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.
 Incapacitants: Chwalfa (Otoroku)
Capturing their first UK appearance since 2016, the duo of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai unleash two blistering sets of "hard noise" at Cafe Oto, forging scorched-earth tape loops, feedback vortices, and pedal-chain eruptions into a ferocious, fire-music-level onslaught that channels pure chaos into a gripping, cathartic sonic upheaval.
The other major effort this past week was work on our upcoming Squid Note Records releases, particularly the first album due in January: Remergence's Wave Benders. Remergence is the trio of Steve Hirsh on drums, Matt Hollenberg on guitar, and Dave Sewelson on baritone sax and harmonica. The album is a real blast of assertive, electric free jazz.
The pre-order for this release will be available before the end of the year, along with a chance to hear some of the playing on the album. Here's a bit of background the band shared with us:
"Steve, Dave, and Matt first crossed paths in New York City, weaving their sounds together in intimate trio settings and vibrant sessions with friends — including an unforgettable performance at MoMA PS1. Each carried their own musical lineage, and when their voices met, something singular emerged: a sound that felt both grounded and untethered, familiar yet entirely new.
Sensing that they were on to something they envisioned a future for the collaboration. That vision found its chance when Steve applied for support from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Encouraged by this support, Dave and Matt journeyed to Minnesota, where the trio brought their evolving sound to life in performances across Minneapolis and Duluth. It was there they had a chance to go into the studio and make these recordings creating a genre that hasn't got a name and making music in a collaboration only possible now."
Some Drops from Haker-Flaten:
I first became aware of Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten through his work with drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, particularly the Clean Feed release Townorchestrahouse with Evan Parker and Sten Sandell. In the company of such impressive improvisers he immediately caught my interest, and I've followed his work ever since. Håker-Flaten brings an assertive, muscular attack to his playing, but with a positive, open attitude that lends his music a sense of momentum and exuberance.
I was a little late to the game, as Håker-Flaten first emerged in the 1990s as one of the defining figures in the new wave of Scandinavian free jazz. Growing up in Oppdal, he studied jazz at the Trondheim Conservatory, where he formed early bonds with musicians who would become vital to his career - most notably Nilssen-Love, along with Mats Gustafsson. He was a member of groups including The Source, Close Erase, Scorch Trio, Atomic (a band I obsessed over in the early 2000s), and then one of my personal favourite improv groups, The Thing, with both Gustafsson and Nilssen-Love, inviting outstanding guests like Neneh Cherry and Joe McPhee.
By the mid-2000s he had migrated to Chicago to work with some of the finest musicians in that fertile improv scene, including Ken Vandermark, Dave Rempis, Tim Daisy, and dozens of other like-minded artists. Chicago sharpened his approach: more groove-forward impulses, more open-ended forms, and a deeper relationship with jazz history. He later moved to Austin, Texas, perhaps the most enlightened of the conservative state's cities. Exposed to rock, noise, and electronic textures, his collaborations expanded his writing into more eclectic territory - embracing bass guitar as fluidly as upright, incorporating effects, and tilting toward multi-genre collage.
Returning to Norway, this year Håker-Flaten released the album Drops with his ensemble Exit, who had released the album Breezy in 2024. Exit is an octet featuring drummer Olaf Osen and saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, in an orchestration that includes electronics and guitar. Based around compositions that allow significant freedom for the players in highly interactive interplay, the album is a revelation in the convergence of styles and approaches that Håker-Flaten has developed over the decades. Destined for my top albums of 2025, Drops is an embraceably exciting release that satisfies all my expectations from this great bassist and ever-expanding composer.
Here are some albums from or featuring Håker-Flaten, showing the breadth of styles and the remarkable associations with master improvisers that he works with.
 Haker-Flaten, Ingebrigt (Exit) Knarr: Breezy (Sonic Transmissions Records)
Bringing together his Knarr ensemble for a second recording, bassist and composer Ingebrigt Håker Flaten leads Mette Rasmussen, Karl Hjalmar Nyberg, Erik Kimestad Pedersen, Oscar Grönberg, Jonathan F. Horne, Olaf Moses Olsen, Oddrun Lilja Jónsdóttir, and Joakim Rainer Petersen in an exuberant homage to Jaimie Branch, weaving spirited improvisation, textured arrangements, and collective joy into a vibrant and heartfelt statement.
 Young Mothers, The (Haker-Flaten / Rosaly / Taylor / Jackson / Gonzalez / Horne): Better If You Let It [VINYL] (Sonic Transmissions Records)
Young Mothers, The (Haker-Flaten / Rosaly / Taylor / Jackson / Gonzalez / Horne ): Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions Records)
After a six-year hiatus, The Young Mothers return with their third album as Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Jawwaad Taylor, Jason Jackson, Stefan Gonzalez, Jonathan F. Horne, and Frank Rosaly merge jazz, hip-hop, experimental rock, electronics, and free improvisation into a restless and unpredictable collective statement, balancing cinematic flair with raw immediacy in their most dynamic release to date.
 Rempis / Haker-Flaten / Daisy / Rosaly: Harvesters [2 CDs] (Aerophonic)
The Rempis Percussion Quartet in their French debut after 15 years of touring elsewhere through Europe, with Dave Rempis on sax, both Tim Daisy & Frank Rosaly on drums and Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass, performing an exuberant concert recorded at Le Petit Faucheux in Tours, with trumpeter Jean-Luc Cappozzo joining for one extended improv, plus a live workshop for young immigrants and a rare studio session.
 McPhee, Joe : Defiant Jazz: a Joe McPhee Taster [VINYL] (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
A vinyl-only sampler spanning 1970-2007, showcasing Joe McPhee's fiercely inventive spirit through funk-driven grooves, spiritual jazz depth, fiery collaborations with Cato Salsa Experience and The Thing, and intimate duo interplay with Paal Nilssen-Love - a defiant, time-jumping portrait of one of improvised music's most dynamic voices.
 Mazurek, Rob & Exploding Star Orchestra: Live at Adler Planetarium [VINYL] (International Anthem)
Drawing from the 2023 studio album Lightning Dreamers, trumpeter and bandleader Rob Mazurek assembles a stellar lineup — including electric pianists Angelica Sanchez and Craig Taborn, cellist Tomeka Reid, flutist Nicole Mitchell, bassist Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten, drummers Chad Taylor and Gerald Cleaver, and vocalist Damon Locks — for a psychedelic improvisational journey recorded under the dome of Chicago's Adler Planetarium.
 Cambien, Jonas: Maca Conu (Clean Feed)
Commissioned by Norway's Motvind festival, Belgian-born, Oslo-based composer & keyboardist Jonas Cambien takes a sly approach to his compositions, incorporating contemporary & experimental forms with solid free jazz playing, performed with drummer Andreas Wildhagen, bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, saxophonist Signe Emmeluth and guest trombonist Guro Kvale (Scheen Jazzorkester).
 Angles 3: Parede (Clean Feed)
Martin Kuchen's Angles band changes shape constantly, originally a trio and expanding as large as Angles 10, but this album, recorded live at SMUP, Parede, Portugal in 2016, returns the band to the original trio of Kuchen on sax, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten on double bass, and Kjell Nordeson on drums & percussion, reworking Angles compositions to their essence.
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.
November 25, 2025:
Busy days in the world of squids as we gear up for our annual Black Friday (Weekend) Sale, make some much-needed improvements to our shopping cart, and continue production on the next three albums for our Squid Note Records label. It's one of those stretches where everything seems to happen at once — the behind-the-scenes tuning of the site, the planning that goes into a big sale, and the creative work of bringing new music into the world. All of it keeps the shop humming, and all of it reminds us how alive and wide-ranging this community can be.
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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:
Lawrence Casserley / Emil Karlsen:
Magda Mayas / Jim Denley:
Brotzmann, Peter / John Edwards / Steve Noble / Jason Adasiewicz: The Quartet [2 CDs] (Otoroku)
Agnel, Sophie: Learning [VINYL] (Otoroku)
Haker Flaten, Ingebrigt (Exit) Knarr: Drops (Sonic Transmissions Records)
Thing, The (Gustafsson / McPhee / Haker Flaten / Nilssen-Love): She Knows... (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Starlite Motel (Alberts / Saft / Haker-Flaten / Nilssen): Awosting Falls [VINYL] (Clean Feed)
Mazurek, Rob Exploding Star Orchestra / Small Unit: Spectral Fiction (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Emmeluth, Signe / Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten / Axel Filip: Hyperboreal Trio (Relative Pitch)
Bridge, The (Amado / von Schlippenbach / Haker-Flaten / Hemingway): Beyond the Margins (Trost Records)
