No record label documents experimental music and jazz better than NYC-based Relative Pitch Records. Every month, the label puts out multiple (usually four) new albums, each with digital streaming and physical releases, with great production and cover art. Founded in 2011, Relative Pitch has quickly amassed a back catalogue approaching 380 titles. Here are three notable recent Relative Pitch releases that I want to talk about, two from this year and one from last year. These albums are just a sampling of the wide variety of sounds you’ll hear throughout the Relative Pitch catalogue.
Tres Hongos – More Chips
(Recorded live in Amsterdam by Aaron Lumley at ZAAL 100 in April 2024, released July 24, 2026)
Jacob Wick – trumpet, Marc Riordan – piano, Frank Rosaly – drums
Tres Hongos have roots in Chicago, home to the group at the time they recorded their 2012 debut, Where My Dreams Go to Die. That album is defined by the dialogue between Wick’s exuberantly virtuosic trumpet and Riordan’s restless intervalic pianism, while Rosaly supports with subtle accents. However, this band was effectively on hiatus as Wick relocated to Mexico City in 2014, followed by Rosaly moving to Europe, and Riordan moving to Los Angeles after the pandemic. Maybe that geographic spread would kill most groups, but when the three reunited in Amsterdam in 2023, the chemistry was clearly still there, and the music on More Chips followed, a performance at Zaal 100 in Amsterdam from April 2024.
What I admire most about More Chips is how the music flows like a conversation, where the interactions of the participants reveal distinct personalities but also create a shared space for dialogue and play. Like a story, the music favors narrative and episodic development over circular constructions. Wick’s trumpet playing is crucial, as he provides the most clear melodic themes (and perhaps the only pre-composed material) on tunes such as the album opening “Plate Mobile” and on the title track. I was struck by Wick’s clear, bright tone and vibrant articulation – he’s a hell of a trumpet player! But More Chips is very much the meeting of three equals, and the interaction between Wick and Riordan’s piano is the real focus of the album. Riordan is a fascinating pianist, who can play with Cecil Taylor-like chops used to great effect on the bands’ 2012 debut. Those powerful block chords also crop up on the new album, such as during the delightfully named “Skipped Rocks Don’t Not Dance.” But more often, Riordan favors a kind of anti-virtuosity, where he picks out naive-sounding fractured melodies, played with a strong use of repetition that reminds you he started his career as a drummer. Often Wick and Riordan will hover around a simple motif, collectively building a series of cascading ideas. You can sense their glee, and if there’s a video of the 2024 performance, I’m sure we’d see the satisfied grins of musical merry-makers. All the time Rosaly plays along, subtly complicating the music with discursive jabs and feints that add another sly wink. Best track (and track title): “Best Damned Tupperware.”
Marta Warelis – Still Life with Lemons
(Recorded at Bimhuis, Amsterdam on October 11th 2024, released May 22, 2026)
Marta Warelis – piano, synthesizer, Ben LaMar Gay – trumpet, electronics, Ab Baars – clarinet, tenor saxophone, Karen Ng – clarinet, alto saxophone, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – double bass, Frank Rosaly – drums, gongs
Like More Chips, the new album from pianist Marta Warelis captures a live 2024 performance in Amsterdam with scene maker Frank Rosaly on drums. But the music on Still Life with Lemons is quite different from the new Tres Hongos, and also from much of Warelis’ discography as well. Warelis has long been one of the pianists to watch. Her solo piano debut record, a grain of Earth (Relative Pitch , 2022), announced a powerful improvisor who could create new worlds with prepared piano. Both as co-leader and sidewoman, her output has been wonderful and varied – compare the energetic lyricism of her piano on a duet with bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Sun Lit Starlings on Weird Cry Records, 2023), with the fierce percussion of her playing with reed player Ada Rave (Peel/Mondo on Relative Pitch, 2025). I’ll especially single out her work with the group Omawi (Warelis with drummer Onno Govaert and bassist Wilbert de Joode). On the album waive (Relative Pitch, 2023), they make music that’s compelling even while the playing is both spare and quiet – few groups make silences sing like this!
What those records have in common is that they prioritize improvisation and experimentation. With Still Life with Lemons, Warelis shows a new side to her music making, one that moves the needle toward melody-forward composition. Her writing makes the sextet—a powerful group of Håker Flaten and the ever-versatile Rosaly, with the horns of Ab Baars and Karen Ng augmented by Ben LaMar Gay’s trumpet—sound even larger. The ensemble writing and arranging is one of the great pleasures here, and it’s a sound I hope Warelis will continue to explore.
The standout for me is the opening track, “Birds,” the first third of which is magical solo piano. Warelis plays a series of dramatically paced glissandos, each ringing into the air before she develops a loping vamp. This piano intro allows you to appreciate Warelis’ unique touch, defined by a fast attack and a sound that is at once melodic and percussive. Warelis has a remarkable ability to make that sound feel alive, tantalizingly suggesting additional rhythmic and melodic ideas, each feeling like an alternative pathway for the music to travel. That remarkable pianism dominates “Birds,” but then the band joins in, filling out the vamp with a drive that is no less wonderful. Over gentle waves of energy, Warelis continues to play with that unique bright sound; it’s a rousing performance and a memorable album opener.
Much of Still Life with Lemons is quieter and leans into interesting use of sounds and textures. The second track, “There to the Bridge,” is a traditional Albanian theme with gorgeous trumpet playing from Ben LaMar Gay that frames an open section full of sonic experiments. The music is subtly innovative, such as on “Intermittent Web of Sorts,” a study of how organic sounds like Håker Flaten’s gut string bass can be combined with electronics from Warelis and Gay to create new textural effects. In contrast, “The Sky Blushes Sunset” is a lovely duo interlude just for the clarinets of Ab Baars and Karen Ng, with no rhythm or piano. The band returns for “Ashes to Sea,” which starts with Warelis’ trademark inside-the-piano gestures, and builds to a fanfare that concludes the album.
Still Life with Lemons is an impressive new sound for Warelis and showcases beautiful writing and sympathetic playing. I’m looking forward to what Warelis does next. By the way, the music was recorded live at the legendary BIMHUIS, and there’s a video of the performance, which you can see here.
Adia Vanheerentals – Taking Place
(released November 21, 2025)
Adia Vanheerentals – soprano saxophone
As a Steve Lacy devotee, I have a soft spot for solo saxophone albums, especially soprano sax, so I immediately got excited to hear this recital by Adia Vanheerentals. In a sense (“secretly,” the liner notes say), it’s not a solo album at all, but rather an album of duets. Vanheerentals recorded herself playing in different sites, each creating sonic environments that offer commentary or inspiration for her improvisations, effectively treating these spaces as a duet partner. Those backgrounds range from playing beside a babbling brook (“Running”), against birds at dawn (“Reflect”), or playing with the noises of children’s games (“Koekje,” the word for a Dutch cookie). The concept and sounds are at once evocative and meditative. I have an image of a sort of modern-day Sonny Rollins, but instead of playing solitary sax on the bridge, Vanheerentals is in a traffic circle as cars rush by (on “Roundabout”). My favorite track would have to be “Henhouse” – in this case, truly a duet. As Vanheerentals plays rising sustained tones, the titular chickens cluck back, instigating a tête-à-tête of rhythmic and melodic invention between the soprano and the coop. Literally, Ornithology!
However, the concept is no gimmick. These settings split the difference between environmental music and experimental improvisation, sounds that have the weight of a specific place and time. These backdrops only focus attention on the impressive qualities of Vanheerentals’ playing. Like the great practitioners of the straight horn, her lines are beautifully executed, and her ideas deployed with clarity and patience. She also presents a variety of approaches to her playing, subtly modulated from one setting to the next. I also recommend Vanheerentals’ short solo recital from 2025, Here Are 5 Reasons To Meditate. I’ve had Taking Place playing on repeat, and whether for close listening or creating an environment of your own, it’s a deep and rewarding album.