Kassel Jaeger & Jim O’Rourke - (2017) Wakes On Cerulean LP

 

Editions Mego ‎– Editions Mego 223

Wakes on Cerulean brings together two musicians whose individual catalogs have long explored the boundaries between composition, sound art and electronic abstraction. François Bonnet, recording as Kassel Jaeger, approaches sound with the ears of someone deeply immersed in electroacoustic music and the traditions surrounding the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. Jim O'Rourke arrives from an equally broad history that stretches from free improvisation and noise to carefully arranged pop records and long-form electronic composition. Rather than emphasizing those different backgrounds, this collaboration dissolves them. By the time the music settles into its own pace, it becomes nearly impossible to determine where one artist's decisions end and the other's begin.

The title immediately creates a vivid image. "Cerulean" evokes a particular shade of blue associated with open skies and calm water, while "wakes" suggests the trails left behind by moving boats or the gradual process of awakening. Both meanings remain present throughout the recording. The music seems to drift across an enormous, open surface while continually leaving delicate traces behind itself. Nothing feels fixed. Every sound appears to create a small disturbance before disappearing into the larger environment.

The release is divided into two extended pieces, "Wakes on Cerulean A" and "Wakes on Cerulean B." Rather than functioning as separate compositions with sharply contrasting identities, they feel like two phases of the same extended landscape. The first establishes the broad vocabulary of the collaboration, while the second quietly shifts its balance toward darker and more ambiguous territory.

The opening side begins with remarkable delicacy. Soft electronic tones hover without obvious rhythm or melody, joined by faint textures that seem to emerge from somewhere beyond the edge of hearing. The recording never announces itself through dramatic gestures. Instead, it quietly assembles an environment where every small adjustment becomes meaningful. A sustained frequency slowly brightens. A distant harmonic layer drifts forward before dissolving again. Tiny details accumulate until the apparent stillness reveals itself to be filled with constant movement.

One of the album's greatest strengths is its refusal to separate electronic sound from the physical world. Certain textures resemble wind moving across water, distant insects or the hum of unseen machinery, yet none of these impressions ever become literal field recordings. The listener remains suspended between natural and artificial sound, unable to confidently identify where one ends and the other begins. That uncertainty gives the music much of its emotional depth.

Side B continues this approach while subtly changing the emotional temperature. The harmonies grow deeper, the spaces between sounds become more charged and the recording develops a stronger sense of internal pressure. It never becomes aggressive, but there is a quiet tension beneath its surface that distinguishes it from the openness of the first half. The collaboration demonstrates remarkable patience, allowing these changes to unfold over long stretches of time rather than marking them through obvious structural divisions.

Both artists share an extraordinary sensitivity to duration. The music never feels interested in reaching a climax or delivering resolution. Instead, it encourages prolonged attention to relationships between sounds. Harmonic overtones slowly interact, sustained frequencies shift almost imperceptibly and previously unnoticed textures gradually become central simply because the surrounding environment has changed. Time is measured not by events but by perception itself.

The production deserves particular attention because of its extraordinary sense of depth. Every layer occupies a carefully judged position within the stereo field while remaining part of a unified whole. Nothing feels artificially isolated. Sounds breathe together, allowing the recording to maintain remarkable clarity even during its densest passages. Headphones reveal countless tiny interactions hidden beneath the surface, while speakers allow lower frequencies to expand naturally into the listening room.

What makes Wakes on Cerulean especially satisfying is how completely it avoids becoming a display of individual personalities. Many collaborations invite listeners to identify which artist contributed which element. Here that question quickly becomes meaningless. Bonnet and O'Rourke construct a shared language that belongs entirely to the recording itself. The music succeeds not because two recognizable styles have been combined, but because both musicians willingly disappear into a common process of listening, shaping and responding.

Within both artists' extensive discographies, Wakes on Cerulean remains one of the most quietly absorbing collaborations either has produced. Its two extended pieces transform modest materials into richly detailed environments where subtle harmonic movement, carefully balanced textures and patient pacing become endlessly rewarding. The album never asks to be understood through theory or explanation. It simply invites the listener to enter its spacious blue horizon and remain there long enough for the smallest sounds to reveal their remarkable complexity.

Kassel Jaeger & Jim O'Rourke - 2020 - In Cobalt Aura Sleeps

 

 Editions Mego ‎– EMEGO 272

In Cobalt Aura Sleeps continues the partnership between Kassel Jaeger and Jim O'Rourke without simply extending the ideas explored on Wakes on Cerulean. Their earlier collaboration often felt expansive, allowing broad electronic landscapes to unfold with remarkable patience. This second meeting narrows its focus. The music still occupies large spaces, but those spaces are darker, quieter and more psychologically charged. Rather than gazing toward an open horizon, the recording seems to move through an enclosed environment where every sound leaves a lingering trace before disappearing back into shadow.

The title carries an immediate sense of atmosphere. Cobalt suggests a deep blue that sits somewhere between daylight and complete darkness, while sleep introduces a condition where awareness becomes unstable without fully disappearing. The recording inhabits that uncertain territory from beginning to end. It never feels unconscious, yet it avoids the clarity associated with waking perception. Sounds drift into focus, lose definition and return in altered forms, creating the impression of thought moving slowly beneath the surface of sleep.

The album consists of two long compositions that mirror one another without becoming symmetrical. The opening piece establishes a fragile balance between environmental suggestion and electronic construction. Faint insect-like textures, distant movement and low electronic tones gather gradually, but nothing is presented as a literal field recording. Natural and synthetic sound continually exchange identities until it becomes impossible to separate one from the other. A quiet hum might resemble machinery one moment and wind through distant trees the next. That uncertainty becomes one of the recording's central pleasures.

Unlike many electroacoustic collaborations that foreground unusual techniques, In Cobalt Aura Sleeps rarely calls attention to its construction. Every layer enters with remarkable restraint. Harmonic material emerges almost accidentally from overlapping frequencies rather than from recognizable melodies. Small bursts of texture briefly disturb the calm before dissolving back into the surrounding atmosphere. The composition behaves less like a sequence of events than a slowly changing climate.

One of the most impressive aspects of the collaboration is its control of density. Both musicians understand how little information is required when every sound has been carefully placed. Long stretches contain only a handful of active elements, yet those limited materials continue generating new relationships as the recording unfolds. A sustained tone acquires unexpected emotional weight after several minutes simply because another frequency has shifted around it. Time becomes an active compositional tool rather than a neutral container.

The second half introduces greater tension without abandoning the measured pacing established earlier. Lower drones begin carrying more physical weight, while higher electronic textures flicker with increased instability. The atmosphere gradually tightens. There is still no dramatic climax, but the recording develops a quiet sense of pressure that distinguishes it from the openness of the first piece. The music begins feeling less like observation and more like immersion, surrounding the listener from multiple directions without becoming overwhelming.

Throughout both pieces, the stereo image remains extraordinarily detailed. Sounds occupy different depths instead of merely different positions from left to right. Some textures appear immediately beside the listener, while others seem buried behind several invisible layers. This depth gives the recording an architectural quality. Rather than following melodies through time, the listener moves through spaces built from resonance, distance and slowly changing perspective.

The collaboration also succeeds because neither artist dominates the other. Kassel Jaeger's fascination with electroacoustic texture and O'Rourke's extraordinary sense of pacing become inseparable. Instead of hearing two recognizable styles combined, the listener encounters a shared vocabulary that belongs entirely to this partnership. Individual decisions disappear into the larger structure, allowing the music to speak with a single voice despite its dual authorship.

Repeated listening reveals subtle connections between the two extended pieces. Certain harmonic colors reappear in altered form, while familiar textures return carrying different emotional weight because of their changed surroundings. Nothing is repeated literally. Memory performs much of the compositional work, encouraging listeners to connect distant moments through association rather than obvious recurrence.

In Cobalt Aura Sleeps ultimately feels more concentrated than its predecessor. Wakes on Cerulean often suggested open landscapes stretching toward the horizon. This album turns inward, examining enclosed spaces where the smallest vibrations become significant. It rewards patience not through grand revelations but through countless microscopic adjustments in texture, harmony and depth. Every return uncovers another quiet relationship hidden inside its carefully balanced surfaces, making the recording feel less like an object to be understood than an environment that continues changing each time it is entered.

Loren Connors & Jim O'Rourke - 2009 - Two Nice Catholic Boys CD

 

Family Vineyard ‎– FV59

Two Nice Catholic Boys carries a title that sounds almost playful, even self-deprecating, but the music inside has very little interest in irony. Loren Connors and Jim O'Rourke recorded these performances during a European tour in 1997, leaving the tapes untouched for years before O'Rourke eventually assembled them into the album released in 2009. Rather than feeling like an archival curiosity, the recordings possess an immediacy that often disappears from long-delayed live documents. Nothing sounds preserved behind glass. The guitars remain restless, uncertain and remarkably alive, as though the conversations were still unfolding every time the recording begins. The material comes from the same 1997 tour that produced In Bern, but instead of revisiting familiar ground, this release explores different emotional territory using the same partnership as its foundation.

The album is built from three extended improvisations whose titles suggest places while refusing complete certainty. "Maybe Paris," "Or Possibly Koln" and "Most Definitely Not Koln" sound less like travel notes than fading memories of movement across Europe. The uncertainty fits the music perfectly. These performances rarely settle into stable identities. Blues becomes abstraction, melody dissolves into texture, quiet passages erupt into feedback before returning to fragile single-note lines. The listener is continually asked to reconsider where the music is heading because the musicians themselves seem committed to discovering that direction together rather than following a predetermined path.

Loren Connors has always possessed one of the most recognizable guitar voices in experimental music. His playing carries echoes of Delta blues, slow ballad traditions and electric improvisation without belonging completely to any of them. Individual notes often seem suspended in space long after they have been played, allowing silence to become as expressive as the sound itself. O'Rourke understands this language completely. Rather than filling the available space, he frequently responds by expanding it, adding carefully judged textures, sustained tones or heavily processed guitar that changes the atmosphere without overwhelming Connors' delicate phrasing.

"Maybe Paris" demonstrates this balance beautifully. The performance opens with rough sheets of distorted guitar before gradually relaxing into something almost weightless. One musician introduces a fragment of melody while the other quietly reshapes the surrounding environment. Leadership changes constantly. Sometimes Connors appears to guide the direction through a handful of lyrical notes. Moments later O'Rourke shifts the entire emotional landscape with dense harmonics or broad waves of overdriven sound. The performance succeeds because neither guitarist treats improvisation as competition. Every gesture becomes an invitation for the other player rather than a declaration of control.

The middle performance explores heavier territory without sacrificing that sensitivity. Thick distortion gathers around slowly developing phrases, creating remarkable tension between intimacy and overwhelming volume. O'Rourke has always been comfortable moving between noise and restraint, while Connors possesses an extraordinary ability to preserve emotional clarity even inside dense feedback. Their shared patience prevents louder passages from becoming simple climaxes. Instead, intensity rises and falls like weather, always remaining connected to the quieter moments surrounding it.

The closing piece is perhaps the most unpredictable. Long stretches of near silence encourage close listening before sudden bursts of amplifier noise tear open the surface. Even then, aggression never becomes the destination. After every eruption the music patiently rebuilds itself through sparse exchanges, allowing single notes to carry surprising emotional weight. The contrast between explosive texture and nearly whispered guitar gives the recording an unusual dramatic range without making it feel theatrical.

One of the album's greatest achievements is how naturally it balances abstraction with recognizable musical language. Listeners searching for traditional songs will find none, yet neither guitarist abandons melody altogether. Fragments of blues phrasing, folk harmonies and slow lyrical lines continually emerge from the improvisation before dissolving back into broader textures. These familiar references act like landmarks appearing briefly through heavy fog. They provide orientation without defining the landscape.

The production preserves the physical character of two electric guitars sharing the same space. Amplifier hum, string resonance and subtle changes in touch remain audible throughout, giving the performances remarkable presence. Rather than polishing away imperfections, the recording embraces them as evidence of real interaction. Every scrape, sustained overtone and moment of hesitation contributes to the conversation taking place between the players.

Two Nice Catholic Boys ultimately stands as one of the finest collaborations in either musician's catalog because it never depends upon reputation or historical importance. Connors and O'Rourke meet as listeners first, guitarists second. Their improvisations unfold through attention rather than display, allowing fragile melodies, fractured blues and towering feedback to coexist inside the same continuously evolving dialogue. More than two decades after these performances were captured, they still sound exploratory, generous and completely unconcerned with arriving anywhere except the next note.

Oren Ambarchi / Jim O'Rourke - 2011 - Indeed LP

 

Editions Mego ‎– EMEGO 021

Indeed is a remarkably understated record considering the histories of the two musicians responsible for it. Oren Ambarchi had already spent years transforming the electric guitar into something almost unrecognizable, building long-form works where rhythm, resonance and sustained tone became inseparable. Jim O'Rourke had travelled an equally broad path through composition, improvisation, production and experimental electronics. Their first duo album could easily have become a meeting of recognizable personalities, each artist displaying the techniques that had made them distinctive. Instead, Indeed feels almost anonymous in the best possible sense. Individual signatures dissolve into a shared language that neither musician completely owns.

The album is divided into two side-long pieces, "Indeed A" and "Indeed B," preserving the proportions of the original LP while encouraging each half to develop as its own continuous landscape. The split is practical rather than conceptual. Together the two sides behave like one extended composition viewed from different emotional angles, with the second quietly growing out of ideas introduced during the first instead of providing dramatic contrast.

"Indeed A" begins with a coarse electronic texture that briefly feels unstable, almost abrasive, before gradually opening into something unexpectedly warm. Layers of synthesizer, treated guitar and faint percussive detail begin collecting around one another with extraordinary patience. Nothing arrives fully formed. Every sound appears tentative at first, finding its place through interaction with whatever is already present. The result resembles watching a room slowly fill with light rather than hearing musicians announce the beginning of a performance.

That gradual emergence becomes one of the defining characteristics of the album. Ambarchi and O'Rourke never rely on obvious transitions. A sustained tone acquires new meaning because another frequency begins vibrating beside it. Repeating figures slowly change emotional character as additional harmonies gather around them. The music continually reorganizes itself without drawing attention to the mechanics of those changes. Time passes almost unnoticed until the listener realizes that the entire landscape has quietly transformed.

Although both musicians have extensive backgrounds in free improvisation, Indeed rarely feels concerned with displaying spontaneity. There is an architectural quality to the recording that suggests careful listening took precedence over individual expression. Every layer appears measured against the others. Guitar, synthesizer and percussion continually exchange responsibilities, sometimes acting as foreground voices before slipping back into supporting roles without disrupting the overall balance. The collaboration succeeds because neither artist attempts to dominate the conversation.

The middle sections of the album reveal an unexpected melodic generosity. Small harmonic fragments appear among the electronic textures, never developing into traditional themes yet remaining memorable through repetition and careful placement. These moments prevent the recording from drifting into abstraction for its own sake. Beneath the experimental surface lies a quiet affection for melody that has always connected Ambarchi's and O'Rourke's best work, regardless of how unconventional its presentation becomes.

"Indeed B" shifts the atmosphere without abandoning the same patient philosophy. Rhythmic movement becomes slightly more pronounced, though rhythm is treated as another texture rather than a fixed pulse. Gentle percussive gestures appear and disappear beneath sustained harmonies, giving the recording a sense of internal momentum without pushing it toward conventional structure. The piece seems to breathe, expanding and contracting according to its own internal logic rather than following familiar musical expectations.

The production deserves special attention because of its extraordinary clarity. Every sound occupies a distinct position within the stereo field while remaining fully integrated into the surrounding environment. Bright harmonics hover above darker sustained tones, tiny percussive details emerge from unexpected directions and subtle changes in resonance continually reshape the apparent dimensions of the recording. The music feels spacious without becoming empty, detailed without sounding crowded.

One of the album's greatest achievements is its ability to balance composition and improvisation so naturally that separating the two becomes almost impossible. Certain passages feel meticulously arranged, while others carry the loose unpredictability of musicians responding instinctively to one another. Rather than alternating between those approaches, Indeed allows them to coexist continuously. Structure emerges from listening as much as from planning, giving the recording an unusual combination of confidence and openness.

Repeated listening gradually reveals how economical the music actually is. The palette remains relatively limited throughout, yet the relationships between sounds continue evolving in subtle ways. Harmonic shifts, changes in density and minute adjustments in texture provide enough variation to sustain attention without ever disrupting the album's remarkable sense of continuity. The recording asks listeners to notice small changes instead of waiting for dramatic events.

Indeed remains one of the finest collaborative releases in either musician's catalog because it never treats collaboration as a meeting of reputations. Ambarchi and O'Rourke create an environment where individual identities become secondary to careful listening, patient development and shared curiosity. The result is a work that feels expansive without excess, restrained without becoming static and endlessly rewarding precisely because it trusts the smallest musical gestures to carry the greatest emotional weight.

Oren Ambarchi / Jim O'Rourke - (2015) Behold LP

Editions Mego ‎– EMEGO 176

 Behold is the second collaborative release from Oren Ambarchi and Jim O'Rourke following on from the 2011 release 'Indeed'. Seamlessly blending field recordings, electronics, guitar, drums and other acoustic instruments into a subtle combination of Krautrock, minimalism and classic free flowing electronics.
Side A takes the listener into the Fourth World adventures pioneered by Jon Hassell whilst the flip seems like an unlikely pairing of Krautrock aesthetics and the slow building repetitive structures of The Necks.
This is sharp, focussed contemporary music, one where minimalist motifs meet maximalist tendencies. Behold is another landmark recording made by two of the most enthusiastic experimental explorers active today..

Jim O'Rourke, Lasse Marhaug & Paal Nilssen-Love - (2013) The Love Robots

 

PNL ‎– PNL017 

The trio of Jim O'Rourke on guitar, Paal Nilssen-Love on drums and Lasse Marhaug on electronics in an album of beautiful psychedelic noise recorded at Gok Sound Studio in Tokyo.

"The most interesting of their latest collaborations is the one with guitarist Jim O'Rourke, who contributes classic Sonic Youth guitar noise to the duo's [Paal Nilssen-Love & Lass Marhaug] excesses. At the start, Nilssen-Love is a very economical: his usual velocity is reluctant, almost coy. The three musicians blend excellently with each other, Marhaug's electronics and O'Rourke's guitar effects are a perfect match - a combination of early Pink-Floyd-psychedelia and new music in the tradition of Stockhausen and Mario Bertoncini. Side A end with a magical moment that could go on forever. The flipside is rawer and more disruptive, Marhaug's evil static is a constant presence: the disagreeable and disturbing side of noise [...]"-Martin Schray, The Free Jazz Collective.

Oren Ambarchi & Jim O'Rourke with special guest U-zhaan - (2018) Hence LP

Editions Mego ‎– EMEGO 249

Hence is the third collaborative release from Oren Ambarchi and Jim O’Rourke, following on from 2013’s Behold. Building on the refined combination of electronics and acoustic instrumentation found on their previous releases, Hence presents two side long pieces combining synthesizers, heavily effected guitar tones, and tabla rhythms played by special guest U-zhaan. On the first side, an explosive opening chord sends out ripples of sparse, irregularly pulsing guitar and synthesizer tones, aleatorically changing in pitch and jumping around the stereo image. Combined with the tabla, which gradually builds in busyness throughout the side, the piece is like a dream collaboration between David Behrman and the Henry Kaiser of It’s a Wonderful Life, gradually overtaken in its second half by a swarm of lush live electronic sizzle.

The second side begins in a similar area, combining tabla, shimmering Leslie cabinet guitar tones, and a wandering melodic line. Undergoing a series of subtle variations, this initial area eventually builds to a climax of twittering synthesized birdsong reminiscent of Alvin Curran’s 70s work. As on the first side, Ambarchi and O’Rourke craft a piece that is both comforting and subtly strange, as the constantly shifting dynamics and changes of focus (which recall the flow of improvised music) refuse to allow the music to settle into any one moment for too long or to build in too linear a fashion. Combining influences from post-minimalism, the pioneers of live electronics, and eastern music into a unique sound world, Hence is a seductive work from two of the most singular sensibilities in contemporary music.

Oren Ambarchi - guitars etc
Jim O'Rourke - synths etc
+
U-zhaan - tabla

Recorded & Mixed at Steamroom, Tokyo 2016
Additional recording at SuperDeluxe, Tokyo, Nov 10, 2015 by Masahide Ando

Cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin, September 2017

Photos by Traianos Pakioufakis
Sleeve/type design by Stephen O'Malley

 

VA - (2019) Black Truffle at 10

 

Black Truffle – Black Truffle Digital 001

Oren Ambarchi celebrates his 50th birthday and a decade of uncompromisingly brilliant, diverse releases on Black Truffle with this mixed compilation of cherry-picked label highlights covering the gamut from Keiji Haino to Annea Lockwood and Oren’s classic rock-riffing zingers

The mix simultaneously gives and removes context from the material in a smart way by conjuring unforeseen connection between genres, eons and vibes, craftily connoting links between their mutual idiosyncrasies and disparate coordinates.
With an emphatic focus on bringing work by older, pioneering artists to new light, Black Truffle has become an invaluable, educational service with its myriad reissues of seminal (if niche) classics by the likes of AMM, Annea Lockwood, Keiji Haino and Giancarlo Toniutti, while also providing space for new work by pivotal figures such as Alvin Curran (last year’s ‘Criss-Cross’ is a blinder) and a platform for obscure gems such as the Paul DeMarinis archival dive ‘Songs Without Throats’ and the work of his close peers, cry cole and Joe Talia.
This 3 hour long, 27 track wide mix covers the full wingspan of the label and its owner’s immaculate tastes, with highlights in the likes of Ruedi Häusermann’s gunky jazz freak ‘Susanna I’m Blade’, the deliquescent touch of ‘Burrata’ by cry cole & Ambarchi, or Arnold Dreyblatt’s nerve-jangling ‘The Odd Fellows’ forming peaks in the mix and label’s wonderfully wild and expansive musical panorama.

 

Tracklist
1. Eiko Ishibashi & Darin Gray – Ichida Part 2 (excerpt) (05:37)
2. Alvin Lucier – Criss-Cross (excerpt) (07:47)
3. Keiji Haino – Milky Way (excerpt) (07:03)
4. Max Eastley, Steve Beresford, Paul Burwell & David Toop – Suffolk (B) (05:06)
5. James Rushford – The Body's Night Side B (excerpt) (08:09)
6. Massimo Toniutti – Lento & Antico (05:20)
7. Oren Ambarchi, James Rushford & Kassel Jaeger – Face (excerpt) (06:57)
8. Oren Ambarchi, Keiji Haino & Jim O’Rourke – Only Wanting to Melt... Part 1 (excerpt) (13:37)
9. David Rosenboom – Piano Etude I (Alpha) (13:42)
10. John Duncan – Mass (02:43)
11. Ruedi Häusermann – Susanna Im Bade (03:32)
12. Paul DeMarinis – Kokole (06:39)
13. Arnold Dreyblatt – The Odd Fellows (04:11)
14. Will Guthrie – Creeper (03:07)
15. Oren Ambarchi – It Ain't Humid but It Sure Is Hot (excerpt) (05:41)
16. Crys Cole & Oren Ambarchi – Burrata (07:00)
17. Annea Lockwood – Tiger Balm (excerpt) (09:15)
18. Crys Cole – Layna (excerpt) (05:53)
19. Alvin Curran – Natural History Part 2 (excerpt) (09:45)
20. Oren Ambarchi, James Rushford & Kassel Jaeger – Calling (excerpt) (10:11)
21. Giancarlo Toniutti – The Tree (excerpt) (06:58)
22. Eyvind Kang & Jessika Kenney – Thoughts on Being Exiled to the Frontier, for Lord Wei (05:15)
23. Oren Ambarchi, Phew & Jim O’Rourke – Patience Soup Part 1 (excerpt) (07:23)
24. AMM – After Rapidly Circling the Plaza (excerpt) (06:32)
25. Oren Ambarchi, Keiji Haino & Jim O’Rourke – Only Wanting to Melt... Part 2 (excerpt) (06:27)
26. Joe Talia – Clouded Night Part 1 (excerpt) (06:41)
27. Francis Plagne & Crys Cole – Two Words (excerpt) (10:32) 

Jim O'Rourke, Keiji Haino & Oren Ambarchi - (2016) 君は気がついたかな 「すみません」 という響きがとても美しいことに それ以上悪くしないように = I Wonder If You Noticed ”I’m Sorry” Is Such A Lovely Sound It Keeps Things From Getting Worse

 

Medama Records ‎– mr07

The remarkable series of releases from the trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, and Oren Ambarchi continues with I wonder if you noticed "I'm sorry" Is such a lovely sound It keeps things from getting worse, which presents the entirety of an 80-minute set performed at Tokyo's SuperDeluxe in March 2014. While the trio's 2012 performance was divided into two releases (BT 011LP (2014) and BT 012LP (2015)), the single extended performance presented here ranges widely over terrain both new and familiar, from acoustic strings and collective chants to thunderous power trio moves. Throughout all of its transformations, the music here is some of the riskiest and most abstract the trio have yet committed to record. Beginning with chiming percussion reminiscent of Haino's 1995 classic Tenshi No Gijinka, the first side is dominated by Haino's impassioned vocals and performance on the bulgari, a traditional Turkish string instrument. The end of the second side presents a special treat: Haino's first recorded outing on the contrabass harmonica, from which he coaxes bizarre, wheezing textures against a backdrop of spacious bass and percussion. O'Rourke and Ambarchi rarely adopt here the classic rock roles essayed on earlier releases. O'Rourke's bass, which takes center-stage surprisingly often, is sometimes so heavily processed by his array of pedals that it becomes a shifting electronic mass; at other times his roving chromaticism suggests a sort of fuzzed-out free jazz. Ambarchi spends much of the set exploring areas of tumbling free pulse; and even when he locks into a constantly repeated figure on the set's third side, he gestures as much toward Ronald Shannon Jackson's stuttering marching band funk as toward any classic rock moves. When the trio finally moves in the final quarter of the performance into an extended passage of rock riffing, the payoff is immense, as they craft a thudding one-chord epic reminiscent of some of the early Fushitsusha classics before Haino returns to the bulgari, bringing the set back to where it began. Continuing to explore new instrumental and dynamic possibilities while remaining grounded in the trio's previous work, this set also brings with it a unique pleasure for the non-Japonophone listener: for the first time Haino sings many of his metaphysically brooding lyrics in English. Gatefold sleeve with gorgeous photographs by Jim O'Rourke, designed by Stephen O'Malley. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.

Eiko Ishibashi, Jim O'Rourke & Riki Hidaka - (2020) 追体兼 / vicarious

 

Self-released ‎– none

Peter Brotzmann, Jim O'Rourke, Keiji Haino - (2015) Two City Blues 1 LP

 

Trost Records ‎– TR 126 

Peter Brötzmann: alto/tenor-saxophone, tarogato, clarinet, Jim O‘Rourke: guitar, Keiji Haino: guitar, voice, shamisen. Recorded by Yasuo Fujimura, 23/11/2010, Shinjuku Pit Inn, Tokyo, mastered by Martin Siewert, photos by Mark Rappaport Drawing & Artwork by Brötzmann. A giant two day meeting of three outstanding musicians! German legend Peter Brötzmann is one of the outstanding saxophone players in the current international free jazz scene, continuing to go on tour and release with various musicians.
————————
One of two different sets, along with Two City Blues 2 (TROST 128CD), recorded on one intense night at Tokyo's Shinjuku Pit Inn. A trio of three towering figures, German free jazz legend Peter Brötzmann, Japanese avant-garde wizard Keiji Haino, and wildly versatile American composer and musician Jim O'Rourke, recorded by Yasuo Fujimura on November 23, 2010. Brötzmann: alto and tenor saxophones, tarogato, and clarinet; Haino: guitar, voice, shamisen; O'Rourke: guitar. 

Haino Keiji, Brötzmann Peter, Jim O'Rourke - (2015) Two City Blues 2 CD

 

 Trost Records ‎– TR 128

Two City Blues 2 draws together three musicians of outstanding class: Keiji Haino is a Japanese vocalist and guitarist who has worked in a range of genres and with Derek Bailey, John Zorn and Fred Firth, to name just a few. Jim O’Rourke is a composer and guitarist who has made an impact on the U.S. improvisation scene. He has played with, amongst many others, Mats Gustaffson, Derek Bailey and Thurston Moore. Finally, Peter Brotzmann needs little introduction and remains one of the key players of improvisational music.

There are just two tracks listed on Two City Blues 2 (due January 22, 2015 via Trost), and they provide sections in which the themes are developed, stretched and thrown back and forth between the musicians. The first section, “Two City Blues,” starts off with recurrent themes, all deceptively calm. Each musician trials riffs and themes, largely set by the saxophone of Brotzmann before they merge and the piece develops. At times, the guitar sounds countrified and at others, metallic and eerie.

Over this, Peter Brotzmann instills order to some degree with repeated riffs and then, just when you get a little comfortable — about two minutes in — the voice of Haino screeches over the top of the instruments like a banshee. After a few wails and gut-wrenching, however the voice becomes as much part of the musical development as the instruments. Before long, all players are enmeshed in a bizarre interaction involving rapid thrumming on the guitar, manic overplaying by Brotzmann and occasional vocal interjection by Haino.

The middle section is largely led by Peter Brotzmann, soloing over the guitar and sometimes alone with ethereal echoes in the background. The use of the shamisen, a three-stringed Japanese instrument, and the Taragota both enrich the sounds — even as Haino’s voice acts as the backboard in many sections. There is a lovely talking section between sax and voice, as Peter Brotzmann creates his now-standard “pic-a-pic” voice, making the sax sound like Mr. Punch on a good day even as Haino continues interspersing vocals. By this time, the latter have developed into almost recognizable tunes. Then, of course, “Two City Blues” develops further and a maelstrom of sound is created using all instruments and a certain amount of electronic tweaking.

Part 2 is titled “One Fine Day,” and starts with a Peter Brotzmann solo interspersed with guitar. This develops into a free-for-all section, led by the sax and punctuated with Brotzmann’s characteristic long notes — which introduce a tag onto which the others hold and fly. Beautifully developed, this is short at just over six minutes but very, very sweet.

Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, Oren Ambarchi - (2013) まだ 暖かい内に この今に 全ての謎を 注ぎ込んでしまおう = Now While It's Still Warm Let Us Pour In All The Mystery

 

Medama Records ‎– mr04

Like the meme says, punctuation saves lives; likewise, crediting order clues you to process. The alphabetical name order on this trio’s first album, Tina Formosa, implied a non-hierarchical collaboration, and the sound-blending they sustained during that record’s instrumental passages bore this out. But let’s face it -- anytime Keiji Haino sings, he’s king, and he’s definitely first among equals throughout Imikuzushi.

The trio’s third annual collaboration is, once more, excerpted from a live performance in Japan. But instead of prepared pianos and electronics, they used the primary colors of rock: guitar, bass and drums. And while any combo that lets Haino’s sobbing, roaring, terrifying voice into the mix can never be just a rock band, these guys rock out quite formidably.

Whether your favorite power trio is the Minutemen or ZZ Top, part of what makes ’em great is their ability to simultaneously exploit the format’s simplicity and transcend its limitations. These guys do both. Each knows exactly what is required of his instrument. O’Rourke’s bass is often massive and monolithic; he spends most of the first piece – entitled “still unable to throw off that teaching a heart left abandoned unable to get inside that empty space nerves freezing that unconcealed sadness I am still unable to fully embrace” -- pounding out one note with unwavering precision and absolute brutality. But he also delivers gently exquisite counterpoint to Haino’s intricate, almost harpsichord-like guitar on the third piece, “invited in practically drawn in by something facing the exit of this hiding place who is it? that went in coming around again the same as before who is it?” Ambarchi’s drumming veers between precise beats and big clouds of cymbal smashing, but it’s always propulsive, and his shifts of attack exercise the same mastery of long-form dynamics as his recent, rigorously constructed solo album, Audience Of One.

O’Rourke and Ambarchi don’t always play it straight, though. Much of the enormous tension on “still unable…” comes from their careful shifts in and out of synch, which they manage and sustain with exacting discipline. And if you’ve been waiting for Haino to get his rock-god ya-yas out, you’re in luck here; there are plenty of stark, single-note solos blowing through this joint like dust devils down a ghost town’s widest thoroughfare. Turn the corner and they blossom into chords that contain orchestras. Whether it’s the djinn unleashed by massive volume or simply judicious marshaling of pedals, Haino usually seems to have several things happening at once inside every down stroke. He commands everything about him like some thunderbolt-wielding god atop a mountain, abetted by pitiless angels who know that their power comes from keeping him at the peak.

Keiji Haino / Jim O'Rourke / Oren Ambarchi - (2015) ここに 与えられた この身体 全部 使い切てやる という者の お茶の 時間 = Tea Time For Those Determined To Completely Exhaust Every Bit Of This Body They've Been Given LP

 

Medama Records ‎– mr06

"At this point, it can justifiably be said that Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi have become one of the leading groups in experimental music. This, their sixth release, presents the entire second set of the trio's March 2013 concert at SuperDeluxe (the first set is available on Black Truffle as Only Wanting to Melt Beautifully Away Is It a Lack of Contentment That Stirs Affection for Those Things Said to Be as of Yet Unseen). While the first set of the evening saw the trio branching out into new instrumental configurations, here they return to their signature line-up of guitar, bass and drums. The LP begins abruptly, with one of the finest performances by the trio captured on record thus far already in full swing. Throughout the course of this 12-minute piece, O'Rourke and Ambarchi lay down a thudding, meterless pulse, the impossible midway point of Milford Graves and motorik Krautrock, over which Haino unfurls a number of distinct strategies developed in his work since the 1980s: formless blurs of reverb-drenched guitar noise, looped pointillist fragments and wandering, dissonant lines obscured in clouds of distortion. Continuing Haino's habit of naming albums with phrases that seem to obliquely comment on the music they contain, it could definitely be said that this is music made by three people 'determined to completely exhaust every bit of this body they've been given.' Showing the trio at new heights, this track carries on in the spirit of some of Haino's greatest work: music made with the ingredients of rock that somehow manages to sidestep all of its forms and traditions while retaining and amplifying its fundamental power. If this track alone lays to rest concerns about whether the trio has exhausted the guitar/bass/drums format, the remainder of the record serves as a demonstration of the multitude of possibilities still available for their continued exploration. The three are now so in-tune with one another that almost anything can be integrated into their improvisations: in the slow-burning second piece, O'Rourke's heavily effected bass wanders from anti-music thuds to an almost funky passage with Ambarchi sounding not unlike Buddy Miles circa Hendrix's Band of Gypsys -- it bespeaks the hours of listening to fusion and classic rock that continue to form an important part of O'Rourke and Ambarchi's musical personalities. The final piece is a continuous side-long performance that moves through a number of discrete episodes, from vocal and flute solos by Haino delicately accompanied by O'Rourke's sparse bass and Ambarchi's sizzling cymbals, to a final stumbling dirge over which Haino unleashes a stunning torrent of in-the-red guitar skree." --Francis Plagne; Design by Stephen O'Malley with high quality live shots by Ujin Matsuo and stunning artwork by Norwegian noise legend Lasse Marhaug.

Jim O'Rourke, Keiji Haino & Oren Ambarchi - (2017) This Dazzling, Genuine “Difference” Now Where Shall It Go? 2xLP

 

Medama Records ‎– mr08

Oren Ambarchi’s Black Truffle label coughs up the eighth live document of his nonpareil trio with the legendary Keiji Haino and Jim O’Rourke. All considered, these guys are pretty much the tightest/loosest avant instrumental group out there right now, blessed with a time-and-space bending dexterity that allows them to fuse some half century of research in free jazz, out rock and kosmiche electronics into blinding new forms.

On the A-side they prowl like a pack of predatory animals hunting down a noble but tired old prey, methodically and precisely attacking and breaking down the lumbering body of rock music in an increasingly ferocious whirlwind of fanged guitar slash and tearout percussion until they’re bathing a strangely tranquil bloodbath. With the B-side they lock into a martial distortion drill around Ambarchi’s steady, Wold-like snares rolls and sky-collapsing harmonics with stoically unrelenting force.

Side C brings the trio at their most abstract, moving from near silence, perforated only by the shivering chimes of toy piano, spookily signing into he ether where Haino exclaims in English from somewhere deep in the unfathomable mix, and O’Rourke petrifies the air with ungodly, alien EMS synth voices that speak to us in the uncanniest way. All change again on Side D, as they broach the 4th wold thru some back door entrance, scanning its undergrowth with Haino’s flute, vox and guitar urged on by pouring tribal toms until hey lay waste to the scene with pure guitar napalm.  

Jim O'Rourke, Keiji Haino & Oren Ambarchi - (2014) ただ美しく溶けてしまいたいのに まだまだ満ち足りていないから まだ見えてないはずの ほうが愛おしく 思えてしまう = Only Wanting To Melt Beautifully Away Is It A Lack Of Contentment That Stirs Affection For Those Things Said To Be As Of Yet Unseen LP

 

 Medama Records ‎– mr05

"Begun as a one-off collaboration in 2009, the trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi has now become a solid working group, refining its craft through a series of annual concerts at Tokyo's legendary SuperDeluxe. Much of their recorded work has focused on their intense, ritualistic take on the rock power trio of electric guitar, bass and drums. Presenting the entire first set of the trio's March 2013 concert at SuperDeluxe (the second set will follow on Black Truffle later this year), Only Wanting to Melt Beautifully Away Is It a Lack of Contentment That Stirs Affection for Those Things Said to Be as of Yet Unseen is their fifth release and blows the instrumental palette wide open for a single continuous piece focused on acoustic strings, synth, flute and percussion. Featuring one of Haino's most delicate and moving recorded vocal performances, the opening section of the record takes the form of a spare duet between O'Rourke's 12-string acoustic guitar and Haino's kantele (a Finnish variant of the dulcimer), behind which Ambarchi provides a hovering backdrop of wine glass tones. While on previous releases the listener has often sensed that Haino was firmly in the driver's seat, here O'Rourke takes center stage with an acoustic guitar performance that takes the lyricism of John Abercrombie or Ralph Towner and refracts it through the free improvisation tradition of his mentors Derek Bailey and Henry Kaiser. The atmosphere of meditative, abstracted song is reminiscent of some of Haino's greatest recordings, such as the legendary Live in the First Year of the Heisei volumes recorded with Kan Mikami. After this stunningly beautiful opening sequence, the performance moves organically through a number of episodes, including a dramatic central passage in which Haino moves to synth and drum machine, crafting a current of raw electricity that unfurls slowly over the gently pulsing foundations of Ambarchi's cymbals and builds to heights of manic intensity. When Haino later turns to wooden flute, Ambarchi answers him with nimble hand-drummed percussion in a passage that calls to mind Don Cherry's liberated combination of free-jazz improvisation and non-Western musics. The trio's move away from the power trio dynamic bespeaks a risk-taking and questing spirit that refuses to be satisfied with repeating past glories, and yet the organic, immersive flow of this single improvisation attests to the intuitive bond that has formed between them over the last five years. Exuding the signature mystery and emotion of Haino's greatest works, this release is perhaps the strongest statement yet from this acclaimed trio, and holds out a tantalizing promise for everyone hooked on their continuing exploration of 'those things said to be as of yet unseen.'

Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, Oren Ambarchi - (2019) In the past only geniuses were capable of staging the perfect crime (also known as a revolution) Today anybody can accomplish their aims with the push of the button

Medama Records ‎– 009

For its 50th release, Black Truffle presents the ninth album from one of the label’s core ensembles, the power trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O’Rourke, and Oren Ambarchi. Drawn from a November 2015 performance at Tokyo’s now-defunct SuperDeluxe, the record’s opening piece drops us immediately into the maelstrom, abruptly cutting into an extended episode of Ambarchi’s pummeling drums, O’Rourke’s fuzzed-out six-string bass, and Haino’s roaring guitar and electronics. Eventually settling into a hypnotic bass and drum groove over which Haino unleashes some almost Ray Russell-eque skittering atonal screech, these opening 13 minutes act as a potent reminder of the trio’s power.
Alongside showcasing the steady development of a unique language for the guitar-bass-drums power trio, the group’s succession of releases over the last decade has demonstrated a constant experimentation with new instruments, which continues here with O’Rourke use of Hammond organ (played at the same time as his roaming, sometimes knotty basslines). On the album’s second piece, the organ plays a key role, furnishing a harmonically rich shimmer over O’Rourke’s angular six-string bass chords, Haino’s distant, chirping electronics and Ambarchi’s crisp cymbal work; arriving somewhere halfway between Albert Marcoeur and Terje Rypdal, this piece is undoubtedly a highlight in the trio’s catalog so far.
The second and third sides are slow-burning, multi-part epics that range from spacious reflection to furious tumult. Where the trio’s previous double-LP set — This Dazzling, Genuine “Difference” Now Where Shall It Go? (BT 030LP, 2017) — was primarily instrumental in focus, here you find Haino’s voice taking the spotlight on the expansive third side, intoning, wailing. and exhorting in Japanese and English over a backdrop that moves from hushed bass and organ atmospherics to rolling toms and cymbal crashes before arriving at an ecstatic finale of searing guitar, tumbling drums and reverb-saturated bass. The fourth side returns to the hypnotic grooves of the opening piece, fixing on a relentless riff and riding it into oblivion under Haino’s roaming psychedelic soloing and jagged chordal slashes.

Tracklist
1. In the past only geniuses were capable of staging the perfect crime (also known as a revolution) Today anybody can accomplish their aims with the push of the button Part 1 (13:49)
2. Decorously decorously decorously decorously decorously Decorously decorously decorously decorously decorously To make something beautiful and then to smash it decorously (09:45)
3. Head-on collision If it still has bones it shall move forward (which is different to progress) (19:01)
4. In the past only geniuses were capable of staging the perfect crime (also known as a revolution) Today anybody can accomplish their aims with the push of the button Part 2 (17:53)
5. I always walk around with a "tranquil void" in my pocket one that I may pull out at any given moment (17:01)

Total length: 1:17:29

Jim O'Rourke - (2012) Old News #7 2xLP

 

Editions Mego ‎– Old News #7

Side One & Two recorded 96-97 Steamroom, Chicago

Side Three recorded live in Nagoya at Tokuzo April,2011.
Thanks to Carlos Giffoni

Side Four recorded 93-94.
Originally released on These Records. Thanks to Andrew & Howard Jacques

More archival works from Jim O’Rourke seeing the light of day.

‘Welcome To The Django’ is 2 sided mid 90s excursion of O’Roukes first exeperiments with a Serrge modular system.

‘Natural Born Killers’ is a recent live jam recorded in Nagoya.

‘Tacere Fas’ is legendary early 90s piece finally available again. Orginally appearing on the compilation ‘Unentitled’ (THESE 011CD), released by These Records in 1994.

Jim O'Rourke - (2020) Shutting Down Here

 

Portraits GRM ‎– SPGRM 001

ReShutting Down Here is a special work. Symbolically, it covers a period of thirty years, between two visits by Jim O'Rourke to the GRM, the first, as a young man fascinated by the institution and his repertoire, the second, as an accomplished musician, influential and imbued with an aura of mystery. Shutting Down Here is a piece shaped like an universe, a heterogeneous world in which collides the multiple musical facets of Jim O'Rourke: instrumental writing, field recordings, electronic textures and cybernetic becomings, dynamic spaces, harmonic spaces, silent spans . This variety of approach, strangely, does not in any way weaken the coherence of the whole and this is the talent of Jim O'Rourke, a talent, properly speaking, of composition, where all the sound elements compete and participate to stakes that exceed them and of a common destiny, that is to say of an apparition.

Sote - (2020) Parallel Persia Remixes

 

  Diagonal ‎– DIAG057

Cutting edge innovators Rashad Becker and Mark Fell re-work material from Sote’s extraordinary ‘Parallel Persia’ album alongside a killer non-album track by Ata Ebtekar aka Sote himself. Highly recommended if yr into the complex tunings and arrhythmic geometry of Dariush Dolat-Shahi, Autechre, Xenakis...

Last year’s ‘Paralell Persia’ album took the trajectory of his preceding ‘Hardcore Sounds From Tehran’ (2016) and ‘Sacred Horror In Design’ (2017) to thrilling new heights for Diagonal. Turning traditional instrumental music inside-out with computers and modular synths, he arrived at a thrilling mix of sound that stood out as one of the year’s most original and striking releases.

Wrapped around the incendiary core of ‘Artificial Neutrality’ which features Pouya Damadi’s Tar and Arash Bolouri’s Santour sculpted into fiery folk futurism by Sote, the remixes by celebrated mastering engineer and improvising composer Rashad Becker and minimalist rhythmatist Mark Fell exert incredible new spins on Sote’s originals that remain faithful to the material in their inimitable styles.

Rashad Becker’s Dramatic Reenactment of ‘Pseudo Scholastic’ combs and curdles the original into 7 segmented minutes of squirming tones and melted rhythms that, through twists and turns, come to recall Korean classical court music and Florian Hecker as much as they recall the original.

Mark Fell, meanwhile, impresses with his quadruply extended 20 minute Parallel Yorkshire mutation of ‘Modality Transporter’, where he unravels its syncopated flex in endless permutations of laser-guided pulse drops, puckered strings and choral stabs that come to sound like Autechre letting off fireworks at a Dariush Dolat-Shahi show.

Celer + Forest Management - (2018) Landmarks

 

Constellation Tatsu ‎– PURR 0089 

Collaborating for the first time, Will Long and John Daniel combine their methods using tape machines, loops, and computers to score a reimagining of Peter Weir's film and Paul Theroux's novel "The Mosquito Coast". Sourcing inspiration from a view of the film and book as a historical pendulum, the musicians found that these reinterpretations left them nostalgic for a different time, something that's only partly imagined, and without the defined predictions about the life cycles of mass culture based on our limited understanding of current events.

Shira Legmann, Michael Pisaro - (2019) Barricades

 

Elsewhere – elsewhere 009

This album contains LA-based composer Michael Pisaro's recent composition 'Barricades,' a 63-minute piece for piano and electronics. Consisting of thirteen studies (piano pieces, some with electronics) and two electronic interludes, the piece is performed by Israel-based pianist Shira Legmann, with Pisaro on electronics.

"Barricades has a distant but decisive relationship to the keyboard music of Louis and François Couperin. The title refers to 'Les Barricades Mystérieuses' by François Couperin – and to the technique of overlapping, interlocking voices, creating a thicket or web-like texture. I have loved the music of the Couperins since college, but it was when Shira sent me some of her favorite music to play, and 'Les Barricades Mystérieuses' was among the scores, that the idea for this piece began to crystallize. The process of writing and working on the piece with Shira was one of watching the barricades, which I pictured as a network of twisted vines, unravel." (Michael Pisaro)

Legmann's clean, supple yet solid piano sounds, employing a wide dynamic range, add a sense of organic life to the composition. Her whispery nuances and mysterious atmosphere, intertwining with Pisaro's underlying sine tones, create a compelling balance between coolness and emotion, distance and closeness, and result in a tranquil yet captivating contemporary work with an echo of the French Baroque.

Long Distance Poison - (2020) Technical Mentality CS

 

Hausu Mountain ‎– HAUSMO 101 

Operating as Long Distance Poison, Nathan Cearley and Erica Bradbury manipulate modular and analogue synths into sustained drone explorations lasting just a few ticks shy of 20 minutes per track. Steadily releasing albums since the 2010s, Long Distance Poison combine a post-rock ethos with ambient drones and sequenced algorithms.

Technical Mentality is an affirmation of much of their previous work. The tracks manoeuvre from glassy sci-fi soundscapes to gritty machine electronics, all designed to suck out any free quiet space from our consciousness. Fans of ambient drone will appreciate the mostly relentless atonal forms that are subtly interrupted by harmonic complements.

In particular, "Sunset In a Server" simulates the inner workings of the machines that seemingly run our lives. The track finishes with a crescendo of harmonic content and sustained bell notes, only to return to the gloomy hum of electronic rpms.

Technical Mentality unfolds like a live improvisational performance. For the most part, the textures happily guzzle up frequencies, but remain fairly pleasant to the ear. There are a few moments where the longevity and amplitude of the notes seem almost unbearable, but noise and drone fans might just be looking for that kind of cerebral assault.

Christoph Waelkens - (2020) New England Digital

 

Vlek ‎– VLEK30 

New England Digital is proudly digital, containing 6 very different sound vignettes ranging from ‘style brisé’ FM harpsichord to abstract techno.
At times dreamlike and detached but never without solid harmonic or rhythmical interest, New England Digital evokes scenes from New England pastoral life during the early settlement years.

Christoph Waelkens is a Brussels based musician with a background in both classical and electronic music.

All music is recorded with the Yamaha TG77, Waldorf XT synthesizers and Emu Emax sampler.

Fly Pan Am - (2019) C'est ça CD

 

Constellation ‎– CST147 

C'est ça marks the return of Montréal avant-rock quartet Fly Pan Am, who released an acclaimed series of albums in Constellation's early years, from 1999-2004. The band’s unique and heady collision of motorik repetition, shoegaze maximalism, punk skronk, tape- and electronic-based interventions and audio sabotage, garnered them a cult following among fans of audaciously deconstructed post-rock.

Fly Pan Am quietly reunited in late 2017 for purely artistic reasons (needless to say), to explore making new music together after more than a decade spent in pursuit of separate sonic adventures. Within weeks, it was clear the band was firing on all cylinders again, brimming with electricity and eager to pick up where they’d left off with their last album N’écoutez pas back in 2004: pushing further into full-spectrum intersections of noise pop, post-punk, power electronics and musique concrète, while continuing to incorporate shrouded, textural vocals as alternately melodic and visceral components.

C'est ça is a brilliant return to form for Fly Pan Am – an album of renewed vitality and experimentation where rock structures underpinned by J.S. Truchy’s trademark rapid-fire bass and Félix Morel’s disciplined, ascetic drumming are submerged beneath waves of processed guitar by Roger Tellier-Craig and Jonathan Parant, with fluorescent noise treatments and sonic vandalisms wrought by all four. “Distance Dealer”, “Each Ether” and “Interface Your Shattered Dreams” nod to important influences like MBV and Hüsker Dü, while collapsing into/out of themselves in various ways. “One Hit Wonder”, “Bleeding Decay” and “Discreet Channeling” vault some of Fly Pan Am’s earliest reference points into the present: namely, the intrepid proto-Kosmiche of This Heat and Can, and later style-adjacent torchbearers like Boredoms, Flying Saucer Attack and Trans Am.

But Fly Pan Am have always and reliably been much more than the sum of their influences and of their own constituent parts. C’est ca is terrific slab of restless, conceptual, psych-cosmic noise rock that could come from no other band, forged by four musicians with long histories both together and apart. Following years of sonic exploration in all sorts of other projects and guises, whether in rock/punk/pop groups like Pas Chic Chic, Feu Thérèse, Avec Le Soleil Sortant De Sa Bouche and Panopticon Eyelids (to name just a few) or through a wide range of experimental electronic and audio-art projects – including Roger Tellier Craig and J.S. Truchy each with solo releases on Root Strata, and Truchy having run the Los Discos Enfantasmes label for several years – Fly Pan Am have reconvened with all four original members and made a new record sparkling with the creative buzz of lifelong artistic intensity, dialogue and friendship.

Ikuro Takahashi - (2019) しりえないものとずっと

 

An'archives ‎– [An'16]

Legendary drummer, Ikuro Takahashi played in most of the important bands of the psychedelic underground Japanese scene : Keiji Haino’s Fushitsusha, Seishokki, High Rise, Ché-Shizu, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Kousokuya, LSD March and Nagisa Ni Te, but also with Junzo Suzuki, Tamio Shiraishi, Akiko Hotaka and many others, making it difficult to write a comprehensive list. Ikuro does not make a distinction between the young musicians with whom he collaborates, and the big names of the underground behind whom he brings an enveloping rhythm, like the wind blowing through a bamboo forest.
A native of Hokkaï do, born in 1957, exiled in downtown Tokyo, Ikuro Takahashi lived there for a while before settling back in Sapporo with his partner, dancer Yoko Muronoi, starting the Anoyonodekigoto project together. All pieces gathered here were composed for their duo shows. Yoko Moronoi was reunited with the shadows of her ancestors in 2017, leaving Ikuro alone in the world of the living. This record appears as the last flower laid at the shrine of her dance.
This album gathers 7 tracks, most of which were built from an overlay of oscillators, music boxes and metronomes. Sometimes it recalls Takehisa Kosugi’s pieces, a common way of unfolding time and space, of making our perception float. A common saving of gesture, of concept. Ikuro Takahashi is like a weaver trapping our listening in his electric wires, dragging us in a flux of rhythmic, fluid, circular patterns.
Ikuro Takahashi is like these shamans summoning our shadows, our ghosts, to make the living core within us sing.

Dave Phillips - (2020) Post Homo Sapiens

 

Attenuation Circuit ‎– ACU 1017

Screeching, prying dark ambient assembled from ghostly hums, booming percussion, and various field recordings. It’s a testament to post homo sapiens’ power and sublime instrumentation that, even though it clocks in at over an hour in its entirety, I never fail to become completely transfixed by it, unable to look away from its first cry to its final death rattles. If I were in a score-giving mood it would probably get my highest rating. There isn’t much I feel compelled to say about it here; I think the music does the talking. As the release page says: “PLAY LOUD as one listening session.”

Listen if: you’re on an elevator, going up, somewhere: where? It doesn’t matter. On each floor, the doors open and close. No one gets on with you; nothing stirs the void beyond the doors. You don’t get off, either; you’re not sure how, but you know that you have a long way to go before you reach your destination.

Joan of Arc - Tim Melina Theo Bobby LP

 

Joyful Noise Recordings ‎– JNR353 

Tim Melina Theo Bobby, the last album by Joan of Arc, plays as if Tim Kinsella, Melina Ausikaitis, Theo Katsaounis, and Bobby Burg sat down to compile their greatest hits, remembered they aren’t the kind of band that writes hits, and decided to try out a little bit of everything. There’s an effective literalism to this approach: If you’ve ever liked a Joan of Arc song, then you’ll almost certainly like some of these. And if you didn’t, then track 1 sounds exactly like American Football—talk about an instant crowd pleaser.

This is how a lot of people first come to Joan of Arc, of course: Via the most memed house in Champaign-Urbana, tracing the ways Tim Kinsella and his younger brother Mike’s musical careers have crisscrossed since Cap’n Jazz, the inventive and influential emo band they founded as teenagers. Joan of Arc’s anxious deadpan meandering and virtuoso weirdness can be a more acquired taste, and there’s a lot to acquire—they’ve released 20-some albums in the past 20 years. No two are especially alike, except for the constant presence of Tim Kinsella and a spirit of diffident, digressive unpredictability. And now it’s over.

As an album, Tim Melina Theo Bobby is maybe even less concerned than usual with coherence, which tends to create the atmosphere of a singles collection. If there’s a unifying theme, it’s about time and boundaries, the things that separate concepts like then and now or you and me. Musically, this can sound like a walk through Joan of Arc’s tangly, overgrown garden: the sawtoothed strums of “Karma Repair Kit” (“I got a lot of good to do/To possibly come out even”), the moodier reflecting pool of “Creature and Being,” the wet-noodle synth of “Land Surveyor.” Over the motorik groove of “Cover Letter,” Kinsella reviews his résumé, How to With John Wilson-style, reflecting on the many, many other jobs he’s performed in service to music: “I prepared various coffee drinks/And I waited tables stoned…/Afternoon shift selling businessmen porn in order to keep the shelves stocked with underground and foreign art films/And I wrote songs.” The hustle sounds like a drag; the song doesn’t, which is where the pathos comes in.

But Joan of Arc have always been a band of multiple simultaneous perspectives—never more than now, when Kinsella and Ausikaitis divide lead vocal duties. As a medium for undermining literal meaning, Ausikaitis is unrivaled; her lyrics can be funny, visceral, or morbid but always mysterious and absurd. “Another role where the movie ends, nice/It’s a natural conclusion that people can buy,” she sings at the top of “Feedback 3/4” (sounds just like the name says). I picture her reading film scripts, reaching for galaxy-brained director questions like But what is ending, actually? and So if this is ending, then what is life? Her riddles make for really good songs, like standout “Something Kind,” where a creeping, knotted guitar melody escalates to a noisy window.

The Revolutionary Army Of The Infant Jesus - (2013) After The End 3xCD

 

 Infrastition ‎– End 016

A limited edition, 3-CD box set of The Revolutionary Army Of The Infant Jesus's "The Gift Of Tears" (1987, Probe Plus), "Mirror" (1990, Probe Plus), and "A Rumour Of Angels" which appears to be unique to this box set: the first cut is from a VA compilation, Jekura - Deep The Eternal Forest; 2, 3 & 4 are from the EP, La Liturgie Pour La Fin Du Temps; 5, 6 &7 are from the EP Paradis (and cuts 6 & 7 were mislabeled in production with 7 being 6 and 6 being 7; 8 & 9 are from "Beauty Will Save The World."

This is similar to the 1994 compilation on Apocalyptic Vision with the exception which had only two disks and took three songs from La Liturgie Pour La Fin Du Temps to round out the second disk.

"After The End" is a remastered compilation.

--

When The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus turned up in the late-’80s Liverpool underground with The Gift of Tears, the critical lexicon to describe their sound didn’t quite exist. European folk influences are infused by Eastern Orthodox spirituality, industrial cacophony, disco beats, post-punk angularity and jazz rhythms. A quarter century later, we know RAIJ can be at least loosely associated with the apocalyptic folk movement of acts such as Current 93, Death In June, Dead Can Dance, Caroliner and Wovenhand.

But RAIJ reside even on the perimeter of that fold, not only for the imagery they invoke, but the enigma lying at their heart: no personnel listings, limited edition releases, not exactly reams to be read about them on the web and the way their disparate sound coheres over the course of an album as an enveloping, immersive experience transporting the listener to an alternate reality, where plainsong and operatic flights of vocal fancy met tribal drums, didgeridoo and some of the harshest of synth sounds.

After The End’s three CDs collect Gift and everything else RAIJ studio recorded (including two new tracks) in packaging handsome enough to pass for a Harmonia Mundi compilation of pre-Baroque classical music. The only things that might have made this more wonderful would have been lyrics, reminiscences from the Army themselves, a longer booklet essay and a video of at least one of their rare, multimedia-abetted concerts. But any more than what’s here might dissipate the mystery that’s always been a goodly percentage of The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus raison d’être.
 

Dan Oxenberg, Bear Galvin + Friends (Pillow Mt. Conspiracy) ‎- (2019) Early Abstractions. Vol. 1 LP

 

Feeding Tube Records ‎– FTR454 

Three:four Records (Switzerland) and Feeding Tube Records (USA) are pleased to announce the release of Early Abstractions, Vol. 1 by Danny Oxenberg (Supreme Dicks), Bear Galvin, and Friends (Pillow Mt. Conspiracy). "Early Abstractions, Vol. 1" is the follow-up to their 2016 release "Late Superimpositions" (three:four records), and contains recordings made in New York, Western Massachusetts, and Los Angeles…some old, some older, some relatively new, some borrowed, some blue. The album was produced by Maxime Guitton, with original art by Hippolyte Hentgen and design/layout by Darryl Norsen.

Of their previous release "Late Superimpositions", Sing Sing wrote: “Ce que ce duo flou ramène de telles pérégrinations est comme la carte brûlée d'un territoire authentiquement sauvage où mélodies radieuses et dissonances plus ou moins consenties, bruit lymphatique et lyrisme enroué, mélancolie indélébile et profusion d’épiphanies s'entrecroisent, s'échangent et se relancent pour mettre en branle quelque chose comme de la grâce…une raison supplémentaire de croire que les fantômes sont parmi nous et qu'ils n'en finissent plus de mourir d'amour.” (Translation: This hazy duet brings back from such peregrinations what sounds like the burnt map of an authentically savage territory, where radiant melodies and more or less agreed upon dissonances, lymphatic noise and hoarse lyricism, indelible melancholy and profuse epiphanies cross, substitute and rekindle each other, setting in motion something that could be grace…one more reason to believe that ghosts are among us and that they can’t stop dying of love.). Marc Masters (The Out Door: 200 words) wrote: “Subdued and patient, these simple, guitar-weaved tunes keep tilting to the side, wobbling away from the straight path into the weeds of something more interesting. They’re also just plain gorgeous…”  

CVN - (2019) I​.​C. LP

 

Orange Milk Records ‎– none

Japan’s Nobuyuki Sakuma is a prolific artist; formerly of the Jesse Ruins duo on the Captured Tracks label, he now shifts time between his electronic music project CVN, curating the mix series Grey Matter Archives, and chief editor duties at Avyss Magazine. “I.C.” will be his second album for Orange Milk as CVN, and it is an eclectic hybrid of beat music and abstract electronics. There is a searching quality in his music, with leaps in variation from track to track that are meant to elicit the mutating feelings of walking through Tokyo.

The first track 成分 Seibun is a calm pop song featuring Japanese vocalist NTsKi, and feels like an initial encounter with nocturnal cityscapes. As the album progresses a stranger Japanese electronic music culture begins to emerge, referencing artists like good friend Foodman and label partner Koeosaeme with irreverent assertions of anti-genre music making. Tracks like “Snippets of Heaven” are reminiscent of music on the labels PAN or Halcyon Veil, cryptic and sparse with random industrial beats and scraping metal. “舌下 (Karaoke)” is a more forlorn piece with straightforward rhythm and deeply effecting use of repetition. Sakuma states that he lets mood dominate his track making and does not care if this transitioning emotion fits into a cohesive style. The skill of harnessing the random nature of each tracks aesthetic is impressive, resulting in an exciting record that faithfully documents its creators place and time.

Félicia Atkinson - (2018) Coyotes

 

Geographic North ‎– GN49

Félicia Atkinson is a composer, sculptor, painter, poet, and publisher from Rennes, France. Atkinson has led a fruitfully fantastic run of eerily blissful, serenely euphoric sounds. Whether under her own name or via her defunct recording pseudonym Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier, Atkinson has released work on Umor Rex, Digitalis Limited, Aguirre, and Shelter Press, an imprint co-run with Bartolomé Sanson.

‘Coyotes’ is an EP inspired by Atkinson’s last voyage to New Mexico in February 2017, when she visited and took in the geographic landscapes from Taos to Ghost Ranch. The same vistas also inspired much of Agnes Martin’s and Georgia O’Keefe’s painting, as well as Jerome Rothenberg’s poetry and translation’s works.

Atkinson describes a ‘Coyotes’ as a “Carnet de Voyage,” a tape you could directly play in your car while traveling somewhere, a kind of imaginary map to a sentimental journey. A spontaneous gesture, close to the notion of gift or offering. Or, simply, a postcard to a friend.” But it’s also a praise to the conservation of national and state parks and its human and non-human souls, menaced as we know now by drilling and violent economic speculations.

Here, coyotes act as a kind of metaphor of ambiguity and doubt, a state of mind that Atkinson find interesting to transcribe musically; the ambiguity furthered by Atkinson as a literal “foreigner” in New Mexico. She conveys a sense of visiting these native sacred lands and wondering what you are doing there.

Musically, ‘Coyotes’ is composed of two long tracks, “Abiqiu” and “Lighter Than Aluminium.” Each track features an effervescent froth of piano, midi sounds evokes marimbas, Fender Rhodes, bells, sub-basses, and spoken word poetry written by the musician to display a melancholic landscape made of transparent but deep layers of pale colors and blurry lines.

Liz Durette - (2020) Delight LP

 

 Feeding Tube Records ‎– FTR504 

"A very whacked new outing from Baltimore keyboard genius Liz Durette. Her earlier albums had a certain avant jazz approach, tempered perhaps by certain new music proclivities. And while I do not doubt she still has the chops for such things, Delight is a horse of an entirely different color. What's here was all done on keyboards, but at times it sounds like insane calliope music for wicked children with a taste for that old waltz beat. The whole first side could be the soundtrack for a surreal film about dead Viennese courtiers high-stepping their way around the Bardo as though it were a hedge maze. The more I listen to the record, the more circular its matrix appears, and the less certain I am of the direction in which gravity is pulling me. No surprise then, to learn that part of Delight's inspiration was drawn from A Genuine Tong Funeral, Gary Burton's amazing '68 LP, comprised of a full set of Carla Bley's wildest early compositions. On the flip, Durette is in a similar fettle, but seems keener on exploring the faux percussive aspects of her 'axe.' This involves the simulation of little people tap dancing on a xylophone, as well as very many other transgressive-if-meditative sonic activities. And they are all done with such flair and attention to detail you really have to wonder what sort of visions Liz has accessed. They seem to exist somewhere between romance and math. The universe of sounds she creates on Delight is wildly complex, but also it appears to operate by a set of congruous rules throughout. Like I said earlier, GENIUS!"

Dan Melchior & Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson - (2019) Cod War Kids CD

 

Some – none 

 A deep and delicate dive into the psyche of an unusual duo, British-born ex-pat North Carolinian guitarist Dan Melchior & Icelandic-born Hanover-based experimentalist Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson. Each quite unique on their own accord, but in combination bring a sound reminiscent of some odd combination of church music, the Deep South, some kind of swampy bluegrass, the Phantom of the Opera — really it’s hard to pinpoint where they might go. But through the whispering murmurs, the twang and fleeting harmonica is a true exploration of darkened corners. It’s as if they’ve awoken the ghosts of the old Gentry, and put them on someone’s front stoop to haunt the neighborhood.

Titles such as Blind Curtains & Curious Eyes and More Exclusive Dramatic Moments show a completely wry side to a sound that meanders in the furthermost corners. On the first of these the duo sets off an alarm of sorts that blisters through a somewhat unsettled, dusty setting. The unfixed feel of ‘anything could happen’ breeds excitement. Between whispers in retreat and an inebriated drone lies open space and tormented quietude. The moodiness shifts from the hushed hallows to mock-rock with scintillating guitar fuzz spilled all over Wino Ryder Forever. Those apey voices amid the taunting funky bottom end are, well, everything. This one is spooked.

If you crossed The Residents with a lil’ Earl Scruggs and maybe just a pinch of Sunn O))) you might be in the next field over if you reversed it and played it back. Cod War Kids is mesmerizing, each and every moment, and More Exclusive Dramatic Moments is the record’s most elusive, in that it sounds more like its eavesdropping than trying to entertain. It’s ambient, it’s ominous, and so half-mast sleepy. Sooner Will Be Coming Soon (I Have Never Been Calm Or Misunderstood) only hints gently at a Phillip Glass soundtrack passage, it must be those burrowing horns. There’s this dreamlike sense of post-war, a lingering sense of dread fading.

As we are up to the finale, This Is The Scene Where Siggy And Dan Receive Their Prophecies From The Witches, the listener may lean to imagine how this tale ends. Barely audible walkie-talkie like transmissions, crickets and a wavering drone make for a pitched chamber misplaced in the woods. The atmosphere writhes in near silence for a while, and fades into the end. This record will create a flustered sense of wonder for those who dare. And, my dears, this will certainly end up on the top of my heap for 2019.