Compiled by The Wire contributor Jason Weiss, New Improvised Music From Buenos Aires includes unreleased or hard to find tracks by Ramiro Molina Duo, Agustí Fernández, Pablo Ledesma, Mono Hurtado and Norris Trio, among other artists discussed in Jason’s 2017 Wire feature about the free music scene in Argentina.

“As in European and American cities, the music survives on a DIY homemade spirit to subvert conventions and construct a kind of presence. But the struggle is waged against greater odds," says Jason, explaining that recent years have seen a government crackdown on the city’s smaller cultural spaces through the enforcement of the kinds of regulations previously imposed on larger venues. “Many places couldn’t afford to stay open, while others became more clandestine.”

ESP-Disk’, the label releasing the album, has its own history with the country, having issued Gato Barbieri's first international LP, In Search Of The Mystery, and Steve Lacy’s The Forest And The Zoo (both 1967), which was recorded at the Instituto Di Tella, Centro de Experimentation Audio-Visual in Buenos Aires.

New Improvised Music From Buenos Aires is released on 25 October and comes with a 16 page booklet including biographical notes and a Jason Weiss essay adapted from his feature in The Wire 399 (May 2017).