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

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

First meeting of guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer Steve Noble, recorded at OTO in June 2023. The set begins with a deceptive sparseness, Dorji picking out jagged clusters of guitar notes as Noble’s cymbals swirl around them like a deep inhalation. You might want to take that breath too, you’re going to need it. Dorji soon ratchets up the distortion as Noble circles around the kit with an unflagging momentum and the pair of them are soon hurtling along in a whirling, tumbling barrage of sound and fury. But cathartic as it is, this is no aimless blowout. For all the rapturous chaos, there are moments of delicate beauty that ring out all the clearer amidst the surrounding storm. Aside from anything else it’s the sheer amount of ground covered here. Two masters of their respective instruments seemingly bringing all of their skills to bear across the set’s 35-minute running time. Dorji has a way of playing the guitar that is all his own; coruscating jabs of distortion giving way to skittering, stop-start harmonics, muted strings that clip and yammer, yearning single notes escalating into a bewitching, howling maelstrom. Needless to say, Noble matches him every step of the way, expanding upon the intricacies of Dorji’s playing to reveal new and unexpected shapes in the cataclysm. Rhythms and textures emerge, evolve, and fracture with a ceaselessly propulsive drive. With such synergetic complexity, it’s hard to believe that this was their first time playing together. We can only hope it won’t be the last. And breathe. -- Recorded by Billy SteigerMixed by Tashi DorjiMastered by Oli BarrettCover design by Oli Barrett

In 2011 we were lucky enough to welcome Loren Connors to OTO for a sold out show. With the room suitably hushed, Connors' elongated washes build and then evaporate - leaving behind fragile notes which sit and linger in soltude. Dreamy and ethereal, abstract and atmospheric, it's like reading Virginia Woolf's 'To the Lighthouse' and waiting for the sun to come up. One to shut your eyes to.     "These were Connors 'Airs', played with a softness that meant they floated in the breeze, merging into the night. It was so fragile, barely even there in fact: the notes only just made it above the level of the amp hiss. Like a selection of old photographs, you had to study hard to pick out the detail of those memories being lost amongst paper grain and colour fade. These ghosts of songs felt as much about the passing of time, about loss and heartbreak, as Langille’s vocal set did earlier." - Scott McMillan --- Loren Connors / electric guitar --- Recorded on Saturday 14th of May by John Chantler. Mixed by John Chantler. Mastered by James Dunn. Photo by Andy Newcombe. ---

Selvhenter draw their influence from everywhere they've been - free jazz, noise, punk, heavy metal, field recordings from the local recycling centre - it's all there to see. Their live performance at OTO sloshes in New Age and drone jazz in too, creating hypnotic rhythms you don't even realise you've started dancing to. In your face and a bit bonkey-tonks, make sure to turn this one up.  --- Anja Jacobsen / drums Jaleh Negari / drums, vocals Maria Bertel / trombone Maria Diekmann / violin Sonja Labianca / saxophone --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Friday 12th June 2015 by James Dunn. Mixed by John Chantler. Mastered by Rupert Clervaux. 

Otoroku presents a daedal, multifarious set from artist, Patrick Ward, recorded on a bill alongside Moritz von Oswald at Cafe OTO in September 2024. Ward begins with a deep sub-bass rumble that seems to almost physically rise up out of the floor; a weighty mass that slowly but inexorably draws other sonic fragments into its own gravitational field, quivering and contorting as they orbit around it. The pressure builds, before abruptly the disparate elements coalesce around a single, urgently repeated refrain that snaps and slices in a persistent staccato that appears loaded with meaning but in a language unknown. This sense of warped and fractured vernacular continues, as stilted, stuttering voices spark and falter amidst the sonic debris tumbling around them; speech untethered from language, language severed from meaning. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that these voices are in fact overladen with significance; an abundance of spoken signs and symbols in a complex lexicon whose implications always remain tantalisingly out of reach. The voices shift, from an isolated repeated refrain, to multiple raised shouts that become engulfed by a growing wall of distortion that builds and erupts into a scattered and corrupted breakbeat before it too unravels, leaving behind only the gentle buzzing and intimate whirring of unknown apparatus.

Free release from Sphagnum Moss to mark the turning of another year. OTO wishes you all a great time over the festive period and many thanks as ever for all the support! Half festive sound collage, half yuletide mix (or, at times, seemingly several mixes laid on top of one another), Sphagnum Moss takes a phantasmagorical trip alongside ghosts of Christmas past, present and future in a clamorous distillation of the season. From the opening massed pealing of church bells to stratified, spectral choirs; carolling brass bands to a fragmentary, yearning pop reverie; crackling wrapping to a convivial fireside poem, Sphagnum Moss brews a heady infusion of holiday cheer across 30 densely packed minutes. -- Many sounds created by Sphagnum Moss. Many other sounds sourced from: 15HVojta_Michael / aktivfilm / alienistcog / alorange / binG-Cr0ss-bE / Clagnar / dav_ID_b0wee / Davor / Deenmar_tin / felix.blume / Garuda1982 / Guialgarve / guyburns / Gvido / ID_23 / jarlathmc / jasminmadalen / jebwhylie / Jorj_Mykal / keithpeter / klankbeeld / klau78 / marfack / Marschal / Mar.Sounds / M_Riah_caree / nervousneal / nomadas / organicmanpl / Robhog / SavReese / simongray / SpaceboysAgency / TimOut789 / tonant / Urkki69 / Vitouliss / Walter_Odington / waterpump / Zabuhailo Huge thanks to every one. Most can be found at the incredible resource that is freesound.org

Pleased to present a beautiful, otherworldly set from France-born, London-based violin and viola player, Agathe Max, recorded at OTO in August 2024. Beginning with tentatively scattered pizzicato notes that fall like a fine rain about the room, it isn’t long before an elegiac solo line emerges, weaving a bittersweet reverie of loss and longing. Fragments of voice and birdsong combine with the strings to expansive effect and soon you find yourself far from the confines of a concrete-floored room in East London. As the set progresses, Max’s poignant, yearning playing style is filtered and reflected back upon itself, sometimes as an equally melodic partner, and sometimes twisted and modulated into something much more uncanny. Layers of bowed notes entwine with tumbling electronics to create an enveloping bed of dreamy phantasy. Through it all, staggered, loping percussion paces the sonic landscape, as much to provide an anchor through the soaring string work as it is a rhythmic device. A feeling of weightlessness abounds throughout this set - a pervasive timelessness that makes the sense of bewilderment all the stronger when, after 20 minutes or so the spell breaks and you find yourself back in the room. Thankfully, Max has one last, loftily ascending coda to offer though; as legato strings swoop and glide in ever rising patterns, a driving rhythm roots us to the earth and it is all we can do to gaze up at the spiralling airs disappearing away into the ether. -- Recorded by Kevin ShoemakerMixed and mastered by Oli BarrettCover by Oli Barrett

Wildly exhilarating solo drum kit performance from Crystabel Efemena Riley. Recorded on the first night of Incapacitants residency at OTO in September, Riley presents an absolutely no-holds-barred set that delves deep into the textural and timbral qualities of the instrument. Though recorded on a single drum kit, multiple mic placements take the sound and reshape it in unexpected ways. This multi-strand approach to amplification becomes an integral part of the kit, with Riley using pedals to control the volume and balance of the various channels. Distorted toms roll and shudder, snare hits peak with such an intensity that at times it sounds as if the drum could be filled with gravel, and densely overlapping rhythms whirl and contort with an unflagging propulsive momentum. Through it all, deep, resonant bass synths surge and swell; at times the percussive battery subsides to be leave an enveloping wash of bass tones in isolation, and you can almost imagine that you are nestled deep inside the drum kit itself, looking (and listening) out. This is a fully committed performance that, as a listener you cannot help but to be fully within - as disorientating as it is all-encompassing. No matter, let yourself be swept away in its eddies and flows and you will find yourself in a profoundly different place than where you started. --  Recorded by Billy SteigerMixed and mastered by Oli Barrett

Very pleased to present a bracing, protean performance from long-time collaborators, Steve Beresford (piano) and Mandhira de Saram (violin). Recorded at OTO in the first week of January 2024, Beresford and de Saram waste no time in getting the year started. Ma Petite Heffalump starts at a furious pace in a barrage of sharp, punctuated notes; four hands dance across the strings as if they were hot coals, deftly combining in breathlessly propulsive fashion. The temperature soon cools, however, settling into a richly textural, crepuscular trip that spans the full range of both instruments and beyond. There’s a relentless searching quality to Beresford and de Saram’s playing; piano and violin skittering and stalking back and forth on separate yet symbiotic paths, each weaving around the other in an intricate, labyrinthine dance, recalling the enthralling and unsettling immediacy of a dream. The destination is unknown and yet the performers seem to know exactly how to get us there in any case. Spanning just under 25 minutes but with enough depth and expansiveness to fill a release several times that length, this is a deeply immersive recording from two improvisers at the very peak of their craft. -- Recorded by Rory SalterMixed and mastered by Oli BarrettCover image by Calum Storrie

Otoroku is delighted to present an extraordinary set from harpist Rhodri Davies, an artist immersed in the worlds of improvisation, musical experimentation, composition and contemporary classical performance. He plays harp, bray harp, horse-hair harp, electric harp, and builds wind, water, ice, dry ice and fire harp installations and has released eight solo albums. In this solo harp performance, recorded at OTO in April 2024, Davies' inimitable playing style is showcased to full effect, with a sound that seems to span from Welsh harp to arched or ‘bow’ harp playing found in Sub-Saharan African traditions; Indian ragas to the circling, synthesized arpeggios of Laurie Spiegel, touching on the insistent player-piano pieces of Conlon Nancarrow along the way. Alternating between improvisations and improvisations with pre-written pieces across the set, Davies lets the distinctions between the two melt and spill over, giving space to breathe and expand. 'Gardd a Thŷ' for example (from Davies' Telyn Wrachïod release from earlier in 2024), is unfurled out to nearly twice its original album length, with Davies darting about each melody and motif like a moth around a flame. Each improvisatory section meanwhile, feels equally present and alive, with clusters of notes rising and tumbling around each other as insistent, repeated phrases ebb and flow like mantras to a rapt OTO audience. Ultimately, the overarching impression you are left with is that of Davies' intuitive and deeply felt relationship to the harp, embracing the instrument's traditions whilst constantly seeking new paths towards its future. A remarkable recording from one of the most vital artists currently working today. -- Recorded by Dan EhrlichMixed and mastered by Oli BarrettCover photo by Daryl Feehely

A masterclass in sound and texture from the Stockholm-based duo of John Chantler and Daniel M Karlsson, recorded at OTO in December 2023, following on from their ‘Hell or High Water’ release on Chantler’s 1703 Skivbolaget label the same year. From a dual synthesiser setup, the pair craft an incredibly naturalistic atmosphere - electronics not so much imitating organic sounds as creating their own little pocket of life, fully realised. The set slowly awakens like frozen ground thawing in the first spring sun; little sonic tendrils budding and reaching and gradually coalescing together in symbiosis. Ebbing and flowing, the momentum builds inexorably in ever-intricate patterns of tension and release; fractal forms unfurling and intertwining with a density that never collapses into aimless blowout even when the volume reaches a tumultuous peak. Finally, energy expended all at once, the piece falls back into a last cluster of sighing tones, and the day is done. -- Recorded by Billy Steiger Mixed and mastered by Daniel M Karlsson

As OTO approaches it's 16th year, The Uncertain Man continues his journey holding on to the shadow of a hot air balloon.These are the sounds that guide him along. Where will he land next?  Free to download one and all and you can get a copy of the full comic here. If you're a member neither download will remove a credit. Happy birthday to us.   

Preparations is an event where 23 artists create a preparation each for the grand piano. Three pianists/groups are then tasked with constructing individual live performances with the adaptable unit of preparations. For this second iteration of Preparations, musicians Finn Carter, Dear Laika and Ted Mair & Ed Bernez performed on the grand piano with preparations made by Ryoko Akama, Zoë Annesley, Jasper Appleby Sherring, Grace Black, Joseph Bradley Hill, Yasmine Brennan, Kara Chin, Gabriele Ciulli, Jacob Clayton, Leo DMB, enorê, Georgia Gendall, Harley Kuyck-Cohen, Kiran Leonard, Ruoru Mou, Siân Newlove-Drew, Karanjit Panesar, Lou Lou Sainsbury & Gabi Dao, Harry Smithson, Aga Ujma, Jake Vine, Tiffany Wellington & Isobel Whalley Payne. Finn Carter - untitled: For the preparation of the piano, Carter decided to leave the preparations untouched during his performance of the piece, with the sculptures positioned as follows: Yasmine Brennan’s My Albion?? was draped over the cast iron frame in the centre, next to Isobel Whalley Payne’s Untitled clover handkerchief which was weaved between the strings. Joseph Bradley Hill’s Jerry (an old oil can with ball bearings inside and a cloth coated wooden wedge protruding from the underside) sat on the iron frame closer to the keys, accompanied by Harley Kuyck-Cohen’s Demerara, Coffee, Tobacco (a carved wooden cat with a rotating head and beeswax eyes). Moving further up the piano, the arms of Jake Vine’s Mermaid’s Purse (a leather pouch with ceramic buttons inside) were fed in-between the strings, followed only by Gabriele Ciulli’s M & Ruoru Mou’s Scratch - Ciulli’s engraved brake pad dulled the strings with its weight, with Mou’s elongated ceramic hand causing a light resonance. Grace Black’s Conical Side Effect (a metal cone with a connected battery compartment that causes an LED to flash if the compartment is jolted) protruding behind them accompanied by Jacob Clayton’s Fishing magnet to put inside a piano, which stuck firmly to the frame, leaving the plastic keyring attached to the magnet to dangle on the strings and be moved by the vibrations. Sian Newlove-Drew’s Physics Angel was deemed too perishable to sit inside the piano itself, so for all three performances the glow-in-the-dark candle angel resided on the outer ledge of the piano, looking out at the audience. Dear Laika - Small vessel in sea green: For the performance, Thorn began by using Aga Ujma’s a midwinter night's dream (a silver aluminium wiry net of bells) as a shaken percussion instrument and Leo DMB’s waste i saw lorelei to as a mallet to hit the lower strings of the piano. The lower half of the piano was heavily prepared with Georgia Gendall’s Tapestry of Breath (a vacuum packed Ryvita with toothpaste, tic tacs and broken spaghetti), Kara Chin’s Shopping List (a large photo-covered, raisin box-filled, tentacled object), Harry Smithson’s Pothole to Aven (wrapped in Isobel Whalley Payne’s handkerchief) & Jasper Appleby-Sherring’s Praise (cavolo nero) (a bronze cast of kale atop a wooden and metal plate with locator bolts) all sat along one set of strings. Near the end of the performance Thorn used Karanjit Panesar’s Small vessel in sea green as a slide against certain strings, bifurcating them so each one would play two separate pitches on either side of the pot, reaching a sound halfway between that of a slide guitar and ondes martenot/theremin.

Take a deep breath, this one doesn’t let up for a second! Stockholm-based trio Kyosaku create a swirling maelstrom of sound from guitar, bass and drums that doesn’t so much press you back in your seat with its intensity as send you tumbling out the door and down the road. Recorded in September 2023 under their previous name of Missnöje, the group waste no time setting the pace but charge out of the gates as though this might be the last chance they've got. Finn Loxbo's squalling electric guitar and electronics setup races around the room whilst Elsa Bergman's gnarled and driven electric bass effortlessly weaves between the gaps with a playing style that is no less nimble for it's stomach-rumbling brawn. Through it all, Ryan Packard's seemingly indefatigable drumming rucks and surges in a way that leaves you reeling. This is no empty bedlam though; rather, there's a euphoric, galvanising joy to the sheer, relentless energy of it all. Kyosaku create the clamour; all you have to do is give yourself up to it. In Zen Buddhism, the keisaku is a flat wooden stick or slat used during periods of meditation to remedy sleepiness or lapses of concentration by administering a strike or series of strikes. No worries here, the strikes come thick and fast with an unrelenting fervour that should almost have you levitating by the end. But the Zen aspect is not lost, simply approached from a different direction. Noise can be meditative too, and Kyosaku create such an Augean tumult that by the end of this set's 35+ minutes you're left with a mind that feels shiny, gleaming and new. --  Recorded by Billy SteigerMixed and mastered by Oli BarrettCover photo by Erik Viklund

  Phenomenal set from 2017 courtesy of the Norwegian duo of Kim Myhr and Lasse Marhaug, which followed the release of their debut album together, On The Silver Globe. The album’s title refers to Andrzej Zulawski's powerful, hallucinatory film of the same name, and from the off the pair conjure a similar uneasy, fractured atmosphere. Fragments of sound are looped and warped, circling round in a slowly spiralling groove which is never the same twice, but flows forwards with its own inchoate dream logic. As the momentum builds, so the soft tones of the first half of the set gradually erode and fracture into a densely insistent electronic scree which seems to fill the room - a synchronous interplay with a common target - before collapsing back down into a sparse, almost conversational electronic chatter. There is an insistence to these sounds that seems to have the same prophetic urgency of some of the most visionary characters in Zulawski's science-fiction epic, promising some deeper revelation that always remains tantalisingly just ahead. As with On The Silver Globe, there can be no easy resolution, but the real epiphany is of course - as ever - in the journey. -- - Recorded by James Dunn - Mixed and mastered by Lasse Marhaug

All proceeds from this release will be donated to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians): https://www.map.org.uk/ Thrilled to be able to share the phenomenal first meeting of this ensemble, consisting of Washington DC's Blacks' Myths - aka Luke Stewart (electric bass) and Warren Crudup (drums) - alongside Pat Thomas and Orphy Robinson's longstanding Black Top project plus incendiary sax and guitar work from Soweto Kinch and Dirar Kalash. From the first stirrings it's clear that something very special has been captured here, the sextet slowly circling and building with inexorable momentum until the energy fully coalesces and nobody looks back. There's a dexterously symbiotic interplay that would be impressive for a group a couple of decades in; that you can hear this level of chemistry from a first performance together is extraordinary. There's so much to unpack across the set that it's hard to know where to start, the group covering more ground in just under an hour than most would manage over the course of a week-long residency. The long-honed, multilayered grooves of Blacks' Myths' bass and drums blend seamlessly with Black Top's ecstatic sonic range to weave an utterly immersive sound that drives relentlessly forward to thrillingly propulsive effect. Add the incredible musicianship of Soweto Kinch and Dirar Kalash weaving deftly throughout, and the result is this joyful, galvanising rallying cry of a performance which doesn't so much lift the spirits as cast them into the stratosphere. Here's hoping this meeting is not the last. -- Recorded by Billy SteigerMixed and mastered by Oli BarrettCover design by Dirar Kalash

Thrilled to present a re-interpreted set from ENGLAND'S COUNCIL OF LEGISLATION AND GOVERNING BODY OF HYPER REAL SIMULATIONS AND CONSTRUCTS - a.k.a ecolagbohrac2021 - who, across 25 breathless minutes, crafts a giddily frenetic, genre-phobic hyperreal space that feels both viscerally corporeal and expansively liminal all at once. From start to finish, there’s a sense of relentlessly shifting ground, with fragments and snatches of different styles and sounds held briefly up to the light and then just as quickly whisked away in the dizzyingly forward momentum. This constant sense of ephemerality is not in any way unfocused though. This is a sound which seems to have a clear destination in mind at all times; there’s just an urgency in getting there which isn’t going to hang around for you to keep up. The common thread across all these tracks is a level of joyful hyperactivity and information overload that’s as exhilarating and it is disorientating, leaving with you with the sense that you’ve passed through some sort of digital hailstorm, emerging battered and buffeted but galvanised at the same time. It's a vital, cathartic journey. -- Recorded by Billy SteigerMixed by ecolagbohrsac2021Mastered by Oli BarrettCover image by ecolagbohrsac2021