Sunday 29 November 2026, 7.30pm
quality sounds ltd is a new independent record label run by claire rousay, presenting an evening at Cafe OTO, bringing together Loraine James, Ecka Mordecai, Tara Cunningham, Jack Cooper and a special guest TBA for a series of performances in various formations.
Loraine James grew up in Enfield, North London and was drawn into the world of music-making through her mother's eclectic love of music, and she thanks the multiculturalism of her city, for 'broadening her ears' in her teens. She took piano lessons as a child, while classes at college, and later on Westminster University’s Commercial Music course, facilitated her encounter with the basic tools for digital production, her musical approach displays voracious musical curiosity and an exciting, peerless approach to making music.
Her wide exposure to jazz, electronica, UK drill and grime, reassembled through her intuitive skills and intimate, almost diaristic approach to music-making can be heard on the colourful mix-up of her Hyperdub debut album For You And I which was well-received when it was released in late 2019, garnering features from Pitchfork, Line of Best Fit, Mixmag and album of the year in both DJ Mag and Quietus in the UK as well as support on radio. A busy live schedule headlining and supporting acts such as Telefon Tel Aviv, Jessy Lanza and Holly Herndon followed, as well as demand as a remixer, before Covid ground everything to a halt.
Loraine took advantage of the Lockdown to work on her next EP, Nothing for Hyperdub in 2020 as well as self releasing EPs on Bandcamp and using a steady flow of remixes, from Jessy Lanza to Gordi and others to sharpen her skills, as well as starting a monthly show on NTS radio and performing at Adult Swim's annual music festival. Loraine completed and delivered her third album Reflection for Hyperdub, released in June 2021. She also recorded the eponymous debut album under her ambient-adjacent alias, Whatever The Weather, arriving in spring 2022 on Ghostly International. In contrast to her percussive club music sensibilities, with WTW she uses keyboard improvisations, stuttering production, and vocal experimentation to shape atmosphere, mood, and tone.
Ecka Mordecai is a London based artist working with sound, scent and performance.
Her mode is improvisational and driven by a desire to explore the feel of things, be it through touch: making and preparing instruments (cello, horsehair harp, psaltery, eggflute, Bluetooth speakers), or emotionally: exploring the way different sounds, scents and gestures feel and produce feeling.
Notable projects include her solo album Promise & Illusion (Otoroku, 2022), Sound perfumes (Aequill, 2022), soundtrack and voiceover for filmmaker Kamila Kuc’s I was there (plus a written passage in accompanying book published 2025, Delere Press), and musical composition for Voyage Through the Diamond Realm (De Beers at Frieze Art Fair, 2025/2026).
Her viral Instagram project Cable Queen is an ongoing spite-piece inspired by the grind of her job working as a sound technician in a male-dominated industry/world, in which she silently coils audio cables whilst looking into the camera. The comments, written by strangers, expose the conditions of her labour.
She has performed and released music with David Toop & Christian Kobi, Valerio Tricoli (as Mordecoli), Andrew Chalk & Tom James Scott (as Circaea), and as a cellist with Vanishing, Thurston Moore and Alexander Tucker. She has performed the works of Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, George Maciunas, Antoine Beuger, Yoni Silver and Taku Sugimoto.
The Sleeves are a guitar and vocal duo of Tara Cunningham and Jack Cooper, whose music focusses on bridging song structure and improvisation. Their self-titled debut album was released in May of this year, with more music to be released in 2027. Collaborators include; Tom Skinner, Claire Rousay, Fred Frith, Mark Sanders and More Eaze.
