I covered a slew of releases this year in The Score including Victrola Favorites, Annea Lockwood's Sound Map of the Danube, the compilation A Cleansing Ascension, a cult favorite by overlooked Monk sideman Sahib Shihab, and Stuart Dempster and the Deep Listening Band.

After the jump: Ten releases I did not cover in The Score but nonetheless loved, in no particular order...

Die Soldaten (Wergo)
Alex Ross rightly described Bernd Alois Zimmermann's avant opera as "at once hyper-organized and deranged, a death machine that leaves chaos in its wake." Despite a yeoman effort, I missed the summertime Armory performances in New York, so I made do with this savage, ass-kicking mono recording made in 1965 and re-released earlier this year.

Loverly (Blue Note)
I hate the term "return to form" but Cassandra Wilson does so here, sounding suave on a "Caravan" that ranks with Andy Bey's masterly version from his 2004 album American Song.

Orion Quartet: Late Beethoven Quartets (Koch)

Hadley Caliman: Gratitude (Origin)

Air (Telarc)
Ah, a classical compilation that actually flows well from beginning to end. Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis spearheads a chamber music disc of Debussy and Takemitsu that shows how Takemitsu thoroughly assimilated and inimitably transformed the French composer's dreamy atmospheres.

Down the Klahanie (Fleece)
The late Michael Griffen directs and conducts the Noggin Big Band, a riotous ensemble that includes Arrington de Dionyso, Corey Brewer, and Griffen's Noggin compadre Eric Ostrowski.

Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Paraty)
I spent much of the year re-visiting piano music by Debussy and Ravel. I have always preferred the Etudes to the Preludes (which alone should get me kicked out of the classical music writers club), but pianist Ivan Ilic sparkles, balancing Debussy's sustained washes of color without sacrificing elegant contrapuntal precision.

Guitars (Half-Note)
After several uneven discs on Telarc, McCoy Tyner, the pianist from John Coltrane's immortal quartet teams up with guitarists Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, John Scofield and others.

Loren Chasse and Michael Northam: The Otolith (Helen Scarsdale Agency)

Seth Nehil and Matt Marble: Ecllipses (and/OAR)
A lovely souvenir of this duo's Seattle show; delicate electroacoustic crackles and elliptical drones.

Five new or forthcoming releases that I look forward to digging into:

MEV 40 (New World) - a four disc, forty year retrospective of Music Elettronica Viva.
The ongoing series on Seattle Experimental Music by Debacle Records.
A new Greta Matassa disc expected in the Spring.
Myths Of Origin: Sonic Ephemera From East Asia (and/OAR) - a disc of field recordings (including "booming" desert dunes).
The Skein: Cities and Eyes (Henceforth) - The turbulent voice & harp/electronic duo of Andrea Parkins and Jessica Constable.