‘Thollem’s Astral Traveling Sessions with John Dieterich’ tingles your auditory senses because this is breaking new ground and they’re defining the whole dobro/synth genre as they go along. There might not be two musicians better equipped to be the first at doing that.

Individually and collectively, Tim Berne’s Hardcell trio was amazing and the live souvenir ‘The Cosmos’ confirms that.

‘xFORM’ is one of the snowflakes from a David Torn/Prezens live performance that’s thankfully been captured for posterity and now, available for the public.

If you like your genres mixed and mashed, ‘I Am Panda’ by Chiminyo – a.k.a. Tim Doyle – is a good place to start.

Singing and playing like a boss is an under-appreciated talent, and Wendy Eisenberg shows she can handle this demanding dual chore with “Centreville.”

Merzbow, Mats Gustafsson and Balazs Pandi know how to manipulate calmness to make it as impactful as the ceaseless noise that they also create.

Get good music, help a cause and celebrate the union of two powerful improvising forces, Deerhoof and Wadada Leo Smith. May there be many more such unions.

Thiago Nassif’s progressive assault on Brazilian pop won’t appeal to everybody, but they say that about all artists ahead of their time *during* their time.

Darren Barrett takes a side trip to delve into the innovations of Nyle Steiner, creator of the EWI, popularized by such innovators as Michael Brecker.

Christopher Bono’s ‘Nous III” is infused with such a long list of idiom influences – from post-rock and ambient to Neo-Shamanism and free jazz – that it defies classification.