European Free Improvisation Pages

Begun in January 1995, EFIP was intended to be a comprehensive information resource for all aspects of the type of music known as European free improvisation. From January 2007 it is being updated approximately every two months (for rationale, please see bottom of this page).

Every effort has been made to check the information on this site as far as possible; in most cases the information has been sourced from the musicians themselves.

• A little old news now, but very sad to hear that Hans Reichel died on 22 November 2011.
• On the release front, it's particularly exciting to welcome back Georg Graewe's Random Acoustics label with a new web site (get the link from the labels index) and a Book/DVD release, grubenklang. reloaded. The book is a 120-page A4-landscape paperback of photographs, writings, interviews, comments and data and includes a DVD with approximately 70 minutes of video and 4 hours of audio from a wide range of musicians and groups. Full details on the linked page.
• A major update on Creative Sources records with: Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø Solo; Martine Altenburger/Frédéric Blondy/Bertrand Gauget Vers l'ile paresseuse; Boris Hauf/Steven Hess/Keefe Jackson/Juun Proxemics; David Chiesa/Jean Sébastien Mariage Oort; Hans Koch/Thomas Rohrer/Antonio Panda Gianfratti Aicó; Ernesto Rodrigues/Guilherme Rodrigues/Gil Gonçalves/Nuno Torres/Abdul Moiméme/Armando Pereira/Carlos Santos/José Oliveira Suspensâo; Erik Carlsson The bird and the giant; Abdul Moimême/Ricardo Guerreiro Knettanu; Matthias Muche/Philip Zoubek/Achim Tang Excerpts from anything; Steve Beresford/Stephen Flinn/Dave Tucker Ink room; Heddy Boubaker/Ernesto Rodrigues/Abdul Moiméme Le beau déviant; Alon Nechushtan Dark forces; Marjolaine Charbin/Frans Van Isacker Kryscraft; Olaf Rupp/Joe Williamson/Tony Buck Wierd weapons 2; and Joe Williamson Hoard.
• Recent Not Two releases include: The Kris Wanders Outfit In remembrance of the human race; André Goudbeek/Lê Quan Ninh/Peter Jacquemyn Uwaga; Evan Parker/Zlatko Kaucic Round about one o'clock; and Peter Brötzmann/Jörg Fischer Live in Wiesbaden. The two new Erstwhile CDs are Greg Kelley/Olivia Block Resolution and Jérôme Noetinger/Will Guthrie Face off. The brand new Potlatch disc is a new Keith Rowe/John Tilbuary recording: E.E. Tension and circumstance and the very latest Foghorn release is Everybody else but me by Tony Bevan/Matthew Bourne/Tony Buck/Barre Phillips.
• Mbari Música from Portugal have recently released the wonderful solo piano disc El laberint de la memòria by Agustí Fernández. MET-X from Brussels have released a new disc with Trevor Watts: 11 songs by Mishalle/Watts/Drame/Foliba/Marockin' Brass. And on Leipzig's Euphorium Records, there's Friedrichsschwerdt with Gay - Wir saunawirt.

COPYRIGHT!! I don't want to get heavy with this but the work involved in setting up this site and maintaining it on a regular basis is substantial so copyright in this material rests with me (and contributors). At the same time, I'm happy for the information/files on these pages to be used in any reasonable way. However, this limited use should also acknowledge both me and the musician/label from where much of the data originally arose. Feedback would also be appreciated to know how any of this is being used elsewhere.

Statement, January 2007: Started at a time when the web itself was new this seemed a fairly modest aim but the availability of cheap digital media and the explosion of recordings that has resulted means that I have been chasing the vanishing tail of comprehensiveness for too many months now to have any expectation of ever catching the beast up. At the same time, my increasing responsibilities at the University of Sheffield are such that I don't have the spare time to go chasing the rareities that at one time seemed so exciting and appealing. So, while keeping the site going, I am going to have to cut back in a number of ways. I am not sure entirely how this will shape up though one immediate effect will be a replacement of the upcoming concerts section by a simple list of venues and contacts (no big surprise as this has already proved difficult to update). Content will probably be scaled back to ensure that everything fits within the scope of the site and my updates may no longer be monthly but when I can manage to do them (two-monthly?). I'll have to see how this goes...

p.stubley@shef.ac.uk