December 19, 2025:
 The last two weeks have been something of a marathon here at Squidco, right in the midst of the holiday season. To keep things extra complicated, our order and cataloguing manager Carl was out of state helping his family in the snowy Great Lakes region, so for a week I took on his hat — along with my usual head full of hats.
When Carl returned, we immediately launched a Friends of Squid cost sale that kept us running at full speed for several days. (Please join our eMail List to be eligible for these private sales and to earn Squidco Reward Points!) In the midst of all that, I also moved our main server farm and upgraded our network infrastructure. Meanwhile, in the background, we've been busily preparing the next three Squid Note digital releases: one from Barry Chabla and Clara Byom; Remergency with Dave Sewelson, Steve Hirsch & Matt Hollenberg; and a live solo album from Daniel Levin.
This week we also presented our annual holiday show, X-Mess [2025], featuring regional performers joyfully taking apart the holidaze through sound art. You can see images and short videos from the event at https://www.facebook.com/HookedOnSonicsILM
. I also took part in a Listening Party for the annual Silber Media compilation, Christmas in Silberia, an excellent collection of experimental holiday sound art, which includes a track of mine under my project CHANGES TO blind.
Carl and I are now both actively working on our Top Lists for 2025, which we'll announce next week. Along with those lists, we'll be sharing statistics from the year, our always-important Customer Top List, and a broader look back at the year as a whole.
As I write about new releases and restocks, and reflect on the past year, the most challenging aspect of our work has been importing new releases. As many of you know, albums (recorded media) are not subject to tariffs, which was a relief to us — and no doubt to our customers. However, the implementation of these tariffs — which I hope anyone reading this understands we at Squidco consider a terrible approach to international commerce — was abrupt and poorly planned. As a result, many countries temporarily withheld parcel shipments to the US because reporting and payment structures were not defined when the tariffs were imposed.
These shipping problems, some of which remain unresolved, have delayed or prevented important releases from reaching Squidco. This naturally affects our acquisition plans and our ability to make the sales we rely on to stay active. Our mission of bringing creative music from around the globe to listeners everywhere depends on a steady flow of new releases, and 2025 will likely be remembered as a particularly frustrating year in that regard. You may have noticed an uptick in discount sales through our mailing list; those were prompted directly by these shipping delays. We ask our customers to stick with us during this period and to take advantage of these sales when possible. We continue to hope for a shift in attitude from our government, as free trade remains one of the most peaceful ways to connect a disparate world. Sadly, we seem to be witnessing the opposite: escalating trade wars, political conflict, and actual wars, which is deeply disheartening.
Last but certainly not least, a number of new albums arrived over the past two weeks, particularly from Discus, Confront, Relative Pitch, Evil Clown, and Notice Recordings. We also received a much-needed restock of Eliane Radigue's Asymptote Versatile (1963-64). Speaking of restocks, we expect additional copies of [ahmed]'s Sama'a (Audition) in January — the initial shipment almost literally flew out of our bins, and another large order is currently pending with Otoroku.
 Parkins, Zeena: Lament For The Maker [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
Marking the closing of Mills College and the end of Zeena Parkins' long association with its experimental community, this solo release presents three commissioned works alongside the ongoing acoustic piece berlin bedroom, unfolding a deeply reflective exploration of harp and electronics that honors artistic lineage, collective devotion, and the Bay Area's enduring spirit of experimental music-making.
 Mines, Kelsey / Vinny Golia: Collusion and Collaboration [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
Distilling their work from the Chamber Quintet, this intimate duo recording pairs Vinny Golia's varied woodwinds with Kelsey Mines' resonant bass and subtle vocalizations, unfolding a carefully balanced exchange of gentle and sharp gestures shaped by classical-leaning abstractions, where attentive interplay allows fluid musical forms to emerge with clarity inside open improvisational space.
 Mines, Kelsey / Erin Rogers: Scratching At The Surface [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
This duo release pairs bassist Kelsey Mines and saxophonist Erin Rogers in a deeply interactive exploration of free improvisation, where resonant low-end textures and expressive reeds weave concise, atmospheric vignettes shaped by bold contrasts, emotional clarity, and an immersive sense of motion that balances raw energy with carefully sculpted space.
 HobbyHouse (Mia Dyberg / Axel Filip): HobbyHouse [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
This self-titled debut from the Berlin-based duo of Danish alto saxophonist Mia Dyberg and Argentine drummer Axel Filip explores freely improvised jazz through spontaneous structures and shifting sonic playgrounds, with a sharp focus on timbral nuance, textural interplay, and an upbeat creative immediacy that unfolds into vivid, evolving sound narratives rooted in exploratory expression.
 Evans, Peter / Mike Pride : A Window, Basically [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
Concentrating their work from the Pulverize the Sound trio, trumpeter Peter Evans and drummer Mike Pride reveal a ferocity that pushes free improvisation to its extremes, balancing explosive virtuosity with kaleidoscopic percussive interaction through dense sound clusters, fractured grooves, unexpected silences, and wild exploration, in seven high-risk dialogs tempered by moments of striking clarity.
 Belorukov, Ilia / Alex Riva: Wrestling For Futility [CASSETTE w/DOWNLOAD] (Notice Recordings)
A bristling electro-acoustic duo encounter in which Ilia Belorukov's restless modular synthesis collides and intertwines with Alex Riva's recorder work and effects, generating playful yet volatile improvisations that shift between lo-fi textures, glassy winds, and surging electronic fragments, as tension, friction, and timbral curiosity drive the music through constantly mutating sonic terrain.
 Uneven Eleven (Segers / Hawyard / Kawabata): Live In Brighton (Discus)
A ferocious meeting of three seasoned innovators, this live set from Charles Hayward (drums, vocals), Guy Segers (bass), and Kawabata Makoto (guitar) channels decades of rock, punk, psychedelia, and free improvisation into an explosive power trio performance, where raw energy, shifting polyrhythms, and searing intensity collide in a fiercely immediate and unfiltered sonic assault captured on stage in Brighton in 2013.
 Malfon, Don / Vasco Trilla: Towers of Silence (Confront)
A deeply immersive duo performance from saxophonist Don Malfon and percussionist Vasco Trilla, this exploratory session unfolds as a richly textured dialogue of breath, resonance, and rhythm, where haunting tones, shifting densities, and subtle dynamics blur the lines between experimental jazz, ambient improvisation, and abstract sound sculpture, revealing a finely balanced interplay of intensity and restraint.
 Jackson, Tom / Daniel Thompson: Dark Kitchen (Confront)
An intimate, immersive duo recording in which Tom Jackson's finely articulated clarinet and Daniel Thompson's responsive, highly attuned guitar create a richly expressive terrain of spontaneous sound, channeling the spirit of free improvisation's pioneers in a deeply communicative exchange of timbre, space, and dynamic nuance.
 Radigue, Eliane: Asymptote Versatile (1963-64) (Amgen Records)
An historic world-premiere recording of Éliane Radigue's earliest surviving work, performed at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, where a stellar ensemble realizes her flexible "sonic proposition" through evolving textures, mathematical spirals and dynamic transformations that foreshadow her later visionary soundworld.
Squidco Publishing Roundup:
You can view our latest fully cataloged albums in the Recently Section.
You can also browse new titles as they enter our Just In Stock Section — meaning we physically have the album and can ship it, though we may still be updating additional information about the release.
To see restocks of previously listed titles, visit our Recently Restocked page.
And if you're interested in a future release, you can ask us to notify you by email via our Upcoming Releases page — no obligation necessary.
December 5, 2025:
A good week here at Squidco, as we happily filled the orders that came in during our Blue Squid / Black Friday sale, and then set about adding a stack of new albums that arrived over the last week. Thanks to our friendly customers and to the generous feedback we received during the sale — it really means a lot to us!
An OTOROKU note from the week. Some may have noticed the restocks of albums on the London OTOROKU label, along with new releases including albums by Capacitants and Ahmed. On the latter, we watched in awe as the albums we brought in flew off our shelves! As fans of the band, we'd brought in a good number of copies, but those proved to be only scratching the surface of interest and demand. We're currently waiting on the second pressing of that album, expected in January of the coming year. Anyone who pre-orders the album through our website will be notified as soon as they arrive.
Meanwhile, we have the following OTOROKU albums in stock, now with lower pricing than we've been able to offer previously — especially for their vinyl releases.
 Thomas, Pat: The Solar Model of Ibn-Al Shatir [VINYL] (Otoroku)
The fourth solo piano album from British improviser Pat Thomas on Otoroku, recorded at London's Fish Factory and drawing from his Sufi faith and the legacy of Arabic scientific innovation, as Thomas explores cosmic motion and spiritual resonance through dynamic inside-piano techniques, harmonic clusters, and deeply personal, rhythmically charged improvisations.
 Agnel, Sophie / John Edwards / Steve Noble: Three On A Match (Otoroku)
Recorded live at Cafe OTO, the formidable trio of pianist Sophie Agnel, bassist John Edwards, and drummer Steve Noble delivers an explosive set of collective free improvisation, deconstructing their instruments into raw sound materials through playful intensity, percussive collisions, and a fearless, physical approach that dissolves the line between instrument and expression.
 Connors, Loren / Alan Licht: The Blue Hour (Otoroku)
Celebrating three decades of collaboration, Loren Connors and Alan Licht performed at Café OTO in 2023, captured in their first set with Connors on piano before shifting to guitar, their improvisation unfolding with spacious warmth, melodic restraint, and shimmering textures that evoke Rothko-like hues, blending blues abstraction and lyrical fragments into a calm, luminous dialogue.
 Mitchener, Elaine: Solo Throat [VINYL] (Otoroku)
Recorded at Hackney Road Studios in London, vocalist, composer, and movement artist Elaine Mitchener presents her first solo LP, drawing on the works of African-American and African-Caribbean poets Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Aimé Césaire, Una Marson, and N.H. Pritchard, creating twelve vocal compositions that disrupt semantic sense through phonetic freedom, silence, and multiphonics.
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Michel Doneda / Frederic Blondy:
Larry Stabbins / Mark Sanders:
Elliott Sharp:
Olie Brice Quartet (Brice / Musson / Hawkins / Glaser):
Joe Fonda:
CHANGES TO blind:
Eric La Casa / Marc Baron:
Katie Porter:
John Butcher / John Edwards:
Webb Crawford / Michael Foster / Joey Sullivan:
Nebbia, Camila (feat/ Marilyn Crispell / Lesley Mok): A Reflection Distorts Over Water [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)
Brotzmann, Peter / John Edwards / Steve Noble / Jason Adasiewicz: The Quartet [2 CDs] (Otoroku)
Agnel, Sophie: Learning [VINYL] (Otoroku)
