While talking at last night’s D.C. Jazz Loft to guitarist Ed Ricart, half of Matta Gawa and core member of the New Atlantis Collective, he mentioned that the collective is about to inaugurate its own record label.

New Atlantis Records is dedicated to “improvised music from the U.S. mid-Atlantic, and Europe as well,” says Ricart. “We’re finalizing an archival release by [Dutch free-jazz drummer] Han Bennink that should be out at the beginning of 2011.” Also in the pipeline are releases by German saxophonist Peter Brotzmann and trumpeter and New Jersey native Herb Robertson. The releases, and all others on New Atlantis, will be hand-numbered limited editions.

Meantime, Ricart reports that this year’s New Atlantis Festival will become a permanent annual event in town. He’s currently working on bookings for 2011, including Chicago legend Roscoe Mitchell and Harris Eisenstadt‘s Canada Day ensemble. Hence, a spate of good news—-especially for those of us who are tired of schlepping to Baltimore or Philadelphia for our avant-garde fixes.