The second, eponymous album from saxophonist-composer Tim Berne’s acoustic quartet Snakeoil. Over four years together, Berne and his band of New York standouts - pianist Matt Mitchell, clarinetist Oscar Noriega and drummer/percussionist Ches Smith - have developed a rapport that sounds like communal telepathy. The studio outcome is a marvel of kinetic action, the six pieces of Shadow Man making for music as visceral as it is cerebral; there is roller coaster dynamism and aching lyricism, roiling counterpoint and intriguing harmony, glinting detail and ensemble impact. The album is a dizzying experience for the senses, breathtaking in its sheer imaginative verve.

The Distance represents a grand creative leap for bassist-composer Michael Formanek, following two widely lauded ECM releases featuring his quartet with Tim Berne, Craig Taborn and Gerald Cleaver. The new album showcases his texturally rich compositions for the dynamic 18-piece big band he has playfully dubbed Ensemble Kolossus. The project saw some of the most distinctive musicians on the New York scene bonding to realize Formaneks epic design, as he re-imagined what a big-band can be. Channeling sounds from the classic to the modern, he also composed for individual soloists in the Ellingtonian tradition.

Tim Berne has been described as a saxophonist and composer of granite conviction by The New York Times. Incidentals is the fourth album from his spirited Snakeoil band and the second to feature the quintet line-up in which his core group with clarinetist Oscar Noriega, pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith is augmented by guitarist Ryan Ferreira. The music is characteristically action-packed in the Berne tradition: powerful, dynamic, often fast-moving - yet also very clear in all its teeming detail.

Tim Berne, pioneer of New York’s legendary “downtown scene”, and his long-time duo partner Matt Mitchell on piano release the album One More, Please – an impressive and refreshing example of the art of improvisation. The two virtuoso instrumentalists have worked together for more than ten years – including in Berne’s acclaimed band Snakeoil – and over this time have developed a distinctive language and musical depth in a dynamic musical relationship.

"Small Places" is double-bassist/composer Michael Formanek’s follow-up to The Rub and Spare Change, his widely lauded ECM debut as a leader. The new album features the same powerhouse band of longtime confreres, with Formanek in seemingly telepathic league with saxophonist Tim Berne, pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Gerald Cleaver. If anything, "Small Places" is a step beyond this quartet’s first release, with the compositions and improvisation blending so that a listener is scarcely able to tell where one leaves off and the other begins. Earthy yet atmospheric, this is jazz alive with dark-hued melody and bone-deep rhythms, rich in dynamic possibility and the sound of surprise.

Broken Shadows brings together four luminaries of the American jazz scene: Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Reid Anderson and Dave King. Broken Shadows has very strong connections, intwos.