The Squid's Ear
Recently @ Squidco:

Ivo Perelman / Matthew Shipp:
Armageddon Flower (Tao Forms)

A summit of master improvisers as tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman joins the Matthew Shipp String Trio — Shipp on piano, Mat Maneri on viola, and William Parker on bass — for a profound studio session of dynamic, four-way conversation that balances drama with hope, forging a richly textured and deeply expressive work of improvised chamber jazz. ... Click to View


Evan Parker / Jean-Marc Foussat:
Insolence [VINYL] (NASHAZPHONE)

A collaboration between two towering improvisers — soprano saxophonist Evan Parker and synth/voice experimentalist Jean-Marc Foussat — presenting two incisive live duo performances from the 2023 Improtech Festival, paired with archival solo works from the early 1980s, in a release that bridges free improvisation’s enduring quest for expressive freedom across decades. ... Click to View


Alan Niblock / John Butcher / Mark Sanders:
Tectonic Plates (577 Records)

A formidable trio debut from Irish double bassist Alan Niblock with British improvisers John Butcher on saxophones and Mark Sanders on drums and percussion, recorded live at The Black Box in Belfast and unfolding across five tectonically inspired pieces that channel collective intuition, dynamic interplay, and seismic shifts of intensity and form. ... Click to View


Herzog / Muche / Nillesen:
Anasynthesi (thanatosis produktion)

Exploring the dissolution of musical form through extended techniques and microtonal interplay, and guided by the Greek concept of anasýnthesi (ἀνασύνθεσις) — meaning "recomposition" or "reconstruction" — the Cologne-based trio of Constantin Herzog (double bass), Matthias Muche (trombone), and Etienne Nillesen (snare drum) presents an immersive piece shaped by emergent sonic phenomena and a constantly shifting balance of resonance, friction, and form. ... Click to View


Nakama (Holm / Roysum / Tanaka / Wildhagen / Svendsen):
New World (Nakama Records)

A new quintet configuration from Norwegian collective Nakama, recorded in Oslo with clarinetists Klaus Ellerhusen Holm and Andreas Røysum joining Christian Meaas Svendsen, Ayumi Tanaka, and Andreas Wildhagen in nine pieces that blend compositional structure with free improvisation, post-production treatments, and dynamic interplay across chamber-like and explosive sonic terrain. ... Click to View


Solar Cells:
Warm Spell (Eternal Music Projects)

The debut from the Australian, Naarm-based electronic project Solar Cells presents a hypnotic exploration of modular synthesis and cyclic rhythm, drawing from kosmische traditions and minimalist structures through analog gear and tape effects to create immersive, slowly evolving soundscapes rich in texture, pulse, and experimental clarity. ... Click to View


Dream Weapon:
New Blue Lagoon (Eternal Music Projects)

Under the alias Dream Weapon, Australian visual artist Ben Björk crafts a lush and immersive sonic journey recorded over five years across five continents, blending ambient, new age, shoegaze, and field recordings into a tropical "AmbienGaze" soundscape that drifts from sunrise serenity to twilight unease in a single day's arc. ... Click to View


Juice Machine:
Yachats (Love Earth Music)

Recorded across two seasons in coastal Oregon, Yachats showcases the late Heather Chessman and Roger Smith as Juice Machine, sculpting fragile, tape-based electro-acoustic collages that blend field recordings, loops, and discreet electronics into seven immersive vignettes — each a poetic meditation on place, memory, and sonic texture. ... Click to View


+DOG+:
The Light Of Our Lives [2 CDs] (Love Earth Music)

A two-CD immersion in live experimental noise by +DOG+'s Steve Davis and core collaborators, documented across multiple U.S. cities in 2024-25, weaving together feral improvisation, layered electronics, ambient detours, and cathartic sonic eruptions into a raw and immersive journey through texture, intensity, and collective sound exploration. ... Click to View


Abrasion Addict / Animal Machine:
Split (Love Earth Music)

A raw and punishing split release from UK noise artists Abrasion Addict (Joe Fowler) and Animal Machine (Bohr Ernst), presenting studio and live recordings — including a 2017 Brighton performance — of unrelenting sonic extremity, where dense textures, abrasive dynamics, and fractured structures embody the visceral force of the harsh noise underground. ... Click to View


John Butcher / John Edwards:
This Is Not Speculation (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

A remarkable live recording from Einstein Kultur in Munich, reuniting British free improvisation masters John Butcher on saxophones and John Edwards on double bass in four expansive, detailed, and often breathtaking duets, exploring abstract soundscapes with razor-sharp interplay, extended techniques, and an uncompromising sense of sonic exploration. ... Click to View


Jerome Deupree / Sylvie Courvoisier / Lester St. Louis / Joe Morris:
Canyon [2 CDs] (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

Recorded at Firehouse 12 Studios, Canyon brings together four exceptional improvisers — drummer Jerome Deupree, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, bassist Joe Morris, and cellist Lester St. Louis — for a double album of fluid, high-stakes interaction, balancing volatility and restraint as they carve out richly detailed sonic terrain with spontaneous precision. ... Click to View


Izumi Kimura / Lina Andonovska / Dominique Pifarely:
Seven Dreams (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

Recorded live at Dublin's National Concert Hall, the trio of Izumi Kimura (piano), Lina Andonovska (flutes), and Dominique Pifarély (violin) weave a poetic and deeply intuitive improvisational performance, blending extended techniques and refined sensitivity into a dreamlike suite of tactile, intimate, and emotionally resonant sound worlds. ... Click to View


Lava Quartet feat. Almut Kuhne / Jordina Milla / Goncalo Almeida / Wieland Moller:
Ethereal Chant (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))

The debut from the international Lava Quartet — Almut Kühne (voice), Jordina Milla (piano), Gonçalo Almeida (bass), and Wieland Möller (percussion) — capturing the ensemble's dynamic interplay and fearless improvisation across two European venues, blending extended techniques, expressive freedom, and unconventional sonic textures in a deeply creative and spontaneous journey. ... Click to View


Joe McPhee / Susanna Gartmayer / John Edwards / Maria Portugal:
Monster (Klanggalerie)

Recorded live at the 2023 Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria, this powerhouse quartet of Joe McPhee, Susanna Gartmayer, John Edwards, and Maria Portugal delivers an electrifying set of spontaneous composition, blending fierce improvisation, commanding technique, and bold interplay in a dynamic performance brimming with vitality and creative approaches to improv. ... Click to View


Kim Jae Jung:
Shamanism (Relative Pitch)

A powerful and ritualistic session from South Korea's free improvisation scene, with tenor and soprano saxophones (Jung-Jae Kim & Sunjae Lee) and dual drum kits (Junyoung Song & Sunki Kim) channeling ancestral Korean shamanic ceremony through raw, primal energy, breath-driven phrasing, and a spiritual aesthetic that bridges indigenous tradition and contemporary free jazz expression. ... Click to View


Signe Emmeluth / Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten / Axel Filip:
Hyperboreal Trio (Relative Pitch)

Drawing on deep collaborative history and shared risk-taking instincts, the trio of alto saxophonist Signe Emmeluth, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and drummer Axel Filip deliver a debut of fierce, textural improvisation, recorded in Trondheim and shaped by dynamic interplay, shifting atmospheres, and a fearless drive to chart new sonic terrain. ... Click to View


Amy Cimini:
See You When I Get There (Relative Pitch)

The first solo album from West Coast violist Amy Cimini, blending amplified distortion, percussive textures, and spacious effects into a deeply personal and genre-blurring performance that channels experimental noise, tuneful abstraction, and the spirit of feminist rock and protest music into a resonant and evocative sonic journey. ... Click to View


Makoto Kawashima :
arteria (Relative Pitch)

A wild solo performance recorded at GOKsound in Tokyo by Japanese alto saxophonist Makoto Kawashima, whose intense and introspective improvisations balance fierce tonal expression with fragile silences, drawing from the lineage of Abe and Shiraishi while establishing his own haunting and highly individual voice in the realm of free improvisation. ... Click to View


Marco Eneidi Quintet (w / Johnston / Finkbelner / Smith / Anderson):
Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (Balance Point Acoustics)

A fiery and tightly woven 2004 quintet session led by alto saxophonist and composer Marco Eneidi, recorded before his move to Europe, with trumpeter Darren Johnston, guitarist John Finkbeiner, bassist Damon Smith, and drummer Vijay Anderson performing dynamic, sharply articulated compositions that balance exuberant improvisation with finely honed structure. ... Click to View


Eric Shorter:
Shorter Bendian Shields (577 Records)

A dynamic debut from multi-talented saxophonist Eric Shorter, joined by pianist David Shields and percussionist Gregg Bendian in a spirited trio session that replaces the traditional bass role with open, aleatoric freedom, creating an engaging interplay of spontaneous composition, expressive lyricism, and inventive harmonic exploration. ... Click to View


Ernesto Rodrigues / Ana Albino / Hernani Faustino / Carlos Santos:
A Glimpse To An End Of A Cycle (Creative Sources)

Recorded live in Lisbon in 2025, this quietly immersive quartet session from Ernesto Rodrigues, Ana Albino, Hernani Faustino, and Carlos Santos unfolds as a single extended movement of enigmatic timbral interplay, blending modular synth, electric guitar, viola and bass in a sparse, introspective soundscape shaped by mystery, fluidity, and subtle dynamic shifts. ... Click to View


Paula Sanchez:
Pressure Sensitive (Relative Pitch)

Recorded in Switzerland in 2021, Argentinian cellist and interdisciplinary artist Paula Sanchez pushes the cello to its sonic limits through six radical performances that merge acoustic and processed sound, combining cello, cellophane, and ring modulation to evoke a visceral, poetic, and at times merciless exploration of embodied sound and ephemeral transformation. ... Click to View


Camila Nebbia / Kit Downes / Andrew Lisle:
Exhaust (Relative Pitch)

Recorded live in Berlin, the debut from Camila Nebbia's working trio with Kit Downes and Andrew Lisle captures six dynamic, unrestrained pieces that navigate shifting textures and rhythms, fractured lyricism, and tightly woven interplay, avoiding individual soloing as the group explores contrast and transformation through raw energy, deep listening, and collective momentum. ... Click to View


Le Vice Anglais (Pires / Parrinha):
vas-y (4DaRecord)

A fiercely expressive debut from Portuguese duo Ricardo Guerra Pires and Bruno Parrinha, blending electric guitar, alto saxophone, subtle electronics, and noise-infused improvisation into a raw yet controlled exploration of sonic extremes, channeling the spirit of free jazz, punk energy, and avant-garde texture into six powerful and provocative pieces. ... Click to View


Marc Baron / Eric La Casa:
Contrefacons (Swarming)

Exploring the fragility of recorded memory and the processes of cinematic restoration, Marc Baron and Eric La Casa capture, manipulate, and recontextualize sounds from the Hiventy film laboratories, transforming them through analogue treatments and dynamic re-recording into a compelling meditation on representation, decay, and the shifting nature of perception. ... Click to View


Francisco Lopez :
Untitled (2021-2022) [2 CDs] (Bu Lang Tribute Cake)

A double CD of composed environmental sound works from Francisco López, assembling raw field recordings from locations including Tenerife, Eswatini, Israel, Georgia, Chile, and the southwestern USA, along with a film soundtrack and a collaboration with Felipe Otondo, creating immersive, abstract electroacoustic pieces with intentional silences and textural extremes. ... Click to View


Eventless Plot | Haarvol:
The Subliminal Paths [CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD] (Innovo Editions)

An intimate, restrained electroacoustic collaboration between Eventless Plot and Haarvöl, unfolding in two extended, meditative movements that explore a nuanced dialogue between piano, field recordings, tapes, and electronic expression, gradually revealing layered sonic detail and immersive depth through spacious, dramatic momentum. ... Click to View


Eternities:
Rides Again [CASSETTE] (Sacred Realism)

The duo of Katie Porter on bass clarinet and Bob Bellerue on electronics, zither, and feedback create rich, multidimensional drones through live performance, blending harmonic wind tones with resonant feedback and overtone manipulation in two expansive recordings from Berlin and NYC that explore the porous boundary between intention and indeterminacy. ... Click to View


Elka Bong (Margolis / Wright / Bouchard):
Without Walls (Love Earth Music)

Integrating live coding, field recordings, IFM synthesis, and an array of electroacoustic instrumentation, the trio of Al Margolis, Walter Wright, and Sara Bouchard craft an unbounded and exploratory work that embraces technological transformation and sensory disruption, channeling Marshall McLuhan's insights into a richly layered and prophetic sonic landscape. ... Click to View



  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!



The Squid's Ear
Facebook: Squidco Sales

Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Martin Iddon 
  Sapindales
  (Another Timbre) 


  
   review by John Eyles
  2022-07-21
Martin Iddon: Sapindales (Another Timbre)

Remarkably, Sapindales is only Martin Iddon's second album release in his own name, the first having been Pneuma (Another Timbre, 2014) some seven years before, although he has contributed compositions to other people's album, one notable example being Canadian-born clarinettist Heather Roche's Ptelea (Huddersfield Contemporary Records, 2015). Such a skeletal discography is particularly surprising given that Iddon has a long list of works stretching as far back as 2006, and an equally extensive list of performances of his compositions from 2011 onwards. In his defence, it is only fair to point out that Iddon is Professor of Music and Aesthetics at the University of Leeds and has written such academic books as New Music at Darmstadt (2015), John Cage and David Tudor (2015), John Cage and Peter Yates (2019) and John Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra (2020).

Where three of the five tracks on Pneuma featured voices, one of them having five voices plus glass harmonica, only one of the four tracks on Sapindales includes a voice - "Muses" (2017), a duo between Juliet Fraser's voice and Heather Roche's clarinet. In fact, all four of the Sapindales tracks spotlight Roche to the extent that the CD front cover gives her equal billing with Iddon. As well as "Muses", she is featured solo on "Ptelea" (2014) playing bass clarinet, and on "Tu as navré" (2010) in a trio playing bass and contrabass clarinets with her Apartment House bandmates Anton Lukoszevieze on cello and James Opstad on double bass. Finally, she is heard alone on clarinets for the album's 2020 title piece and longest track, on which she is occasionally accompanied by field recordings of birdsong made by Iddon in woodland near his home.

Iddon wrote the two solo pieces for Roche. He has said of "Ptelea", "although it sounds like a normal(-ish) solo piece, the notation is actually a polyphonic one; the clarinettist has up to four different lines to play at the same time, all of which are given in the form of glissandi. That's quite impossible, but the clarinettist is asked to retain as much of this information as possible..." Listening to that track and others, it is to Roche's credit that one never hears any traces of such complexities, and the flow of music is uninterrupted so that all four tracks feel like they belong together. In fact, Iddon's compositions and Roche's performances of them sound as if they were made for one another. Based on this evidence, we must hope that this collaboration will be repeated in future albums by the pair.



Martin Iddon: Sapindales
Is Sold at Squidco!
Squidco




Comments and Feedback:



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

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Kim Jae Jung:
Shamanism
(Relative Pitch)



Joe McPhee/
Susanna Gartmayer/
John Edwards/
Maria Portugal:
Monster
(Klanggalerie)



Signe Emmeluth/
Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten/
Axel Filip:
Hyperboreal Trio
(Relative Pitch)



John Butcher/
John Edwards:
This Is
Not Speculation
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Izumi Kimura/
Lina Andonovska/
Dominique Pifarely:
Seven Dreams
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Jerome Deupree/
Sylvie Courvoisier/
Lester St. Louis/
Joe Morris:
Canyon
[2 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Marc Baron/
Eric La Casa:
Contrefacons
(Swarming)



Francisco Lopez:
Untitled (
2021-2022)
[2 CDs]
(Bu Lang Tribute Cake)



Eventless Plot |
Haarvol:
The Subliminal Paths
[CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(Innovo Editions)



Akmee:
Sacrum Profanum
(Nakama Records)



Karl Evangelista Quintet
feat. Bobby Bradford and
William Roper:
Solace Angles
(Asian Improv)



Sveio:
Latent Imprints
(577 Records)



The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters (
Rasmussen/
Mitelli/
Rezaei/
Koenig):
The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)



Dan Brown/
Dan Reynolds:
Live At
The Grange Hall
[unauthorized][CASSETTE]
(Sacred Realism)



Matt Mitchell:
Sacrosanctity
(Obliquity)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
[VINYL]
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Mary Halvorson Septet:
Illusionary Sea
[2 LPS]
(Firehouse 12 Records)



Darius Jones:
Legend of e'Boi (
The Hypervigilant Eye)
[VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(Aum Fidelity)



Irene Schweizer/
Rudiger Carl/
Johnny Dyani/
Han Bennink:
Irenes Hot Four
(Intakt)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (29378)