We agree with the Free Jazz blog – it was a great year for the music! All of the supposed political roadblocks, populism, and discouragements have not stopped creativity; in fact, it has obviously fed it!
Here is the label’s top 10 for the year in no particular order:
- Chamber 4 – City of Light (Clean Feed)
- Risser/Duboc/Perraud – Generation (Dark Tree)
- Arve Henriksen – Towards Language (Rune Grammofon)
- Walter/Butcher/Smith – The Catastrophe Of Minimalism (Balance Point Acoustics)
- Matt Mitchell plays Tim Berne – førage (Screwgun)
- Aruan Ortiz – Cub(an)ism (Intakt)
- Ballrogg – Abaft the Beam (Clean Feed)
- Timuçin Şahin – Nothing Bad Can Happen (Between the Lines)
- John Abercrombie Quartet – Up and Coming (ECM)
- Michael Attias Quartet – Nerve Dance (Clean Feed)