation on Vinyl 1965-1985. The timespan dealt with has expanded from 20 to 49 years (1965 - 2024); the number of labels has grown from 60 to 185. All the records presented here were either originally released on vinyl or originally in the CD format. As a music lover, the two formats have always been equally interesting. As a collector, the vinyl format used to be more interesting. After my research for this new and revised edition, for me the two formats tend to balance equally. There is a musical treasure hidden in the last 30 years of CD production that tends to be forgotten in today's trend to focus on vinyl. It is one of the main purposes with this book, to forward this information to all of you. Digital files, re-releases from LP to CD or from CD to LP are not included with a few exceptions.
The aim of this book is to present a selection of independent record companies and their record releases in the field of free jazz, free improvisation and instant composing. There are no distinct borders between free experimental music categories. Some artists can be put in different categories like electroacoustic, electronic noise, avant-garde and modern composition. Conclusively, that means that some of the labels included in this book are on the fringe of the actual topic for this book. The decision of what shall be included and what not is a topic for endless discussions. The decision is all mine based on conversations with artists and scholars in the field. This is a book of lists, numbers and chronologies, as well as record design and musicians.
And here’s Mats Gustafsson:
“Yes. This is exactly what we need. Big time. Just as we need a working turntable, a creative way of organising our record collections, and as we need air to breathe and water to drink. Information necessity. To be able to find the creative music we didn't know existed and the music we always have been looking for. With online information facing us in a bizarre and gigantic fast flow of information, it is an impossible task to really know where to even look. How to fitter all the information and turn it all into inspiration?
When friends and colleagues are recommending music to me, it makes my toes stand up in my boots. Always. I love that mechanic. When enthusiasm and dedication put you in a certain (unknown) direction. When your horizon and perspective widen.
Here you have it. The Book. The Guide. To a better living. A very cool and definite guide to find free jazz and related behaviours and matters. Improvised music in all kinds of shapes and forms. Geographical, gender and cultural related perspectives. Historical and ideological focuses, It is all in here.
I go daily to my record collection, my archive, for both information AND inspiration. It is a SLOW process. It has to be slow. To really go deep. To really mean something to me. Online search is too fast for me. I need the analogue way. The slow way. Where the beautiful chain reaction of creative associations is allowed to be at play. One thing leads to the other. Which leads you in unexpected ways and paths. Changing the way you look at the world. The way you hear the world around you.
DIG IN, enjoy and start your own research. It is all in front of you! Johannes Red has created a unique possibility for all of us. It is a deep well of knowledge and music. It is the most FUN ride you can make: into the (un)known world of improvised music!
Mats Gustafsson, Nickelsdorf, June 2024
