September 10, 2026:
Amid the warmest summer on record for the contiguous United States, I took half of last week off to catch up on the yard and enjoy some of the end of the season. That didn't stop the squid from its regular swim, but after our annual Labor Day sale we caught our breath for a moment to plan our next round of purchases as we anticipate the busier fall season.
One thing affecting that plan is the uncertainty of shipping costs in the new global order of tariffs and trade disputes. We've been charged a considerable amount in duties, tariffs and handling fees on imports, particularly from Europe, the UK and Japan. It's frustrating because many of the albums we sell have historically entered the United States duty-free, and the customs declarations on these packages have been correct. The changing tariff environment has nevertheless added expense and uncertainty in both directions, making it more difficult to share the music we sell internationally.
That's particularly unfortunate considering how collaborative and international the music we work with has always been. Musicians, labels, distributors and listeners have spent decades building relationships across borders, and it's discouraging to see trade policy put new obstacles in the way of that cultural exchange.
PayPal processes our customer payments, and our monthly reports give us a useful picture of where our sales are coming from. It was sobering to see sales down about 25% from last year, accompanied by a global map showing virtually no sales from Europe and the UK. That's a huge difference from previous years. There are undoubtedly a number of reasons for the decline, but higher shipping costs, taxes, duties and general uncertainty certainly don't make international purchasing any easier. We hope conditions become more stable as we move into the fall.
In the meantime, for international customers hoping to buy domestic releases from the US, one of our best options is Discogs when we have an album listed there. I've personally spent a considerable amount of time adding basic Discogs entries for albums that weren't already represented, and our goal is to add new titles whenever they're missing from the Discogs database. Our Squidco listings link to those Discogs entries when available.
Discogs also makes the tax side of international orders easier. For qualifying sales to the EU, Discogs collects and remits VAT at the time of purchase. Beginning July 1, the EU also began assessing a new €3 customs duty on low-value imported goods that had previously been exempt from customs duty. For destinations where our carrier supports Delivered Duty Paid, or DDP, shipping, we can collect the required import charges in advance so that the carrier can remit them rather than surprising the customer with a bill at delivery.
We really miss our international customers, many of whom have been friends of Squidco for years. It's depressing to see international trade barriers interfere with something as fundamentally cooperative as music. If you can, please stick with us. We're really trying!
Philz Weekly Recommendations:
Though it's a short week for us, there are some exceptional albums in this week's mailing list. I start with a duo of two favorite players, NY drummer Tyshawn Sorey and UK pianist Pat Thomas, who team up for their first meeting, a live concert at Cafe OTO demonstrating their instrumental prowess and passion for playing. Both take on remarkably diverse projects, and that diversity shows in the breadth of their playing. Exceptional!
Having been a long-time fan of both the late saxophonist Julius Hemphill, co-founder of the World Saxophone Quartet, and Downtown NY reedist Marty Ehrlich, whose association with Hemphill reaches back to a quartet performance at Creative Music Studio in 1977 and led eventually to his membership in the Julius Hemphill Saxophone Sextet, I was thrilled to see Ehrlich's album presenting Hemphill's complete known compositions for saxophone quartet. This includes works discovered posthumously through Ehrlich's archival research, performed by an exceptional group of saxophonists and wind players.
Returning to duos, Mahakala label leader Chad Fowler joins forces with pianist Eri Yamamoto for Polkadots & Moonbeams, a great set that moves between composed material and spontaneous improvisation. Melody and lyricism are strong elements here as the two masterful players trade ideas and shape remarkably song-like music together.
Fred Frith joins German brothers Cornelius Claudio Kreusch and Johannes Tonio Kreusch for the two-CD set Pink / Neon, an album of experimental improvisation using electric guitar and effects, classical and prepared guitar, piano and Polaris. This is an album to get lost in, as they spontaneously develop forms around music that resists easy definition, moving through acoustic textures, electronics, drones, noise and more elusive territory. No doubt I'm a huge Frith fan, and this introduces two players I was unfamiliar with in an engaging and engrossing set of interactions.
Last but hardly least, the German label Yatak Records has reissued and remastered two albums by percussionist and free vocalist David Moss: 1984's Full House and its 1985 follow-up, Dense Band. If you're not familiar with Moss' work, this is a great way to jump in, and for those who have followed him since the '80s and the burgeoning Downtown NY scene, it's a great opportunity to hear these albums in freshly remastered form. The '80s were a wild time for genre-colliding music in NYC, and Moss was an important part of that world, working with an extraordinary range of musicians including Tom Cora, George Lewis, George Cartwright, Andrea Centazzo, Eugene Chadbourne, and many others.
 Sorey, Tyshawn / Pat Thomas: Red Sulphur (Otoroku)
In their first meeting, drummer Tyshawn Sorey and pianist Pat Thomas deliver a fiercely dynamic live improvisation at Cafe OTO, moving through dense clusters, inside-piano resonance, metallic percussion, brushes, string slides and sudden silences with remarkable precision, building a volatile dialogue that shifts between thunderous rhythmic density, delicate texture and sharply focused spontaneous interplay.
 Fowler, Chad / Eri Yamamoto: Polkadots & Moonbeams (Mahakala Music)
Alto saxophonist and flutist Chad Fowler joins pianist Eri Yamamoto for an intimate duo session balancing composed material with spontaneous song forms, moving between grief, memory, tenderness and celebration through deeply lyrical improvisation, including Fowler's elegiac "Ash" and the standard "Polkadots and Moonbeams," recorded by Jim Clouse at Park West Studios.
 Moss, David: Dense Band (Remastered) (Yatak Records)
David Moss leads a remarkable cross-section of New York's 1980s Downtown scene with Fred Frith, John Zorn, Tom Cora, Arto Lindsay, Christian Marclay and Jules Moss, merging percussion, theatrical vocals, electronics, turntables and improvisation with tightly constructed rhythmic forms in a volatile collision of experimental rock, noise, free improvisation and infectious groove, newly remastered for its 40th anniversary.
 Moss, David: Full House (Remastered) (Yatak Records)
David Moss revisits a key document of New York's early-1980s Downtown scene, joining Arto Lindsay, Fred Frith, Bill Laswell, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, John Zorn, Christian Marclay, Phil Minton and others in nineteen concise, rapidly shifting studies that fuse percussion, reeds, guitars, turntables, electronics, manipulated voice, groove and free improvisation into a restless collage of experimental composition and performance.
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.
August 28, 2026:
 A short entry this week, as we presented the 46th performance in our local Hooked on Sonics series here in Wilmington, NC. The evening went very well, with four performances, including an object-based acoustic set by Carl Kruger and associates of Karola Lüttringhaus of the Alban Elved Dance Company, presenters of the SARUS Festival here in Wilmington. I performed an abstract tribute to my brother Stephen and my stepbrother Steve, both of whom passed away over the last year. These shows are essential to our mental health, and provide a wonderful opportunity for local artists to express themselves.
Around that, we've been very engaged in our plans for the fall, with some truly great albums coming up. For those who follow Squidco, next week ends with the U.S. Labor Day holiday, and we'll take a bit of a breather as we begin purchasing for the fall season. You can see some of those plans on our Upcoming Releases page, where you can ask us to email you when a release becomes available, or have an order placed automatically once it arrives in stock.
Philz Weekly Recommendations:
I spent most of the week working on a review of the magnificent John Tilbury box set on Another Timbre, researching Tilbury's early associations and reflecting on his legacy. That didn't stop me from listening to the new releases that arrived over the last week, and I'll start with the most unusual: Ute Wassermann's Chimeric, a wild set of compositions built around Wassermann's voice and extraordinary range of utterance, accompanied by an eccentric assortment of instruments.
The trio of Mikolaj Trzaska with John Edwards and Mark Sanders brings us masterful collective improvisation, as one might expect from the enduring rhythm section of Edwards and Sanders. From Chicago we received the duo of saxophonist Frank Trompeter — whose name amusingly suggests another instrument — with drummer, percussionist and flutist Richard Gilman-Opalsky, their long-running collaboration heard in a tremendously informed and responsive dialogue.
Another collective from London filled my ears this week: Adam Bohman on amplified objects and strings, Sue Lynch on tenor saxophone, clarinet and flute, and Crystabel Efemena Riley on drums and metallic percussion. Their electroacoustic conversation is detailed, unpredictable and rewarding of close listening. Two great albums from the London scene made for an especially strong week.
As Trem Azul closes the chapter on its Clean Feed label, one of the final releases is a double-CD set documenting the last performances of Sei Miguel's O Carro de Fogo. Drawn from two live concerts, Miguel's singular approach to improvisation offers a fitting reflection on his own legacy, as well as that of the impressive Clean Feed catalog he helps bring to a close.
We also started work on a new group of albums from Love Earth Music, and I'll highlight the 7" vinyl collaboration between Swiss turntablist Joke Lanz and Fargo-based electronics artist Matthew Taggart, aka PCRV, as a great example of the label's breadth. Steve Davis continues to find intriguing projects to release, while his own work as +DOG+ and Money is also represented among this week's new arrivals.
Elliott Sharp picks up his custom Koll 8-string guitarbass for the fifth volume of his Octal series, presenting a set of solo improvisations shaped around scientific and mathematical concepts. And Kevin Drumm shows us his quieter side in a five-CD box set of electroacoustic compositions, appropriately titled Mild Temper.
 Wassermann, Ute: Chimeric [VINYL] (Thin Wrist)
Expanding the voice into a mutable electroacoustic ecosystem, Ute Wassermann combines breath, multiphonics, growls, whispers and animal-like calls with bird whistles, jaw harps, hydrophones, drums and brass megaphones, creating six vividly spatial pieces where body, object and environment continually merge, fracture and reform.
 Trzaska, Mikolaj / John Edwards / Mark Sanders: Because It Happens [VINYL] (gusstaff records)
Reuniting Polish reedist Mikolaj Trzaska on alto saxophone and bass clarinet with the long-integrated British rhythm team of bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders, this live Cafe OTO performance unfolds as spontaneous collective composition, shifting fluidly between eruptive free-jazz intensity, textured restraint, lyrical exchanges and rapidly redirected momentum.
 Bohman, Adam / Sue Lynch / Crystabel Efemena Riley: Lynboril Lisinopril (Otoroku)
Drawn together through London's Horse Improvised Music Club, Adam Bohman on amplified objects and strings, Sue Lynch on tenor saxophone, clarinet and flute, and Crystabel Efemena Riley on drums and metallics shape a buoyant, finely balanced trio language of crystalline winds, tactile percussion and eccentric object sound, playful and airy even as the interaction intensifies.
 Trompeter, Frank / Richard Gilman-Opalsky : Antifascist Freedom Music (Mahakala Music)
Drawing on a 20-year musical partnership, Chicago-born saxophonist Frank Trompeter joins drummer, percussionist and wood flutist Richard Gilman-Opalsky for an impassioned studio duo of free jazz and creative improvisation, moving from melodic and swinging exchanges to raw, turbulent intensity shaped by deep familiarity, spontaneous interplay and an explicitly antifascist spirit.
 Miguel, Sei: Viva! O Carro de Fogo de Sei Miguel [2 CDs] (Clean Feed)
Featuring Sei Miguel on trumpet and direction with Fala Mariam, Nuno Torres, Pedro Lourenco, Bruno Silva, Andre Goncalves, Raphael Soares and Luis Desirat, documenting the final performances of O Carro de Fogo in two 2023 Portuguese concerts, where spacious ensemble architecture, microtonal phrasing and tightly controlled collective interplay affirm Miguel's singular late-period vision.
 Lanz, Joke / Matthew Taggart: Collaborations [7-inch VINYL'] (Love Earth Music)
Swiss turntablist and Sudden Infant founder Joke Lanz joins Fargo-based PCRV electronics artist Matthew Taggart for a compact 7-inch collaboration, bringing Lanz's volatile cut-up language and musique concrète instincts into contact with Taggart's improvised harsh electronics, abrupt textures and noise structures for an intensely concentrated meeting of two underground experimental practices.
 Sharp, Elliott: OCTAL: Book Five for 8-string guitarbass (zOaR Records)
Returning to his custom Koll 8-string guitarbass for the fifth volume of the Octal series, Elliott Sharp builds improvisations from concepts in physics, language and philosophy, using a prime-number-derived tuning system alongside preparations, slides, EBow and spring bows to exploit the instrument's broad bass-to-guitar range, resonant body and richly layered electroacoustic color.
 Drumm, Kevin: The Mild Temper [6 CD BOX SET] (Sonoris)
Across six CDs and more than six hours, Kevin Drumm develops a vast electroacoustic environment of drones, micro-acoustic detail and shifting frequency structures, balancing stasis and motion through gradual transformations in density, resonance and spatial depth, for an immersive study in the physical and perceptual qualities of sound; mastered by Jim O'Rourke.
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.
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Tom Challenger & Evan Parker:
Louis Armstrong:![John Tilbury: At Home [4 CD BOX] (Another Timbre)](https://www.teuthida.com/productImages/misc4/37729.jpg "John Tilbury: At Home [4 CD BOX] (Another Timbre)")
John Tilbury:
LDL (Leimgruber/Demierre/Lehn):
Magda Mayas' Filamental:
Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Torres / Schlippenbach / Kellers:
Parkins / Rasmussen / Sawyer:
Gerry Hemingway / Izumi Kimura / Frank Gratkowski / Christian Weber:
Christoph Gallio:
Ryoji Ikeda:
Ehrlich, Marty: OPEN AIR: The Complete Saxophone Quartet Compositions of Julius Hemphill [2CDs] (Out Of Your Head Records)
Frith, Fred / Cornelius Claudio Kreusch / Johannes Tonio Kreusch: Pink / Neon [2 CDs] (Galileo Music Communication )
