Friends and colleagues for over 25 years, John Zorn and Dave Lombardo are two of the most uncompromising and powerful musical visionaries in modern music and “Memories, Dreams, and Reflections” presents these two extreme virtuosos in an exciting session of pure improvisation. Drum shaman Dave Lombardo and renegade sax alchemist Zorn are at their freewheeling best here and their connection has never been tighter. Intense, telepathic, filled with love, surprise, respect, and an insatiable curiosity, this is an unexpected but inevitable meeting of two old friends who are also two modern musical masters.

This CD is about quality not quantity—less than thirty minutes in total, but absolutely some of the most incredible music Zorn has ever composed. Dramatic, intense, mercurial, challenging, and endlessly virtuosic, Zorn’s writing for strings is amongst the most exciting ever achieved in the classical world. Here he expands the fabulous JACK Quartet to a quintet and sextet with the addition of two of the most accomplished musicians in the New York scene: Yura Lee and Michael Nicolas. Composed in 2020, during the initial months of the COVID-19 lockdown, these are two of Zorn’s greatest masterpieces, beautifully recorded at Oktaven by Ryan Streber, and passionately performed by six members of Zorn’s inner circle. ESSENTIAL!

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!

The second release from Matt Hollenberg’s newest musical unit Shardik is a biting critique of political corruption and hypocrisy in the modern era. Years in the mak-ing, the music is replete with searing solos, harmonic daring, soaring lyricism, and a complex formal logic. Traversing avant-garde classical, dissonant math metal, free jazz, world music and more, “Cruelty Bacchanal” is Matt’s best project to date. Performed with stunning intensity and astonishing virtuosity this is essential new music from a guitar master that demands your attention. Essential!

Joseph Holbrooke was a legendary all-star ensemble from the mid Sixties dedicated to free improvisation. Comprising three of the most acclaimed virtuosos from the first generation of British improvisers—Bailey, Bryars, and Oxley—little has been released, but they briefly reformed in 1998 and the studio recordings from that period were made available in 2006 on Tzadik as “The Moat Recordings.” “Last Live 2001” is exactly that—their last live concert ever! Recorded in Antwerp in January of 2001, the ensemble is at their exploratory best in this newly discovered gem from the archives of composer/improviser maestro Gavin Bryars.

Composer, harpist, improviser, and educator Zeena Parkins has been a mainstay of the Downtown scene since 1984, performing with Fred Frith, John Zorn, Bjork, Ikue Mori, Yoko Ono, Pauline Oliveros, and countless others. Her newest project, years in the making, pays tribute to the fearless American visual artist Jay DeFeo. Zeena captures DeFeo’s bold experimentalism and love of beauty with a lush, exotic extended work for harp and percussion. Performing with her on a unique instrument built by legendary composer Lou Harrison is her close collaborator William Winant. One of Zeena’s most important and compelling releases, this is a major composition by a pioneering harpist/composer who still surprises after forty years of groundbreaking work!