The Squid's Ear
Recently @ Squidco:

Evan Parker / Andrea Centazzo:
Bullfighting On Ice! Live In Padova 1977 [VINYL] (Ictus Remastered Collection)

Restored from the December 12, 1977 Padova concert, Evan Parker's soprano/tenor torrents collide with Andrea Centazzo's percussion and electronics, turning audience heckles into rocket fuel as long, scorching sequences leap from whispering key-click detail to volcanic blasts, capturing a decisive moment when Italy's free scene opened wide to Northern Europe's most inventive sax voice. ... Click to View


Alvin Curran / Andrea Centazzo / Evan Parker:
Real Time [VINYL] (Ictus Remastered Collection)

Captured on the trio's December 12-13, 1977 Rome dates, Alvin Curran's piano, trumpet and synthesizer set melodic fragments and minimalist pulses in motion while Evan Parker and Andrea Centazzo answer with spiralling sax multiphonics and electrified percussion, the three languages finding a volatile common ground where groove, texture and rupture keep swapping roles in real time. ... Click to View


Alvin Curran / Andrea Centazzo / Evan Parker:
Real Time Two [VINYL] (Ictus Remastered Collection)

Recorded on December 14, 1977 in Pistoia's cavernous, half-empty sports pavilion, the Curran/Centazzo/Parker trio plays with surprising translucence as piano and synth glint, trumpet flashes, sax lines braid into overtones, and percussion radiates in airy space, the room's unlikely acoustics giving the music an ethereal transparency that makes every attack, shimmer and sudden silence feel magnified. ... Click to View


Studer / Strinning / Weber:
Cut (Creative Sources)

Austere yet deeply communicative, this trio session pairs Swiss double bassist Daniel Studer's articulate resonance with Swiss/Swedish Sebastian Strinning's expansive reed textures and German drummer Daniel Weber's perceptive, responsive interaction, forging improvised soundscapes defined by attentive gesture, shifting timbres, and the eloquence of silence itself. ... Click to View


Ernesto Rodrigues / Jung-Jae Kim / Guilherme Rodrigues / Eric Bauer / Stephen Flinn:
5 In The Afternoon [2CDs] (Creative Sources)

Recorded live in Berlin by Bryan Eubanks, Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues, Jung-Jae Kim, Eric Bauer, and Stephen Flinn shape six long-form improvisations from bowed grain, air tones, faint circuitry, and brushed resonance, letting micro-events and room sound accumulate into a patient, quietly luminous architecture of texture and space. ... Click to View


Stephen Flinn / Sylvain Monchoce / Jung-Jae Kim :
Quark (Creative Sources)

Through delicately balanced free improvisation, American percussionist Stephen Flinn, French reed and flute player Sylvain Monchocé, and South Korean tenor saxophonist Jung-Jae Kim cultivate a finely grained sonic environment shaped by breath, touch, and resonance, where small gestures, spatial awareness, and attentive silence coalesce into quietly immersive and meticulously detailed acoustic forms. ... Click to View


Signal Lapidaire (Sanchez / Loubatiere):
Signal Lapidaire (Creative Sources)

Minimal yet potent, Spanish cellist Paula Sánchez and French percussionist Rodolphe Loubatière engage in a direct, viscerally charged interplay that foregrounds extended techniques, physical resonance, and deep listening, forging an intimate, exploratory sound world where texture and gesture outweigh convention and form. ... Click to View


Joo Haeun:
Just Gravity (577 Records)

Balancing structure and spontaneity, pianist Haeun Joo presents an intimate and searching debut that moves between lyrical solo piano improvisations and sensitively interactive trio pieces with bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Steven Crammer, capturing music made fully in the moment with clarity, restraint, and a quietly compelling sense of forward motion. ... Click to View


Udo Schindler / Paul Rogers / Ardhi Engl :
Ephemeral Essences Of LowTone Studies (For Trio) (Creative Sources)

Recorded live in Munich in December 2024, this trio performance brings together Udo Schindler, bassist Paul Rogers, and sound-builder Ardhi Engl in an expansive LowTone Studies session where shifting instrumental roles, theatrical interplay, and esoteric timbral variety generate a richly dynamic music rooted in transition, texture, and collective exploration. ... Click to View


Udo Schindler / Jordina Milla:
The Dew That Flies (Creative Sources)

Captured live in Bavaria in February 2025, these six improvisations pair frequent collaborators German wind instrumentalist Udo Schindler and Catalan pianist Jordina Milla in a series of dialogues where timbre, texture, and spontaneous interplay shape an immersive, poetic sound world influenced by Sylvia Plath's Ariel, blurring the line between composition and open improvisation. ... Click to View


Rotor (Rodrigues / Torres / Santos):
Pulses and Paradox (Creative Sources)

Recorded live at Sistema Smop in Lisbon across two performances in late 2023, the trio of Ernesto Rodrigues (viola, crackle box), Nuno Torres (alto saxophone), and Carlos Santos (digital electronics) are captured sustained improvisations where acoustic timbre and electronic gesture converge in an expansive dialogue that alternates between subtle textural pulses and unpredictable sonic paradoxes. ... Click to View


Ernesto Rodrigues / Jung-Jae Kim / Guilherme Rodrigues / Eric Bauer / Stephen Flinn:
Crossing The Floor (Creative Sources)

Emerging from Ernesto Rodrigues' post-Cage investigations, this quintet with Jung-Jae Kim, Guilherme Rodrigues, Eric Bauer, and Stephen Flinn shapes sparse, deeply relational music where strings, winds, electronics, and percussion hover in spectral balance, forming a quiet "ghost dance" of held tones and subtle motion that blurs interior and exterior spaces while sculpting time through restraint and resonance. ... Click to View


Eric La Casa / Seijiro Murayama:
Paris Public Spaces 2 (Swarming)

Recorded across various public spaces in Paris, this collaborative work extends the practice of Eric La Casa and Seijiro Murayama as they document subtle vocal interventions and field recordings that explore attentive listening, bodily presence, and sonic autonomy, positioning sound-making as a quiet, animist act of witness within complex urban environments. ... Click to View


Fortrexx:
Breathless (Love Earth Music)

Under the Fortrexx moniker, Squidco's own Phil Zampino, aka CHANGES TO blind, shapes field recordings, samples, and electronics into subliminal sonic environments that drift and mutate beneath conscious attention, forming enveloping sound tapestries that fill silence without intrusion and function fluidly at low or high volume for contemplation, altered states, or quiet immersion. ... Click to View


Peter Evans / Being & Becoming:
Ars Ludricra [VINYL + DOWNLOAD] (More Is More)

Expanding their language through dense composition and open improvisation, this iteration of Peter Evans's ensemble moves fluidly between explosive dynamics, electronic textures, orchestral color, and rhythmic propulsion, as brass, vibes, synths, and percussion interlock in a restless, polyphonic music driven by play, risk, and a continually evolving collective imagination. ... Click to View


Byron Coley / Mats Gustafsson / Thurston Moore:
Now Jazz Now: 100 Essential Free Jazz & Improvisation Recordings (1960-80) [BOOK] (Ecstatic Peace Library )

Drawing from deeply personal listening histories, this richly illustrated volume assembles 100 essential free jazz and improvisation recordings from 1960-80, presenting album art, notes, and reflections that frame the music as non-hierarchical and interlinked, offering an immersive guide for adventurous listeners interested in the lineage, spirit, and lived culture of creative freedom. ... Click to View


Leo Genovese:
Solo Brooklyn (577 Records)

Performing solo piano at the 2025 New York Forward Festival, Leo Genovese delivers a strikingly fluid and exploratory set where abstract, dreamlike themes move freely between lyricism, volatility, and spontaneous invention, revealing a deeply personal improvisational language shaped by risk, intuition, and the raw immediacy of live performance. ... Click to View


Otherlands Trio (Crump / Jones / McPherson):
Star Mountain (Intakt)

Uniting bassist Stephan Crump, drummer Eric McPherson with alto saxophonist Darius Jones, this trio channels a deeply connected improvisational language built on evolving vamps, elastic grooves, and shared momentum, as Jones's emotionally direct alto moves freely through shifting forms shaped by trust, vulnerability, and a collective pursuit of intensity without hierarchy or hesitation. ... Click to View


Nate Wooley:
A Fine Rain Anoints The Canal Machinery (Discreet Archive)

In a subtly detailed journey, Nate Wooley layers field recordings, trumpet, piano, sine tones, whistling, and bodily sound into a stark, reflective work that probes the uneasy coexistence of nature, machinery, and human presence, shaping a quietly political soundscape in which environmental detail, isolation, and mechanical intrusion collide in fragile, contrapuntal tension. ... Click to View


Eventless Plot:
Unlearning Noise (Discreet Archive)

Blending field recordings, percussion, tapes, and modular synthesis with Marina Katsarou's voice and text and Eva Matsigou's flute, Eventless Plot reshape urban sound into a finely detailed electroacoustic work that invites listeners to reconsider noise as a living, expressive presence, revealing the shifting textures, hidden meanings, and poetic potential embedded within the everyday sonic fabric of the city. ... Click to View


Ernesto Rodrigues / Fala Mariam / Andre Hencleeday / Seu Barradas:
February Find (Creative Sources)

Captured live as part of the Creative Sources Improvised Music Series in Lisbon, this quartet performance brings viola, crackle box, alto trombone, piano, and percussion into a finely balanced improvisation where texture and restraint guide the music's unfolding, revealing a deeply interactive dialogue shaped by close listening, fragile electronics, and quietly evolving sonic relationships. ... Click to View


Fohn Ensemble (Foschla / Duerinckx / Northover):
Fohn Ensemble (Creative Sources)

Bringing together clarinets, sopranino, baritone, and soprano saxophones with kyotaku (a Japanese bamboo flute) and resonant percussion, this trio shapes a highly attentive improvisation where breath, extended techniques, and shifting timbres unfold through close listening, moving fluidly between fragile textures, explosive gestures, and an organic, imaginary folklore that emerges from collective intuition. ... Click to View


Peter Evans / 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. ... Click to View


Camila Nebbia (feat/ Marilyn Crispell / Lesley Mok):
A Reflection Distorts Over Water [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)

Recorded at Nevessa Studio in New York, Camila Nebbia joins Marilyn Crispell and Lesley Mok in a fiercely intuitive trio session blending open scores and full improvisation, where elastic group interplay, textural sensitivity, and eruptive momentum allow the music to breathe as a single organism while leaving space for sharply defined individual voices to emerge. ... Click to View


Zeena Parkins:
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. ... Click to View


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. ... Click to View


Kelsey Mines / 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. ... Click to View


Kelsey Mines / 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. ... Click to View


Adia Vanheerentals :
Taking Place [CD + DOWNLOAD] (Relative Pitch)

Asked to rethink the solo sax format, Adia Vanheerentals transforms this release into a series of site-responsive improvisations, engaging the soprano sax in active dialogue with surrounding environments — echoing spaces, incidental sounds, and ambient noise — using extended techniques, breath & texture to shape concise statements where location is a partner in an open improvisational framework. ... Click to View


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. ... Click to View



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The Squid's Ear

About The Squid's Ear

The Squid's Ear is an online music review magazine that is a part of the online music shop Squidco. Phil Zampino is the editor and publisher of the site. The Squid's Ear concentrates on non-commercial experimental, improvisation, avant-garde, and unusual musical styles. The Squid's Ear publishes reviews for releases on sale at Squidco, but written by independent reviewers who are not staff members of Squidco. Our writer's critical voices add to our customer's ability to understand the music that we sell, and to make good choices about what they might find interesting in Squidco's catalog. Our writers are paid for their work, and represent some of the finest in both the online and print publishing world.

For submissions, comments or criticism please contact the editor or mail:

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Attn: Editor
332 Shipyard Blvd
Wilmington, NC 28412
USA

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The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


HobbyHouse (
Mia Dyberg/
Axel Filip):
HobbyHouse
[CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)



Camila Nebbia (
feat/ Marilyn Crispell/
Lesley Mok):
A Reflection
Distorts Over Water
[CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)



Zeena Parkins:
Lament For The Maker
[CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)



Peter Evans/
Mike Pride :
A Window, Basically
[CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)



Eliane Radigue:
Asymptote Versatile (
1963-64)
(Amgen Records)



Uneven Eleven (
Segers/
Hawyard/
Kawabata):
Live In Brighton
(Discus)



Ilia Belorukov/
Alex Riva:
Wrestling For Futility
[CASSETTE w/DOWNLOAD]
(Notice Recordings)



Eldritch Priest:
Dead-Wall Reveries
(Another Timbre)



Jakob Ullmann:
Solo I/
Solo IV
(Another Timbre)



Ziv Taubenfeld Full Sun (
Taubenfeld/
Moore/
Buis/
Ku/
Chientaroli/
Heggen/
Govaert):
Nomads
(Full Sun Records)



Jurg Frey with
ensemble]h[iatus:
Je Laisse A
La Nuit Son
Poids D'ombre
(Another Timbre)



John Zorn (
Marsella/
Smith/
Roeder):
Nocturnes
(Tzadik)



Amir ElSaffar/
New Quartet:
Live at
Pierre Boulez Saal
(Maqam Records)



Amir ElSaffar/
New Quartet:
Live at
Pierre Boulez Saal
[VINYL]
(Maqam Records)



Santiago Fischer Diez :
Songs
(Another Timbre)



Rempis/
Adasiewicz/
Corsano:
Dial Up
(Aerophonic)



Fred Frith &
The Gravity Band:
s/t
(Klanggalerie)



Elliott Sharp:
Mare Crisium
(zOaR Records)



Ivo Perelman/
Nate Wooley:
Polarity 4
(Burning Ambulance Music)



Joe McPhee:
Defiant Jazz:
a Joe McPhee Taster
[VINYL]
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)







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