Well, I dislike doing this more and more but it seems to be a requirement of the job....

As many have noted, 2013 yielded a bumper crop of outstanding music, for which I'm very grateful and, as ever, I sincerely thank those musicians and labels who choose to send things my way; it's greatly appreciated. It wasn't at all difficult to tease out more than twenty releases that I thought were fantastic in one respect or another. In alphabetical order, these included:

Adam Asnan - Inconsistent Images (Entr'acte/Senufo Editions)
Antoine Beuger - 24 petits préludes pour la guitare (Edition Wandelweiser)
Antoine Beuger - sixteen stanzas on stillness and music unheard (l'Innomable)
Antoine Beuger/Jürg Frey - Ensemble Dedalus (Potlatch)
Antoine Beuger/Michael Pisaro - this place/is love (Erstwhile)
Olivia Block – Karren (Sedimental)
Lucio Capece - Less Is Less - Music for Flying and Pendulating Speakers (Intonema)
Stephen Cornford/Samuel Rodgers - Boring Embroidery (Cathnor)
Richard Glover - Logical Harmonies (Another Timbre)
Anne Guthrie/Richard Kamerman – sinter (Erst AEU)
Sarah Hughes - accidents of matter or of space (Suppedaneum)
Haco/Toshiya Tsunoda – TramVibration (Skiti)
Nick Hennies - Duets for Solo Snare Drum (Weighter Recordings)
Nick Hennies - Flourish (Consumer Waste)
Tom Johnson/Samuel Vriezen - The Chord Catalog-Within Fourths/Within Fifths (Wandelweiser)
Mike Majkowski – Why is there something instead of nothing? (Bocian)
Lee Patterson/Vanessa Rossetto - Temperament as Waveform (Another Timbre)
Michael Pisaro - The Middle of Life (Gravity Wave)
Michael Pisaro – The Punishment of the Tribe by Its Elders (Gravity Wave)
Michael Pisaro/Greg Stuart – Close Categories in Cartesian Worlds (Gravity Wave)
Keith Rowe/Graham Lambkin - Making A (Erstwhile)
Peter Streiff – Vokal/Instrumental (Edition Wandelweiser)
Jakob Ullmann - fremde zeit addendum 4 (Edition RZ)

Forced to choose three that stood out, for me, among this stellar grouping, I'd go with Rowe/Lambkin, Capece and Glover.

Others I enjoyed almost as much (again alpha):

Peter Ablinger - Regenstücke Vol. 1 & 2 (God Records)
Jeffrey Allport/Joda Clément/Chandan Narayan - The Party (Simple Geometry)
Atolon – concret (Intonema)
Lali Barrière/Miguel A. Garcia - O⅃ƎUႱƎꟼƧƎ (Nueni)
Antoine Beuger - Cantor Quartets (Another Timbre)
John Butcher/Thomas Lehn/John Tilbury – Exta (Fataka)
Lucio Capece/Jamie Drouin - The Berlin Series no. 1 (Another Timbre) (that half of the disc)
Scott Cazan – Swallow (Care of Editions)
Johnny Chang/Stefan Thut - two strings and boxes (Flexion)
Edu Comelles - A Country Falling Apart (Audiotalaia)
Coppice - Big Wad Excisions (Quakebasket)
Stephen Cornford - Music For Earbuds (3LEAVES)
Devin Disanto - Tracing a Boundary (Task)
Bruno Duplant - Le rêve de la nuit est un rêve sans rêveur (diafani)
Lawrence English - Suikinkutsu no Katawara Ni (winds measure)
Ferran Fages - Radi d'Or (Another Timbre)
Patrick Farmer/David Lacey - Pictures of Men (Copy for Your Records)
Klaus Filip/Dafne Vicente-Sandoval - remoto (Potlatch)
Klaus Filip/Toshi Nakamura/Andrea Neumann/Ivan Palacky – Messier Objects (meenna)
Jack Harris/Samuel Rodgers - Wasted Five Years (Organized Music from Thessaloniki)
Jason Hoopes/Agnes Szelag - October Pieces and Shadows (Trestle)
Eva-Maria Houben - Piano Music (Irritable Hedgehog)
Eva-Maria Houben - lost in dreams - works for piano (Edition Wandelweiser)
Laurent Jeanneau/KINK GONG - Soundscape China (Kwanyin)
Kostis Kilymis – More Noise Ahead (Entr’acte)
Christoph Korn/Lasse-Marc Riek – collection II (Gruenrekorder)
Christina Kubisch/Eckehard Guther – Mosaique Mosaic (Gruenrekorder)
Graham Lambkin/Jason Lescalleet - Photographs (Erstwhile)
Sebastien Lexer/Grundik Kasyansky - The Fog (Dromos)
Hannes Lingens – Four Pieces for Quintet (Insub)
Joe Panzner/Greg Stuart – Dystonia Duos (Erst AEU)
David Papapostolou - Contrastes (Dispositifs d'écoute/C'est moi qui souligne) (winds measure)
Robert Piotrowicz - When Snakeboy Is Dying (Musica Genera)
Michael Pisaro - Tombstones (HEM)
Martyna Poznanska – Listening East (Polish Culture)
Ian Rawes/London Sound Survey - These Are the Good Times (Vittelli)
Matthieu Ruhlmann - This Star Teaches Bending (3LEAVES)
Philip Samartzis – Current (Bogong Sound)
Domenico Sciajno et. al. - Sonic Shuffle (Bowindo)
Grisha Shaknes – leave.trace (Glistening Examples)
Leo Svirsky – Songs in the Key of Survival (Ehse)
Michael Thieke Unununium - Nachtlieder (Mikroton)
Stefan Thut – drei, 1-21 (Edition Wandelweiser)
Toshiya Tsunoda - The Temple Recording/O Kokos Tis Anixis (edition.t)
VA AA LR - It Just Ain't Flapping (Consumer Waste)
Biliana Voutchkova/Michael Thieke - already there (Flexion)
Ralf Wehowsky/Anla Courtis - Aseleuch Tendrradero (Noise & Hate/Ultra-Mail Prod.)
Donato Wharton - Place and Presence (CDr)
Lao Yang - Untitled (Subjam)
(Various-Populista) - United States of America Triptych (Bôłt/Monotype)


Thanks again to everyone who allowed me to hear their work.