I was unfamiliar with this Trio until it arrived in my box but this consists of Brian Stark on tenor saxophone, Irish flute, and souvenir flute; Adam Larison on guitars; and Richard Gilman-Opalsky on drums. This was recorded live at DIM Art House in Springfield, Illinois. The press sheet that came with the disc states that “Freedom Therapy Trio takes listeners on a journey of instantaneous composition, traversing sonic terrains from textural, minimalist sound paintings through fleeting passages of swinging jazz to the outermost limits of ecstatic collective improvisation.” Sounds like a good time, so let’s get in and see where they take us.

We kick it off with “Searching for the Healing Force.” I once went to a percussion master class and the visiting scholar had an interesting remark; she said that when she pays for a drum, she wants all of the drum, and proceeded to demonstrate everything she could get out of the drum. I get the sense that Gilman-Opalsky has the same sentiment with it comes to cymbals. I was amazed at the kind of different sounds he can get out of them. It sounds like he has 70 different cymbals, but he probably really only has three or four. That said, he vacillates between coaxing out as much sound variety as possible and beating his drums like they owe him money. Indeed, this entire track, if it has a central theme or groove, it's not readily apparent. In some ways it sounds like three different musicians all taking solos individually or sometimes all at the same time. It's chaotic, but hangs together cleanly. It's not noisy at all. Loud, yes, but not noisy. Really good improvisation, and the fact that it hangs together well is a testament to the skill of these musicians.

“Reject the Alien Uniformity” starts out with a sparse composition that's whimsical in feel. This would be right at home in a Looney Tunes cartoon. The spring-like sproinging sound of the guitar calls to mind Wile E. Coyote setting up his trap for the roadrunner. But then it settles into a grooving composition where you can almost see this as a continuation of the story where Coyote is chasing the Roadrunner through the desert. Overall it's a fun piece.

At 26 minutes there's a lot to go over on “Cost of Living.” In this track the winds take center stage with Stark trying out different themes throughout. It almost sounds like he is coming up with stuff on the fly, but because of certain elements it's clear that's not the case (such as the staccato pounding in one portion of the track where they all are hitting in unison). Either that or Larison and Gilman-Opalsky are the best followers in the music business (which may very well be the case). Stark alternates between saxophone and flute with different feels throughout. One could almost think of this track as having multiple personalities as it ranges between freak out jazz that's completely chaotic to peaceful, languid jazz to everything else in between. Sometimes it's sparse, sometimes it's dense, but it's completely interesting as it moves along.

Compared to the previous three tracks, “Crack, Sizzle, Bounce” is downright normal. Now don't get me wrong - this isn't going to be played on your local "smooth jazz" station anytime soon. But if you were to play this track for a person who's used to mainstream jazz music they would accept it as a standard jazz track, perhaps a bit more improvisational than they may be used to. It has a theme and it sticks with it. In short, it's a nice closer to the album.

I'm a big fan of freak out jazz so this was definitely right up my alley. If you like your jazz chaotic, this is definitely worth picking up, but this isn't just random. It's clear that this trio not only knows how to improvise but also how to work well with each other. This album weighs in at around 61 minutes.

Sound_00 is the work of Macedonian artist Toni Dimitrov, who also used to record under the name Every Kid On Speed. Lefterna is the work of musician, writer, and translator Boban Ristevski, who works mainly in ambient / drone and industrial / noise music. I was familiar with Dimitrov’s work as he had been on a few compilations that I put out, but this is my introduction to Lefterna’s work. I am always interested to see how collaborations leverage each other’s strengths, so let’s dive in and see what this one brings.

This is one 33 minute track of interesting drone. The base consists of a repetitive drone theme, but there is are other elements here to keep it interesting. Static that sounds like rain at times and heavily reverbed warbling sounds keep it from getting too repetitive. The overall effect is relaxing; this would be a good choice to put on and read a good book. This is well worth picking up, and name your price is about as good of a price as you can get, so it is completely worth the risk.

This is my introduction to Moreine, and the bandcamp bio simply states, "Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon thy horses, upon thy donkeys, upon thy camels, upon thy oxen, and upon thy sheep: there shall be a very grievous moreine." For those who are not Biblical scholars, this comes from Exodus 9:3 (although the King James Version renders this as "murrain," as moreine is the Middle English spelling. And what is this, you may ask? Why a plague, of course. Other than that, I know nothing of the artist, so let's dive right in.

If you are looking for feel good music with what I just told you, you would be barking up the wrong tree. This is dark and oppressive, just the way a plague on all of your cattle should be. This plays out like a soundtrack for the events of Exodus 9, which is a catalog of the plagues that the Lord sent upon Egypt and Pharaoh to convince him to let the children of Israel leave. Heavy drone and animalistic noises play a major role in the compositions and the overall effect is cinematic. The compositions are carefully constructed and nothing seems to be left to chance. Like a vengeful deity, Moreine plays things for maximum impact. The overall effect is unsettling, while avoiding the cliches of horror music. If there is one word to describe this music, it would be "visceral." For example, "The Fifth Plague" almost sounds like a symphony that you are hearing from the inside of an animal's stomach and "Die Like a Pig" likewise sounds like swine feeding at the trough punctuated with heavily processed snippets of voice.

Overall, this is well done, and if you like your music to tell a story, even if (or especially if, for some of you) it is not a pleasant one, this will be right up your alley. This album weighs in at around 51 minutes and is limited to 42 copies.

Substak is the work of Kostas Staikos, who hails from Athens, Greece. I have reviewed several of his releases on Inner Demons, and they all have different feels, so it is interesting to see what he has each time. The liner notes state, “This music stands for itself. It's an escape where no rules are followed. That's Substak.” Well, let’s see what we have here.

We kick it off with “Consciousness,” which is grinding noises over warbling synth. This is like shaving with an electric razor in a wind tunnel. So far, so good. “Consciousness II” would be right at home in the soundtrack to a science fiction movie. Gritty synth with some analog noises and spacey sounds. “Brooding” is the best way to describe the feel of this track. “Consciousness III” closes it out with a much more complex piece, with pitch bent synth, crashing waves of sound, all floating on a sea of drone. If the other two were relatively peaceful and representative of a more level headed consciousness, this consciousness is manic, with wild shifts from one emotion to another.

Overall, this is an interesting set of drones with enough going on in them to keep it interesting. If you like your drone with a bit of grit to it, this is something to check out. This album weighs in at around 17 minutes.

I was unfamiliar with this group, but The Grey Men hail from Sydney, Australia, and the label describes them as so: “Inspired by early Earth, Sunn 0))) and Fennesz, The Grey Men combine slowly played distorted guitars and feedback with modular synthesizers, tape loops and obscure samples to achieve sounds both harsh and transcendent.” Their bandcamp bio reads “Volume as an instrument and strip nearly everything else away,” which sounds promising, so let’s dive in.

If you like really slow doom style distorted guitars, this album has it in spades. But this is really, really slow stuff. I mean glacially slow. “Canon 3 [Remove],” “Witness,” “Canon 5 [Asphalt],” and “Canon 6 [Vengeance]” all follow a similar recipe. Long sustained chords, with some feedback and eternities of sustain as a garnish.

There are some that go outside of this strategy, and for me the standout track here is “Coeur - feat. MxRF,” with ethereal vocals that are an interesting contrast to the crushing guitar. It is this juxtaposition of the gentle voice and heavy guitars that give this track its power. The guitars seem to be more of a composition in this track, which makes it a much better, much stronger track. Truly lovely. On the other end of the spectrum, we have “Void,” featuring guitar stabs with shrieking underneath, like standing outside of a mental institution with a guitar. Not really my cup of tea, but if you like the screams of the damned, this is where you will find it.

Guitar noise can be interesting (Fear Falls Burning, for example), but much of it began to sound too similar, with the exception of “Coeur,” which I found to be exquisite. That said, if you like your guitar noise extra sludgy, this would be up your alley. This album weighs in at around 66 minutes and is limited to 42 copies.