November 6, 2026:
The Harvest Sale, Halloween, an unwelcome visit from hackers, and a flood of new releases have made the last two weeks a blur. Fortunately, the music has been worth the commotion! This week brought a terrific batch from Pi Recordings: the vinyl edition of Henry Threadgill's Cut You Where You Was, Trio Imagination (Virelles / Workman / Cyrille), Miles Okazaki's Boomtown, and Marc Ribot's Hurry Red Telephone. From Out of Your Head came new albums by Stephan Crump, George (Webber / Rossy / Magic / Hollenbeck), and Janel Leppin with Devra Hoff and Chad Taylor, plus Brandon Seabrook's remarkable Utility Modern. Tao Forms delivered the latest James Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet release on both CD and LP. Already here and available next week: a substantial batch from Creative Sources, new Intakt titles from Punkt.Vrt.Plastik, Schweizer, and Co Streif, Nate Wooley on Discreet Archive, and a wild 1996 AMM performance on the cheekily named MatchlessLess label.
A big thank-you to everyone who shopped our Harvest Sale! You kept us busy packing orders early in the week and sending out rewards to eligible mailing-list members. That gives me a good excuse to say a little more about our mailing list and our popular reward program, which go hand in hand.
I understand why anyone would hesitate before joining yet another email list. We're tired of inbox clutter, too-I personally receive around 500 junk, spam, and phishing messages a day! When I started Squidco, I made a promise to our customers and to myself: we would never share our mailing list with anyone. We never have, and we never will. Period.
Our regular mailing goes out on Fridays, usually just once a week. Occasionally, we also contact recent customers with access to unadvertised sales and some of our very best prices. My goal is to make every mailing useful, informative, and easy to read-a way to discover extraordinary music without adding to the noise. And from the beginning, we've offered mailing-list members our reward program: each qualifying purchase of a new album priced at $9.95 or more earns a $1 reward. Over 21 years, we've returned $28,190 to customers in rewards!
Between checking that the hackers can't get through either our front door or our back door (seriously, go find someone else to annoy!), we've also been following the U.S. midterm elections with renewed hope. To me, the results send a powerful message to the Trump administration: many Americans reject the xenophobia and isolationism being pushed in their name, and want kindness over cruelty. I don't expect the next two years to be peaceful-there's plenty of political fighting ahead-but I do hope this marks the beginning of the end for much of the Trump agenda. And perhaps, at last, some meaningful accountability.
Squid Note Records Update:
We've had to postpone Joel Futterman's Love Theme from Spartacus while sorting out licensing for his interpretation of Alex North's beautiful theme. What should have been straightforward became an expensive and frustrating detour when one company insisted on a costly contractual arrangement-enough to make us consider shelving the album entirely. It felt as though they saw a small independent label as an easy mark, with little understanding of the scale on which we operate. Thankfully, better advice put us back on track. The licensing is now complete, the royalties have been paid, and the release can go forward.
I hope you'll consider pre-ordering this beautiful album, now scheduled for Sunday, December 6-one month later than planned. Squid Note Records is a labor of love, built around sharing proceeds with the artists while Squidco takes on the practical work and costs of licensing, promotion, advertising, and printing, including our 5x5 facsimile editions. Every pre-order helps us keep this kind of music coming.
Upcoming — December 6th, Pre-order now!
Joel Futterman — Love Theme from Spartacus
Two expansive solo piano improvisations on Alex North's timeless theme, transforming its lyrical melody through spontaneous invention and harmonic exploration.
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Philz Weekly Recommendations:
We've cataloged some exceptional music over the past two weeks, starting with two formidable working quartets. Chicago's Rempis / Abrams / Ra + Baker return with their fifth album-and their first in four years-a sprawling 2-CD tribute to Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge, steeped in the spirit of collective improvisation that made that space legendary. On the West Coast, the nearly 50-year-old Rova Saxophone Quartet-Bruce Ackley, Steve Adams, Larry Ochs, and Jon Raskin-continues to push forward with a new ESP-Disk release featuring commissioned works by John Butcher, Gino Robair, and Miya Masaoka.
 Rempis / Abrams / Ra + Baker: The Walls of the Temple Are Made of Sound [2 CDs] (Aerophonic)
Recorded at Chicago's Hungry Brain in December 2025, the long-running quartet of saxophonist Dave Rempis, pianist Jim Baker, bassist Joshua Abrams, and drummer Avreeayl Ra presents its 5th album, a 2-CD tribute to the city's creative music community and the legacy of Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge, channeling the shared history into expansive, deeply rooted collective improvisation.
 Rova (Ackley / Adam / Ochs / Raskin): Those Who... (ESP)
Approaching their 50th anniversary, the Rova Saxophone Quartet - Bruce Ackley, Steve Adams, Larry Ochs, and Jon Raskin - presents five adventurous works recorded in 2025, combining compositions by Steve Adams and Jon Raskin with commissioned pieces from John Butcher, Gino Robair, and Miya Masaoka, exploring extended techniques and imaginative approaches to contemporary saxophone music.
Burning Ambulance has two terrific new releases, both beautifully produced in substantial gatefold CD packaging. Michael Sarian's Esquina quartet draws on the electric Miles Davis era and the grooves of the 1970s, turning those influences into something contemporary, hypnotic, and irresistibly engaging. Fellow trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith takes a very different path, gathering recordings made between 2017 and 2022 with an extraordinary range of collaborators. The result is a compelling portrait of the breadth of his musical thinking during this period.
 Sarian, Michael (Liebson / Kenney / Ellman-Bell): In This Desert [2 CDs] (Burning Ambulance Music)
Trumpeter Michael Sarian leads his quartet Esquina with Santiago Liebson, Marty Kenney, and Nathan Ellman-Bell through seven expansive electric jazz explorations, blending processed trumpet, analog keyboards, effects-laden bass, and fluid drumming into hypnotic, psychedelic improvisations influenced by Miles Davis's electric period and the atmospheric textures of trip-hop.
 Smith, Wadada Leo (Courvoisier / Laswell / Gibbs / akLaff / &c.): Constellations And Hemispheres (Burning Ambulance Music)
Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith assembles recordings from 2017-2022 with Sylvie Courvoisier, Marcus Gilmore, Bobby Naughton, Lamar Smith, Bill Laswell, Melvin Gibbs, Pheeroan akLaff, and percussionists, moving between intimate acoustic improvisation and electrified ensemble exploration, with layered bass, distorted guitar, and expansive rhythms shaped through inventive studio composition.
Lithuania's NoBusiness label continues its invaluable excavation of free jazz and loft-era recordings with two albums from a previously unissued 1999 concert in Bordeaux. Drummer Sunny Murray, saxophonist Arthur Doyle, and trumpeter Rasul Siddik make an electrifying trio, documented across Incantations and New Light, both available on CD and LP. With two horns, drums, and no bass or chordal instrument to anchor them, the music can turn on a dime from fierce, open-ended exchanges to moments of surprising reflection. Murray's unmistakable drumming is both rhythmic foundation and a third melodic voice, constantly provoking and responding to the horns. These are essential additions to all three musicians' discographies.
One of the pieces on New Light is Don Cherry's "Complete Communion," which makes a perfect bridge to the extraordinary Sunrise on WeWantSounds. This previously unreleased live recording brings Cherry together with members of Oregon-Glen Moore, Paul McCandless, and Ralph Towner-musicians who shared his fascination with bringing jazz into conversation with musical traditions from around the world. This one is especially meaningful to me. I spent a great deal of time listening to Oregon and Paul Winter in the early 1980s, but had no idea these musical worlds had intersected in this way. Hearing them come together all these years later is a genuine pleasure.
 Murray, Sunny / Arthur Doyle / Rasul Siddik: Incantations (NoBusiness)
A companion release to New Light, this previously unissued 1999 Bordeaux concert recording reunites free jazz drummer Sunny Murray, saxophonist and vocalist Arthur Doyle, and trumpeter Rasul Siddik for five adventurous improvisations, including Doyle's "Goverey," navigating turbulent collective exchanges, fractured melodies, and open-ended rhythmic exploration.
 Murray, Sunny / Arthur Doyle / Rasul Siddik: New Light (NoBusiness)
Recorded live in Bordeaux, France, in 1999, this previously unreleased performance joins pioneering free jazz drummer Sunny Murray with saxophonist and vocalist Arthur Doyle and trumpeter Rasul Siddik in four expansive improvisations, including Doyle's "African Express" and Don Cherry's "Complete Communion," exploring fierce collective interplay and expressive freedom.
 Cherry, Don (w/ Walcott / Thomas): Sunrise (1977) (WeWantSounds)
Recorded live in 1977, this previously unreleased concert unites Don Cherry, Collin Walcott, and Leon Thomas in their only documented performance together, joined by Oregon members Glen Moore, Paul McCandless, and Ralph Towner, blending free jazz, African and Indian traditions, spiritual vocals, and expansive improvisation in a remastered edition.
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.
October 23, 2026:
Over the last two weeks, we've put considerable effort into reducing our overstock inventory, freeing up both shelf space and capital for an exciting wave of new releases heading our way. And what a wave it is!
At long last, Creative Sources is shipping its latest batch of 15 albums! We also expect to catch up with Out of Your Head Records over the next couple of weeks, with seven new releases featuring Stephan Crump, Brandon Seabrook, the band George, Janel Leppin, and more. From Pi Recordings, we're looking forward to the latest releases, including the vinyl edition of Henry Threadgill's recent album, new music from Marc Ribot and Miles Okazaki, and Trio Imagination (David Virelles, Reggie Workman, and Andrew Cyrille) on CD and LP. Also shipping to us today is the next ALAY release, Miles Davis' 2nd Quintet: Live 1967 in Europe.
In fact, our shelves are already filling up with albums that arrived this week. Our cataloger, Carl, has been enjoying a much-deserved vacation, so we're looking forward to getting these releases into the catalog early next week. Among them are four new titles from NoBusiness: Sonny Murray, Arthur Doyle, and Rasul Siddik's New Light and Incantations; Julius Hemphill's Rivbea Live! Series, Volume 5; and Ed Hazell's book Energy Center: A History of Studio Rivbea.
We've also received three releases from Burning Ambulance: Elisabeth Coudoux and Chuck Roth's Tomaten auf den Augen, Sbatax + Gross's Lapilli, and Sofia Borges and Yedo Gibson's Puxe Means Pull. On its way is Jason Kao Hwang's Second Life, featuring the trio of Hwang, Andrew Drury, and Ken Filiano. Already here is the new Kris Davis Trio album, Lost in Geneva, which I've found myself returning to repeatedly — an outstanding example of contemporary piano trio playing. We also have three new Relative Pitch releases to activate this week, with more details coming soon.
And there's still more on the horizon: Ava Mendoza's The Circular Train on vinyl and James Brandon Lewis' Red Lily Quintet with Calling Antonin are both making their way to us.
It's an extraordinary assortment of music, joining the many excellent albums we've announced this week and highlighted below. Between the new arrivals, long-awaited shipments, and remarkable recordings still on their way, our fall season is shaping up beautifully. The leaves may be changing color, but around here, autumn is positively bursting with sound!
Philz Weekly Recommendations:
Three albums from Satoko Fujii have topped my listening list over the last two weeks, each revealing a different facet of her remarkable musical imagination. Two are large-ensemble recordings, though strikingly different in character. Orchestra Berlin takes the more experimental route, combining acoustic and electronic instruments with the unexpected textures of newspaper used as a sound source. It's a wildly fascinating album, guided by a flexible score in which hand gestures cue sections and invite spontaneous responses from the ensemble. By contrast, Orchestra Nagoya's Korekara (meaning "from now on," "hereafter," or "starting now") is a spirited celebration of musicians and community, unfolding through a four-part composition that gives the ensemble's remarkable soloists ample room to shine.
At the more abstract end of free improvisation is Fujii's trio with no-input mixing board improviser Toshimaru Nakamura and vocalist Tenko, known for her collaborations with Fred Frith. Released on the Ftarri-associated label Meenna, The One Who Walks Through the Night ventures into a very different sonic landscape, where voice, piano, and electronics meet in unpredictable and often startling ways. More elusive than the orchestral recordings but no less compelling, these improvisations reveal the musicians' extraordinary command of sound, space, and silence, shaped by decades of experience and the kind of deep, intuitive listening that makes fully free improvisation so rewarding.
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Lazro / Leandre / Lovens:
Sandy Ewen / Damon Smith / Weasel Walter:
Jason Kahn / Phil Durrant / Mark Wastell / Caius Williams:
Paul Lytton / Eddie Prevost / Nate Wooley / Seymour Wright:
Sunny Murray and Sabu Toyozumi:
Eva-Maria Houben (Nate Wooley):
Masayo Koketsu / Nava Dunkelman:
Nicolas Gombert / James Weeks:
Reuben / Hanslip / Lash / Hession:
Ivo Perelman / Matthew Shipp:
