A recording is an abstract entity representing unique audio data, whereas a track is a given period of audio on some medium (a medium being part of a release). A track can be associated with 0 or 1 recordings, and a recording can be associated with 0 or more tracks. Thus, a track will always be part of exactly one release, whereas a recording can be associated with multiple tracks.

When searching for a specific entity, one would expect each row in the resultset to represent exactly one of that entity.

Hence, when searching for recordings, one would expect each row in the resultset to contain some of:
name of the recording
duration of the recording
artist associated with the recording
some summary of the 0 or more tracks associated with this recording, e.g. for each track, some of:
name of the track
duration of the track
artist associated with the track
name of the release that the track of part of
artist associated with the release that the track is part of
position of the track within the release
type of release that this track is part of

When searching for tracks (which is not currently offered), one would expect each row of the resultset to contain some of:
name of the track
duration of the track
artist associated with the track
name of the release that the track is part of
artist associated with the release that the track is part of
position of the track within the release
type of release that this track is part of
some summary of the recording associated with the track (if present), e.g. some of:
name of the recording
duration of the recording
artist associated with the recording

At present, when searching for recordings using the main search feature, the results are more like the expected behaviour for tracks documented above. The name column gives the name used in a tracklist, although is a hyperlink to the associated recording. I'm not sure where the information is taken from for the duration and artist columns (whether from the recording, or from the track). There are then columns detailing information about the track whose name was used in the first column, i.e. the release, the position of the track in the release, and the release type.

When searching for recordings to associate with a track in the release editor, the behaviour is essentially the same, albeit without the extended release information being reported too. This is especially confusing, and led to the somewhat convoluted process necessary to create edit #14470303.

I'm not sure whether it is possible to find recordings not associated with a track using this search method, or whether a recording will end up in the results multiple times if associated with multiple tracks, neither of which seems desirable.

I would suggest creating an option to search for tracks to the main search feature, that behaves largely as the option to search for recordings does at present. It should search for tracks, and results with the track name, duration, artist and release information. If a recording is associated, the track name should act as a hyperlink to it, or if no recording is associated, the track name shouldn't be a link.

I would then suggest amending the option to search for recordings such that it does precisely that. The results should show the recording name, duration and artist. It might be desirable to show a brief list of the associated tracks and their releases (perhaps just release title, track position, release type) much like recording information page has an "appears on releases" section.

Finally, I would suggest that the search for recordings feature used in the release editor be similarly amended, although it needn't show anything about the tracks attached to each recording. It would however be useful to make sure the the duration (and comment in not already included) are included in the results to assist choosing between identically named recordings.