For the Record: March 27, 2026.

For the Record is a weekly column that rounds up details about new and pending recordings of interest to the new-music community – contemporary classical music and jazz, electronic and electroacoustic music, and idioms for which no clever genre name has been coined – on CD, vinyl LP, cassette, digital-only formats… you name it.

This list of release dates is culled from press releases, Bandcamp, and other internet stores and sources, social media posts,  and online resources such as Discogs. Dates cited typically correspond to initial U.S. release, and are subject to change.

These listings are not comprehensive—nor could they be! If you’d like to submit a forthcoming recording for consideration, please email information to nightafternight@icloud.com. (Streams and downloads preferred.)

All opinions expressed herein are solely my own, and do not reflect the views of my employer.

Mindful of a recent exchange of messages between a fiercely independent creative musician and myself regarding the predominance, efficacy, and possibly detrimental impact of record labels, marketing budgets, paid publicity and such in the relatively rarefied musical climes under discussion in this newsletter, I’m wondering this morning where the line is drawn between organic discovery and paid positioning.

Case in point: One of the most original, absorbing records I’ve heard so far this year is Fallows, issued today by saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Caroline Davis on the Ropeadope label. Facts: Davis has been a substantial contributor to the local creative-music ecosystem for more than a decade, and Ropeadope is a well-known imprint.

Regarding labels and publicity: No one sent me Fallows ages ago for advance consideration, or peppered me with “just checking in” emails. Actually, no one sent it at all; I discovered it by opening the Qobuz app on my iPhone over my morning coffee to see what’s new today, part of my Friday routine. Pride of place belongs to Robyn, obviously, with Anne-Sophie Mutter, Black Label Society, and the much-discussed “jazz album” by Flea close by.

Alongside those titles I see new releases by artists and acts like Irreversible Entanglements (now on a major label), Harriet Tubman (with a high-profile guest, Georgia Anne Muldrow), Dave Adewumi, and Davis—whose new album is an uncompromising solo saxophone-and-electronics collection that scans like a collection of diary entries and personal ruminations on matters of biography, ecology, and spirit.

The detailed story presented on the Bandcamp page for Davis’s album reveals the circumstances, tools, and inspirations that led to this specific album at this particular time. It’s highly readable and very thorough. Honestly, though, I just let Fallows wash over me three times in succession before I read anything, reveling in the jittery beats, gritty distortion, tranquil found sounds, and digitally duplicated saxophones in chatty counterpoint and plush chorales. You might discern echoes of Terry Riley, Steve Lacy, or whatnot, but Davis’s conception is her own, and the results are an absorbing delight.

Was my finding Fallows a simple twist of fate? Is a prime spot on Qobuz a marketing tool? Did it pop up because the platform has sussed my patterns of consumption? I’m contemplating all of those angles in light of the exchange of messages I mentioned before… but mostly I’m grateful for the serendipity of having the right album served up to me at the right moment.

Up until I stumbed upon Fallows this morning, the album that’s occupied my attention most this week is Música Para Quinteto (Live at Jazz Cava), by guitarist Juanma Trujillo. I hadn’t encountered this Barcelona-based Venezuelan artist before he sent his new album along for consideration, but the sound of this live date with tenor saxophonists Albert Cirera and Miguel Pintxo Villar, bassist Masa Kamaguchi, and drummer Ramon Prats recalls the early oughts scene populated by heavies like Tony Malaby, Bill McHenry, Ben Monder, Steve Cardenas, Chris Lightcap, and Gerald Cleaver.

Trujillo’s compositions are loosely knit yet coherent; in the simple, pliable melody of “Conflagration (for los Angeles),” to single out just one example, I hear echoes of composers like Bill Frisell and Paul Motian—not least when saxophone rubs abrasively against guitar or vice versa. The performance is awash in lithe energy and subtle yet sure propulsion, making the album a very welcome introduction.

Dave Adewumi - The Flame Beneath the Silence (Giant Step)

Leila Bordreuil + Kali Malone - Music for Intersecting Planes (Ideologic Organ)

John Cage - Two2 - Judith Wegmann, Marlies Debacker (Hat Hut)

Charlatan (Brad E. Rose) - The Mutual Blur (The Jewel Garden)

Sylvie Courvoisier Trio - Éclats - Live in Europe (Intakt)

Caroline Davis - Fallows (Ropeadope)

Dietrichs - Live Bahdu (Relative Pitch)

Liliane Donskoy - Intégrale Acousmatique (Metaphon; recorded 1970s and 1980s)

Morgan Evans-Weiler - ORGAN - Scientific American (self-released)

Andrea Giordano/Kalle Moberg/Jo David Meyer Lysne - Radis (Black Truffle)

Goal Weight (Maggie Cox & Jennifer Gersten) - Keep Telling Yourself That (Relative Pitch)

Simon Hanes - GARGANTUA (Pyroclastic)

Harriet Tubman & Georgia Anne Muldrow - Electrical Field (Pi Recordings)

Eva-Maria Houben, Jukka-Pekka Kervinen - someone is breathing (okazo)

Irreversible Entanglements - Future Present Past (Impulse!)

Matthew Langford - Subtle Vessel (Discreet Archive)

Lazyhorse - “Are There Bars in Heaven?” (Out of Your Head)

LDL (Urs Leimgruber, Jacques Demierre, Thomas Lehn) - the eerie glow of jellyfish (Relative Pitch)

Janel Leppin - Slowly Melting (Cuneiform)

Janel Leppin’s Ensemble Volcanic Ash - Pluto in Aquarius (Cuneiform)

Lukas Ligeti - Notebook (New World)

Christopher Mayo - Walk the Darkness Down - performances by Andrew Noseworthy & Grace Scheele (people|places|records)

Scott Ordway - Squares (self-released)

Danya Pilchen - Paper Braids - Kali Ensemble (Moving Furniture)

Reverso (Ryan Keberle, Frank Woeste, Vincent Courtois) - Between Two Silences (Alternate Side)

Fie Schouten, Vincent Courtois, Sofia Borges, Pierre Baux - Open Space (Relative Pitch)

Marianne Schuppe/Deborah Walker - Two Paths (elsewhere)

Walter Thompson, Sam Day Harmet, Billy Martin - WaSaBi Trio (577 Records)

Juanma Trujillo - Música Para Quinteto (Live at Jazz Cava) (UnderPool)

Mark Turner - Patternmaster (ECM)

Miroslav Vitous - Mountain Call (ECM)

Zosha Warpeha - I grow accustomed to the dark (Outside Time)

Wired (Michael Ranta & Karl-Heinz Böttner) - Kyoto 1970 (Metaphon)

Ivo Perelman - Trifecta (Mahakala Music)

Kip Winger - Symphony of the Returning Light; Violin Concerto “In the Language of Flowers” - Peter Otto, Nashville Symphony/Giancarlo Guerrero (Naxos)

Camilo Ángeles - Flautas Ahogadas para Jacobo Grinberg (Dinzu Artefacts)

Laura Cocks – A Pearl in the Jaw (Dinzu Artefacts)

Carlo Costa - Ashes (Dinzu Artefacts)

Allison Loggins-Hull - Legacy; Can You See?; Grit. Grace. Glory. - The Cleveland Orchestra/Franz Welser-Möst (TCO Media)

Lester St. Louis - THE END SITE (Dinzu Artefacts)

Kevin Sun - lofi at lowlands 四 (endectomorph music)

Drew Wesely - Silence Is a Sharpened Blade (Dinzu Artefacts)

ContraPunctus (Mike McGinnis, Carmen Staaf, Gui Duvignau, Hamir Atwal) - ContraPunctus (Adhyâropa)

Allison Loggins-Hull - Patchwork - Allison Loggins-Hull, Laquita Mitchell, Cleveland Soloists (Avie)

Columbia Icefield - A Silence Opens (Out of Your Head)

Philip Glass - Music With Changing Parts - Philip Glass Ensemble (Superior Viaduct; originally Chatham Square, 1971)

Hannah Marks - Feed the Fire (endectomorph music)

Find many more upcoming releases in For the Record: The Master List, here.

Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.