March 20, 2026:
Happy Spring to those in the upper hemisphere. And to those below, here's hoping your winter is less challenging than ours was!
This was a challenging week as we pushed to release our fourth digital album on Squid Note Records: Daniel Levin's At Dropa House, a solo concert that helped open the new location of Germany's Dropa House performance space. The concert is an exceptional example of Levin's solo work, incorporating his environment as he improvises using his powerful skills in both improvisation and chamber music, along with his witty use of paper, chair, and stage to augment his performance. With implicit lyricism and a sly sense of humor, Levin presents five numbered pieces of informed and fascinating expression.
|
Blending classical cello lineage with fearless experimentalism, Daniel Levin presents a solo performance recorded at Dropa House in Antwerp, exploring the instrument's full expressive range through extended techniques, resonant bow work, and theatrical gestures using paper, chair, and stage, creating a fluid dialogue between structured tone, abstract texture, and the physical presence of sound.
|
We're proud to present this album, and hope that you will help support both Levin and our fledgling label by purchasing a download of the album. You can do so at Squid Note's Bandcamp site, or through Squidco's website.
This week presented other challenges for me personally, as our order manager Carl was on a planned vacation, so I took over the order process for the week. If your invoice is signed "Thanks! phil" then you know I was a busy squid. In the midst of that and Squid Note, I also managed to complete cataloging on a number of great albums and generate our mailing list. You may notice a few changes to the mailing list this week, as I rewrote part of the structure to make the overall mailing less complicated and therefore smaller — it turns out that some of our mailings were being truncated by Gmail due to their length. (Please let me know if the mailing list looks strange to you at all!)
Regardless, here are my favorite releases from the week. I will point out that FMR is helping Frode Gjerstad, who is currently working through some health issues, by releasing a 39-CD box set of all releases Gjerstad issued through FMR. At less than $6 per CD, it's an amazing opportunity to experience the breadth of Gjerstad's work over the years.
 MacLean, Steve: Box Of Seven [7 CD BOX] (Recommended Records)
A 7-CD retrospective from guitarist and composer Steve MacLean collecting decades of inventive work, from chamber jazz-rock and electronics to playful sound experiments, including Frog, Bug, Guitar, Computer, the Steve MacLean Ensemble's GPS, the Chris Cutler-featured Year of the Dragon, the double-CD Bridges, Ordinary Objects and Other Distractions, and the long out-of-print Radial Circuit.
 Thunks, The (Harnik / Brandlmayr / Kern): Swarm Patterns (Trost Records)
The Austrian trio The Thunks — pianist Elisabeth Harnik with percussionists Martin Brandlmayr and Didi Kern — present a live set of playful and unpredictable free improvisation recorded at the 2024 Konfrontationen Festival, where prepared piano, inside-the-piano textures, and fragmented percussion interact in shifting, swarm-like patterns of spontaneous collective exploration.
 Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere: Theta Seven (Discus)
The seventh and final release from Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere blends krautrock pulse, psychedelia, textural improv, and free jazz into a vibrant studio construction, where Martin Archer and Jan Todd shape live ensemble recordings through collage, editing, and overdubs, guiding the music from luminous delicacy through darker passages before resolving in celebratory light.
 Levin, Daniel: At Dropa House (Squid Note Records)
Blending classical cello lineage with fearless experimentalism, Daniel Levin presents a solo performance recorded at Dropa House in Antwerp, exploring the instrument's full expressive range through extended techniques, resonant bow work, and theatrical gestures using paper, chair, and stage, creating a fluid dialogue between structured tone, abstract texture, and the physical presence of sound.
 Gjerstad, Frode: The Entire 39 CD Collection [39-CD BOX SET] (FMR)
Collecting every album Norwegian free jazz reedist Frode Gjerstad released on the UK's FMR Records, this monumental 39-CD limited box set documents decades of fiercely creative improvisation — ranging from intimate duos and trios to expansive ensemble sessions — capturing the Stavanger saxophonist's raw, high-energy style and deep engagement with the global free jazz and free improv community.
 Bucher / Tan / Countryman: Nothing In Between (FMR)
Recorded live at Tago in Quezon City, the trio of Swiss drummer Christian Bucher, Filipino bassist Simon Tan, and American expatriate alto saxophonist Rick Countryman deliver four extended collective improvisations, balancing Dolphy-inspired alto lines, resonant bass foundations, and fluid percussion in a dynamic set of spontaneous free jazz shaped through deep listening and long-standing musical rapport.
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.
March 13, 2026:
The last two weeks were a bit of a whirlwind as we took on the entire in-print Mahakala Music catalog to provide fulfillment for the label, along with our own retail and distribution sales. It was a fun project, filling in a few gaps in our catalog and coming to better understand this important label.
In the midst of that we also started the serious work for our next Squid Note Records release: Ivo Perelman's next Duolog release, here with Damon Smith in an album titled Core of Existence. It's a phenomenal duo album, and we'll have a lot more to say about it when we release it for pre-order next week.
Across the expanding Duologues series, saxophonist Ivo Perelman has created a remarkable body of work built on the most elemental structure in improvised music: two musicians listening deeply and shaping form together in real time. Each volume pairs Perelman with a different collaborator, transforming the project into an ongoing exploration of improvisational dialogue where structure emerges organically from interaction rather than predetermined composition. Critics frequently note how these performances sound uncannily cohesive — as if mapped out in advance — even as the musicians navigate spontaneous exchanges of texture, gesture, and intensity...
While we worked on that new albums started piling up, a few of which we managed to get to our "Just In" category, but the rest of which we deferred to next week. Those include new titles on the UK FMR label, especially the massive 39-CD Frode Gjerstad box; Gjerstad has been dealing with some health issues, and this box was released to support him during this time. There are 10 other FMR single CDs, including the long-delayed Brotzmann/Hubback EP, Udo Schindler & Uwe Oberg, Udo Schindler & Andreas Willers, a new Paul Dunmall quintet, A keith & Julie Tippett album, the Szilard Mezei Octet, and the trio of Rick Countryman, Simon Tan and Christian Bucher.
We also received the Cadillac album from the Mike Westbrook Orchestra: The Cortege Live at the BBC 1980, a good pairing with the recent Hat Hut related solo Mike Westbrook album on ALAY. Steve MacLean's Box of Seven is finally in stock, named for the seven CDs inside providing a great overview of his work. The latest on Trost are also here: Jason Stein / Marilyn Crispell / Damon Smith / Adam Shead; Rodrigo Amado's The Bridge; The Thunks (Harnik / Brandlmayr / Kern); and Nabelose (Elena Kakaliagou / Ingrid Schmoliner). The duo of Francois Houle & Georg Graewe on Random Acoustics is sitting on my desk along with the aforementioned, as is Jason Kahn's latest on his own Editions label, and sitting beside me is the Black Dot LP of the duo of Mats Gustafsson & Kjetil Moster Duo.
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.
February 26, 2026:
I always expect to pull together a blog entry each week, but some weeks are more challenging than others. Last week was diverted to the sale we ran in reaction to the historic winter weather the previous week that shut the city down for three days, along with a number of rescheduled appointments. Then, to make the current week more interesting, as I write this the second car in one month has died completely and is now in the shop having its engine replaced under warranty due to a defect that left me stranded on a Wilmington street waiting for a tow truck and deleting the weekend I expected to spend getting ahead.
That didn't stop some excellent music from coming in the door, though it did push back the release date for the outstanding solo album from Daniel Levin on our own digital label, Squid Note Records. Next week I'll have much more to say about that.
The cherry on the cake is the reissue and expansion of the excellent 2019 4-CD box set on Fou Records, now in collaboration with RogueArt: Derek Bailey, Han Bennink & Evan Parker (aka Company) — Topographie Parisienne (Dunois, April 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 1981). This time around the box set includes a second insert explaining that what was originally attributed to a one-day concert was actually spread over three days, leading to a reorganization of the tracks.
 Bailey, Derek / Han Bennink / Evan Parker: Topographie Parisienne (Dunois, April 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 1981) [4 CDs] (Fou Records)
The second edition of this essential box set corrects the recording dates and resequences the performances, as the trio of guitarist Derek Bailey, saxophonist Evan Parker, and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Han Bennink are heard across an amazing series of performances at 28 rue Dunois in Paris, France, in duo and trio configurations, exploring material similar to Parker's Topography of the Lungs.
We also worked on completing the cataloging of the set of Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Słuchaj!) albums that we received the previous week, particularly the latest trio album from John Butcher, John Edwards, and Marc Sanders, aka Last Dream of the Morning — Sharp Illusion. The collective album from Agustí Fernández, Artur Majewski, Albert Cirera, and Ramon Prats, Som-hi!, is also a Squidco Pick, as is the superb new album from Remedy (Thomas Heberer / Joe Fonda / Joe Hertenstein) with pianist Aki Takase.
continued...
|
|
Daniel Levin:
Eric La Casa / Jerome Noetinger:
Eri Yamamoto / Matthew Shipp:
JEM3 (JT Lewis / Elliott Sharp / Marco Cappelli):
Oakland Reductionist Orchestra:
Jean-Luc Guionnet:
Laura Cetilia:
Pierre Favre / Sergio Armaroli / Andrea Centazzo / Francesca Gemmo:
Jung-Jae Kim (Kim / Lee / Song / Kim):
Angles 11:
These Things Happen (Jackson / Hoogland / Roebke / Avery): A Gentle Reminder [VINYL] (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
