One of Stockholm’s most versatile and probing pianists returned to OTO last Autumn, and we're pleased to release both sets from the evening - a solo and a special duo. Having met in 2014 when playing with Johan Arrias, Lisa Ullén and Welsh violinist Angharad Davies reunite for a gorgeously spacious set. Both extremely technically accomplished but led by a sensitivity to so many musics, their duo set is a highlight.  --- Lisa Ullén / piano Angharad Davies / violin --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Sunday 14th October 2018 by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn.

Having released her 'Melancoholic' 7" on American Tapes back in 2012, it was super special to have Sharon Gal play a solo set as part of Wolf Eyes' residency last year. 23.9.18 slinks around the demonic end of Gal's doings; kin to her work as Mami Wata (duo with Andie Brown) and Meltaot (with Edwin Pouncey). Bells and electronics summon malevolent birdsong and creatures lit by the light of a will-o'-the-wisp.  --- Sharon Gal / electronics, vocals --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Sunday 23rd September 2018 by Shaun Crook. Mixed & mastered by Jimmy Dunn. All music by Sharon Gal.

First time trio ft. Bobby Glue aka you know who, (Guttersnipe) and legendary Leeds freak-out collective Vibracathedral Orchestra members Neil Campbell and Michael Flower. Cambell and Flower have been moonlighting as a parallel universe rock'n'roll duo since early millenia, taking some of the archetypes of garage rock and dragging them through a muzzy haze of blown-out multi-phasing repetition to head out toward the unknown region. Joined by breakless Bobby Glue, Leeds' latest lightning bolt, the trio spare no energy whatsoever. --- Bobby Glue / drums Michael Flower / guitar Neil Campbell / electronics --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Friday 9th March 2018 by Chris Penty. Mixed & mastered by James Dunn.

Subterranean saxophones and self made instruments from the first time collaboration between Takahiro Kawakuchi and Seymour Wright. Using everyday horns powered by homemade airpumps, Kawaguchi generates swelling peals and perforates them with pinches of his tabletop valve box. Having laid three saxophones on the floor, Wright live mixed their feedback from the back of the room, producing undulating gargles which bubble under Kawaguchi and surface in the gaps. Neither artist simply 'investigates the specifics of space' but instead fully regurgitages the innards of their dreamt up instrument with devilish humour.  --- Takahiro Kawaguchi / self-made instruments, self-made objects Seymour Wright / 3 alto saxophones and their feedback --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Tuesday 7th August by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Photo by Seymour Wright. Artwork by Oli Barratt.

Happy New Year! A festive freebie to celebrate 2018: Hailing from Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, Bamba Pana and Makaveli send up nearly two hours of singeli sound. Producer Pana gets legs dead with a consistent blistering of 180bpm whilst Makavelli spits defiant, satirical lyrics about everything from police corruption to dating while broke. Raw, fast, and with a DIY aesthetic that smashes together Zanzibari taraab, noise, gabber and happy hardcore, Bamba Pana and Makavelli sound like no other. --- Bamba Pana / cdjs Makavelli / vocals --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Friday 6th April by Shaun Crook. Mixed & mastered by James Dunn.

Glorias Navales are five member ensemble based in Santiago, Chile. Their jam is somewhere between Chilean folk music (ala Violeta Parra) and ramshackle post-Velvets psychedelia. Crafted on acoustic guitars, rabel and bombo chino (drum), this recording teases out lines from their stunning debut LP 'Cofradia Nautica' on Graham Lambkin's KYE, taking new, fuzzed out trips along the way. This particular show made Clive Bell's end of year list. --- Tracklisting: 1. 12.4.17 - 41:19 --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Shaun Crook on Wednesday 4th April 2017. Mixed and mastered by Jimmy Dunn good again.

Nearly an hour of rhythmic explorations from tonbak player Mohammad Reza Mortazavi. His first vinyl release on Padre Himalaya was stocked by Hardwax - the comparisons between his technique and techno are evident. Live in a hot room, his playing barely ceases, and the organic polyrhythmic patterns he creates command a hypnotic force. --- Mohammed Reza Mortazavi / tonbak, daf --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Friday the 8th of June by Shaun Crook.

This week we’re pleased to be sharing a solo set from composer, improviser, performer and creative polymath, Alex Ward. Predominantly a guitar and clarinet player, Ward is regarded as one of the most technically accomplished performers of both free and composed music, and has recently played shows in the UK and US as part of the phenomenal This is Not This Heat. Having had his debut record put out on Derek Bailey's Incus, Ward has continued to play at an astonishing level ever since. His current work ranges from his formidably knotty guitar playing in avant-rock two piece Dead Days Beyond Help to his compositions-for-improvisers including Forebrace, the Alex Ward Quintet/Sextet, and his new ITEM series which returns to OTO in September.  After releasing his solo clarinet album in 2017 on the Weekertoft label, Ward's solo performances strive to bring acoustic and amplified playing into closer integration. '15.2.18' is a reminder of what a singular player he is, pulling open the full range of the instrument - from warm trills and woody overtones to overblown, amped up blowouts. --- Alex Ward / clarinet, amplifier --- Tracklisting:1. 21:04 2. 5:08 --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on 15.2.2018 by Martyn Larcombe. Mixed by Alex Ward and mastered by James Dunn.

Members of psychedelic Russian / Israeli collective Staraya Derevnya rarely get to perform live together, so it's with huge pleasure that we are uploading this one. After spending a week holed out in our Project Space, the group emerged to present 45 minutes of curious, home-brewed folk psych wonk made with objects, percussion, vocals and homemade instruments.  Live animated projection makes a large impact on each of their improvisations so be sure to check out the video of the night too."They play a kind of psychedelic folk with wind-up toys, shouting, buzzy sounds and with live animated drawings – out of some foggy scribble emerges a head, then a bug thing grows tentacles and sucks ectoplasm out of the head, then stuff starts spinning around and then a phoenix rises." - Lee Fisher, NARC magazine "Staraya Derevnya make bewitching music that seems impossible to place in terms of direction and intention, like climbing into a cab only to realise its not a cab at all." - TUSK --- Amos Ungar / dulcimer, sampler Danil Gertman / digital drawing Gosha Hniu / percussion, toys, cries and whispers Grundik Kasyansky / feedback synthesizer, objects Maya Pik / synthesizer, rocking chair, melodica Ran Nahmias / silent cello, theremin --- Lyrics by Arthur Molev. Mixed and mastered by Gosha Hniu from the original recording made by Shaun Crook. Filmed by Heliana Trovato, Sam Way,  Filippo Mira and Patrick Farrell. Video edited by Heliana Trovato. Huge thanks to Tsip Nahmias and to the wonderful people at Cafe OTO and Tusk Festival - this wouldn't have happened without you! http://www.starayaderevnya.co.uk

A pair of solo sets from two of the most individual voices exploring new forms of percussion. Both artists transgress the boundaries between acoustic and electronic, analog and digital, and find themselves in a curious midway between various forms of radical music - free-jazz, footwork, and music concrete.  --- Paul Abbott / real and imaginary drums Jake Meginsky / electronics ---   Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Monday 9th April 2018 by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Artwork by Oli Barrett.

Pleased to see Kawaguchi's blistering solo set surface from the archives. The bleak, lonesome root of enka runs through maxed out psychedelic guitar in surely one of the loudest sets ever played at the venue. Surprisingly delicate in parts, but it's obvious his work with Haino has had an ear splitting effect. “Kawaguchi Masami's machine gun guitar, which stutters in a polyglot tongue drawing equally from Rory Gallagher, Jerry Garcia and Lou Reed.” – The Wire "One of the greats of modern Japanese psychedelic rock, Masami Kawaguchi has been an influential figure in the Japanese underground scene for two decades. Known for bands such Miminokoto, LSD-March, Broomdusters, Los Doroncos and more recently with his New Rock Syndicate. Heʼs also a regular Keiji Haino collaborator in Aihiyo and more recently in Hardy Soul. Masami's voice is the true updating of the enka tradition: not the rehash or nostalgia, just the bleak lonesome heart which runs through enka core." ---   Masami Kawaguchi / vocals, guitar   --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Tuesday 13th March 2018 by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Artwork by Oli Barrett.

New York improvising vocalist, composer, and performance artist Shelley Hirsch met the Swiss turntables and electronic musician Joke Lanz (Sudden Infant) at a festival in Biel, Switzerland, where they were both performing solo. Shelley was struck by his performance and Joke admitted that he has “loved her work since the early ’80s.” Booked to play OTO as part of NEXT festival, the pair explored consciousness, both immediate and memory based, and drew on personal experience to create a three act improvisation which reinterprets the strange and the known. “Hirsch’s command of extended vocal techniques imparts enormous variety to her music. The tone of her voice can range from audacious vulnerability, to charismatic intimacy (especially in the story-telling segments), to hallucinatory excursions floating effortlessly out of the spoken/sung voice and into pure Hirschian singing. Such transitions always remain viscerally connected to the text and in context.” - Anne LeBaron’s "Surrealism in Post Modern Music" (Garland Press) Great interview with Shelley here, by Peter Urpeth of the Free Improv Pod.  --- Shelley Hirsch / vocals Joke Lanz / turntables ---  Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Wednesday 11th November 2015 bu Luca Consonni. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Artwork by Oli Barrett. Special thanks to NEXT festival for organising the show.

Having been on our wish list for a long, long time we were delighted to have Patty Waters take up a two night residency at OTO last December. Accompanying her on double bass is Tjitze Vogel, and on piano is Burton Greene with whom she recorded 'Sings' for ESP Disk back in the 60s. Greene's scratching and tugging of the piano strings during their first ever rehearsal had encouraged Waters to turn ballads inside out, and the same is true today. Before 'Nature Boy' Waters asks Greene to play inside the piano once more; the song's refrain is shredded by Waters with total control. Her voice has shifted but her unique command remains. The trio hold the room on a breath as they deliver renditions of classics unheard anywhere else. Huge thanks to all three musicians. --- Patty Waters / vocals Burton Greene / piano Tjitze Vogel / bass --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Thursday 6th December 2017 by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Photo by Maiken Kildegaard and artwork by Oli Barratt.  Track 1 'Free Form Composition 1' written by Burton Greene and Tjitze Vogel / 20 September 2009 written by Tilo Baumheier and Burton Greene. Track 4  'Mirjam Revisited' written  by Herbert de Jonge and Burton Greene. Track 7  'Free Form Composition 2  by Burton Greene and Tjitze Vogel / Space Is Still the Place written by Burton Greene. Track 10  'Say Yes' by Silke Röllig and Burton Greene / Free Form Composition 3 written by Burton Greene and Tjitze Vogel.

All members of the OTO family in their own right, the group casts Blumberg’s songs as through-ideas to weave four threads around. New material from their forthcoming album Minus - out 4th May on Mute Records - heard for the first time here. --- Daniel Blumberg / steinberger guitar, piano, harmonica, voiceUte Kanngiesser / celloTom Wheatley / double bassBilly Steiger / violin --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Shaun Crook on Wednesday 28th February 2018. Mixed and Mastered by Marta Salogni. Drawing by Daniel Blumberg. All songs written by Daniel Blumberg and published by Mute Song Ltd.

Available as 320k MP3 or 24bit FLAC  Really happy to have had Ambuya Stella Chiweshe join us at Cafe OTO last November. Here she shares three parts of the night - an a capella call to her homeland of Zimbabwe, a new track accompanied by her mbrira, and a slow, rhythmic version of one of her most well-loved songs, 'Chachimurenga'. Chiweshe sings with great strength, soothes with the mbira and continues to expand on tradition in new, inventive ways.  --- Stella Chiweshe / vocals, mbira --- Tracklisting: 1. One - 7:08 2. Two - 13.01 3. Three - 27:19 --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Shaun Crook on Tuesday 28th November 2017. Mixed & mastered by James Dunn. Photo by Felipe Vasquez and artwork by Oli Barratt.

Surrounded by handmade instruments, French folk singer, harpist, spinet and hurdy-gurdy player Emmanuelle Parrennin delivered an entrancing solo set to a winter crowd. Stripped of some of the more electronic, psychedelic tones that appeared on Maison Rose and Pérélandra, Parrennin creates an unearthly atmostphere with her vocals and a wired approach to instrumentation. Though in the past Parrennin has collected songs around rural France in a similar manner to the work carried out by Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins, this isn't simply revival folk; there's a tinge of a strange future to every song.  --- Emmanuelle Parrennin / vocals, harp, spinet, hurdy-gurdy --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Friday 3rd November 2017 by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Photo by Jonathan Crabb. Artwork by Oli Barratt.

Despite counting Gavin Bryars and Brian Eno as fans, Belgian composer Dominique Lawalrée's compositions have been hard to find and scarecly heard. New York label Catch Wave have been working hard to change this, and last year helped put together 'First Meeting' - a collection of pieces Lawalrée had only ever released on his own tiny imprint Editions Walrus. We were delighted to welcome Lawalrée to OTO to reimagine those early compositions and debut new works. A fan of Satie, The Beatles and Eno, Lawalrée’s music of makes no secret of its influences, whilst taking a distinctly unique approach to decay, timbre and tone. "a quiet, understated music that is both touching and elegant" - Gavin Bryars ---   Dominique Lawalrée / piano, keyboards   Britton Powell / piano, keyboards, percussion    Leo Svirsky / piano, keyboards --- The Dominique Lawalree Ensemble is Dominique Lawalree, Leo Svirsky, and Britton Powell. Recorded on Sunday 1st October 2017 by Shaun Crook. Mixed & mastered by James Dunn. Photo by Abby Thomas and artwork by Oli Barratt.

Eclectic and unconventional improvisor/guitarist/banjo player Eugene Chadbourne returns to Cafe OTO for an evening of unaccompanied music and song. Doc Chad draws on a range of forms - from free jazz, country and blue grass and all out noise. His idiosyncratic and uncompromising approach to music has made him a living legend. --- Eugene Chadbourne / electric guitar, banjo --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Sunday 29th October 2017 by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Photos by Dawid Laskowski, and artwork by Oli Barratt.