Born out of necessity and a love of the music and the records, the aim of this book is to offer a guide to a selection of independent labels and their releases of free jazz, improvisation and generally jazz outside of the mainstream between 1965 and 1985, with 1965 being the year when ESP-Disk' started out as the first independent label dedicated to the music covered in this book, and 1985 being the year that the CD slowly started to take over as the main sound carrier. However, we have stretched the frames a little bit on a few occasions. 60 labels are presented, each with an introduction and a discography, either complete or by the author´s personal choice. There are also 64 sleeve illustrations, including some extremely rare ones, as well as forewords by Swedish sax player and composer Mats Gustafsson and Rune Grammofon founder Rune Kristoffersen. Finally, there is a conversation between Kristoffersen and music writer Rob Young.

Author Johannes Rød is working freelance as an art historian and conservator and has written several books on visual art. He is also an avid record collector since the late sixties. The book has 128 pages with layout and design is by Kim Hiorthøy, and it comes in a beautiful hardback Geltex cover.