The #zot2017 review presents you today with a particularly experimental episode featuring one of the best artists and musicians around for the past thirty years.

Jim O'Rourke - Steamroom 31 (Self-Released, January 09, 2017)

Jim O'Rourke continues to release unreleased material and rarities through his Bandcamp page. On this specific occasion, I focused on listening to his "Steamroom" (which is the name of his studios) number 31, released last January and the first in a series of experimental works by the Chicago musician (who has now permanently settled in Tokyo, Japan) throughout 2017. The three compositions that make up the "release" are very interesting and showcase the more ambient and experimental aspects of O'Rourke's music. They consist of three long compositions created to accompany three visual works by director Takino Makashi (some of his works are available on YouTube). They are mostly abstract pieces filled with electrified and chaotic splashes of color, reminiscent of a Pollock painting. The three compositions, designed to accompany the visuals, last between twenty and thirty minutes. It ranges from the minimalist ambient of "Generator" to the expressionist no-wave of "Still In Cosmos," which opens with post-industrial noise before unleashing into an electro-magnetic noise storm. Finally, there are the thirty minutes of "The Seasons," a session of droning spatial ambient made up of amplified sound overlays filled with reverberations, feedbacks, and noise pulsations. A work that is certainly not easy listening and primarily dedicated to complementing visual works, but that proves to be effective even when presented detached from Makashi's context, as we simply need to close our eyes and imagine sequences of images in total freedom, detached from any preconceived notion and allowing ourselves to be guided solely by the music.

Jim O'Rourke - Steamroom 31 - full album (2017)