# Relative Pitch Records

Relative Pitch Records is an American independent record label specializing in free jazz and avant-garde jazz, free improvisation, and experimental music. Run by Kevin Reilly, Relative Pitch has been ranked among the top jazz record labels in The New York City Jazz Record and DownBeat year-end lists, and praised by publications and organizations including The Guardian, NPR Music, The Brooklyn Rail, and in Bandcamp Daily's label profile, "Relative Pitch is Built on Enthusiasm for Experimental Music".

## History

Co-founders Kevin Reilly and Mike Panico first met waiting in line at a show and later spent time together as volunteers at The Stone, an experimental music space then located in the East Village. They eventually decided to start a record label, and co-founded Relative Pitch in 2011.
Both Reilly and Panico attended a large number of avant-jazz performances, as noted by many of the label's artists. In a 2013 feature, Mary Halvorson asserted that “What Kevin and Mike share is an unrelenting dedication to and passion for music, which is evident from the sheer number of concerts they attend"; Nate Wooley [de] said, "what makes [Relative Pitch] so special in my mind, is that the people that run the label are faces in the crowd of 90% of the shows you play in New York", and described the two as "missionary in their desire to get the music they think is transcendent out to people that don't have the chance or impetus to go to six or seven shows a week in Brooklyn". They traveled to see shows as well, and the label's roster includes both local and international artists; Reilly has said, "I like the idea that you could look at our catalogue and not know where the label is based".
In 2018, Panico's body was found in Flushing Bay; his death was ruled a suicide. A memorial concert was held at Brooklyn performing arts space Roulette, with performances by a number of artists on the Relative Pitch label. Reilly took over operations following Panico's death.

## Reception

The Guardian has described Relative Pitch as "a label whose roster is the perfect place to start if you're looking to take the pulse of the best jazz and improv players currently on the scene". NPR Music has called Relative Pitch "a small label that has made a big impact in avant-garde and free-improv circles", saying its roster "includes some of the most acclaimed artists in the style [of avant-garde jazz], like guitarists Mary Halvorson and Susan Alcorn; bassists Joëlle Léandre and Michael Bisio; and saxophonists Evan Parker, Vinny Golia and Matana Roberts". The publication also noted Matthew Shipp, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey, and Kirk Knuffke as among the "dozens of prominent artists who have released albums on the label".
Wooley invited cofounder Reilly to contribute to "The Listeners Issue" of the journal Sound American, describing him as "represent[ing] a model of listening: the critical audience member" who "approaches every concert and, as you will see, every recording with the rigor of an academic and the intensity of a man possessed".

## Notable releases

The annual NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll has included Mary Halvorson's Reverse Blue (2014), James Brandon Lewis's An UnRuly Manifesto (2019), and the Susan Alcorn Quintet's Pedernal (2020). Lewis's An UnRuly Manifesto was also included in year-end lists in JazzTimes, The New York City Jazz Record, and DownBeat; the New York Times counted Alcorn's Pedernal in their Best Jazz Albums of 2020.
Along with Lewis, many Relative Pitch releases have received a top rating in DownBeat: Continuum (2012) by Book of Three, the trio of Taylor Ho Bynum, John Hébert, and Gerald Cleaver; Greg Cohen's Golden State (2014); Evan Parker and Sylvie Courvoisier's Either Or And (2015); Courvoisier and Halvorson's Crop Circles (2017); and John Butcher's Last Dream Of The Morning (2018).
Other critically-acclaimed albums include Matthew Shipp and Michael Bisio's Floating Ice (2012); Jemeel Moondoc's The Zookeeper's House (2014); Tomas Fujiwara's Variable Bets (2014); the Matthew Shipp Trio's Root of Things (2014); Matana Roberts' Always (2015); Halvorson's Reverse Blue (2015); Alcorn's Soledad (2015); Pulverize The Sound, the self-titled debut of trio Peter Evans, Tim Dahl, and Mike Pride (2015); Mette Ramussen and Chris Corsano's All The Ghosts At Once (2015); Bisio and Kirk Knuffke's Row for William O. (2016); The Out Louds, the eponymous debut of trio Halvorson, Fujiwara, and Ben Goldberg (2016); Steph Richards' Fullmoon (2018); Geometry of Caves (2018) and Geometry of Distance (2019), both by the improvisational quartet of Tomeka Reid, Kyoko Kitamura, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Joe Morris; and Gregg Belisle-Chi's ‘Koi’: Performing the Music of Tim Berne (2021). Relative Pitch also released Nate Wooley's quartet project with Laubrock, Matt Moran, and Courvoisier in the albums Battle Pieces (2015), Battle Pieces 2 (2017), and Battle Pieces 4 (2019).

## Discography
### Relative Pitch Records (RPR)

| Cat. Number | Artist | Title | Year |
| RPR1001 | Joey Baron (with Bill Frisell) | Just Listen | 2013 |
| RPR1002 | Joëlle Léandre & Phillip Greenlief | That Overt Desire Of Object | 2011 |
| RPR1003 | Vinny Golia Quartet (with Cline, Bradford, Filiano) | Take Your Time | 2011 |
| RPR1004 | Aych (Jim Hobbs, Mary Halvorson, Taylor Ho Bynum) | As The Crow Flies | 2012 |
| RPR1005 | Michael Bisio & Matthew Shipp | Floating Ice | 2012 |
| RPR1006 | Way Out Northwest (Dylan Van Der Schyff, John Butcher, Torsten Müller) | The White Spot | 2012 |
| RPR1007 | Urs Leimgruber & Roger Turner | The Pancake Tour | 2012 |
| RPR1008 | Joe Morris, Agustí Fernández [de], Nate Wooley [de] | From The Discrete To The Particular | 2012 |
| RPR1009 | Jemeel Moondoc & Connie Crothers | Two | 2012 |
| RPR1010 | Joëlle Léandre & Jérôme Bourdellon | Evidence | 2013 |
| RPR1011 | Chris Abrahams & Magda Mayas | Gardener | 2013 |
| RPR1012 | Book Of Three (Taylor Ho Bynum, John Hébert, Gerald Cleaver) | Continuum | 2013 |
| RPR1013 | Estamos Trio (Carmina Escobar, Milo Tamez, Thollem McDonas) | People's Historia | 2013 |
| RPR1014 | Sifter (Mary Halvorson, Kirk Knuffke, Matt Wilson) | Sifter | 2013 |
| RPR1015 | FPR (Frank Gratkowski, Phillip Greenlief, Jon Raskin) | All At Once | 2013 |
| RPR1016 | Vinny Golia & Urs Leimgruber | Empiricism In The West | 2013 |
| RPR1017 | Jack Wright & Ben Wright | As If Anything Could Be The Same | 2014 |
| RPR1018 | Ingrid Laubrock & Tom Rainey | And Other Desert Towns | 2014 |
| RPR1019 | Paul Flaherty & Randall Colbourne | Ironic Havoc | 2014 |
| RPR1020 | Greg Cohen | Golden State | 2014 |
| RPR1021 | Bogan Ghost (Anthea Caddy, Liz Allbee) | Zerfall | 2014 |
| RPR1022 | Matthew Shipp Trio (with Michael Bisio, Whit Dickey) | Root of Things | 2014 |
| RPR1023 | Stephen Gauci / Kirk Knuffke / Ken Filiano | Chasing Tales | 2014 |
| RPR1024 | Evan Parker & Sylvie Courvoisier | Either Or And | 2014 |
| RPR1025 | Mary Halvorson (with Opsvik, Fujiwara, Speed) | Reverse Blue | 2014 |
| RPR1026 | Jemeel Moondoc (with Shipp, Campbell, Swell, Greene, Baker) | The Zookeeper's House | 2014 |
| RPR1027 | Michel Doneda | Everybody Digs Michel Doneda | 2014 |
| RPR1028 | Tomas Fujiwara Trio (with Brandon Seabrook, Ralph Alessi) | Variable Bets | 2014 |
| RPR1029 | Joe Morris | Solos Bimhuis | 2015 |
| RPR1030 | Birgit Ulher & Leonel Kaplan | Stereo Trumpet | 2015 |
| RPR1031 | Nate Wooley [de] | Battle Pieces | 2015 |
| RPR1032 | Susan Alcorn | Soledad | 2015 |
| RPR1033 | Dead Neanderthals (Otto Kokke, René Aquarius) | Worship The Sun | 2015 |
| RPR1034 | Leila Bordreuil & Michael Foster | The Caustic Ballads | 2016 |
| RPR1035 | Matthew Shipp Chamber Ensemble (with Michael Bisio, Mat Maneri) | The Gospel According to Matthew & Michael | 2015 |
| RPR1036 | Matana Roberts | Always | 2015 |
| RPR1037 | Mette Rasmussen & Chris Corsano | All The Ghosts At Once | 2015 |
| RPR1038 | Jessica Pavone | Silent Spills | 2016 |
| RPR1039 | Pulverize The Sound (Mike Pride, Peter Evans, Tim Dahl) | Pulverize The Sound | 2015 |
| RPR1040 | Michael Bisio | Accortet | 2015 |
| RPR1041 | Thollem / Wimberly / Cline | Radical Empathy | 2015 |
| RPR1042 | Fujiwara / Goldberg / Halvorson | The Out Louds | 2016 |
| RPR1043 | Michael Bisio & Kirk Knuffke | Row For William O. | 2016 |
| RPR1044 | Corsano / Courvoisier / Wooley | Salt Task | 2016 |
| RPR1045 | Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson | Crop Circles | 2016 |
| RPR1046 | Mazur / Neuringer | Diachronic Paths | 2016 |
| RPR1047 | Jemeel Moondoc & Hilliard Greene | Cosmic Nickelodeon | 2016 |
| RPR1048 | Ingrid Laubrock & Tom Rainey | Buoyancy | 2016 |
| RPR1049 | Catherine Sikora | Jersey | 2016 |
| RPR1050 | Joe Morris | Shock Axis | 2016 |
| RPR1051 | Perch, Hen, Brock, Rain (Ab Baars, Ig Henneman, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey) | Live @ The Jazz Happening Tampere | 2016 |
| RPR1052 | Forebrace (Alex Ward, Jem Doulton, Roberto Sassi, Santiago Horro) | Steeped | 2016 |
| RPR1053 | Tristan Honsinger / Nicolas Caloia / Joshua Zubot | In The Sea | 2017 |
| RPR1054 | Thollem & Mazurek | Blind Curves And Box Canyons | 2017 |
| RPR1055 | JR3 (Jan Roder, Olaf Rupp, Rudi Mahall) | Happy Jazz | 2017 |
| RPR1056 | John Butcher, John Edwards, Mark Sanders | Last Dream Of The Morning | 2017 |
| RPR1057 | Christian Lillinger & Tobias Delius | Dicht | 2017 |
| RPR1058 | Nate Wooley | Battle Pieces 2 | 2017 |
| RPR1059 | Fred Van Hove & Roger Turner | The Corner | 2017 |
| RPR1060 | Isabelle Duthoit & Franz Hautzinger | Lily | 2017 |
| RPR1061 | Magda Mayas & Jim Denley | Tempe Jetz | 2017 |
| RPR1062 | Ben Hall's Racehorse Names (with Levin-Decanini, Morris, Dierker, Dobday, Khoury, Zawadi) | The New Favorite Thing Called Breathing | 2018 |
| RPR1063 | Brandon Lopez, Matthew Nelson, Andria Nicodemou, Gerald Cleaver | The Industry Of Entropy | 2018 |
| RPR1064 | Kirk Knuffke & Ben Goldberg | Uncompahgre | 2018 |
| RPR1065 | Mark Nauseef (with Laswell, Quintus, Jarvinen, Tadić, Oxley, Thomas, Courvoisier) | All In All In All | 2018 |
| RPR1066 | Stephanie Richards | Fullmoon | 2018 |
| RPR1067 | Rudi Mahall & Alexander von Schlippenbach | So Far | 2018 |
| RPR1068 | Tomeka Reid, Kyoko Kitamura, Taylor Ho Bynum, Joe Morris | Geometry of Caves | 2018 |
| RPR1069 | Flamingo (Adam Pultz Melbye, Chris Heenan, Christian Windfeld, Roy Carroll) | LOUD | 2018 |
| RPR1070 | Tatakai Trio (Anders Lindsjö, Martin Küchen, Raymond Strid) | Happī | 2018 |
| RPR1071 | Irene Aranda, Johannes Nästesjö, Núria Andorrà | Inner Core | 2018 |
| RPR1072 | Samara Lubelski & Bill Nace | Samara Lubelski / Bill Nace | 2018 |
| RPR1073 | Benjamín Vergara, Keefe Jackson, Jim Baker, Phil Sudderberg | The Hallowed Plant | 2018 |
| RPR1074 | Paul Rogers, Olaf Rupp, Frank Paul Schubert | Three Stories About Rain, Sunlight And The Hidden Soil | 2018 |
| RPR1075 | Fish-Scale Sunrise (Ab Baars, Joe Williamson, Kaja Draksler) | No Queen Rises | 2018 |
| RPR1076 | Ingrid Laubrock & Tom Rainey | Utter | 2018 |
| RPR1077 | Michael Foster, Michael Zerang, Katherine Young | Bind The Hand(s) That Feed | 2018 |
| RPR1078 | James Brandon Lewis (with Stewart, Crudup III, Pirog, Branch) | An UnRuly Manifesto | 2019 |
| RPR1079 | Bruce Ackley, Fred Frith, Henry Kaiser, Aram Shelton | Unexpected Twins | 2019 |
| RPR1080 | Guillermo Gregorio & Brandon Lopez | 12 Episodes | 2019 |
| RPR1081 | Tomeka Reid / Filippo Monico | The Mouser | 2019 |
| RPR1082 | Jessica Pavone | In The Action | 2019 |
| RPR1083 | Eugene Chadbourne & Henry Kaiser | Wind Crystals: Guitar Duets By Wadada Leo Smith | 2019 |
| RPR1084 | Michel Doneda & Lê Quan Ninh | Thirty Ways To Avoid Talking | 2019 |
| RPR1085 | Paul Flaherty | Focused & Bewildered | 2019 |
| RPR1086 | Zeena Parkins & Wobbly | Triplicates | 2019 |
| RPR1087 | Steve Baczkowski, Brandon Lopez, Chris Corsano | Old Smoke | 2019 |
| RPR1088 | Christine Abdelnour & Chris Corsano | Quand Fond La Neige, Où Va Le Blanc? | 2019 |
| RPR1089 | Udo Schindler & Jaap Blonk | Hillside Talks | 2019 |
| RPR1090 | Hook, Line And Sinker (Borghini, Dörner, Delius, Honsinger) | Fishy Business | 2019 |
| RPR1090EP | Virginia Genta | Amplified Sopranino Sax | 2019 |
| RPR1091 | Tipple (David Watson, Frode Gjerstad, Kevin Norton) | Cartoon Heart | 2019 |
| RPR1092 | Masahiko Satoh, Otomo Yoshihide, Roger Turner | Sea | 2019 |
| RPR1093 | Ramon Lopez & Mark Feldman | Trappist-1 | 2019 |
| RPR1094 | Ig Henneman, Jaimie Branch, Anne La Berge | Dropping Stuff And Other Folk Songs | 2019 |
| RPR1095 | Joanna Mattrey | Veiled | 2020 |
| RPR1096 | Kyoko Kitamura, Joe Morris, Tomeka Reid, Taylor Ho Bynum | Geometry of Distance | 2019 |
| RPR1097 | Nate Wooley | Battle Pieces 4 | 2019 |
| RPR1098 | Susan Alcorn, Leila Bordreuil, Ingrid Laubrock | Bird Meets Wire | 2021 |
| RPR1099 | Neuringer, Dulberger, Masri | Dromedaries II | 2020 |
| RPR1100 | John Blum & Jackson Krall | Duplexity | 2020 |
| RPR1101 | Estamos Trio (Escobar, Tamez, McDonas) | Dire Warning | 2020 |
| RPR1102 | Samara Lubelski | Partial Infinite Sequence | 2020 |
| RPR1103 | Tim Berne & Nasheet Waits | The Coandă Effect | 2020 |
| RPR1104 | Peter Brötzmann & Fred Lonberg-Holm | Memories of a Tunicate | 2020 |
| RPR1105 | Alex Ward | Frames | 2020 |
| RPR1106 | Alex Ward Item 4 (with Lisle, Keeffe, Willberg) | Where We Were | 2020 |
| RPR1107 | Birgit Ulher & Franz Hautzinger | Kleine Trompetenmusik | 2020 |
| RPR1108 | Brad Henkel & Jacob Wick | Lovely Bag You Have | 2020 |
| RPR1109 | MoE (Guro Skumsnes Moe & Håvard Skaset) with Mette Rasmussen and Ikuro Takahashi | Painted | 2020 |
| RPR1110 | gabby fluke-mogul | threshold | 2020 |
| RPR1111 | Susan Alcorn Quintet (with Feldman, Halvorson, Formanek, Sawyer) | Pedernal | 2020 |
| RPR1112 | Leap Of Faith (Glynis Lomon, PEK) | Principles Of An Open Future | 2020 |
| RPR1113 | Signe Emmeluth | Hi Hello I'm Signe | 2021 |
| RPR1114 | Frode Gjerstad & Isach Skeidsvoll | Twenty Fingers | 2021 |
| RPR1115 | Two Much: Reut Regev & Igal Foni | Never Enough | 2021 |
| RPR1116 | Hermione Johnson | Tremble | 2020 |
| RPR1117 | Schubert / Schlippenbach / Blume | Forge | 2020 |
| RPR1118 | Zeena Parkins, Mette Rasmussen, Ryan Sawyer | Glass Triangle | 2021 |
| RPR1119 | Jooklo Trio (David Vanzan, Virginia Genta, Brandon Lopez) | It Is What It Is | 2020 |
| RPR1120 | Magda Mayas' Filamental (with Theriot, A. Davies, Caddy, Abdelnour, Thieke, R. Davies, Parkins) | Confluence | 2021 |
| RPR1121 | Michel Doneda, Frédéric Blondy, Tetsu Saitoh | Spring Road 16 | 2021 |
| RPR1122 | Barre Phillips, John Butcher, Ståle Liavik Solberg | We Met - And Then | 2021 |
| RPR1123 | López Trio (Brandon López with Cleaver, Baczkowski, and guest Cecilia López) | Live At Roulette | 2021 |
| RPR1124 | Liz Allbee | Rille | 2021 |
| RPR1125 | Ava Mendoza | New Spells | 2021 |
| RPR1126 | Robbie Avenaim, Chris Abrahams, Jim Denley | Weft | 2021 |
| RPR1127 | Cranes: Matthias Müller, Eve Risser, Christian Marien | Formation < Deviation | 2021 |
| RPR1128 | Jessica Pavone | When No One Around You is There but Nowhere to be Found | 2022 |
| RPR1129 | Violeta García & Chris Pitsiokos | Uanmortaim | 2021 |
| RPR1130 | Alex Zethson Ensemble (with Larsson, Lindal, Toorell, Bergman, Arapis, Runsteen, Ingves, Agnas, Svensson, Hellgren, Lindström, Zetterberg) | Some Of Them Were Never Unprepared | 2021 |
| RPR1131 | Ingrid Laubrock & Tom Rainey | Counterfeit Mars | 2022 |
| RPR1132 | Steph Richards with Joshua White | Zephyr | 2021 |
| RPR1133 | Cecilia Lopez | Red | 2021 |
| RPR1134 | Gregg Belisle-Chi Performing The Music Of Tim Berne | Koi | 2021 |
| RPR1135 | Cath Roberts & Olie Brice | Conduits | 2022 |
| RPR1136 | Lisa Ullén, Elsa Bergman, Anna Lund | Space | 2022 |
| RPR1137 | Masked Pickle (Clara Weil, Olivia Scemama, Tom Malmendier) | 7 | 2022 |
| RPR1138 | Child Of Illusion (Chris Pitsiokos, Susana Santos Silva, Torbjörn Zetterberg) | Khimaira | 2022 |
| RPR1139 | Matthew Bourne & Emil Karlsen | The Embalmer | 2022 |
| RPR1140 | Kaluza & Roder (Anna Kaluza, Jan Roder) | Am Frankfurter Tor | 2022 |
| RPR1141 | gabby fluke-mogul | Love Songs | 2022 |
| RPR1142 | Forbes Graham (with Brandon Lopez, Cecilia Lopez) | Another Day, Another Vector | 2022 |
| RPR1143 | Joanna Mattrey & gabby fluke-mogul | Oracle | 2022 |
| RPR1144 | Reid, Kitamura, Bynum, Morris | Geometry Of Trees | 2022 |
| RPR1148 | Tamio Shiraishi | 月 (Moon) | 2022 |
| RPR1149 | Rasmussen / Flaherty / Rowden / Corsano | Crying in Space | 2023 |
| RPR1151 | Tristan Kasten-Krause & Jessica Pavone | Images of One | 2023 |
| RPR1157 | Pulverize The Sound (Pride, Evans, Dahl) | Black | 2022 |
| RPR1158 | Kelsey Mines | Look Like | 2022 |
| RPR1159 | Fred Moten, Brandon López, Gerald Cleaver | Moten / López / Cleaver | 2022 |
| RPR1160 | Susan Alcorn, Patrick Holmes, Ryan Sawyer | From Union Pool | 2023 |
| RPR1161 | Dimitriadis, Dörner, Freedman, Parkins, Williams | BeingFive | 2022 |
| RPR1179 | Fie Schouten, Vincent Courtois, Guus Janssen | VOSTOK Remote Islands | 2023 |

### Relative Pitch Records: Solo Series (RPRSS)

| Cat. Number | Artist | Title | Year |
| RPRSS001 | Erin Rogers | Dawntreader | 2019 |
| RPRSS002 | Masayoshi Urabe | What Hasn't Come Here, COME! | 2019 |
| RPRSS003 | Tamio Shiraishi | Sora | 2020 |
| RPRSS004 | Chris Pitsiokos | Speak In Tongues | 2020 |
| RPRSS005 | Erin Rogers | 2000 Miles | 2021 |
| RPRSS006 | Michael Foster | The Industrious Tongue Of Michael Foster | 2022 |
| RPRSS007 | Violeta García | Fobia | 2022 |
| RPRSS008 | Amidea Clotet | Trasluz | 2022 |
| RPRSS009 | Robbie Lee | Prismatist | 2022 |
| RPRSS010 | Aaron Burnett | Correspondence | 2022 |
| RPRSS011 | Masayo Koketsu | Fukiya | 2022 |
| RPRSS012 | Chris Pitsiokos | Art of the Alto | 2022 |
| RPRSS013 | Sakina Abdou | Goodbye Ground | 2022 |
| RPRSS014 | Marta Warelis | A Grain Of Earth | 2022 |
| RPRSS015 | Don Malfon | Mutable | 2022 |
| RPRSS016 | Jon Lipscomb | Conscious Without Function | 2022 |
| RPRSS017 | Alexandra Grimal | Refuge | 2022 |

### Relative Pitch Records: Digital Only (RPRDL)

| Year | Artist | Title | Cat. Number |
| RPRDL001 | Matthew Wright with Samples Of Evan Parker, Toma Gouband, Mark Nauseef | Locked Hybrids | 2020 |
| RPRDL002 | Close Scrape (Matthew Wright, Adam Linson) | CUTOUT | 2021 |
| RPRDL003 | Biliana Voutchkova & Michael Zerang | The Emerald Figurines | 2022 |
| RPRDL004 | Biliana Voutchkova & Leila Bordreuil | The Seventh Water | 2022 |
| RPRDL005 | Kelsey Mines | To Actually Create Everywhere | 2022 |
| RPRDL006 | Biliana Voutchkova & Joanna Mattrey | Like Thoughts Coming | 2022 |
| RPRDL007 | Biliana Voutchkova & Susana Santos Silva | Bagra | 2022 |
| RPRDL008 | Biliana Voutchkova & Tomeka Reid | Bricolage III | 2022 |
| RPRDL009 | Biliana Voutchkova & Jeff Surak | The Truth About The Key | 2022 |
| RPRDL010 | Biliana Voutchkova & Charmaine Lee | I am going to make an attempt to describe what you mean to me | 2022 |