Ikue Mori - Bhima Swarga (2007)

 































 Čudesan animirani film i glazba slobodno inspirirani ulomkom Mahabharate. Put duše od pakla do neba.


www.ikuemori.com/bio.html

This unique audiovisual project features animation and electronics by New York resident and arch collaborator Ikue Mori, who recently contributed to the extremely wonderful Death Ambient album, also on Tzadik. Bhima Swarga is a film project based on animations of traditional paintings from the Kertha Gosa temple in Bali, telling the story of a soul's journey from Hell to Heaven. For the sonic elements of this piece, one audio piece documents a gamelan ensemble score by Matthew Welch, another captures solo electronics with Mori's signature laptop processing in full effect. As far as the film itself goes, it's all surprisingly effective and the auditory and visual components come together very nicely indeed. Seeing sinners getting scorched by the fires of Hell in synchronisation with Mori's rhythmic electronic pulses makes for a highly entertaining sequence, and the bit where (as explained by the sleevenotes) "a woman who did not have children is being forced to breastfeed a caterpillar" is frankly, a bit much. Hardly Pixar is it? Brilliant stuff. - boomkat

Ikue Mori's growth as a video artist had me unprepared for this spectacular work. Tzadik says that Bhima Swarga was years in the making, and through its exquisite image detail and complex psychedelic transitions it's not hard to believe. The design of this DVD package is quite nice, a double gatefold that opens to images from the animation and brief descriptions of the story part that each image represents. Included also is a brief biography on Mori, describing her rise from the drummer in D.N.A., part of the No Wave NY movement, to her adoption of electronics and laptop sound sources, increasingly working with video manipulation and animation. There's also a biography on eclectic modern composer Matthew Welch, who wrote one of the two soundtracks for the movie, and of the Gamelan Dharma Swara group that perform's Welch's soundtrack.
Sadly there is almost no information about the context of the protagonist of this story, Bhima Swarga himself, nor why we're watching him transgress through seven levels of hell to face battle and experience bewildering and edifying encounters. So a little history: The Kertha Gosa pavilion on the island of Bali was built in the early 1700s, and the story of Bhima Swarga is represented in the ceiling through several rows of painting. Bhima Swarga's story comes from the Hindu epic Mahabharata, and is only one story in the about 1.8 million words that make up that major work. Essentially, the mortal Bhima is forced by his mother to rescue from Hell his mortal father (a king) and his second mother, so that he can secure their place in heaven. No mean feat, as the story describes, and I won't spoil the rest, as you can follow along with the story in the inside cover using the chapter display on your DVD player, or by using the chapter images they provide. The story has 18 sections, the longest parts in the beginning as the epic quest is proposed and embarked upon.
Mori's animation uses figures taken directly from the images of Bhima Swarga at the Kertha Gosa pavilion. Those figures are brought to life, posed and placed over sparse backgrounds, upon which Mori applies an incredible array of effects, ancillary artwork, and psychedelic treatment. The story follows logically with a mix of slow establishing scenes placed against high action, at times trippy and extremely rapid, usually pausing to illustrate the lesson each particular hell presents. The characters are in bold colors, and Mori's applications alternately subdues and intensifies those colors. Images are extreme, repeating figures that vary or are treated profoundly, with long but never monotonous battle scenes. Don't make the mistake of putting this on and watching with one eye, or using it as a background (though it could certainly function well that way). Reading along with the chapter descriptions makes the action easy to follow, and reveals some bizarre concepts ethically challenging by modern standards, such as a childless woman who has to nurse a caterpillar in the third hell (I'll spare you what happens to anyone who doesn't become a grandparent!)
There are two soundtracks to go along with the movie, which are selected on the DVD menu without visual clues - the viewer must listen to the different sample of the soundtrack to select which version they'll hear. The first choice is solo Mori, using her laptop as her compositional tool. The other is a score written by Matthew Welch, who wrote for a full gamelan ensemble augmented by Mori's electronics and Welch on saxophone and percussion. Welch's composition is a modern adaptation of traditional Balinese music, appropriate for the manner in which Mori brought the paintings to life. It's a powerful and compelling piece that uses ancient and modern methods to interact with the film. Mori's solo soundtrack is a flexible and fascinating piece of electro-acoustic music that adapts well to the visual telling of the story. She inflects a haunting aspect of Balinese music into her typically slippery and expansive electronics, creating a fluid and dynamic work that complements the visual movement extremely well. Regardless of the choice of soundtrack, Bhima Swarga is a visual and auditory feast, an unusual work of animation from an incredible artist who's work continues to evolve in remarkable ways. - Phil Zampino
 

Eye of Sound: Loosely based on a section of the great Indian Mahabharata epic, Mori's Bhima Swarga (The Heaven of Bhima) is a riveting audiovisual exercise that uses mural paintings from the 18th century Kertha Gosha court in Bali to create a beautiful jigsaw of colour, glitch, figurative exoticism and plastic abstraction. The "original" Bhima Swarga tells the story of Bhima's excursion into hell (naraka) to rescue the souls of his father and co-mother and escort them to the gods' heaven. After fighting hosts of ill- and good-natured demons, Bhima and the remaining Pandava brothers must face the violent opposition of ill- and good-natured gods, who, though respecting the hero's resolve to fulfil his promise, cannot tolerate such an inversion in the established order of things. Bhima eventually dies in heaven but is restored to life and glory and given the amrut, the elixir of immortality. Pregnant with philosophical and eschatological significance, the Mahabharata narrative is not Mori's primary focus and is understandably sacrificed in the name of her aesthetic concerns; though these narrative elements are vaguely recognisable, someone unacquainted with the story will hardly grasp these basic guidelines and will instead be overwhelmed by Mori's impressive computer-genrated visuals. Bhima Swarga focuses on the on the beautiful mural paintings of the Kertha Gosha court, which are animated in ways that recall some sections of Paley's brilliant Sita Sings the Blues. But unlike Sita, Mori's Bhima is interested in the uses of visual distortion and glitch for the creation of new aesthetic possibilities. Source materials and backgrounds are corrupted, degraded and pushed to the limits; their integrity is not to be respected and even their figurative nature is often lysergically distorted beyond recognition. The soundtrack features Mori's trademark laptop gimmicks, proving how much the author has matured since her early adventures in electro-foam. A rich sonic palette evolves over the 21 minutes of the piece, ranging from dizzy-ambient sections to her more characteristic crystalline-yet-hectic rhythmical panning. There are a few short takes on the Balinese gamelan and raga traditions, but these fortunately turn out to sound more like respectful tributes than any form of exotic pillage or, even worse, new age pseudo-reverentialism. In the end, Bhima Swarga could hardly stand as a companion to the original Mahabharata story, but would certainly feature among Mori's most rewarding works.

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Bhima Swarga

- thesoundofeye.blogspot.com/

 

Imaginary soundtracks: An Interview with Ikue Mori

Ikue Mori is a Japanese visual artist, experimental musician and drummer who shot to prominence in the late-seventies as the driving percussive force behind No Wave pioneers DNA, her metronomic drumming acting as the perfect bedding for Arto Lindsay’s jagged guitar lines and the minimalist keyboards of Robin Crutchfield. After DNA disbanded, Mori became a pioneering member of the international improvisation scene, hailed for her use of drum machines in experimental music compositions. With collaborations with the likes of John Zorn, Evan Parker, Zeena Parkins and Christian Marclay, as well as her solo ground-breaking music, Mori has developed a remarkable body of work across a wide range of genres. On March 30th, Ikue Mori will be appearing with Norwegian artist Maja S.K. Ratkje at London’s Cafe Oto, so the Liminal sat down for an interview to discuss her wide range of projects, her history on the New York No Wave scene, and on how preparations have gone for the London show.
You’re set to appear at Cafe Oto with Maja S.K. Ratkje. How did this collaboration come about? Have you worked with her before?
We first met in Sweden 2004, on a double bill tour in Scandinavia with Hild Sofie, Lindha Kallerdahl, Lise-Lotte Noreliust and Lotta Melin and it was a very special moment of a memorable tour. Since then I’ve collaborated with her many times, either with Fe-mail or her alone; we recorded with Otomo (note: Yoshihide) in San Francisco, and she appeared with Phantom Orchard (note: Mori’s duo with Zeena Parkins) for our Orra album. We were also both involved in the recording of Treasure Hunt, recorded with Simon Balestrazzi, Sylvie Courvoisier and Alessandro Olla which just released on Ticon Zero in Sardinia. Recently, we were invited to play a trio with Fred Van Hove at the Follow the Sound festival in Antwerp.
With Maja being based in Norway, and yourself in New York, how have you prepared for this tour?
Via the Internet, like everybody else!
Before getting onto your more recent projects, could you please tell me about how you got into music, and what made you decide to move to New York?
I came to visit NY in the late 70′s and many things happened within a 3-month period, including meeting Arto Lindsay joining DNA as a drummer. That was the beginning of my musical career.
How did you meet Arto Lindsay, Tim Wright and Robin Crutchfield and what led you guys to found DNA? Had you much experience of the drums before forming DNA?
First, Arto and Robin were trying to start a band and looking for a drummer and we held the occasional jam with Lydia (Lunch), James (Chance) and my friend Reck, who was a guitarist and had come to NY with me. I’d never played the drums before, but they asked me to I was the new drummer for DNA from then-onwards. Soon after, the No New York album was released, Robin left the band and we decided to go towards a more “rock” direction, with Tim Wright joining on bass.
Your style of drumming is very distinctive, even unique. How did you develop this style, and how did you work on it for recordings and gigs? Was it purely improvised?
My drum style was mixture of Japanese Taiko drumming, with some samba flavours through Arto’s influence. Actually, come to think of it, I played drums like a programmed drum machine would, not because my playing was precise but because I mentally constructed the way to play like programed drum set. Actually, none of DNA’s music was improvised. Each song was tightly constructed, with very few improvisation parts in them.
What was the music and art scene like in New York during the No Wave period? It must have been an amazing experience to perform alongside so many amazing bands! Stuart Argabright of Ike Yard told me there was something in the air in New York at the time – would you agree?
Yes, I agree. It was exiting and you felt that anything was possible. At the same time, it was also very dark and not a very safe place to be.
 
Like a lot of No Wave bands such as Mars, DNA was relatively short-lived. Did you feel that you had taken the project as far as you could?
I think we burnt ourselves out… And then we went in different directions.
Do you think the current New York scene can be compared favourably to what was happening in the late seventies? Do you think a band like DNA could exist today?
I think it was something that positively developed at the time. However, there’s still a very active music scene here, with many great musicians -old and young- living here and actively performing and creating music.
Since the end of DNA, you’ve become much more involved in electronic music. What drew you to this field? Would you consider it to be a reaction against the rawness of No Wave, or was it a natural evolution from what you were doing before? How did you go about bringing drum machines into improvised music?
It was a natural evolution for me. I got my first drum machine around 1985 and loved programming so much I started to use it with my drum set. Then, over the course of 10 years, it took over completely and I ended up playing 3 drum machines together, along with a mixer and multiple effects. I’ve always focused on playing these machines like “real” instruments, so I took programming and trained myself to interact and react instantly, with an aim to playing improvised music with others from the beginning, but using my drum machines and electronics.
Since 2000, you’ve been working with laptops. What do computers bring to your music?
It’s not only to music, but for the whole world of art creation. Laptops open up the a door to more possibilities. In music, it made things more portable, which made travel easier, and that is the biggest advantage. Also, the easy processing of sounds made it possible to create different atmospheres, and more “colours”, all of which add a lot to my sound pallet.
Along with music, you have worked a lot in the world of film and video, specifically soundtracks. Do you have to approach your performances and composition differently when working with film than when your focus is solely on the music?
My solo works are often like imaginary soundtrack music to me, and many of my musical pieces are inspired from the different visual elements. So guess the approach is not so different!
Can you tell me a bit more about your Kibyoshi project? How did it come about and how were the music and video created? How did you go about creating the very distinctive animations for Kibyoshi?
Kibyoshi means “yellow cover” in Japanese, and it’s kind of an original manga from 300 years ago, from the Edo period in Japan. These stories would create the most preposterous views of art, culture, religion and all aspects of people’s daily lives. I’ve owned one Kibyoshi Book for about 30 years, and it’s one of most outrageous books I’ve ever read and always wanted to do a piece about it. Time passed and I started to work with visuals and became interested in creating animations. I actually released a DVD before this using Balinese paintings. Then Kibyoshi came across my mind, and I processed it the same way, using cut out characters that mixed with my own environment, using music to tell the stories. There’s a website for the Kibyoshi project here: http://web.me.com/ikuem1/Site/KIBYOSHI.html
You’ve mentioned that you’ve been making dolls recently. Is that for a specific project? Japan has a very unique tradition with dolls and puppetry, such as in Bunraku theatre, as seen in Kitano Takeshi’s film Dolls. Was this facet of Japanese culture a key influence on your own doll-making?
It’s not only the traditional Japanese influence but a long-standing fascination of mine before I moved to NY, one that I put on hold for about 30 years… After working with everything digital these days, and finishing my second animation, I was searching for a new medium and it came back to me. It kind of brings analogue processing into digital processing, and I feel that the two are well-balanced now. I would like to make another DVD or story picture book with music…
Your most recent album, Class Insecta, is very much focused on percussion and electronics. Can you please tell me a bit about the concept behind the record, and how it was made?
That’s most recent solo album yes. However, my most recent album is Near Nadir with Evan Parker, Mark Nauseef and Bill Laswell… The Class Insecta album is about beats. I created several beats and percussive elements, then combined them with noise, melodies and colours.. The theme was that each song imagined different insect sounds.
It feels very much on Class Insecta that you’re subverting the conventions of dance music in very inventive ways. Is that a fair description? Were you keen to push the boundaries of dance and perhaps incorporate or juxtapose them with more experimental elements?
Perhaps you can say that too, although I don’t really know much about dance music from a commercial point of view…
How did you go about creating the dense atmospheres and ambient passages that also feature on Class Insecta?
It was all created, layered, processed and edited on one computer.
 
As well as your ground-breaking solo material, you’ve collaborated with numerous and varied other musicians, from Christian Marclay to John Zorn. Is it a challenge to adapt your musical approach when working with other artists?
It is always challenging. But Christian or John are not very difficult to play with as we speak pretty much the same musical language.
As an improviser, how do you keep coming up with new ideas and ways to make music? It seems that you constantly have new and diverse ideas. Do you prefer improvisation to recording pre-prepared pieces?
Thanks for your comment. Its both important for me to improvise live and to create and record pieces. Creating new pieces sometimes gives me new ideas for sounds that could improve an improvised set, and vice versa.
Finally, do you have any new projects we can expect to see released this year? Are there any plans to record with Maja S.K. Ratkje in the studio?
With Maja, as mentioned before, there’s the Treasure Hunt CD which we were both involved in and was just released on Ticon Zero. Phantom Orchard Orchestra was commissioned to record twice by SWR, and both projects involve either Fe-mail or Spunk and are in the process of being released on CD someday. We are also trying to record all the live sets during the UK tour and hoping to get a good performance on tape, if possible. For myself, last time I was in London, I recorded a set with Steve Noble, produced by Trevor Brent that should be coming out on his label later this year. I also plan to have another improv recording with Sylvie Courvoisier and Jim Black soon. Finally, I’ll be leaving soon for Dubai for the “Revising Tarab concert” produced by Tarek Atoui and the Sharjah art foundation. So lots going on! - http://www.theliminal.co.uk/
 

Continuing Education

A view of Ikue Mori‘s performance at the Japan Society. (All photos: Tom DiMauro)

In 1977, Ikue Mori moved from Tokyo to New York. She was in her early twenties, spoke no English, knew no one, and was due back—she’d promised her mother—in three months. Wandering around the Lower East Side, she met a guitarist, Arto Lindsay, and a keyboardist, Robin Crutchfield. While her mother waited in Toyko, Mori and her new friends formed the epochal No Wave act DNA; within a year, her abstruse, sculptural playing—her bandmates taught her drum parts via pantomime and diagram—had made her a downtown goddess. The Brian Eno–curated No Wave document No New York followed; so did a cameo in the infamous Basquiat vehicle Downtown 81. In ’82, the band dissolved, but Mori stayed in the city.
Their math may be fuzzy, but by any measure, the Japan Society’s “Ikue Mori: Celebrating 30 Years of Life, Love, and Music in NYC” was a long time coming. In 2006, Mori found herself on a Japan Society stage, as part of composer John Zorn’s “Tzadik Label Music Series.” She marveled at her luck and seemingly far-fetched trajectory. In the audience was Yoko Shioya, the society’s artistic director; hearing her, Shioya decided she could come further still, and so—after years of solo and collaborative performances downtown, after a decade of forays into dance and installation art in places as far-flung as Tate Modern and as close to home as the Kitchen—the Zorn-curated Mori tribute was born.
A two-night affair in the minimal confines of the Japan Society’s Forty-seventh Street building, the festival was designed with a contemporary bent—no DNA, no early-’80s metal machine music. Instead, Zorn chose only ongoing endeavors: Friday showcased Mori’s burgeoning animation project, inspired by Balinese temples and scored by the gamelan ensemble Bhima Swarga, and a world premiere of Mori’s newest collaboration with the Japanese avant-pop collective Hikashu’s Makigami Koichi, a vocal-improv artist and stage director.
I held out for Saturday, drawn to the program for its promised US debut of Mori’s live sound track to two of Maya Deren’s silent films (Witch’s Cradle, starring Duchamp, and the sublime At Land), originally commissioned by Tate Modern. Also scheduled were Phantom Orchard, Mori’s project with the harpist Zeena Parkins, and Mephista, her all-female improv trio. Not coincidentally, the Japan Society presented both nights as installments in their current season’s theme: New York Woman.

A view of Ikue Mori‘s performance at the Japan Society.

Phantom Orchard has to be one of a very few acts to be considered for both a Prix Ars Electronica and inclusion in the annual New York noise gathering No Fun Fest. But this high-art/low-art tweak is a Mori signature, going back to her send-ups of Japanese court music in service of DNA’s raucous non-songs. Halfway through their set on Saturday, she and Parkins—whose atonal, growling harp might be another new-music joke—brought the percussionist Cyro Baptista onstage. As the crowd looked on intently, Baptista unveiled a clown car’s worth of instruments that resembled nothing so much as trash: a saw blade, two deflated spheres that looked like melting bowling balls, and half an NBA championship trophy (played with a bell). On the screen behind the deadpan trio, a kaleidoscopic animation eventually resolved itself into a familiar silhouette: Behold, the New York City cockroach.
Mori’s Maya Deren piece had a ghost of the same high/low feint, a tongue-in-cheek re-creation of long-gone low culture—the nickelodeon, the silent film, the piano player. Mori emerged in black, bowed, and sat down at a laptop. Witch’s Cradle, one of Deren’s more overtly claustrophobic films, lingers over thumping hearts, stray appendages, yards of rope; Mori’s score took as its basis the metronomic pulse of the body Deren plumbs in such depth, using it as a ground from which to take intricate flight.
But it was the second Deren film she showed, At Land, that was as close to a summa as the artist might cop to. At Land depicts Deren, in its opening shot, washing up out of the ocean and onto the shore. Right before the end of the reel—before Deren takes off running down the beach toward the water and the horizon, leaving an unbroken line of footprints behind her—the projection flickered, then died. Mori shrugged, and the show went on.
Afterward, I ran into Suzanne Fiol, artistic director at the Brooklyn new-music venue Issue Project Room. “At the end, she goes back into the water, right?” Fiol asked. Deren might, but Mori—not yet.-  Zach Baron

IKUE MORI

Myrninerest
Tzadik

MP3 Download // £6.99
FLAC Download // £8.99

EXTREME / NOISE
Cat. Number: TZA-CD-7714

A record based on the work of artist Madge Gill who channelled her spirit guide Myrinerest in thousands of drawings and paintings from 1918-1961, you say? I'll be in the garden... But come back, for this isn't an exercise in faux-intellectuelism built around a concept that would have Fox Mulder balking, but rather laptop pioneer Ikue Mori's contribution to the Tzadik women's series. Inhabiting that thin strip of land between the likes of Oval and more micro-sound inclined artists (Twerk, Safety Scissors etc.), Mori is a fully paid-up sonic experimentalist whose woven structures posses a dep…

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IKUE MORI

Labyrinth
Tzadik

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WORLD
Cat. Number: TZA-CD-7068

Brain-twisting electronic compositions by downtown legend Ikue Mori, one of the most respected composers in the contemporary electronica community. Completely unique and utterly original, Mori has developed a personal language through the combination of modified drum machines and triggered samplers. This, her second CD of solo music for tzadik, is a multi-faceted collection of complex compositions for the Apple Powerbook. After twenty years, she continues to create some of the very best cutting-edge electronic music around.

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IKUE MORI

One Hundred Aspects Of The Moon
Tzadik

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WORLD
Cat. Number: TZA-CD-7055

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IKUE MORI

B-side
Tzadik

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EXTREME / NOISE
Cat. Number: TZA-CD-7508

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IKUE MORI

Garden
Tzadik

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EXTREME / NOISE
Cat. Number: TZA-CD-7020

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0405

IKUE MORI

Hex Kitchen
Tzadik

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EXTREME / NOISE
Cat. Number: TZA-CD-7201

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JULIANNA BARWICK & IKUE MORI

FRKWYS Vol. 6
RVNG Intl.

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HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: FRKWYS06

Fresh from dropping her jaw-droppingly beautiful sophomore album The Magic Place, Julianna Barwick teams up with Ikue Mori of legendary New York no wavers DNA for a 12" of vocalisation and eldritch electronics. In the years since DNA tore apart the Gotham art scene, Mori has been busying herself as a distinguished developer of digital synth and drum machine and synth technology, and here she applies her considerable laptop chops to casting Barwick's plangent, patiently looped plainsong in a chattering, whirring, ever-shifting electronic setting that's too busy, mischievous…

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04

MARK DRESSER / FRED FRITH / IKUE MORI

Later…
Les Disques VICTO

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EXTREME / NOISE
Cat. Number: VICTO CD 070

Dresser (who's worked most notably with anthony braxton, tim berne, john zorn and bob ostertag ) is an interesting choice and much more of a jazzer than Frith's usual collaborators, and it's his presence that distinguishes this record from the later death ambient trios of mori, frith and bassist kato hideki. Dresser's unabashed virtuosity on his instrument and his dark, resonant yet springy tone meshes beautifully with mori's rhythmic matrices, prodding funkily one second, dropping to a buzzsaw arco drone the next. He also provokes frith into more expansive gestures than on the death ambient material.

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KIM GORDON / DJ OLIVE / IKUE MORI

SYR 5
SYR

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INDIE / ROCK / ALTERNATIVE
Cat. Number: SYR05

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KIM GORDON / DJ OLIVE / IKUE MORI

SYR 5
SYR

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INDIE / ROCK / ALTERNATIVE
Cat. Number: SYR5

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KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN / THURSTON MOORE / ISOLEE / VARIOUS

Strp1 - Reactions To the Music Of Dick Raaijmakers
Basta

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EXTREME / NOISE
Cat. Number: 30-9166-2

In case you don't already know, Dutchman Dick Raaijmakers is one of electronic music's unsung heroes. Relatively unknown outside of the Netherlands, the musician has recently enjoyed a small-scale renaissance thanks to the fantastic Basta release of early Dutch electronic music which featured tracks Raaijmakers had produced for films. This cd collects fourteen reactions by contemporary musicians to his extensive work, starting with a track from early electronic music obsessive Keith Fullerton Whitman, who takes…

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ZEENA PARKINS AND IKUE MORI

Phantom Orchard
Editions Mego

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EXTREME / NOISE
Cat. Number: MEGO071

Finally available in these shores, a good couple of months after Zeena and Ikue so graciously allowed themselves to adorn the cover of the Wire magazine and following on from a plethora of ecstatic reviews for this maverick collaboration between one of the worlds most exciting harpists (Parkins) and one of the worlds most inspired deconstructive laptop operators (Mori). "Phantom Orchard" is an absorbing collection of pieces, holding onto a vaguely accesable trajectory that every now and again dips into the realms of jittery experimentation. It's an album of opposites, a…

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MARCO CAPPELLI

Extreme Guitar Project: Music By Elliott Sharp, Otomo Yoshihide, Ikue Mori & More
MODE

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HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: MOD-CD-157

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040506
070809

MARK DRESSER / FRED FRITH / IKUE MORI

Later...
Victo

CD // £12.99

EXTREME / NOISE
Cat. Number: victocd070

Dresser (who's worked most notably with anthony braxton, tim berne, john zorn and bob ostertag ) is an interesting choice and much more of a jazzer than Frith's usual collaborators, and it's his presence that distinguishes this record from the later death ambient trios of mori, frith and bassist kato hideki. Dresser's unabashed virtuosity on his instrument and his dark, resonant yet springy tone meshes beautifully with mori's rhythmic matrices, prodding funkily one second, dropping to a buzzsaw arco drone the next. He also provokes frith into more expansive gestures than on the death ambient material.

Listen

010203

KIM GORDON / DJ OLIVE / IKUE MORI

SYR5
SYR

2LP // £13.99

INDIE / ROCK / ALTERNATIVE
Cat. Number: suyr05lp

IKUE MORI

Class Insecta
Tzadik

CD // £13.99

CLICKS / GLITCH
Cat. Number: TZA7629

Ikue Mori fans should brace themselves for a surprise on this record: she's decided to make a beat-oriented electronica record, one which takes surprisingly straight-laced drum machine rhythms as its starting point. There's still plenty of evidence of that signature Mori sound, overflowing with detailed, glitchy electroacoustic processes, but it all takes place within a loose framework of what might be termed Downtown techno. The granular trickle of sound particles during 'Walking Sticks' and 'Rusty Millipede' mark a return to the kind of abstract laptop designs that have made Mori's music so…

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IKUE MORI

Bhima Swarga
Tzadik

DVD // £18.49

VIDEO COMPILATION
Cat. Number: TZADV 3007

This unique audiovisual project features animation and electronics by New York resident and arch collaborator Ikue Mori, who recently contributed to the extremely wonderful Death Ambient album, also on Tzadik. Bhima Swarga is a film project based on animations of traditional paintings from the Kertha Gosa temple in Bali, telling the story of a soul's journey from Hell to Heaven. For the sonic elements of this piece, one audio piece documents a gamelan ensemble score by Matthew Welch, another captures solo electronics with Mori's signature laptop processing in full effect. As far as the film i…

IKUE MORI

Myrninerest
Tzadik

CD // £13.99

EXTREME / NOISE
Cat. Number: TZA7714

A record based on the work of artist Madge Gill who channelled her spirit guide Myrinerest in thousands of drawings and paintings from 1918-1961, you say? I'll be in the garden... But come back, for this isn't an exercise in faux-intellectuelism built around a concept that would have Fox Mulder balking, but rather laptop pioneer Ikue Mori's contribution to the Tzadik women's series. Inhabiting that thin strip of land between the likes of Oval and more micro-sound inclined artists (Twerk, Safety Scissors etc.), Mori is a fully paid-up sonic experimentalist whose woven structures posses a depth and …

Listen

010203

IKUE MORI

One Hundred Aspects Of The Moon
Tzadik

CD // £12.99

WORLD

Review to follow shortly…

IKUE MORI

Labyrinth
Tzadik

CD // £13.99

WORLD

Eleven new earsplitting, brain-twisting electronic compositions by downtown legend Ikue Mori, one of the most respected composers in the contemporary electronica community. Completely unique and utterly original, Mori has developed a personal language through the combination of modified drum machines and triggered samplers. This, her second CD of solo music for tzadik, is a multi-faceted collection of complex compositions for the Apple Powerbook. After twenty years, she continues to create some of the very best cutting-edge electronic music around. New on Tzadik.

IKUE MORI / EVAN PARKER / MARK NAUSEEF / BILL LASWELL

Near Nadir
Tzadik

CD // £13.99

HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: TZA7636CD

*Ikue Mori, Mark Nauseef, Evan Parker and Bill Laswell in collaboration* "Tzadik is proud to present this historic meeting of four major figures in the new music pantheon, each a master improviser and groundbreaking instrumentalist in their own right. Their work together is symbiotic, telepathic—the music powerful and sensitive, sustaining a hypnotic mood with great attention to detail and subtle nuance. Mixed to perfection by Bill Laswell, this is a landmark recording of electro-acoustic improvisation featuring four pioneers of the genre."

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010203

JULIANNA BARWICK & IKUE MORI

FRKWYS Vol. 6
RVNG Intl.

LP // £14.99

HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: FRKWYS06

*Limited edition vinyl pressing packaged in thick black jacket with two-colour adhesive rap* Fresh from dropping her jaw-droppingly beautiful sophomore album The Magic Place, Julianna Barwick teams up with Ikue Mori of legendary New York no wavers DNA for a 12" of vocalisation and eldritch electronics. In the years since DNA tore apart the Gotham art scene, Mori has been busying herself as a distinguished developer of digital synth and drum machine and synth technology, and here she applies her considerable laptop chops to casting Barwick's plangent, patiently looped plainsong…

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010203

ZEENA PARKINS & IKUE MORI

Phantom Orchard
Editions Mego

CD // £13.99

EXTREME / NOISE
Cat. Number: Mego071

Finally available in these shores, a good couple of months after Zeena and Ikue so graciously allowed themselves to adorn the cover of the Wire magazine and following on from a plethora of ecstatic reviews for this maverick collaboration between one of the worlds most exciting harpists (Parkins) and one of the worlds most inspired deconstructive laptop operators (Mori). "Phantom Orchard" is an absorbing collection of pieces, holding onto a vaguely accesable trajectory that every now and again dips into the realms of jittery experimentation. It's an album of opposites, as you wade…

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010203

HEMOPHILIAC (MIKE PATTON / IKUE MORI / JOHN ZORN)

John Zorn 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 6
Tzadik

CD // £13.99

DARK AMBIENT / DRONE / METAL
Cat. Number: TZACD5006

Volume 6 of John Zorn's 50th birthday party series of concert CD's (ten volumes in total). This is the first fully commercially available showcase for the mad trio improv collision of Mike Patton (weird and wonderful vocals), Ikue Mori (wild and wicked electronic noises) and John Zorn (wobbly and wrangled sax screeches). Heavy but great fun in equal doses. Next up the Masada Quartet, followed by Classic Guide To Strategy, Game Pieces and a Wadada Leo Smith, Susie Ibara and John Zorn trio. Recommended.

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010203

KIM GORDON / DJ OLIVE / IKUE MORI

SYR5
SYR

CD // £12.99

INDIE / ROCK / ALTERNATIVE

- boomkat

 Ikue Mori design: