Octavia M Sheffner is an Almaty, Kazakhstan-based producer, writer and visual artist. Their music is a kaleidoscopic collage, hypnotic while perpetually reformatting, longform with a hook focused immediacy. Previous releases have appeared on labels including Suite 309 and Blorpus Editions, alongside a sprawling catalogue of self-released albums and aliases. With 'Shivering;' their new tape on Bezirk, this approach steps into a darker zone without losing the vibrant energy that makes their work so crucial. The tracks on 'Shivering;' were recorded in November 2022, which contributed to their murkier tone. “For me, November is a cursed month. It has a sour, dour aura to it. A time of transition when the weather won’t make up its mind. I was going through November fever, a sense of uneasiness and unreality. And that’s partly why I made this really melancholy, distant, voidy record,” Octavia explains. When listening to these tracks, you get sucked into a hypnagogic netherworld. There’s a feeling of descent, but no despair. An acquiescence perhaps, to slipping into the darkness and taking in its trippy scenery. The first track, ‘Eris & Aneris...’ comes from Sheffner recycling an older recording from another project. Propelled by a chugging metallic pulse, snippets of vocals and other sound blend into a blur over the perpetual motion groove. Things deepen on ‘Insomnie a deux’, compiled from a bank of Youtube vinyl rips of everything from church chorals to old folk songs. “Vinyl rips to Youtube have all this annoying high end to them,” Octavia explains. “These clicks that I really can’t stand. I spent so long trying to filter them out, and that’s how the track ended up sounding so washed out.” Like so much of Octavia M Sheffner’s music, each track acts as a nexus point, an intersection of strands from the online archive somehow wrestled into, if not harmony, a peculiar equilibrium. “I think of the album as being two spiral staircases eating each other, like an ouroboros,” they explain. The ominous tone is matched in the artwork. Like all the visuals for their releases, it was done by Octavia themselves. Intrinsically tied to the sounds, this time they took inspiration from the heavy negative space found in Daguerreotypes. The power that comes from washes of black. It taps a deep rooted fixation. “The ‘Alone’ episode of Spongebob changed my sensibilities forever,” they explain. “Speech bubbles in the void. It’s psychological horror in a kids cartoon. I love it deeply, it ruined my life. It resonates with this album.” It's not all darkness though. On the closing track, a gorgeous mesh of overlapping strings underpins a spoken word sample of someone going through the mundane practice of tuning up an instrument. “It’s to bring the record back from the dark world. To lure you back into physicality with recognizable sound or space. Rather than an abstract realm where rainbow lights flash in the dark periodically. “

‘Harmonium II’ is the new album from London-based artist Zheng Hao. Across two side long pieces, she manipulates feedback into clumps of pure tone and interruptions of chirping, chirruping high frequencies. It follows her recent album for Krim Kram, "Breaks", and more directly, "Harmonium", released on Hard Return in 2022. With her duo, Oishi (alongside Ren Shang), she released "once upon a time there was a mountain" on Bezirk in 2023. As Hao explains, Harmonium II should not be viewed as a follow-up to the first Harmonium but a parallel exploration of the same ideas and themes: “’Harmonium’ refers to a type of balanced feedback, more specifically, a resonance,” she says. Where the first Harmonium involved controlling tones from a harmonica, no traditional acoustic instruments are present on this installment. Instead, Hao explores loops of recording devices and listening technology fed into a modular synth. On the first side, 'I', she turns a Zoom recorder – a tool used by field recordists to capture sound - into an instrument. Placing headphones close to the Zoom’s microphones, she tuned the feedback tones generated into sine waves from her modular synth. In a poetic twist, this approach creates an electronic world with the verdancy of a soundscape. Low, rumbling tones give the impression of an aircraft passing overhead. Squeaking high frequencies sound like voluble wildlife. Hypnotic pulses and beating tones emerge as her movements shift the system. Through recursion and gesture comes a tentative approximation of organic life. “I’m moving the headphones around so that it feels a bit like insects coming in and out,” Hao explains. “There’s also a low frequency feedback from the Zoom recorder itself, and I’m fading that feedback into a modular generated low sine wave as a transition, and then gradually fade the modular sound to a phantom rhythm. Then again and again.” For the second side Hao uses a reverb pedal and a mixing desk. Opening with a bed of stridulating bleeps and buzzes, human gestures can be heard in the system once more, gentle sweeps and waves eventually held in a suspended drone. Equilibrium arrives as humming tones bend, curve and fold into each other. It’s a more meditative piece than the first side, a bed of sounds that could be coarse and jarring frequencies coalesced into something utterly other, and utterly compelling. In Hao’s practice, conventional relations between performer and sound sources are twisted. Sound becomes malleable. Graspable without the obstructions and limitations of a conventional instrument or a DAW. Reference points for her music could be the visceral sound explorations of Maryanne Amacher, the haptic feedback sculpting of Rafael Torral, and the no-input mixing board experiments of Toshimaru Nakamura. It undoubtedly also chimes with the recent release on Bezirk by Regan Bowering. Although using different tools and reaching different outcomes, for both, signal paths are hacked and rearranged, feedback is embraced, and gestures are translated into sonic phenomena. Sounds that are typically discarded or avoided are held onto for their affective, textural and interactive possibilities. The unfamiliar sensations residing in unconventional sound sources are embraced. “Feedback- for me, is less about the sound output and more about enjoying the 'control' during the performance process,” Hao explains. “It’s like a tug-of-war between me and the feedback, listening very intently to the sounds in the speakers, my fingers tightly pressing on the mixer knobs cautiously to prevent any distortions. I enjoy the feeling of this back-and-forth and the vibrations that occur when feedback happens, which feels warm to me, or maybe it’s because I’m usually sweating when I’m playing with feedback…” Zheng Hao is a sound artist and experimental musician, born in Wuhan, China, currently based in London, United Kingdom. She is a member of the duos Oishi (with Ren Shang) and ecm (with Joseph Khan). Her solo works explore electronic and electro-acoustic instruments, including modular synthesis and feedback. She has released music on Otoroku, Falt, Molt Fluid, Krim Kram, and Research Laboratories. 

A visceral, reflexive set from drummer Steve Noble and trumpeter Gabriel Bristow, recorded at OTO in April 2022. Stepping in for Tashi Dorji, who'd had to cancel his tour, Bristow more than matches the Bhutanese guitarist's intensity, summoning a freewheeling melodicism that combines undeniable technical skill with full-throated breath work and exuberant runs that soar over the rousing fervency of Noble's drumming. For those still in need of proof of Noble's status as one of the all-time-great British drummers (and really, if so, where have you been?), look no further. Noble's distinctive style is in full effect here, an instinctual percussive tour-de-force that covers an incredible amount of ground whilst never seeming to be anything less than utterly suited to the moment. At times the back and forth between the two musicians builds to such a clamorous pitch that it seems that the whole thing must tumble over, but both artists seem able and willing to push on to greater heights. At others, there's a ruminative thoughtful quality to the interplay that evokes the charged semi-silences of the films of the Quay brothers. There's an overarching drive and vitality to the duo's reciprocity, and at times there's enough swing going on here to conjure Jaan Pehchan Ho. But the pair also give each other enough space to breathe, with the set's 40 minute running time punctuated by miniature solo sections that seem to act like deliberate inhales before the next giddy ascension. Through it all, snippets of Albert Ayler's phantom phrases coil and wreathe in new variations that tip the hat without getting bogged down in too much reverence. This is no amber-coated act of jazz preservation, but a living, breathing performance imbued with the spirit. -- Recorded by Chris PentyMixed by Otto WillbergMastered by Oli Barrett

Kaj Duncan David’s new album ‘Only Birds Know How to Call the Sun and They Do It Every Morning', made with the Danish contemporary ensemble Scenatet, is an extraordinary work of sui generis avant-garde electronic music, exploring therelationship between language and three interrelated themes; human development, altered states of consciousness and AI / machine learning. Employing voice (vocoder, talkbox), synth, EWI (electric wind instrument), MIDI guitar and MIDI percussion, ‘Only Birds Know How…’ is focused on a timely conceptual premise, one that imagines what the linguistic progression of AI would sound like if guided by play and experimentation, rather than input data. In other words; the sound of AI learning to speak just as a human does. The album duly envisions what this cognitive process would sound like if combined with “sci-fi chamber music”. In other words; unruly, distorted, mischievous, yet strangely beautiful and compelling. The album originated with Kaj’s desire to create songs based on his interest in pre-linguistic singing and the oral transition from “pure, non-verbal vocal sound to expressive meaning”. ‘Only Birds Know How…’ was then written for ensemble and performed at the following festivals; Spor (Aarhus), Frequenz (Kiel) and Copenhagen’s MINU. The album’s source material comprises the MIDI files recorded by Kaj at MINU, material subsequently adapted during the album’s production. Out of this, Kaj and Scenatet have assembled a special symphony that lives, falters and flourishes, capturing the accretions of language and learning through the lens of the organic, the mystical and the technological. With garbled, polyphonic vocals and errant, indeterminate electronics, they embody the way language morphs and contorts, offering a captivating, surreal vista of contemporary speech, music and perception. For Kaj, ‘Only Birds Know How…’ is a “a psychedelic reimagining of how language develops, a sort of science fiction concept album depicting a consciousness forming and the states this subject passes through in the process of discovering the world”. Defining the album as a “cosmic soup” that “connects recent experiences in parenthood, mystical encounters and an ongoing interest in AI”, Kaj highlights the influence of specific ideas associated with these themes, including early language development and glossolalia (or speaking in tongues). Together, Kaj & Scenatet create speculative, futurist electronic music replete with conceptual curiosity. The album lurches through stuttering vocoder-phonetics, disassembled new age soundscapes and aleatoric synthesis, before moving into more structured, affecting but no less singular territories. Dedicated to Kaj’s daughter, with texts co-created with Brazilian performer Maikon K, ‘Only Birds Know How…’ is a remarkable detour from the conventions of languageand experimental music. Exploring the flux of communication and consciousness, Kaj and Scenatet outlay an aesthetic anomaly, illustrating an elusive, intricate and multi-layered conception. Is this a treatise on the fraught implications of AI, an ode to acid-fried transcendence or an existential rumination on parenthood? Is it all of this, none of this, or more? The answer lies within. You’ve heard machines weep, but have you heard them learning to talk?

Otoroku is delighted to present a remarkable, one-of-a-kind release from Swedish-Belgian sound composer, non-musician and cloud researcher, Valerie Mol, aka eurodyke (a play on the mythical Eurydice). Developed out of recordings made during Mol's performance at Cafe OTO in December 2023, The extrauniversal clouds is short record, a patchwork and a fabulation. The record, composed between 2021 and 2025, consists of one piece divided into three parts. In the first part, Jump-in see-through hoops, they are slightly saying hi, synthesized high frequency melodies and concrete sample-works join forces, an obvious collage and a lot of digital silences. In the second part, The extrauniversal clouds, Mol tells a fantasy story about living clouds that can only hear. The story is undeniably fun, but also serves to change the way the listener listens to the surrounding pieces.  The third part, Medley by clouds for pianos primarily manufactured by Yamaha, is as its title suggests a collage of recordings of improvisations performed and recorded at different venues, among them Fylkingen and Cafe OTO. It is inspired by other shorter pieces-in-series, György Kurtágs ongoing collection Játékok being an example. Spanning a wide range of sonic approaches in a markedly idiosyncratic and multifaceted style that makes a mockery of genre distinctions, The extrauniversal clouds, is a record hard to pin down but with a wealth of detail and meaning to uncover for those who dive in. -- Composed and mixed by eurodyke between 2021 and 2025Additional vocal mix by Paul PurgasSome piano recordings by Billy SteigerMastered by Oli Barrett Cover design: Victoria Sallamba, Instagram: @vicweraArtworks kindly made and provided by Helena Linder (page 2), Evelina Lindqvist Hedlund (page 4), Lorelei (page 5) Thanks to----->Paul Purgas, who enthusiastically suggested to me to release a record based on a concert I played at Cafe OTO in December 2023, and who mentored me through the process. Without Paul, you wouldn’t be reading this text. My parents, Lorelei, Malte Dahlberg, Kyra Mol, Loke Risberg, Ilaria Capalbo, Helena Linder, Hara Alonso, Cara Tolmie, Evelina Lindqvist Hedlund, april forrest lin 林森, Victoria Sallamba, Musikfabriken Uppsala, Biskops Arnö, KMH, Fylkingen, Cafe OTO, Ung Nordisk Musik, EMS

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.  --- "The piece possesses exceptional cathartic beauty, with a power that seems to emerge from the mists of time, yet it feels more essential and compelling than any modernity. The 40-minute performance, built on loops and repetitions, forms a seamless whole that is impossible to pause, let alone stop. It is an experience that hypnotizes the mind into a marvelous trance, where the intensity of the performance fades behind the beauty of the perfect complementarity of sounds and the music shared by these two musicians. Branches is an exceptional release." - Best of Jazz