Avant Music News Best of 2017: Part I – Honorable Mentions

Here we go again – our annual list of our favorite recordings for 2017. Or “lists” I should say. This year we received a record number of recordings to review. Given the volume of great music that came out this year, we’ve broken the “best of 2017” listing into two parts.

Today is for the honorable mentions. This is a very long list, but the releases herein are all very good and highly recommended. We reviewed a few of these and linked the reviews where they are available.

Tomorrow will cover our picks for albums of the year.

Like this list? Feel free to peruse previous years’ lists.

Honorable Mentions

9T Antiope – Isthmus
A Year in the Country – Undercurrents 
Barry Altschul / 3Dom Factor- Live in Krakow
Anantakara featuring Mukti – The Never Dying Fire
APUH! – Freedom of Peach
Art Zoyd – 44 1/2 at a Glance: Selections from the Art Zoyd Box Set
Daniel Barbiero / Ken Moore – Lunge
Bell – Secrets from a Distant Star
Aaron Bennett – Live at Luggage
Steve Beresford / Rachel Musson – Hesitantly Pleasant
Lea Bertucci – Metal Aether
Big Bold Back Bone – In Search of the Emerging Species
Peter Bjärgö – Animus Retinentia
The Borderlands Trio – Asteroidea
Sam Boshnack Quintet – Nellie Bly Project
Bowditch – Southend Objectified
Jaimie Branch – Fly or Die
La Breiche – Le Mal des Ardents
Abraham Brody – From the Rich Dark Earth
Kyle Bruckmann / Sam Pluta / Katherine Young – Live . Elastic . 10.20.16
Ellis Cage – Vinculum
Evan Caminiti – Toxic City Music
CARES – Coping Strategies
François Carrier / Michel Lambert / Alexey Lapin – Freedom is Space for the Spirit
François Carrier / Michel Lambert / Rafal Mazur – Oneness
Carter / Holmes / Putman / Greene / Ughi – Telepathic Alliances
George Christian – Exílios 1
Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones – Astrild Astrild
La Corporación – Rerum Novarum
Daniel Corral – Refractions
Corsano / Courvoisier / Wooley – Salt Task
Council of Nine – Trinity 
Sylvie Courvoisier / Mary Halvorson – Crop Circles
Crystal Mooncone – Listening Beam Five
Grant Cutler – Self Portrait
Dálava – The Book of Transfigurations
Dathon – Vacua
Dead Neanderthals – Craters
Dave Douglas – Little Giant Still Life
Dave Douglas – The New National Anthem
Dreadnaught – Hard Chargin’
Amir ElSaffar – Not Two
Ensemble et al. – The Slow Reveal
Karl Evangelista / Grex – A Love Supreme
Farvel – Osttomta
Favourite Animals – Favourite Animals
Ross Feller – X/Winds
Alvin Fielder / Frode Gjerstad / Damon Smith – A Shape Finds It’s Own Place
Paul Flaherty / Gene Moore / Gene Janas / Federico Ughi – Morfina
Foudre! – Earth
Nick Fraser – Is Life Long?
Satoko Fujii – Aspiration
Satoko Fujii Orchestra NY – Fukushima
Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo – Peace
Satoko Fujii Quartet – Live at Jazz Room Cortez 
Satoko Fujii / Wadada Leo Smith / Natsuki Tamura – Aspiration
Galaxuu – Lathe
Miguel A. García & Miguel Souto – The Lurking Fear
Gato Libre – Neko
Gaudi – Magnetic
Gerschlauer / Fiuczynski / DeJohnette / Garrison – Mikojazz
Bill Gilliam – Entangled Pathways
Jordan Glenn – BEAK LIVE
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Luciferian Towers
Goldberg, Brown, and Anderson – The Reckoning
G. Grdina / F.Houle / K.Loewen / B.Delbecq – Ghost Lights
The Great Harry Hillman – Tilt
Grey Frequency – Exhibition
Gridfailure – When the Lights Go Out Vol. 1
GVSU New Music Ensemble – Return
Rich Halley / Carson Halley – The Wild
Ross Hammond – Follow Your Heart
Hanging Hearts – Into a Myth
Haunted Me – Humming Ghost
Hear in Now (Mazz Swift, Tomeka Reid, S.Bolognesi) – Not Living in Fear
The Heliosonic Tone-Tette – Heliosonic Toneways, Vol. 1
Jeff Herriott / Third Coast Percussion – Due East
Humcrush (Thomas Strønen / Ståle Storløkken) – Enter Humcrush
James Ilgenfritz – Origami Cosmos
Vijay Iyer Sextet – Far from Over
Jü – Summa
Kenoma – The Tides Will Prevail
Khost – Governance
Kid Millions & Sarah Bernstein – Tense Life
Dominic Lash Quartet – Extremophile
The League of Assholes – IM PEACH
Jose Lencastre NAU Quartet – Fragments of Always
Longleash – Passage
Shawn Lovato – Cycles of Animation
Dina Maccabee – Tethered Music
Rudresh Mahanthappa – Agrima
Malicious Wonderland – Wasteland
Marateck – Time is Over
Miya Masaoka / Zeena Parkins / Myra Melford – MZM
Rob Mazurek – Chants and Corners
Simon McCorry – Blue 
Joe McPhee / Damon Smith / Alvin Fielder – Six Situations
Radboud Mens & Matthijs Kouw – 1
Lisa Mezzacappa – AvantNOIR
Simon Millerd – Lessons and Fairytales
Alex Mincek – Torrent
Kate Mohanty – The Double Image
Morgen Wurde – Assassinous Act
Moser / Dresser / Anderson / Modirzadeh – For My Mother
Mostly Other People Do The Killing – Loafer’s Hollow
Mostly Other People Do The Killing – Paint
Kyle Motl – Transmogrification
Kyle Motl / Drew Ceccato – Katabasis
Kyle Motl / Kjell Nordeson / Tobin Chodos – Panjandrums
Mumpbeak – Tooth
David Lee Myers – Ether Music
Quinsin Nachoff – Ethereal Trio
Luca Nasciuti – Kishar
The Necks – Unfold
Keir Neuringer / Matthew Wright – Speak Cities
Sam Newsome – Sopranoville: New Works for Prepared and Non-Prepared Saxophone
Sam Newsome / Jean-Michel Pilc – Magic Circle
No One – 11
nordBeck – Blenterop 1491
Northumbria – Markland
NYTT LAND – Fimbulvinter
Eivind Opsvik – Overseas V
Orphax & Machinefabriek – Weerkaatsing
Orthodox – Supreme
Ed Palermo Big Band – The Adventures of Zodd Zundgren
Ed Palermo Big Band – The Great Un-American Songbook, Volumes I & II
Mario Pavone – Vertical
Craig Pedersen Solo Trumpet (2016)
Peregrine Falls – Peregrine Falls
Ivo Perelman / Matthew Shipp / William Parker – The Art of Perelman-Shipp Volume 1: Titan
Dan Phillips Quartet – Converging Tributaries
Phurpa – Gyer Ro
Keith Price – Double Quartet
William Price – Rush Hour
Psyclopean – The King in Yellow
Abbey Rader / John McMinn – Phenobarbitol Sessions
Omar Rahbany – Passport
Ben Rath – Black Heart Music
Scot Ray and Vicki Ray – Yar
Eric Revis – Sing Me Some Cry
Steve Roach – Fade to Gray
Mariel Roberts – Cartography
Kristo Rodzevski – Bitter Almonds
Adam Rudolph – Morphic Resonances
Adam Rudolph / Moving Pictures – Glare of the Tiger
Charles Rumback / Jim Baker / John Tate – Threes
Greg Saunier / Ron Miles / Mary Halvorson – New American Songbooks
Schnellertollermeier – Rights
John Scott (Stereocilia) – A Late Spring Never Lies
Brandon Seabrook / Needle Driver – Needle Driver
She Spread Sorrow – Mine
Shelter (Vandermark, Wooley, Heather, Stadhouders) – Shelter
Matthew Shipp Quartet – Sonic Fiction
Paula Shocron / William Parker / Pablo Diaz – Emptying the Self
Sick Boss – Sick Boss
SiP – Live at the Whistler
Skullflower – The Spirals of Great Harm
Sloth Racket – Shapeshifters
Some Some Unicorn – Live at Iklectik
Vinnie Sperrazza – Hide Ye Idols
Dino Spiluttini – To Be a Beast
STAUB Quartet – House Full of Colors
Subversive Intentions – Every Sound is a Drone
Sult + Lasse Marhaug – Harpoon
Svartsinn – Collected Obscurities
Tag Cloud – Pattern Recognition
TeHÔM – Live Assault
TOC (Ternoy / Cruz / Orins) – Will Never Play These Songs Again
Trouble Kaze – June
Peeter Uuskyla / Tellef Øgrim / Anders Berg – LAIV
Vacuum Aeterna – Control Metamorphose
Various Artists – Dur Untash
Sophia Vastek – Histories
Biggi Vinkeloe / Amy K. Bormet / Tina Raymond – The Harold Trio
Cuong Vu 4tet – Ballet – The Music of Michael Gibbs
Ken Walicki – Cyberistan
Andrew Weathers Ensemble – Build a Mountain Where Our Bodies Fall
Andrew Weathers / Seth Chrisman – Ogallala
Anna Webber / Elias Stemeseder / Devin Gray – Jagged Spheres II
Doug Wieselman / Trio S – Somewhere Glimmer
WK569 – Omaggio a Marino Zuccheri
Nate Wooley – Polychoral
Wounds – Clinomania
Yarn/Wire – Currents Vol. 0
Yarn/Wire – Currents Vol. 4
Kevin Gan Yuen – Uncloaked Infinite