LOK 03+1 (Aki Takase, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Dj Illvibe, Paul Lovens) - Signals (2016)

Signals is the first offering from LOK 03+1, a new avant-garde jazz quartet consisting of legendary German free jazz composer and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, prolific jazz session drummer Paul Lovens (who has collaborated with von Schlippenbach extensively over the years), Japanese composer and pianist Aki Takase, and turntablist/"future jazz" artist Dj Illvibe (who also happens to be the son of von Schlippenbach). The album is endlessly adventurous and musically varied across myriad modes of jazz, with the masterful interplay between these four musicians spinning together with and around the many idiosyncratic sonic warps and distortions allowed by the endlessly inventive turntable work and electronic manipulations that coat the album. Many seemingly disparate areas of composition and performance come together within these pieces in a way that is truly fresh and exciting, even within the context of the ever-eclectic free jazz universe. Highly recommend.