IN, DEMONS, IN! (2019)

A COLLABORATION WITH ELECTRONICS GURU CARL-MICHAEL VON HAUSSWOLFF SEEMS LIKE IT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED MUCH SOONER THAN 2019: PERHAPS THEIR PREDILECTIONS FOR BROODING DRONE MUSIC THAT SUBVERTS AND TWISTS THE RECORDING DEVICE IN ITS MANUFACTURE MEAN THEY'RE TOO SIMILAR, IN SOME WAYS? 

THIS IS A DRONE RECORD THAT HAS A REAL DEPTH AND FEELING OF PRESSURE IN THE MIX. RIGHT NOW IT IS REALLY HUMID: THOUGH IT APPEARS COLD. THIS MUSIC SIMULATES THAT FEELING SOMEHOW - ON THE SURFACE ONE THING, BUT FROM DEEP WITHIN THE ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE THERE IS SOME OPPRESSION, SOME CAPACITY TO CHANGE.

IT'S JUST A LITTLE LIMITED EDITION RECORD ON SOME OBSCURE LABEL BUT I THINK THIS IS UP THERE WITH ANY DRONE COLLABORATION JIM HAS DONE SINCE THE START OF THIS BLOG. IT REALLY REMINDS ME OF YELLOW SWANS, WHO I PERSONALLY THINK WERE AHEAD OF THEIR PEERS IN THIS APPROXIMATE AREA OF MUSIC. THE FULLNESS AND CONVINCING SENSE OF MOTION AND TRANSITION IN THIS RECORD REALLY APPEALS.

GONNA GO CERTIFIED: GOOD. IT PROBABLY WON'T BE ONE OF HIS TOP TEN LIFETIME RECORDS BUT A VERY PLEASANT SURPRISE.

MIZO NO NAI UMI (2005) aka STEAMROOM 11

RECORDED IN 1990 AND THEN LEFT IN A BOX FOR 13 YEARS, UNTOUCHED, UNLOVED, FORGOTTEN. AND THEN RECOVERED, REVIVED, AND RELOVED. PERFORMED LIVE. AND THEN INCLUDED IN THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL. AND ALL INCLUDED HERE.

THE LIVE VERSION AND THE STUDIO VERSION ARE MOSTLY SIMILAR, WITH SOME INSTRUMENTATION ADDED TO THE LIVE VERSION THAT IS MOSTLY UNOBSTRUSTIVE AND ALLOWS THE ORIGINAL BEATIFIC DRONES TO COME THROUGH. THIS IS DRONE MUSIC FOR A NEAR EARTH COLONY, A NEW START, A LABORATORY ON VENUS. IT SHIMMERS AND RADIATES A CALM ENERGY. 

THE STEAMROOM RELEASE ADDS A TRACK RECORDED AT THE SAME TIME AND INCLUDED ON A COMPILATION ALONGSIDE PIECES BY RALF WEHOWSKY AND TONY CONRAD, WHICH DOUBTLESS MADE JIM PLEASED. IT IS OF A SIMILAR PIECE AS MIZO NO NAI UMI, THOUGH MORE UNSETTLED. 

A SOLID RELEASE FOR DRONE FANS.

LONG NIGHT (2008) aka STEAMROOM 27

RECORDED IN 1990 AND RELEASED JUST AFTER THE HEIGHT OF JIM-MANIA, LONG NIGHT PRESENTS NEARLY THREE HOURS OF O'ROURKE'S TAPE-Y DRONE-Y AMBIENT-Y SYNTH-Y MUSIC OVER THE COURSE OF TWO VERY LONG TRACKS. 

 
LET'S SEE WHAT SOMEONE ON DISCOGS SAID ABOUT THIS:

Long Night by Jim O'Rourke is a record that demands deep listening. There is a great number of wave phenomena and sound filtering, to be able to catch it all will require concentration akin to the effort of meditation. It is a record about sound morphology, escape velocity and personal abstraction. While drones have an apparent simplicity at face value, complexity is the true characteristic of this work and Jim O’Rourke puts to the test the famous lesson by La Monte Young, that sounds are interesting in and of it selves and they should be played for a long time. Long Night will be a great listening if you're by yourself, but it will be even better if you share it with someone. It will develop a solemn ambience, an unawkward silence of resonating contemplation – a true demonstration of intimacy and communing. Someone will always ask "what's this we're hearing?", and you know you've just presented them with something grand and new.

THIS PRESENTS A SERIOUS STATEMENT ABOUT THE MUSIC AND IT WOULD BE UNFAIR TO DISMISS IT OUT OF HAND. I LISTENED TO IT ALONE, IN FULL, AT A GOOD VOLUME. I ATTEMPTED TO ENGAGE WITH IT ON THE *REAL* AND LIKE EVERY SINGLE RECORD HERE I HAVE TRIED TO LIKE IT (FUNDAMENTALLY THIS BLOG SHOWS I AM RIGHT ABOUT O'ROURKE, HE IS  A TALENT, AND MUCH MORE COMPLEX THAN HE IS GIVEN CREDIT FOR).

 

IT'S NOT LIKE I WANT THE TIME BACK OR ANYTHING. IT'S JUST THAT 'DEEP LISTENING' AND CONCENTRATION DIDN'T SEEM TO REWARD ME ANY EXTRA. THE RECORD IS FINE - DROP THE NEEDLE ANYWHERE AN A RICH DRONE WILL PLAY, AND OCCASIONALLY THERE WILL BE SOMETHING SUBTLY MELODIC HAPPENING AGAINST IT. SKIP 15 MINUTES AND YOU WILL NOTICE CHANGES THAT YOU DIDN'T NOTICE HAPPENING IN REAL TIME. IT IS CONSIDERED AND ALL...I JUST DON'T CARE VERY MUCH FOR IT.

SINCERELY IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND YOU LIKE THE SOUND OF 2HRS 37 OF CONTEMPLATIVE AMBIENT DRONE FOR A VICODIN NIGHT OF THE SOUL, LONG NIGHT BY JIM O'ROURKE IS FOR YOU.

STEAMROOM 31 (2017)

THREE LONG PIECES FROM THE EXPERIMENTAL FILMIC WORKS OF MAKINO TAKASHI (GENERATOR (2011), STILL IN COSMOS (2009), AND THE SEASONS (2008)). CINEMATICALLY THESE ARE WORKS SOMEWHERE BETWEEN BRAKHAGE, JONAS MEKAS, AND BILL VIOLA - MEDITATIVE, ABSTRACT, DIFFICULT TO APPLY SINGLE READINGS TO.

AND YET SOMETHING ABOUT TAKASHI'S IMAGE MAKING CLOSES DOWN MANY AVENUES OF MUSIC THAT CAN POSSIBLY EXIST ALONGSIDE IT. O'ROURKE'S PIECE FOR GENERATOR IS AN EFFECTIVE DRONE PIECE PAIRED WITH THE IMAGE. ALONE - IT IS FINE.

O'ROURKE IS ACCOMPANIED BY CHRIS CORSANO AND DARIN GRAY (THE SAME LINE UP AS OSOREZAN). NO ONE PLAYS TOO DEMONSTRABLY - THIS IS MUSIC DESIGNED TO CONJURE UP GREAT MYSTERIES BY WAY OF INDUSTRIAL PULSING AND THRUMMING.

 

I'D BEGUN TO THINK THAT O'ROURKE'S LIKELIEST VOCATION AFTER POP WOULD BE TO MAKE CINEMATIC SOUND, AS HE HAS THE MASTERY OF BOTH THE ATMOSPHERIC AND THE COUNTERPOINT ASPECTS. 'THE SEASONS' IS A LONG PIECE, SLIGHTLY MORE AGGRESSIVE IN PARTS, THAT CYCLES THROUGH A NUMBER OF MOODS. AGAIN THIS ALL WORKS PERFECTLY WELL WITH THE IMAGES IN THE FILM, BUT NOT SO MUCH OUTSIDE OF IT. WHICH IS FINE. SOUND FOR FILM IS COMPLIMENTARY.

STEAMROOM 42 (2018)

A BROODING DRONE RECORD THAT VEERS MORE TOWARD SOUND ART AND ATMOSPHERICS (IE. DEMANDING YOUR EAR) RATHER THAN AMBIENT (CONSTRUCTED IGNORABILITY, ON SOME LEVEL). 38 MINUTES OF DENSE WOODS, STEAM RISING IN THE FEW CLEARINGS, HUMIDITY SOAKING YOU.

I AM SURE JIM HAS A HIGHER PURPOSE FOR THIS MUSIC BUT I THINK IT WOULD SOUND GREAT IN A FILM OR A BIG EXHIBITION ABOUT MEDIEVAL JAPAN OR DINOSAURS. IT CONJURES UP QUITE THE SOUND WORLD AND FEELS MORE OVERLY RELATED TO 'IMAGE' THAN SOME OF THE MORE INSCRUTABLE PIECES OFFERED UP IN THE DRONE MODE.

IN COBALT AURA SLEEPS (2020)

ALLOW ME TO QUOTE FROM THE RECENT REVIEW OF SHUTTING DOWN HERE ON THE MUSIC REVIEW WEBSITE PITCHFORK:

In 1990, Jim O’Rourke visited the studio of the Groupe de recherches musicales (INA GRM) in Paris. The experience was monumental for the guitarist, budding composer, and 21-year-old college student. Back at DePaul University in Chicago, O’Rourke’s teachers, he once told an interviewer, “were just trying to mold you into becoming professors.” In Paris, he was meeting his heroes, radical luminaries of the mid-century avant-garde, particularly the concentric genres of musique concrète and acousmatic music. O’Rourke’s latest, Shutting Down Here, is billed as his return to INA GRM 30 years after he made his first pilgrimage.

WELL THIS MAY BE THE BILLING BUT I GUESS IT IS NOT STRICTLY TRUE AS HERE WE HAVE JIM COLLABORATING WITH THE CURRENT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF INA GRM (AND, I MIGHT ADD, NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME).

THE COVER IMAGE OF EMPTY (ABANDONED?) BOATS IS A RARE EXAMPLE OF A JIM O'ROURKE COVER IMAGE HAVING SOME SENSE OF CONNECTION WITH THE MUSIC CONTAINED WITHIN: THERE'S A SENSE OF FLOATING, AN EERIE SENSE OF SOMETHING HAVING VACATED RECENTLY AND DISTURBINGLY. DISSONANT DRONES BOB AND THE STERN GENTLY THUDS AGAINST THE JETTY. SOMETHING IS WRONG.

THE WORK SEEMS A BIT MORE INVOLVED THAN THE AVERAGE STEAMROOM DRONE RECORD BUT ULTIMATELY I'M NOT GREATLY MOVED BY IT. O'ROURKE MIGHT BE REVISITING SOME THEMES FROM HIS YOUTH BUT I DON'T THINK HE'S NECESSARILY BRINGING ANYTHING NEW TO THEM OTHER THAN TECHNOLOGY TO REALISE IT AND PERHAPS RECORDING FIDELITY. 

AS SOUND DESIGN THIS IS PRETTY GOOD: WHOLE, RICH, FULLY REALISED, WITH AN EQUIVALENT STEREO IMAGE TO THAT OF A BEAUTIFUL DEEP FOCUS PHOTOGRAPH. BUT THE CONTEXT I HEAR IT IN (MUSIC) MEANS I LOOK FOR CERTAIN THRILLS THAT NEVER QUITE ARRIVE.

TWO ORGANS (2004) aka STEAMROOM 28

 I PUT THIS ONE ON STRAIGHT AFTER THE LAST RECORD (THE GROUND BELOW ABOVE OUR HEADS) AND THOUGHT 'WOW IT IS AMAZING HE HAS FOUND A SIMILAR SOUND 13 YEARS LATER' BUT IT TRANSPIRES THAT TWO ORGANS WAS ACTUALLY RECORDED AROUND THE SAME TIME AND THEREFORE POSSIBLY COMES OUT OF SOME OF THE SAME PRECEPTS AND OBSESSIONS.

I WOULD GUESS I AM NOT THE FIRST ONE TO SUGGEST THIS SOUNDS A LITTLE BIT LIKE STEVE REICH - MORE HIS ERA OF PHASING THAN HIS BYZANTINE REPETITIVE ENSEMBLE MUSIC. ON THE SURFACE I SUPPOSE IT IS DRONE/AMBIENT MUSIC WITH A NOD TOWARD THE KOSMICHE, BUT WHAT IS PROBABLY WAY MORE INTERESTING IS THE INTERNAL SOUND OF THE ORGAN AND THE WAYS, UNIQUE TO EVERY ORGAN, THAT THE WIND SYSTEM WORKS AND PRODUCES THESE QUIVERING RHYTHMS AND DIFFERENT INTENSITIES AND EMPHASES. JIM'S JUST HOLDING DOWN ONE MASSIVE CHORD ACROSS TWO ORGANS, BUT IT FEELS LIKE A UNIVERSE OF SOUND TWISTING AND GYBING IN THE WIND.

THE TWO PIECES ARE FUNCTIONALLY SIMILAR BUT BOTH HAVE THIS EFFECT THAT REWARDS CLOSE LISTENING WHILST ALSO BEING TOTALLY LULLING IF YOU SWITCH OFF MOMENTARILY, GETTING LOST IN THE FLUID RHYTHMS LIKE EDDYING WATER. THE HARMONIES ON TRACK ONE ARE MORE PLEASANT WHILST ON TRACK TWO THERE IS A SLIGHT DISQUIETING TENSION INSERTED INTO THE MIX NOW AND AGAIN.

INTERESTING STUFF. NOT QUITE CERTIFIED: GOOD BUT DEFINITELY WORTH A LISTEN.

THE GROUND BELOW ABOVE OUR HEADS (1991) aka STEAMROOM 9

WHEN I WAS WRAPPING UP MY DEGREE I WAS WORKING IN A BETTING SHOP AND DIDN'T HAVE THE ENERGY TO DO SHIT ALL ELSE: HOW JIM WAS UNDERTAKING A DEGREE AND BEING INVOLVED IN LIKE 6 PROJECTS IS BEYOND ME. EVEN WHEN IT COMES TO MUSIC I CAN'T SPREAD MYSELF ANY THINNER THAN ONE THING AT ONCE. I'M NOT A NATURAL, NOR AM I EDUCATED, SO MAYBE THERE'S YOUR ANSWER. ANYWAY IT DOES SEEM LIKE ONE THING THAT SEPARATES O'ROURKE FROM THOSE WITH A REASONABLY NORMAL RELEASE SCHEDULE IS SOME SUPERHUMAN CAPACITY FOR INDUSTRY.

MARKING A LITTLE BIT OF A CHANGE FROM THE PREPARED GUITAR MUSIC THAT WE SAW JIM ENGAGE WITH IN 1989 AND EARLY 1990, THIS IS WHAT I GUESS YOU MIGHT CALL A DRONE RECORD. THERE'S A NICE ORGANIC FLOW TO IT THAT SUGGESTS USE OF TAPES, AND I LIKE HOW THERE'S SOME MANIPULATION OF THE MATERIAL TO CREATE INTERNAL RHYTHMS (SOMETIMES I FEEL RHYTHMIC EXPLORATION IS TOO OFTEN ABSENT FROM DRONE/AMBIENT MUSIC).

BOTH TRACKS WOULD MAKE A NICE AMBIENT SCORE FOR A SLOW-BURNING FILM CONTAINING A SIMULANT LOOSE AT A POLAR ICE STATION, PICKING OFF HUMANS ONE-BY-ONE. IF BROODING AND SUBTLY EVOLVING DRONE MUSIC IS YOUR THING THEN CHECK OUT THIS.

STEAMROOM 3 (2013)

A RECORDING OF A LIVE SET IN KOBE, THOUGH A QUESTION IS FOR SETS THAT INVOLVE A GREAT DEAL OF COMPUTER IS HOW MUCH OF THE LIVE EXPERIENCE IS LIVE, AND WHAT EXACTLY IS LIVE MUSIC ANYWAY? IN THIS ERA WHERE GIGS ARE VERBOTEN I FEEL LIKE I WOULD GO AND SEE SOMEONE PRESS PLAY ON A TAPE IN A ROOM JUST FOR THAT EXPERIENCE OF BEING THERE.

THIS IS A NICE DRONE RECORD THAT WAS PROBABLY GREAT FUN LIVE. THERE ARE PROGRESSIVE DYNAMIC CHANGES BUT NEVER VVV FORTISSIMO OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT. THE INTERVALS MOVE BETWEEN COSMIC, TROUBLED, AND PLAINTIVE. USE IT TO SOUNDTRACK THE LAUNCH OF YOUR NEXT LUNAR MODULE.