Jim O'Rourke

Great interview! That "Steamroom 47" is gorgeous stuff.

Yeah, his explanation of the process behind Steamroom 47 is so cool. Just an astonishing interview overall. He's lived the most interesting life. I haven't heard most of the records he recommends, but I was stoked to see him shout out Mike Oldfield's Incantations, imo one of the best combinations of prog and minimalism.

Had a listen to Steamroom 47 and agree it's lovely. Though I suspect he'd find that frustrating (at people responding to the surface loveliness of it, I mean).

The David Ackles seems like a bit of an outlier in that collection of 25 but it does make sense, particularly in the context of Simple Songs.

When I’m down on myself, which is usually every five minutes, sometimes I remember that I recorded those two U.S. Maple records. And even though the fourth one is the best sounding one and the best one, I’m happy I did those first two.

Real heads know what's up

Brian Paulson earns his own respective indie-G production stripes on Acre Thrills, for sure

The interview strikes me as uh, a little too well-curated?

"When I was 4 years old, I would clock out of my factory job to begin sitting with the Art Ensemble at Mandel Hall"

But I like Jim, it was an entertaining read at any rate.

The Kahimi Karie album he references (and produces/plays on) is nice. It's very soft and breathy but you can absolutely hear his trademark sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmEqEpzZPl0

Great interview. Jim mentions Nijmegen, the city where I studied. There's an online recording of one of those gigs from 1991, named Extrapool.

Extrapool being the name of the venue. I only visited it once around 2000 or even later, for a live electronics concert (I don't remember the bill).

Great read. I want him to write a book so he can go into all the other stories he hinted at, seems like he'd be a great storyteller.

I'd love to hear more about his programming work when discussing the Steamroom 47 release. Too bad the latest Mego-collab with Kassel Jaeger wasn't mentioned, it's a very nice recording.

Fan-fic zombie movie set in restaurant starring Jim & Fahey vs. Nazis

would stream

Such a great interview. The factory story is obviously the most bonkers.

He's pretty easy to reach if any of you have questions or want to do an interview, I emailed him with a short question thru the Steamroom bandcamp email a few years ago and he got back to me in like 20 minutes.

Fantastic interview. I've got 10+ tabs w/ albums and songs open to follow up on after that. Great read and a rare tell-all (well, nearly all) from the man. I'm glad he seems to be at a very happy place in his life right now.

Someone up here asked if anyone has kept up with the Steamroom records. Wish I could say I have. My uneducated guess would be that poster EvR has and knows all of them well!

I wish. I think I have heard most of them, apart from a few re-releases of things I already have/know (Two Organs, Long Night, Remove the Need, Mizo No Nai Umi).

Announcement on editionsmego.com:

INA GRM and Editions MEGO are pleased to announce the creation of a new collection of releases, the Portraits GRM series.
Perpetrating the fertile collaboration initiated in 2012 with Recollection GRM, the GRM and Editions MEGO have decided to offer a complementary series, no longer focused on the “classic” GRM repertoire but towards recent creations commissioned by the GRM to artists from all horizons.

...

This new series will come to life with the release of two records, the first devoted to the piece Shutting Down Here by Jim O'Rourke, and the second to the works Metabolist Meter (Foster, Cottin, Caetani, and a Fly) by Max Eilbacher and Forma by Lucy Railton.

Also Steamroom 49 went up today

https://steamroom.bandcamp.com/album/steamroom-49

i dig this

https://akirasakata.bandcamp.com/album/dental-kafka

Akira Sakata - sax, clarinet, voice
Jim O’Rourke - double bass
Giovanni Di Domenico - piano, hohner pianet
Tatsuhisa Yamamoto - drums

^^ albums with covers that most look like they're on Touch Records but aren't, in fact, on Touch Records.

Seriously, thanks for linking to it, I've been enjoying it this morning!

debated starting a new thread but the new eiko ishibashi album is beautiful https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/hyakki-yagy

new jim o'rourke album is beautiful - https://portraitsgrm.bandcamp.com/album/shutting-down-here

Sold out :\

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw_bTTOCHKQ&feature=emb_logo

https://youtu.be/Uw_bTTOCHKQ

Sold out :\

― flappy bird, woensdag 29 juli 2020 6:08 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

And fast, too. Sad I missed it.

Devvvine, the new Eiko Ishibashi is indeed remarkably beautiful.

wish this was issued on CD. i suppose jim o'rourke frowns on the idea of listening to his music on a laptop, streaming youtube audio. still, it sounds great. it's nice to hear something so concise and loaded with ideas, w/its constant movement (it's almost constantly bristling w/textures) and variety of sound sources, timbres, etc. i wonder how it sounds on vinyl

You can still get the LP here. Jim is also on the "Swamp / Things" lp from Kassel Jaeger. On a side note, I was mildly "surprised" The Wire quoted the Tone Glow interview with Jim without mentioning the source.

uncool!!

Thanks for the ordering link Eric!

debated starting a new thread but the new eiko ishibashi album is beautiful https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/hyakki-yagy

One of the best things I've heard this year, apart from this.

...and another recent Bandcamp release featuring both Jim and Eiko.

There are some recordings available on Sonic Youth's Bandcamp page that include Jim:

Live At L'Olympia 2001
Live At Cabaret Metro Chicago, IL 2002
Perspectives Musicales - Live At Cat's Cradle 2000

It's alarming how good "Shutting Down Here" is, I've only been a casual enjoyer of his ambient/concrète stuff but this is undeniably terrific

It is, it's beautiful. On the ambient note, don't sleep on last years To Magnetize Money and Catch a Roving Eye.

I remember reading an interview with him a few years ago where he talks about how one of the session horn players on Bad Timing told him that the arrangement on Happy Trails was like the dumbest shit he had ever heard. Can't find it now, can anyone help me out?

Looking at the liners, it might be "Joan Morrane", an artist who has no other credits to that name on discogs.

...should note that an almost identical name also appears on Eureka, this time as "Joan Morrone"

i thought it was jeb bishop

Hahaha I never heard that story! Reminds me of him begging the sax player on Through the Night Softly to make it as SNL as possible

New release:

Jim O'ROURKE
MMXX-07 "In all due deference"
Label: MATIÈRE MÉMOIRE (BE)
Format: LP single-sided
VINYL

Matière Mémoire presents the MMXX Series. In anticipation of the year 2020, Matière Mémoire asked 20 great artists to create an original 20 minutes piece and an artwork. Throughout this year, each quarter will see the release of 5 new vinyls, available individually or as a bundle. Each record is limited at 500 copies and comes as a crystal clear vinyl featuring an original track of 20 minutes on one side, and a laser engraved artwork on the other. Each contained in a transparent sleeve printed with the MMXX logo, and each coming with a print of the artist artwork.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50065654307_23d240b956_k.jpg

Hmm, reminds me of that raster-noton "20' to 2000" project in 1999. A CD every month, full-sized but only partially-silvered, 20min pieces.

https://www.discogs.com/Various-20-To-2000/release/1885879

Looks like I should have bought the storage thing, it really bumps up the selling price!

I need that Jim O'Rourke action figure to be real and I need it asap

He seems to really like the new Autechre, based on how he rarely tweets beyond his own projects.

JimO has a twitter account...?

Jersey AI is referring to the Steamroom Twitter account.

There's a STEAMROOM TWITTER??????

i .. have not kept up with jim o'rourke at all. boy is this steamroom (50) beautiful.

I think it's fair to say it's his personal account, it says "Jim O'Rourke Live" in katakana and he posts often about non-Steamroom stuff.