The fourth CD in Zorn’s remarkable series of piano trio recordings exploring clas-sical forms, “Nocturnes” is an absolute delight. Preceded by “Suite for Piano” (2022), “Ballades” (2024), and the “Impromptus” (2025), “Nocturnes” is Zorn’s personal take on the beautiful tradition of night music. Touching on Chopin, Scriabin, Debussy, Berg, and more, the music is a wonderland of subtlety—dreamy, drifting, and utterly compelling. Brian, Jorge, and Ches, three of Zorn’s closest and most trusted collab-orators perform with their trademark telepathic interplay, and an uncanny sense of surprise and creativity. With a stunning virtuosity that is always at the service of the music, the trio opens up new doors with each successive recording. Gorgeous music for late night listening!

Jim Staley
Ikue Mori
John Zorn

Friends and musical cohorts since the early 1980s, these three master improvisers come together to perform a freewheeling set of outrageous and mind-blowing improvisations. Recorded at Roulette, founded in 1978 and one of New York’s most adventurous venues, the music is full of surprising twists and jumps from one mood to another with mercurial synchronicity. Dedicated to the memory of Downtown theatrical genius Richard Foreman, “Alchemical Theatre” presents nine pieces of tele-pathic, counter-intuitive New York improvisation by three legendary figures of the Downtown scene.

Ikue Mori, PHEW and YoshimiO are three legends of the Japanese Avant Garde music scene: Ikue was an original member of DNA and is a vital member of the NYC Downtown Scene, Phew founded Aunt Sally in 1978 and has performed in countless folk/rock solo projects and collaborations and YoshimiO is a core member of the Boredoms, Saicobab and OOIOO. Here they come together for their first ever trio project. Recorded at Club U.F.O. in Tokyo, the music was edited and mixed during the shelter-in-place months of early 2020. Surprising and powerful, this is a fabulous and essential meeting of three new music superstars!

Vadim is one of the most accomplished pianists of his generation, a musician of astonishing range and passion. His newest work tells a story of compassion, empathy, willpower, resistance, sincerity, falsehood, freedom, and the arduous path to it. As a Ukrainian, he is deeply connected to the current events, however the music is not only about the devastating war, it speaks to us all, reflecting on timeless human challenges and the best aspects of our nature. Placing exhilarating piano improvisations in the context of gorgeous compositions for classical string trio, “Perseverantia” is Vadim’s greatest work to date.