Second release in an on-going series from saxophone and guitar 'duo' Daniel Blumberg and Seymour Wright. Mutated recordings made with heavy distortion and extreme amplification are live processed and manipulated to create a sinister, metallic ricochet. Release includes an ekphrasis by Brady Corbet responding to the music. --- Daniel Blumberg / guitar Seymour Wright / saxophone --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Monday 23rd May 2016 by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Ekphrasis by Brady Corbet. Font by Billy Steiger. Etching by GUO.

Incredibly pleased to finally release this from the archives! Kumio Kurachi is truly one of the most original figures in Japanese music, and his music exists within its very own colourful world. Recorded across two nights way back in 2009, Kurachi is joined by Taku Unami and London improvisors Steve Beresford and Angharad Davies. These two shows still remain as Kurachi's only concerts outside Japan. "Kumio Kurachi depicts our mind and feelings with unthinkable and bizarre words which can be embarrassing to listen to. And yet he manages to create a world which is so familiar to us - small events of our everyday life that we don't pay much attention to. Whether it is a conversation between a funeral service conductor and his helper that you overheard in a supermarket (Supermarket Chitose), or about the people affected by a dam construction (A Dam with 30,000,000 Teardrops), his songs are fragments of our human behaviours and experiences. His lyrical world is made even more unpredictable by his unique guitar style which is apparently inspired by the koto. The music is so melodious that the mixture of the strange wording, guitar and variations of voices thrives all together and it can haunt you without noticing it, just like the small events of everyday life you can't escape from." - Midori Ogata --- Kumio Kurachi / guitar, vocals Taku Unami / guitar Angharad Davies / violin Steve Beresford / piano --- Mastered by James Dunn from the original recording made by Pete Coward - thanks Pete! Artwork by Kurachi & Oli Barrett. Massive thanks to Midori Ogata, without whom this wouldn't have happened.

Originally recorded for Philip Glass's private press label Chatham Square and tracked after hours at John Lennon's home studio, Gibson's 1973 LP "Visitations" is a minimalist masterpiece. Performing with his new group back in September, Gibson re-imagined the piece with modular synthesizers and a digital projection of 16 mm film entitled "One Way" depicting the California desert. Shot by Gibson around the same time as the LP, the film showed seemingly never ending desert landscape of America cascading across the screen - perfectly reflecting the expanse of his fresh take on the unique environmental soundscape of Visitations. --- Jon Gibson / winds Britton Powell / percussion and objects  John Also Bennett / electronics Jeremy Gibson / percussion George Bennett / percussion    ---   Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Friday 15th September by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Artwork by Oli Barrett.

Please note, should you wish to skip the silent-ish cuts,  go straight to 'Une Petit Prelude'. We thought it best to include everything. Composer, musical theorist, multi-instrumentalist, and one of the founders of Fluxus, Philip Corner's debut show at OTO was funny, sincere and inventive. Alongside his wife Phoebe Neville, the pair mixed relatively unheard compositions with stage interventions and brand new improvisations. At one special point, Corner and Neville - both blind behind Javanese masks - played a borrowed Casio and named the piece 'Understanding'. Gold. Solo, Corner performed one of his more recent pieces, 'Agnesia', a one note near-Elemental number inspired by the painter Agnes Martin. 'An Ideal Amen' was derived from the final chords of the Berlioz Requiem and features Neville adding vocals. Corner and Neville closed by playing touching tribute to their dear friend and esteemed Fluxus collegue Ben Patterson - a piano version of Patterson's 'Paper Piece'. A generous and wonderous pair of people -- more high-jinks and meditations inside. Notes for the show as printed for the audience: "buy something to eat or drink and then sometime during …… make consciously & explicitly a sound with it. Thus adding to the music …” --- Philip Corner / piano, keyboard Phoebe Neville / vocals, keyboard --- --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Monday 19th September by James Dunn. Mixed and Mastered by James Dunn. Photo by Dawid Laskowski.

Delighted to release Brazilian composer-performer Manuel Lima's set from June this year. Features a live re-working of his brilliant release on Editions Verde (EV006: 36 English to Portuguese Lessons), plus some plus new & gold material. Lima works between language, sound & performance to make absurdist cocktail of confusion & absurd recontextalisation. Following randomly generated instructions dictated to him from a Python script, Lima fuses sound from Youtube videos, analogue synthesiser and cassette recorder, alongside English to Portuguese translation phrases to delightful effect. Synonymy slips, and simple translations evolve & mutate to the sound of Jorge Ben, baroque lute and submerged speech.  --- Manuel Lima / analogue synth, mixer, cassette recorder --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Paul Skinner on Friday 30th June, 2017. Mixed and mastered by Manuel Lima.

Live set from new and extremely good London band who create huge strung-out tracks with minimal kit. Their newest self released 12” should be in your top ten. Recorded in front of about forty people, a bass pawl thrums as the guitar ratchets the room up up up up, before a solo escapes that unzips the atmosphere completely.  “...A bass / drums / guitar trio that play somewhere between DNA de-tuning their instruments before practice or Sightings with the PA system and all their effects turned off.” – Yellow Green Red --- --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Simon Holliday. Mixed by James Dunn and Clive Phillips. Mastered by James Dunn.

Duo from regular good guy Sholto Dobie (Mucklemouth) and Alvaro Daguer of Chile’s Glorias Navales (Kye Records). Sholto's on diatonic symphony hurdy gurdy, and Alvaro picks up his Casio SA-1 - a monophonic old school number. After playing together for the first time that morning (Sholto had kindly put Alvaro's band up) the pair decided they play the support slot that night. The two instruments meld surprisingly well, and what follows is a melancholic, minimal and lo-fi lament in the key of Conrad or Cale. "In April, Alvaro and his brother Ivan (from Santiago, Chile) were touring Europe with their group Glorias Navales. They stayed one night at my house in Lewisham, we had fava beans for breakfast and afterwards me and Alvaro ended up playing music for a short time together in my kitchen. To us, it sounded fresh and we decided to perform together that night (the result of which is kindly documented here!). I named it 'Cat's Foot' after a symbol used in eastern european and russian embroidery - the flatness of the instrumentation and repetition of simple forms reminded me of weaves. The shimmering drones notes of the mechanical instruments - one acoustic and one electronic - create an wavy 'moire'-like effect. Although, weaving patterns would suggest structure, this music ambles, without any strict rhythm, agenda or narrative - a cat's foot is also playful!"     Sholto, July 2017 --- Sholto Dobie / hurdy gurdy Alvaro Daguer / keyboard --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Wednesday 12th April 2017 by Shaun Crook. Mixed & mastered by Mr J T Dunn. Artwork by Oli Barrett.  ---

Totally brilliant set from local legends Pat Thomas & Orphy Robinson (Black Top). Scuzzy electronics, dub bass rhythms and Pat's perfectly timed acoustic interludes on keys fuse with heavy vocal samples to produce a truly diasporic sound. Sounds like a walk down Ridley Road market soundtracked by Thelonius Monk and Jamal Moss.  "When you arrive in England there should be a bus or a trainline you can catch to your hotel. Getting from one side of London to the other should cost you no more than your entire life savings or first born child. If possible, try not to eat the food. If you really must then your safest bet is battered swan, chicken pyramids or tea pie - which is a pie with tea in it. The English brain is divided into two hemispheres - the left which produces spheres of shame and self loathing, and the right, which produces spheres of shame and self loathing." --- Pat Thomas / piano, keyboard, iPad Orphy Robinson / vibes, xylosynth, cajon, iPad, laptop & effects --- samples from: 1/ 'Hugh Masekela in discussion "We're bad imitations of those who oppressed us..." 2/ Willie Williams- Stand Up (Jah Shaka)  3/ Exurb1a England a beginners guide...   --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Tuesday, April 17th 2017 by Shaun Crook. Mixed & mastered by James Dunn. Photo by Dawid Laskowski.

Metaphoric, historical but also just as easily enjoyed without any context at all, Laura Cannell's approach to fiddle and recorder has echoes of medieval tradition with a folk vernacular. Recorded on the first night of her series ‘Modern Ritual’, her set framed an evening which evoked both real and fictional landscapes and explored ideas of ritual through music and words. Singling out tracks from her first and third records (Quick Sparrows Over The Black Earth and Simultaneous Flight Movement respectively), Cannell draws a chapter from her work based on ritual - both natural and supernatural. Overbowing the fiddle and dual blowing recorder, she blurs fiction with history and conjures a new kind of Black Hour - a melodic two tone drone which is both tame and wild, and the image of a Sacristan drowned in his own font. --- Laura Cannell / fiddle, recorders --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Shaun Crook on Friday 17th March 2017. Mixed by James Dunn & Laura Cannell. Mstered by James Dunn. Lino print by Laura Cannell.

Last November we were delighted to welcome back one of the most important musicians of the Japanese underground/avant-garde - Otomo Yoshihide - for his first show here since 2013. Joined by Japanese drummer Hiroshi Yamazaki (who has Kaoru Abe among his extensive list of past collaborators, and was also a member of Masayuki Takayanagi’s pioneering New Directions group) and legendary saxophonist Evan Parker, the two duos and extended trio mark the first time these three have collaborated. Yoshihide's guitar scrawl knots up Yamazaki's wide angled percussion and when Parker comes in for the trio it's not long before his familiar lines warp up into Yoshihide's strung out, high freq reverb for a dark, light and deep level wig-out. It's truly special when a trio works first time like this, and we hope they'll be back together before long.  --- Otomo Yoshihide / guitar Hiroshi Yamazaki / percussion Evan Parker / saxophone --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Shaun Crook on Monday the 14th Novemeber, 2016. Mixed and mastered by the ever talented James Dunn. Photo by Dawid Laskowski.

Guthrie's all acoustic set morphs expertly from a single pulsing bass drum to thundering metallic decay with no relaxation of structural rigour, stamina or precision. At ease behind a shimmering wall of pedals and gongs, 10.5.16 is looser, lighter yet more complex than Sacrée Obsession, as Guthrie creates and navigates space with Shamen-esque focus. ---  Will Guthrie / drums, percussion --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Tuesday May 10th by Simon Holliday. Mixed by Will Guthrie. Mastered by James Dunn.

75 minutes of psychedelic excess, molten electronics and DIY ritual from the totemic ensemble of contemporary British outsider music. Vibracathedral Orchestra's chimerical DNA spans from beatific Labour-club raga to full-on face-flaying West Riding Kraut-out, whilst the core membership and elastic supporting cast that has realised this wayward vision is an unrivalled who’s who of the UK audio underground - this time Julian Bradley, Neil Campbell, Adam Davenport, Michael Flower and Bridget Hayden. Recorded by Mark Jasper at Cafe OTO on 10 April 2015. Mixed by John Chantler. Mastered by Andreas [LUPO] Lubich at Calyx, Berlin.

Rare performance from drummer/percussionist Toshi Tsuchitori - joined by Seymour Wright and Ute Kanngiesser for a special late matinee. Anyone who's enjoyed Tsuchitori's sought after solo records will know his playing is intuitive, performative and totally hardcore. Matched with the huge vocabulary of Wright and Kanngiesser, the trio perfectly balance tension, detail and spiral-armed joy.  -- Toshi Tsuchitori / percussion, vocals Ute Kanngiesser / cello Seymour Wright / saxophone --- Tracklisting: 1. 14.2.16 - (40.36)  --- Recorded by Shaun Crook at Cafe OTO on Sunday 14th February 2016. Mixed by Paul Abbott. Mastered by James Dunn. Photo by Dawid Laskowski.

Abstracting traditional Indonesian music with a strung-up bamboo spear and unique, tremor-inducing vocals, Senyawa strike a thunderbolt between their avant-garde influences and a strong connection to their cultural heritage. Playing live at OTO on a Monday night, their humid intensity made techno heads and metal fans alike weep for their mamas. Will bend your week right out of shape.  --- Rully Shabara / vocals Wukir Suryadi / bamboowukir -- Recorded by Shaun Crook on Monday 7th September 2015. Mixed by James Dunn. Mastered by James Dunn. Original photograph by Dawid Laskowski.

Despite being absurdly technically demanding, Sax Ruins' live set doesn't let up for a minute. Structures rise an fall in seconds as multi-tracked brass swirls to meet four Sunny Murray's behind the kit. Dense, intense and disorientating.  --- Ono Ryoko / alto and baritone saxophone Tatsuya Yoshida / drums --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Simon Holliday on 16th August 2016. Mixed by James Dunn. Mastered by James Dunn.

Deploying singular sinewaves and crackles from 'non-samplers', Sachiko M's sound is unforgiving and utterly radical. Paired with Prevost, the duo's sensitivity and conviction offers a hard-line approach to shifting our perceptions of sound.   --- Sachiko M / sinewaves Eddie Prevost / percussion --- Recorded on Monday 17th February 2014 by James Dunn, and mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Photograph by Dawid Laskowski.

A whirring, monastic prayer from ex Overhang Party members Sachiko and Rinji Fukuoka. The two meet at a blurry horizon of strings, electronics and rich vocals, and slowly pull apart their sound in glitchy, dissonant chunks.  --- Sachiko / vocals, electronics Rinji Fukuoka / cello, piano --- Recorded by John Chantler on Saturday 26rd March, 2011. Mixed by by John Chantler. Mastered by James Dunn.

Keith Fullerton Whitman presents a special Cafe OTO version of his latest project 'Redactions'. In his own words, Redactions "is an ongoing exploration of ideas surrounding the extraction of "peaks," or "transients" from geographically & thematically relevant audio materials given a particular realization or performance.' Intense poly-rhythmic chaos and nightmarish guitar build to breaking point, only to slowly release with the sort of luminous melodies that shone through his earlier Generator. A real trip, but you're in good hands with Keith.  --- Keith Fullerton Whitman / electronics --- Recorded by Shaun Crook on Sunday 5th July 2015. Mixed by John Chantler. Mastered by Andreas [LUPO] Lubich at Calyx, Berlin. Photograph by Fabio Lugaro.  --- Tracklisting: 1. OTO Redactions A (18.25) 2. OTO Redactions B (19.42)