The founding member of AMM explores the radical potential of jazz and free improvisation in a new polemical memoir, Uncommon Music For The Common Man

Avatars of the underground, figureheads of the free festival scene and heralds of punk, Hawkwind were a one-band revolution in the 1970s. This is an edited extract from Hawkwind: Days Of The Underground – Radical Escapism In The Age Of Paranoia by Joe Banks, published by Strange Attractor Press

Earlier this year Strange Attractor published a retrospective scrapbook documenting the life and works of The Wire contributor and resident artist Edwin Pouncey aka Savage Pencil. Read part of an interview featured within its pages

Multidisciplinary artist Charles Martin Simon is the subject of a new book by research fellow Zully Adler. As Charlie Nothing, Simon was responsible for one of the rare non-guitar records released by John Fahey’s Takoma label; he was also the inventor of the steel-stringed American automobile scrap metal instrument, the dingulator.

In this extract Harald covers the work of Swiss pianist and Feminist Improvising Group member Irène Schweizer, from her connections with South African exiles during the 1960s, to her involvement in women’s liberation and gay and lesbian movements

In this extract, Cafe Oto founder Hamish Dunbar recalls an early email exchange with the saxophonist

The longtime Wire contributor has penned a major study of UK progressive rock in the 1970s. Based on his own extensive research and interviews with musicians, journalists and insiders, it amounts to 608 pages long. In this extract, Barnes offers an account of an early King Crimson set that took place one sunny afternoon in 1969 at London's Hyde Park

The Paris based improvising musician shares an interview with the Japanese sound artist originally undertaken for the Oscillation festival

“This uneasy interface between Alan Lomax and the record team is also where some errors crept into Voyager’s liner notes, many of which would last for decades”

Extracts from Mark Sinker’s introduction to A Hidden Landscape Once A Week: The Unruly Curiosity Of The UK Music Press In The 1960s-80s, In The Words Of Those Who Were There

An extract from award winning author's book about the relationship between pop music and science fiction, Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, And The Decade Sci-Fi Exploded

An extract from the two-book biography penned by The Wire's Rob Young and Can's Irmin Schmidt, and published by Faber

An excerpt from chapter six of Shirley Collins's memoir, published by Strange Attractor Press

In his 400 page book of interviews, Rettman traces a history of Washington DC's scene and its spread throughout the US

“Check out the mad skills/Top secret technique, too hard for you to peep it and keep it”
— Ghostface Killah featuring Cappadonna & Raekwon

First published in 1977, Val Wilmer’s As Serious As Your Life: Black Music And The Free Jazz Revolution, 1957–1977 will be reprinted by Serpent's Tail on 1 March

Read an extract from Matthew Collin's new book Rave On: Global Adventures In Electronic Dance Music, as reviewed by Sophia Ignatidou in the February issue of The Wire

Read an extract of Paul Steinbeck's history of Chicago's avant garde jazz ensemble

Wire writer Robert Barry's new book shows how new sonic forms emerged from 200 years of utopian possibilities and technological constraints

Read an excerpt from David Keenan's Furfur: Sideways Into England's Hidden Reverse, an additional, limited edition publication accompanying the new hardback edition of England's Hidden Reverse.