A mesmerising, chimerical set from Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist, Patrick Shiroishi, recorded at OTO on a bill with Alex Zhang Hungtai in November 2024. Starting with plain, unadorned saxophone tones, Shiroishi immediately sets about drawing the listener into his own distinctive sonic landscape. Looped refrains slowly build between voice and instrument as Shiroishi weaves a wonderfully lyrical tangle of saxophone lines in the gaps, before drawing out a weighty swell of bass tones which only serve to let the rest swirl ever higher. From this point, Shiroishi doesn't look back, covering a remarkable amount of ground in the set's 35 minute duration. Circular breathing runs spiral around jagged little stabs of melody, blurring into samples of recorded speech which hiss and fracture before falling away completely. For a while, all that remains are the ebbing waves of Shiroishi's breath through the reeds, as a languid saxophone melody swoops and darts amongst the leavings of the low tide. The waters will soon return though, this time not so much a swell as a raging torrent. Shiroishi's wonderfully stark, plaintive voice calls forth the flood. Layering with fragments of saxophone and electronics, the currents soon become a swirling cataract that the speakers seem barely able to contain, until finally the entire deluge is itself washed away. From those first few simple notes, the distance covered is no small thing, for artists and audience alike. -- Recorded by Shaun CrookMixed by Patrick ShiroishiMastered by Oli BarrettCover photo by Jordan Reyes

For his last solo record ‘Through a Room’, Bill Nace shifted his usual saturated guitar sound and added tapes, hurdy gurdy, doughnut pipe, bird calls and the mysterious Japanese taishōgoto. Setting up for the final night of his three day residency at OTO with only the taishōgoto soundchecked, Nace hoped that Parker would arrive with his small soprano as its opposite. “I’ve been interested in state change, you know, playing until there’s a shift in time.” Known for his development of multiphonics to produce a constantly shifting pattern, Evan Parker has evolved an instantly recognizable sound - his work the soprano most distinct. Happily, it was the soprano Evan brought with him and as soon as the two start to play they entwine - taking off in a double helix of keys and reed primed for endless reconfiguration. Space warps under the velocity of playing, the pitch rising unrelentingly. It felt like unending lift off in the room, sheer energy until the last note makes remember your feet have been on the floor the whole time. Total time bending shredding.  --- Bill Nace / electric two string taishōgotoEvan Parker / soprano saxophone --- Arrives in a tip on sleeve with artwork by Bill Nace. Edition of 500 released as a split with Bill Nace's Open Mouth Records. If you're in the USA we advise you buy locally.  Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Friday 25th May, 2024 by Billy Steiger. Mixed and mastered by Brian Haran. Cover art by Bill Nace. Photo by Dawid Laskowski. Layout by Neil Burker & Bill Nace. 

To celebrate our 17th birthday, we're delighted to offer a free recording of the phenomenal first meeting between Theodora Laird (voice), John McGrath (guitar) and Douglas Benford (harmonium). Recorded at OTO as part of Phil Durrant's 'Combinations' event in January 2025, the set may only be 10 minutes long, but contains so many layers that we'll be unravelling it for a long time to come. Laird's remarkable voice swoops and flutters with a stark, intimate quality that feels almost confessional, conjuring an atmosphere all its own. McGrath's guitar blurs the lines between acoustic and synthetic as clusters of notes fizz and sputter, refracting and evolving with a granular intensity as distinctive as it is complex. Ebbing and flowing through the fragments, Benford's juddering, yearning reeds pitch and yaw, sometimes swelling like a spring tide, sometimes sharp and fractured like splinters of ice. All too soon, the myriad swirling strands settle, but their reverberations linger for a long while. Representing three great improvising musicians fully in the moment, and embodying so much of what we want OTO to provide a home for, this is something very special indeed. -- Recorded by Billy SteigerMixed and mastered by Oli BarrettCover photo by Stuart Wilding

Evan Parker and Matthew Wright’s Trance Map project has included improvised live events across Europe and the US, involving other invited guest performers, with various Trance Map+ recordings released on psi, Intakt and FMR Records. Since 2020, Trance Map+ have undertaken ambitious streamed and networked performances, connecting with musicians around the world from The Hot Tin venue in Faversham, Kent, UK. In 2022, this resulted in Transatlantic Trance Map, a simultaneous performance between seven musicians in Kent and six musicians in Roulette, New York City, which is profiled on this album release. Transatlantic Trance Map helps to mark Evan Parker’s 80th birthday in 2024. It is the second Evan Parker release on False Walls, following THEN THROUGH NOW by Evan and Henry Dagg (2022). In November 2024, False Walls will also release THE HERACLITEAN TWO-STEP, etc., a 4 CD set of solo, improvised recordings by Evan Parker, along with a 128 page book, including writing by John Corbett, Richard Leigh and Stephen C. Middleton; an extended interview with Evan Parker by Martin Davidson; along with writing and visual artwork by Evan Parker. --- THE HOT TINFaversham, UK, 8pm GMT:Evan Parker: soprano saxophone
Matthew Wright: turntable, live sampling and processing
Peter Evans: trumpet, piccolo trumpetRobert Jarvis: trombone
Hannah Marshall: celloPat Thomas: live electronicsAlex Ward: clarinet ROULETTEBrooklyn, USA, 3pm EST:Sylvie Courvoisier: piano, keyboardMat Maneri: violaIkue Mori: laptop live electronicsSam Pluta: laptop live electronicsNed Rothenberg: clarinet, bass clarinet, shakuhachiCraig Taborn: piano, keyboard, live electronics  

"马木尔 Mamer meets Ruins Alone (Tatsuya Yoshida) 吉田" for an improvisation after a solo set from Tatsuya Yoshida at the first Tomorrow Festival,  2014." --- 吉田达也 Tatsuya Yoshida / 人声 vocals, 鼓 drums, 采样器 sampler 马木尔 Mamer - 贝斯 bass, 人声 vocals / 口弦 mouth harp --- Tracklisting:  1. Hyderomastgroningem 01:28 2. Schvostess 01:46 3. DAGDAD 00:51 4. Korromda Peimm 01:19 5. Jallamjikko 01:17 6. Obthecklomtz 02:21 7. Pallaschtom 01:58 8. Skhanddravisa 04:03 9. Shofetim 02:50 10. Nivaftopoftz 01:11 11. Zurna Taksim 00:33 12. Snare 01:16 13. Classical Music Medley 01:17 14. Progressive Music Medley 02:16 15. Lockssomblez 01:16 16. Glaschzenck 03:03 17. Equesspaldho 01:43 18. Komnigriss 01:44 19. Becttem Pollt 02:42 20. Laiptchig 01:57 21. Improvisation 1 (Tatsuya Yoshida × Mamer) 10:32 22. Improvisation 2 (Tatsuya Yoshida × Mamer 06:46 ---   Recorded May 10, 2014 at the 1st Tomorrow Festival, Shenzhen. Released April 10, 2017

Wind Tide is a multidisciplinary art presence inhabiting the sonic, visual, and conceptual realms of Gretchen Korsmo and Andrew Weathers. Wind Tide also functions as their recording space in Texas, while extending to off-site locations in the field, as both artists have a relationship with nature and landscapes. “Blue Breaking Brown” is both sprawling and focused, with mysterious drifting vocals emerging and receding along swathes of resonant guitar drones. Room tone, bells, synthesizer, lap steel, and percussion elements drift over one another like transparent textiles, or variants of light and shadow on distant surfaces. Gretchen and Andrew are both involved in the Full Spectrum Records collective, whose supportive energy is present here: sounds exist as singular entities, yet coalesce to create two beautiful, intense, and engaging side-long documents of performance. Andrew Weathers / synthesizer, lap steel, recorder, electronicsGretchen Korsmo / voice, electric piano, synthesizer, percussion Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Wind Tide, Littlefield TXSome components recorded live at Chapter, Denver CO