Jeff Oster, Vin Downes and Tom Eaton prove with ‘Seven Conversations’ that ambient or New Age music doesn’t have to be planned to be good.

For ‘Adityahridayam 321,’ David Torn is leveraging technology and musicianship in the service of impulsive creativity like no one else can.

Like a fingerprint or snowflake, Ivo Perelman’s and Matthew Shipp’s ‘Magical Incantation’ is unique within a collection of other unique tie-ups even if the basic approaches are similar.

Emphasizing a loosely-structured, open approach, the Tomeka Reid Quartet builds on the success of the prior two outings with ‘3+3.’

The Claudio Scolari Project raises the stakes for ‘Opera 8,’ an especially adventurous effort from a band for which adventure is their calling card.

Everything on Nick Millevoi’s meditative ‘Moon Pulses’ points to conceiving a single idea and a single-minded determination to bring that idea to fruition.

For the Christian Marien Quartett, the new album ‘How Long Is Now’ means not just living in the current moment, but thriving and getting full enjoyment from it.

With James Brandon Lewis and the Son Lux rhythm section, Dave Douglas keeps pushing forward fresh ideas with that same old vigor he’s had from the start.

In creating ‘Worlds In A Life, Two’ on the fly, Thollem put the impulsiveness into this recycled music that you can’t get by pondering over it too long.

‘Lucid/Still’ captures a live performance of Tim Berne, Hank Roberts and Aurora Nealand’s unique brand of improvised chamber music.