Tape label Notice Recordings was started in Chicago, but over 15 years of releases has widened its scope to present improvised music and experimental sound activities happening anywhere in the world. Like other adventurous contemporary free music labels such as Erstwhile, crustacés tapes and tsss tapes, Notice often explores the duo format, moving away from rhythm sections and big ensembles to focus on the freedom of textural and tonal experiments. Currently run by Evan Lindorff-Ellery and Travis Bird out of upstate New York and Columbia, Missouri, it is fast approaching its 90th cassette with an eclectic clutch of new releases by Derek Baron and Luke Martin, Tamarisk (the trio of Christina Carter, David Menestres and Andrew Weathers), and a noise guitar memorial to Jonas Frickas by Erica Dawn Lyle.

Tamarisk
“For Quiet, A Spell Travelling”
From Comes From Far Away From Here (2024)

A brand new release from a new trio of Christina Carter, David Menestres and Andrew Weathers is one of Notice’s most exciting releases to date. It combines elements of improvisation, noise jam, psychedelic ritual, wild vocalisation and extended instrumental technique to create music which never sits still, and is perhaps one of the most unpredictable free music sessions you are likely to encounter.

Camilo Ángeles & Joanna Mattrey
“Venting”
From Hailstone Temple (2023)

Notice plug into creative networks of musicians not just across the US, but across the world also. While experimental violist Joanna Mattrey has released several tapes on the label, Camilo Ángeles was originally based in Peru, is a key part of the prolific but low-key Argentinian netlabel TVL rec, and is now based in Mexico City, where this duo recording was made. The cover bears an image of the capacious Santa Teresa la Antigua where Hailstone Temple was recorded, and the sound of the room and the air is one of its most magical qualities, with Ángeles’s flute, bass flute, breath and vocalisations giving a human quality to this mesmerizing and completely improvised set.

Zhu Wenbo & Zhu Songjie
“Long Train Song”
From Magnet Blues (2023)

A “unique and utterly bizarre take on American blues,” the label says, which if anything might be slightly underselling it. This duo set by Wenbo, of Beijing’s exciting Zoomin’ Night label, and associate Zhu Songjie, uses static, electronic tones and a Casio EG-5 electric guitar with a built-in cassette deck to create a dry, empty desert, over which they sing the occasional, faltering blues lament. It’s a kind of alternative take on back-porch ambience that playfully reclaims blues songs as a place of struggle and invention.

Kyle Motl & Patrick Shiroishi
“After The Waves”
From Apparitions (2022)

“There is a potent exchange which is possible between two individuals when they are trying to communicate with one another,” says Evan Lindorff-Ellery. “If you bring in a third or fourth individual, the potential for too many overlapping intentions occurs, and the potency runs the risk of being diluted and lost.” This excellent duo between bassist Motl and multi-reedist Shiroishi is a rare saxophone duet on Notice, and Shiroishi conjours a gorgeous register of sobbing, crying and bird-singing tones on Apparitions. The cover artwork, an illustration of an idyllic mountain criss-crossed with streams, is one of the sweetest on the label. “When we started the label, the thing I was most excited about was Evan having this platform for his art and design ideas,” says Bird. Black and white sketches are often taken from Lindorff-Ellery’s journal.

Nick Hoffman
“Salamander (Aggregate 2)”
From Salamander (2018)

Hoffman is a composer and computer musician based in Indiana who has at times kept a low profile – Salamander was his first solo album in four years. In between times, he runs the Pilgrim Talk label, and is a skilled player of the medieval lute. Salamander is a rare electronic release on Notice, but has a delicacy and economy shared with the best that improvised music has to offer.

Damon Smith/Louis Wall/NNN Cook
“Meteoric Iron”
From Fire Point (2022)

Fire Point, a set of recordings made in St Louis, features an impressive line-up of instrumentalists, from rock solid bassist Damon Smith and flautist and former Elvin Jones collaborator Fred Tompkins on two tracks. But the star of “Meteoric Iron” is the hyperactive percussion of Louis Wall and NNN Cook, a continuous strata of agitated surfaces which recalls the drums of Will Guthrie and Mark Wastell, or just ripples across the surface of a pond.

Sandy Ewen & Jason Nazary
“Made Way For Ice”
From A Beaded Gesture (2023)

The prepared guitar of Sandy Ewen pares with prolific drummer Jason Nazary for a low-key improvisation of detailed percussive interplay, with the emphasis on detailed exploration of texture. Like many of the label’s releases, it’s live music recorded in an unusual and specific location, here, Brooklyn’s Chamber of Commerce. “I enjoy the immediacy, the unintentional, the flux of a performance that changes when a new idea develops that wasn’t planned and is a product of the energy from a live setting,” says Lindorff-Ellery.

Stella Silbert & Nat Baldwin
“5”
From 01​.​30​.​22 (2023)

Experimental music has many adventurous turntablists in the current moment, to which Stella Silbert is an unique addition. Their unusual use of clicks, pops and turntable preparations adds a meta postmodern dimension to this lively duo with double bassist Nat Baldwin.

Read Derek Walmsley's profile on Notice Recordings in full in The Wire 485, available in print from our webshop now. Wire subscribers can also read the article online via the digital magazine library.