Takuroku digital label

Takuroku

OTO Digital

OTOROKU RELEASES

Abby Thomas hosts an hour long show on Resonance 104.4FM at 11pm every 1st Monday of the month, and reposted here.

OTO Radio

TR188 - gilgul - OS-22 [excerpt]

TR192 - Paul Abbott - 'Deorlaf Z (version) for XT Deorlaf X Live' [excerpt]

TR181 - Camille Emaille - 'Belisama - The Metallic Roots' [excerpt]

Available to pre-order soon!

Otomo Yoshihide - Guitar 
Sachiko M - Sine Waves 
Evan Parker - Saxophones 
John Edwards - Double Bass 
Tony Marsh - Drums 
John Butcher - Saxophones (Side B)

Recorded during Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M's first residency at Cafe OTO in 2009. The excerpt above is from the second (Sextet) side of the LP.

Otomo is in residency again at Cafe OTO on 20 & 21st September and also joins FIRE! as a special guest (alongside Mariam Wallentin) on the 19th! 

More info: http://cafeoto.co.uk/fire-with-special-guests-otomo-yoshihide-mariam-wallentin.shtm

Otomo Yoshihide / Sachiko M / Evan Parker / John Edwards / Tony Marsh / John Butcher

TR191 - Taku Unami - 'Stardust 3'

TR187 - The Mermaid Café - Alice

MAP028 - Cucina Povera "Keruu"

TR190 - Patrick Ward - 'Retroflexion'

ROKU030 - Billy Steiger "Loud Object" [sample]

First physical solo release from legendary vocal improvisor, dancer, and performer Maggie Nicols, and the follow up to her brilliant 'Creative Contradiction’ (Takuroku 2020).

While she might be best known as an improviser, most notably in the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Feminist Improvising Group and more recently with the likes of 'Les Diaboliques', Maggie Nicols’ talents stretch into song, dance, poetry, performance and composition. Whilst Cafe OTO was shut over lockdown we invited Maggie Nicols to follow up her brilliant Creative Contradiction’ (Takuroku 2020) with some time spent singing alone at the piano. The release comprises an LP of songs and a 2CD edition including a companion disk of free improvised meditations entitled, ‘Whatever Arises.’ The LP and 2CD contain different material.

ROKU032 - Maggie Nicols "Are You Ready / Sans Papiers"

"Soulcaster" is the third solo record by Brooklyn-based composer/performer Joanna Mattrey. Following Live in Accord and various Notice Recordings-curated performances in the Hudson Valley, this album is a further development in our years-long friendship. With "Soulcaster", Mattrey scrapes, scratches, and wails on viola, prepared viola, and a tromba marina, built by Webb Crawford. Mattrey’s love of unique and unusual sounds has inspired her to alter the pure tone of the viola through preparations with styrofoam, plastic toys, chains, and other objects. But the newest sounds in her arsenal come from the tromba marina, which has one primary playing string and thirteen sympathetic strings. Rather than gently coaxing out the harmonics, as the historical playing style suggests, Mattrey employs a raucous and roaring approach.

The title, "Soulcaster", is borrowed from Brandon Sanderson’s book series, "The Stormlight Archive". In the fantasy series, a soulcaster is an instrument that transforms one object or life form into another. Mattrey’s practice connects heavily to the idea of transformation. She uses preparations and objects not only to create new sounds from her instruments, but to embrace the unknown. No matter how many times the same object has been used, depending on the vibrations on a given day, the preparations might bring out totally different sounds. This randomness creates a joyful challenge for Mattrey, who believes that especially during improvisation, music has its own life that activates and guides the sound forward. Mattrey surrenders to this energetic line of sound over the eleven tracks featured on this tape.

NTR076 - Joanna Mattrey - Soulcaster - [Sing Out]

Blanc Sceol - 'Orbit' [excerpt]

Akhira Sano – 'Keep Making Selects'

Kim Myhr & Lasse Marhaug - 31.5.17 [excerpt]

Excerpt of the first five minutes from the forthcoming vinyl re-issue of 'Topography of The Lungs' - one of the key recordings in the development of free improvisation and originally the first release on Incus, the label founded by Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley to document the music. 

This vinyl issue caps off a year celebrating Evan Parker's 70th Birthday. Evan plays a week of concerts at Cafe OTO and The Vortex from the 20-26 October. 

Release Date: 15 December 2014

Liner notes by Evan Parker (for the 2014 re-issue):

‘The Topography of the Lungs’ was the first recording I made as a "leader" - in the somewhat antiquated terminology of the times. What this means in simple terms is that I set up the date and invited Han and Derek to participate - after that it was a matter of open interaction.

The original notes make clear my enthusiasm for the work that Derek Bailey and Han Bennink had done as a duo and it was good of them to share their discoveries with me. It was the first release on Incus, a label that I set up with Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley with financial assistance from music journalist Michael Walters.  No accurate history of Incus Records has yet been written. After parting company  and when the conditions of my agreement with Derek Bailey had been met, it was issued as a CD, thanks to Martin Davidson, on my label psi.

Musicians of my generation were very happy when the CD superseded the LP. I remember clearly the initial argument that CD was an elitist format... Times and attitudes have changed and the LP has made a serious return, especially in the documentation of marginal musics. OTOroku is run by and, perhaps, largely for, a new generation of listeners who have an affection for the LP format that reminds me of my youth.

I am very happy that a label associated with one of the most important music venues in London is overseeing this release.

I often travel along Dawes Road in Fulham and pass the building where the recording was made.  It is on the first floor by a bus stop and was a small space with a dead acoustic, probably ideal for making low-budget rock demos, which encouraged very analytical listening.

The engineer, Bob Woolford, was not shocked by what we were doing. On the contrary he was then, and remains, one of the great engineers, along with Adam Skeaping and Michael Gerzon who enjoyed the challenges of recording alternative musics.

In the intervening forty-odd years since its first release, the idealism of the original notes has been battered almost sense-less by the Neo-Liberal (Neo-Fascist would be a more accurate term) moves to global hegemony. I take heart from the environ-mental, Occupy and anti-war movements and would encourage all younger listeners to find a way to live their lives as far as possible without interference and control by decisions made in corporate boardrooms. May the music here give you energy and fuel your imaginations.

					          EP  (August, 2014)



PRE-ORDER NOW

Evan Parker / Derek Bailey / Han Bennink 'Topography of the Lungs' [Excerpt] (ROKU(RE)001)

First solo release from vocalist, movement artist and composer Elaine Mitchener, whose work encompasses improvisation, contemporary music theatre and performance art. Solo Throat draws on the work of African-American and African-Caribbean poets Kamau Brathwaite, Aimé Césaire, Una Marson and N. H. Pritchard as source material for twelve new vocal compositions
Elaine Mitchener is a veteran of vocal expression in the global Black Avant Garde, traversing free improvisation, cross-disciplinary music theatre and contemporary composition with clarity and joy. Most recently, Mitchener has been improvising and composing with the written word as source material - challenging classical ensembles with her piece (“the/e so/ou/nd be/t/ween”), and commissioning composers Matana Roberts, Jason Yarde and George Lewis to respond to the work of Sylvia Wynter (“On Being Human as Praxis”, Donaueschinger Musiktage, 2020). Her performance of Umbra poet N.H Pritchard’s text FR/OG at OTO in 2021 was a revelation - a solo vocal recasting of the powerful visual-material form that Pritchard uses to disrupt semantic ‘sense’.

Building on this performance, Solo Throat takes the work of Pritchard alongside poets Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Aimé Césaire and Una Marson as its source material. Its compositions are a loose translation - a carrying from text to voice which holds multiplicity and celebrates the transformative power of literary possibility. Surrendered to the spacing and repetition of consonants and vowels, Michener’s exceptional phonetic freedom gives rise to a sensuous experience which intensifies the roles of rhythm, timbre and breath in expressing meaning.

Solo Throat comes together as much through difference as similarity. Mitchener’s own solo improvisations sit alongside the work of Brathwaite, Césaire, Marson and Pritchard, forming a constellation of unlikely alignments which make no aesthetic conclusion. Instead, Solo Throat is a site of encounter, an irreducibly plural de-composition of words into a heterogeneous assemblage of sounds and impulses, emphasising what Anthony Reed calls, “the play on and the surplus of margins of lyrical translation to resituate other pathways of expression”. Just as the poets cited use white space to complicate our act of reading, so Mitchener utilises silence and multiphonics to complicate the act of voicing and the way we listen.

Solo Throat

ROKU036 - Elaine Mitchener - "stretchedwoundspeaks" from Solo Throat

Totally beautiful and rare piano performance from Loren Connors, joined on guitar by long time collaborator Alan Licht. 
Celebrating thirty years of collaboration, Loren Connors and Alan Licht performed for two nights at OTO on May 5 and 6th, 2023. On the second night, with the stage lit in blue, Connors took up a seat on the piano stool whilst Licht picked up the guitar. What followed was the duo’s first ever set with Connors on piano - one of only a few times Connors has played piano live at all - here captured and issued as The Blue Hour. Its spacious warmth came as a total surprise live, but makes complete sense for a duo whose dedicated expressionism takes inspiration from a vast spectrum of emotion.

Both opening with single notes to start, it doesn't take long before a surface rises and begins to shimmer. A run up the keys, the drop of a feedback layer on a sustained and bent note. The two begin to exchange notes in tandem and brief touches of melody and chord hover. After a while, Connors picks up the guitar, stands it in his lap and sweeps a wash of colour across Licht’s guitar. Sharp, glassy edges begin to form, open strings and barred frets darkening the space. When his two pedals begin to merge, Licht finds a dramatic organ-like feedback and it’s hard not to imagine Rothko’s Chapel, its varying shades of blue black ascending and descending in the room.

When Connors goes back to the piano for the second side, the pair quickly lock into a refrain and light pours in. It’s a kind of sound that Licht says reminds him of what he and Connors would do when the duo first started playing together 30 years ago. It’s certainly more melodic than some of their more recent shows, and the atonal shards of At The Top of the Stairs seem to totally dissolve. What is always remarkable about Licht is that his enormous frame of reference doesn't seem to weigh him down, and instead here he is able to delicately place fractures of a Jackson C Frank song (“Just Like Anything”,) amongst the vast sea of Connors’ blues.

Perhaps it's the pleasure of playing two nights in a row together, or the nature of Connor’s piano playing combined with Licht’s careful listening, but the improvisation on The Blue Hour feels remarkably calm and unafraid. There’s nothing to prove and no agenda except the joy of sounding colour together. Totally beautiful. 

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Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Saturday 6th May 2023 by Billy Steiger
Mixed by Oli Barrett
Mastered by Sean McCann
Artwork by Loren Connors
Layout by Oli Barrett
Screenprint by Tartaruga

 Edition of 300 standard LPs, 100 LPs with screenprinted artwork inserts and 200 CDs.

ROKU037 - Loren Connors & Alan Licht "The Blue Hour" [excerpt]

UMFRCD39 Simon Rummel Ensemble - SINGINGING - 01 Vier

Cartographie de rythmes is a sound exploration guided by an imaginary map of rhythm, offering as many possible poles to navigate between. The first part of this cartography, Vitesses approchantes (Umlaut Records, 2021) for two percussionists - Sylvain Darrifourcq and Toma Gouband -, focused on the notion of phase shift through falsely repetitive motifs whose slight variations in speed generate sonic illusions.

In this second part, Cardiaque, it is the relationship between text and music that constitutes a new crest line: how to listen to the language's rhythm while respecting the rhythm of the music. "Rhythm" does not mean the same thing while talking about music or text - and we would like to preserve the vitality of each field: like the beat created by two frequencies, the two rhythmic logics generate new interferences without losing their singularities.

Julien Gaillard's texts are intertwined in a montage that allows us to travel from note-taking to poem. His voice mingles with that of Aurélie Maisonneuve and the tone of Fabrice Arnaud-Crémon's clarinet: together, they carry these textures made of truncated cycles, frames and breaks. The theme of the heart runs through the cycle: accelerations and phase shifts, thresholds between periodicity and arrhythmia, in the light of questions of breathing and heartbeat, take on a singularly organic dimension: the exploration of rhythm becomes an exploration of body states.

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Recorded in June 2022 at Athénor - Centre National de Création Musicale (Saint-Nazaire)
Engineering and mastering / Ananda Cherer
Design / atelier informationCare / Ronan Le Régent
Produced by Athénor scène nomade - CNCM in
collaboration with La Maison de la Musique
Contemporaine.

11 Still Life

Under the name SBATAX, Bertrand Denzler and Antonin Gerbal continue their exploration of flow, speed and patterns by exacerbating the sound of their saxophone-drums duo. The furrow they dig ends up forming spirals that gradually migrate towards regions where movement becomes a texture that floats in the wind. Bertrand Denzler and Antonin Gerbal have been working together since 2011, both as a duo and with bands and projects such as Zoor, Denzler-Gerbal-Dörner, Onceim, Horns+, CCP3 or Protocluster, whose albums have been released by labels such as Umlaut Records, Confront Recordings and Remote Resonator.

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Music by Bertrand Denzler (Suisa) and Antonin Gerbal (Gema-Sacem)
Recorded at Curved Pitch, Saint-Ouen, France, June24th 2022
Engineered by Sbatax
Mastered by Jean-Pierre Bouquet, L'Autre Studio
Photo by Benjamin Denzler
Design by Erica Saïdah

UMFR-CD43  Spires – Sbatax "Spires"

After the album Calques recorded live during a concert, Novembre returns with Encore, a double studio album,
the result of a long maturation in terms of form, composition and playing. As they have been doing for more than ten years, Romain Clerc Renaud and Antonin Tri Hoang have constructed a complex poetic form, made up of multiple back-and forths between simple and gentle themes (Encore, Petit Matelot) or very fast ones (LetCo, Klaxon); between very short pieces (Miniatures) and large developments (Continuum). Everything is arranged by the play of contrasts and resonances: a piece is interrupted to be continued later (Please wait), a motif is metamorphosed by dint of repetition (Encore), a piece is played again, but as quickly as possible (Letco Flash). The second CD of the album illustrates another side of the art of montage. Marc Baron recorded Novembre while they were working on Encore, using the most varied materials and techniques (tape recorder, hydrophone, boom box, spring, tape loops). With this harvest he has constructed an electroacoustic piece that diverts, amplifies and transforms the music of Novembre.

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CD1

Compositions by Romain Clerc-Renaud and Antonin- Tri Hoang
Recording: Antony - July 2021
Engineering and mixing: Erwan Boulay
Mastering: Pierre Luzy, Music Unit

CD2
Electro-acoustic piece by Marc Baron, produced in the studio in the summer 2018 from recordings of the band Novembre.
Design: Galilée Al Rifai

UMFR-CD42 - Novembre Encore "Onii - San"

Pat Thomas returns to OTOROKU for his fourth collection of solo piano improvisations, this time recorded in a studio setting at London’s Fish Factory.

ROKU040 - "The Oud Of Ziryab" from Pat Thomas "The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir"

Sophie Agnel plays the whole piano. Its body matters as much as its strings. The keyboard's lid is just as good closed as it is open - in fact it’s best slammed open and closed rapidly. Joined by bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble, Three on a Match explodes the piano trio - each player sparking off the other so quickly that it’s impossible to figure out who lit the flame.

ROKU038 - Sophie Agnel / John Edwards / Steve Noble "Three on a Match" [sample]

Steve Beresford Mandhira De Saram – 'Ma Petite Heffalump' [excerpt]

It is a huge honour to publish Peter Brotzmann’s final concerts on OTOROKU. When we invited Peter to do a residency at Cafe OTO back in February 2023 we had no idea these would be his last ever shows and he played with such power it would have been hard for anyone present to believe he would never play publicly again.

Recorded over two nights this grouping of Jason Adasiewicz on vibraphone, John Edwards on bass and Steve Noble on drums feels especially resonant and personal to Cafe OTO. The first time Peter performed at the venue back in 2010 it was in a trio with John and Steve, (released as The Worse The Better kick starting our in-house record label) so it feels fitting that the last shows he ever played here should also have that trio at its core.

The quartet last played together at OTO back in 2013, (released as Mental Shake on OTOROKU), and Brotzmann humbly opened the return of the group saying, "it's a pleasure to be back” before launching straight into a long blast on the alto sax, swiftly met by the relentless energy and engagement of Adasiewicz, Edwards and Noble.

There are moments of tenderness to Brotzmann’s playing that feels specific to this small group - one that cuts across three generations - and in a space that’s come to feel like home. Of course, there is dizzying, forceful, singleminded playing, but even amongst a relentless chorus of cymbal splashes and busy vibraphone clusters the lyrical, spacious moments are savoured and held onto. As he remarked after at the end of the group's first visit to OTO, “the Quartet is, for us, a great adventure.”

Peter clearly wanted to play to the end. Did he know these might be his last shows? We will never know. What is clear is he wanted to go out in style and on his terms. For anyone in the room at the time or listening to these recordings it’s clear he achieved that.

It was Peter’s wish that these recordings should be made public and he was due to finalise the cover design on the week he passed away. We would like to thank Peter’s family for working with us to fulfil Peter’s wishes to release this material but more than anything we would like to thank Peter for all the extraordinary memories, his generosity and all he has given the music. On a personal level for us, like so many, he meant a huge amount and we miss him deeply.

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Peter Brotzmann / reeds 
John Edwards / double bass 
Steve Noble / drums 
Jason Adasiewicz / vibraphone 

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ROKU033 - Peter Brotzmann / Jason Adasiewicz / Steve Noble / John Edwards - The Quartet [sample]

ROKU043 - Evan Parker & Bill Nace "Branches" [sample]

Recorded Friday 26 September 2014 at Cafe OTO by Shaun Crook. Mixed by James Dunn. Mastered by Andreas [LUPO] Lubich at Calyx. Photo by Dawid Laskowski.

Full concert recording available direct from Cafe OTO:
https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/shop/king-ayisoba-live-at-cafe-oto-digital-download/

King Ayisoba - I Want To See You My Father (from Live at Cafe OTO / DS014)

FORTHCOMING
One of the most inventive and eclectic figures in contemporary music, guitarist and composer Fred Frith made a welcome return to OTO in 2015. Recorded on the first night of his residency with collaborators Theresa Wong and John Butcher, Quintillions Green is an improvised epic inspired by Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Like the poem, the performance contains multitudes - creaked and bowed harmonics, blues and rock-jazz blisters and dada vocals - all fusing together to sound out a triumphant and barbaric yawp.

DS034 - Frith/Butcher/Wong sample

At once remote and then drawn impossibly close, Billy Steiger's playing sits stony faced between the fantastic and the real. Given the chance, his music will lead you out of the live venue, out of your own head, and tell you looped fragments of stories you can't quite put your finger on. Magic.

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Billy Steiger / violin

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Recorded on Thursday 11th August, 2016 by Adam Matschulat. Mixed by Billy Steiger. Mastered by James Dunn. 

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Tracklisting: 

1. Minor Things - 17:03

DS065 - Billy Steiger 11.8.16 sample

Recorded over their two day residency, 9.9.16 picks the best of the weekend and compresses it into a heavy slab of DIY-trance-progge-reared-on-minimalism. Their seemingly endless, ritualistic riffs follow their own rhythm and their own harmony to the roots of some far-away gnarled tree. Includes 'Stina' - a lilting folk-rock track written by close friend Mats G Bengtsson.

9.9.16 DS072 - Trad Gras Och Stenar - "Kaffe Med Tårta" from 9.9.16

Last year we invited flutist, composer and educator Nicole Mitchell to make her London debut at OTO. Though originally lined up to play with semi frequent collaborator Joelle Leandre, Joelle had to pull out at the last minute. Instead, we asked Mark Sanders if he would like to play. Having never met before, Mark’s restrained approach to the kit, with skipping brushes on toms and light touches to a ride, a bell or wooden blocks gives remarkable space and air to Mitchell’s unique synthesis of flute and voice. Together they create  a strikingly sparse and minimal sound, but one which is no less full of joyous melodic hooks and grooves reminiscent of a stripped back Art Ensemble.

14.5.16 DS094 - Nicole Mitchell & Mark Sanders "Two" from 14.5.16

Programme Commun

Brunhild Ferrari - Tranquilles Impatiences

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 Eye's residency last year. 23.9.18 slinks around the demonic end of Gal's doings, akin to her work as Mama Wata (duo with Andie Brown) and Meltaot (with Edwin Pouncey). Bells and electronics summon malevolent birdsong and creatures lit by the light of a willo-the-wisp. 

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Sharon Gal / electronics, vocals

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Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Sunday 23rd September 2018 byt Shaun Crook. Mixed & mastered by Jimmy Dunn. All music by Sharon Gal.

DS130 - Sharon Gal "23.9.18" [sample]

DS135 - Irreversible Entanglements and Pat Thomas - 5.4.18 [sample]

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.

DS131 - Lisa Ullén & Angharad Davies - 14.10.18 [sample]

Six months on and finally into summer we're buzzed to share the recording of Chicago footwork originator and pioneer RP Boo alongside ever-radical, longstanding collaborators Seymour Wright and Paul Abbott in a special New Years Eve trio. 

RP Boo, Seymour and Paul share a fascination with the musical history of Chicago – a source of which is of continual nourishment to their ongoing practice. While RP Boo’s footwork takes from the rhythmic structures of Chicago house and the samples, grooves and melodies of 60’s/70’s Chicago soul, disco and R&B, Seymour and Paul share a fascination with these musics, and bring to this lineage a long term engagement with Chicago’s jazz traditions, from Baby Dodds to the AACM. 

Expect spurred soul cut with condensed, triggered kit drums and sax. Samples from The Fog, Gerald Levert, Tweet and Evanescence(!) 

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RB boo / cdjs

Seymour Wright / alto saxophone (actual and potential)
Paul Abbott / drums (real and imaginary)
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Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Tuesday 31st December 2018 by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by Paul Abbott.

31.12.18 DS134 - XT & RP Boo - 31.12.18

Otoroku is extremely proud to present the first vinyl reissue of one of the most legendary free jazz records ever produced. Originally released in 1978 on Ogun recordings, Louis Moholo Octet’s Spirits Rejoice! is a high achievement in the movement of the era as it soars beyond oppression with a raucous and spiritually uplifting surge of movement and melody 

Featuring Harry Miller, Johnny Dyani, Keith Tippett, Evan Parker, Nick Evans, Radu Malfatti and Kenny Wheeler, this is former Blue Note artist Louis Moholo’s first album under his own name and is a classic example of the cross-pollination between South African and British players. Mongezi Feza’s ‘You Ain’t Gonna Know Me ‘Cos You Think You Know Me’ alone is enough to make your life a better place.

From Matthew Wright’s new liner notes: 

The South African melodies, now so familiar, were wholeheartedly taken on board by the individual musicians, their unity of purpose mirroring the belief in the strength of the collective. Stunning solos, often close to the edge, feature throughout –  Evan Parker and Keith Tippett on “Shine Wherever You Are”; the contrasting trombone styles of Nick Evans and Radu Malfatti on “You Ain’t Gonna Know Me...”; the octet sounding like a full big band; and behind them, the relentlessly rhythmic urgency of the piano, bass and drums. Add to this Kenny Wheeler’s moving and all-encompassing trumpet on the elegiac “Amaxesha Osizi” and the joyous flamboyancy of “Wedding Hymn” with Parker’s relatively straight-ahead tenor and Tippett’s dextrous piano solo over a bed of riffing horns, (fast) walking bass lines and a supreme sense of swing. Louis’ early hero, Big Sid Catlett, would have loved it!

This 2019 re-issue has been made with permission and in association with Ogun records. Features an exact reproduction of the original artwork and liner notes along with new liner notes from Matthew Wright. Remastered by Giuseppe IIelasi and packaged in a high gloss sleeve this is the definitive release of one of the absolute free jazz classics of the 20th Century.

Edition of 1000 copies.

Spirits Rejoice!

Louis Moholo Octet - You Ain't Gonna Know Me 'Cos You Think You Know Me

Pleased to present the full recording of Pat Thomas' moving tribute to Duke Ellington on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of his birth. According to Thomas, Ellington "never stopped discovering, never played the same tune in exactly the same way twice", and the same could be said here. The tunes are all there, but they emerge unpredictably, warped and hammered through the body of the piano in Pats own way. The second set was an hour long, with Pat rolling through' Rockin’ in Rhythm', 'Isfahan' and 'In a Sentimental Mood' in a collage of heavy harmonics, serious swing and a wicked appreciation for exploration. An absolute pleasure to be in the room for this one, and tremendously happy to share the recording. 

"Deconstructing and reconstructing as part of the interpretative process is second nature to Thomas. The obvious is kept at his arm’s length so from tangential start points, unforgettable melodies would creep back to plant flags firmly in the ground." - London Jazz News

DS139 - Pat Thomas Plays Duke Ellington [sample]

Order at: http://www.cafeoto.co.uk

Limited edition of 100 LPs pressed as a fundraiser for Cafe OTO to acquire some new equipment.

Fred Frith - Guitar, Piano 
Christian Marclay - Records and Turntables

Recorded 7 July 2012 at Cafe OTO by John Chantler & James Dunn. 
Mixed and mastered by Myles Boysen at Headless Buddha Mastering Labs.

Design by Laurent Benner, Collages by Christian Marclay.

Fred Frith & Christian Marclay - Live at Cafe OTO 2012 (ROKU004) - excerpt

Abby Thomas selects some favourites from 2019 including microtonal music from Kyle Gann, a guitar and jew harp duo by Bill Nace & Chik White, futurist drama from Wokchiech Rusin and Doreen Kutzke's early yodel recordings. 

Tracklisting:

John Tchicai - Lied (Treader, 2005, reissued 2018, repressed 2019)

Kyle Gann - Hyperchromatica: V. Star Dance (Other Minds, 2018)

Rip Hayman - Dreams of India & China (Recital, 2019)

Pancrace - In The Evening (Penultimate Press, 2019)

Andaleeb M. Wasif - ERAY DEWANAY NAY FITRAT HE AJAB PAEE HAI (This Insane
Lover Of Yours Has A Habit Of His Own – So Unique) (Little Axe, 2019)

Humming Dogs - Le Passage (bison, 2019)

Bill Nace & Chik White - s/t (Open Mouth, 2019)

Wokchiech Rusin - Dance (The Funnel, Akashic, 2019)

Wokchiech Rusin - Sacrifice (The Funnel, Akashic, 2019)

Doreen Kutzke ‎– Schicksalsjahre Einer Jodlerin (Edition Löwenwall, 2019)

OTO Radio - Highlights from 2019

1st ever TN live show, Cafe OTO, Jan 6 2018 

Putative track sublisting: Go Decay!; Mercurial Seal; The Fire of Hate; Towers, Open, Fire; Fresh Borg Shining Fight/Agitator; Born in the Wrong Time/Destroyer/Buddy/Under the Void

(ft. Brigitte Fontaine, Babyfather, Areski, David d'Ath, Peter Gutteridge, Cameron Bain, Herman Meville, Peter Perrett and Celia Mancini)

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Madame Tlank / voice, violin, glockenspiel, grand piano

D.Velimirovich / soprano saxophone voice

clinical wasteman / backing tape, voice, Yamaha SU-10, gtr

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Mixed live & recorded by James Dunn; post-mixed/"mastered" by clinical wasteman (i.e. James is not to blame for anything)

DS146 Triple Negative - Dio Boia

This moth we preview our new in-house digital imprint, TakuRoku, featuring works made in response to the current lockdown. 

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/shop/category/takuroku/

Tracklisting:

1. Malvern Brume - Gaps In The Persistant Hiss 
2. James Rushford - Ouarzazate
3. xcrswx - Look Book
4. Red Brut - Not Live in Japan
5. Ashley Paul - Window Flowe
6. Steve Gunn - Spring in Brooklyn 1

As well as being an outlet for some incredible new work created over the past few weeks, TakuRoku aims to provide a way to help sustain both Cafe OTO and the artists involved through these incredibly challenging times. 50% of the profits from each purchased download will go directly to the artist, and artists will continue to receive the usual split from titles downloaded with membership credits.

We've got some amazing recordings in the pipeline so stay tuned over the coming weeks! In the meantime, hope you're al all safe and well.

OTO Radio - Takuroku Preview

Old Heaven is an independent bookshop which opened in Shenzhen in 2003. In the last decade or so the shop has gradually established itself as a record label and publisher. The label has released a dozen titles on CD, cassette and vinyl, including live recordings from the OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival & Tomorrow Festival by familiar names Otomo Yoshihide and Ruins.

Importantly though, Old Heaven documents the creative output of a loose group of new and old local artists at the same time. Younger musicians like Deng Boyu and Lao Dan sit in the catalogue alongside 1990s Chinese underground like dombra pioneer Mamer, groups like Puppet & IZ, and zhuizi singer Guo Yongzhang. 

Tracklisting:

1. Mamer - Aylanew 旋转 Rotating

2. Mamer - 星空 Kengistik

3. IZ - Cradle

4. IZ - Shadow

5. Puppet - 羊 Sheep

6. Guo Yongzhang - 老来难 Old Man’s Blues / 十大劝 Ten Commandments

7. Shinpei Ruike, Hiroaki Mizutani and Shinnosuke Takahashi, Lao Dan, Deng Boyu - Burning Bookshop  

8. Deng Boyu - 旷 Kuang

9. Li Daiguo & Lao Dan - 奔波儿灞 Benbo’erba

OTO Radio - Old Heaven Special

Abby Thomas airs new and forthcoming tracks from Cafe OTO's new digital imprint Takuroku, including music from Tim Parkinson, Wojtek Rusin, Phew, Marja Ahti & Judith Hamann, Chik White and Frederic Rzewski. Tracklisting below.

www.cafeoto.co.uk/takuroku

Thanks to James Dunn for this sad photo.

1. Chik White - Fuse Box from "217"
2. Goodiepal - [forthcoming]
3. Wojech Rusin - "Hannahsize" [forthcoming]
4. Time Parkinson "They've Got A Good View Of The Shard" from "Here Comes A Monster"
5. Toshimaru Nakamura "Nimb" [sample]
6. Phew - "Stomping In The Dirt" [forthcoming]
7. Marja Ahti & Judith Hamann "Portals" [sample]
8. Valentina Magaletti "Tutti Alcirco"
9. Wojech Rusin "Radiation" [forthcoming]
10. Chik White "Utility Box"
11. Frederic Rzewski played by Bobby Mitchell "Songs of Insurrection"

OTO Radio - Takuroku Time II

Free improvising drummer and visual artist Terry Day talks us through his archives, selecting cuts from his extensive performance history going back to 1965 to the present.

Performers includes in the archive include: Mike Figgis, Pat Thomas, John Edwards, Evan Parker, Hannah Marshall, Satoko Fukuda, Eunjung Kim, Steve Beresford, Peter Urpeth, Neil Charles, Adrian Northover, Dawid Frydryk, Ansuman Biswas, John Russell, Davey Payne, Charlie Hart, John Butcher, Alison Blunt, David Leahy, Beibei Wang, George Khan, Maartje ten Hoorn, Sylvia Hallett, Sue Ferrar, J.F Pauvros, Katie Perks, Jerry Hunt and Tony Hymas.

Thanks to Terry Day, Blanca Regina, Pierre Bouvier Patron & Steve Beresford.

OTO Radio - Terry Day

TR088 - Nakul Krishnamurthy - 'Anudhatthamudhatthassvaritham'

LAC05 Ignatz - "What A Cute Dog"

As you can imagine we are under huge pressure at the moment and are working flat out to ensure Cafe OTO survives this. The impact of this situation is extremely acute for small venues like ours and we need all the support we can get to pull through. Please donate what you can, if you can. Thank you. 

Cafe OTO opened in April 2008 with the aim of providing a home for creative new music that exists outside of the mainstream. It comprises one large cafe/performance space open during the day serving food and drink with an evening programme of live music almost seven nights a week. 

OTOROKU is part of OTOProjects - a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) that has been set up to manage the programme at Café Oto. Any profits from OTOROKU are put back into supporting what we do and will help us to continue programming the best musicians and performers from all over the world.

www.cafeoto.co.uk

cafeOTO

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