Ikue Mori
Her first musical experience was as the drummer for seminal no wave band DNA. After DNA disbanded, Mori became active in the New York experimental music scene. She began playing drum machines, which she sometimes modified to play various samples. In 1995, she began collaborating with Japanese bass guitarist Kato Hideki (from Ground Zero), and together with experimental guitarist Fred Frith (from Henry Cow), they formed Death Ambient. Beyond her solo recordings, she has recorded or performed with Dave Douglas, Butch Morris, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, and many others.
Highsmith Plus
Ikue Mori and Craig Taborn, the duo Highsmith, return after ten years and open up into three trios with Bill Frisell, Tomeka Reid and John Zorn, plus a few quintet pieces.
Enchanted And Delighted
Nearly ten years of Ikue Mori's music and visual work: eight electronic pieces with Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura, Koichi Makigami and Zeena Parkins, plus a DVD of her films with handmade dolls, puppets, animation and miniature sets. Tzadik.
Black Narcissus
Three of downtown’s most dynamic performers join forces to form Mephista—one of the first all women supergroups (Susie Ibarra, Sylvie Courvoisier, and Ikue Mori). Separately these three have worked with some of the most important musicians in new music (Derek Bailey, Wadada Leo Smith, Pauline Oliveros, William Parker, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Mike Patton, Dave Douglas, etc.)—together they have created a whole new kind of music spanning the worlds of rock, classical, jazz and electronica. Sensitive…
Sing Me Now Asleep
Bill Frisell, Kenny Wollesen, and Carol Emanuel are The Gnostic Trio and their unique blend of minimalism, early music, and jazz has resulted in some of the loveliest music Zorn has ever created. “Sing Me Now Asleep” is their first CD in over five years and not surprisingly it explores some unexpected new directions—notably two ambient-influenced pieces in the spirit of Zorn’s Absinthe and Redbird, and a dramatic long form composition in the style of his cinematic file card works. Enhanced by th…
Alchemical Theatre
Friends and musical cohorts since the early 1980s, these three master improvisers come together to perform a freewheeling set of outrageous and mind-blowing improvisations. Recorded at Roulette, founded in 1978 and one of New York’s most adventurous venues, the music is full of surprising twists and jumps from one mood to another with mercurial synchronicity. Dedicated to the memory of Downtown theatrical genius Richard Foreman, “Alchemical Theatre” presents nine pieces of tele-pathic, counter-i…
IPY25
IPY25 unites three trailblazers of experimental music — Ikue Mori (DNA, Downtown NYC scene), Phew (Aunt Sally), and YoshimiO (Boredoms, OOIOO, Saicobab) — for their first trio project. The album captures their telepathic interplay across electronics, drums, voice, and bamboo flute, fusing avant-garde soundscapes with an urgent sense of improvisational freedom. Recorded live at Club U.F.O. in Tokyo and crafted during the 2020 shelter-in-place period, this collaboration radiates both raw energy an…
John Zorn's Bagatelles Vol. 4
From March to May 2015, John Zorn composed 300 new tunes that were eventually collected into a book of music he called The Bagatelles. After five years of performances around the world in venues large and small, the choicest ensembles have gone into the studio and the results are some of the most exciting and varied music Zorn has ever presented. Volume four features the scintillating soundscapes of electronic music wizard Ikue Mori, and she has arranged these pieces with grace, elegance, and a …
50⁶
2004 release ** "Hemophiliac is an experimental musical act. This group is billed as improvisational music from the outer reaches of madness. Mike Patton does voice effects along with John Zorn on saxophone and Ikue Mori on laptop electronics. Volume 6 of John Zorn's 50th birthday party series of concert CD's (ten volumes in total) is the first fully commercially available showcase for the trio's mad improv collision."
Syr 5
""Donald Duck, kill Minnie!" These words, ordered with urgency against a circular series of drum strikes and manipulated guitar/electronic textures, come over three fourths of the way through the album known as SYR 5 (aka "Olive's Horn"). While the words and sounds taken on their own may shock, their appearance within this collaborative effort between Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth, Body/Head, solo efforts), Ikue Mori (DNA, solo) and DJ Olive (We, solo) by this point in the album are not surprising. Ta…
Of Ghosts And Goblins
Ikue Mori's album "Of Ghosts and Goblins" is a collection of instrumental miniatures inspired by Lafcadio Hearn's Japanese folk tales, featuring themes of ghosts, goblins, and the supernatural, with tracks like "Fragment," "A Passional Karma," and "Lafcadio's Garden". Lafcadio Hearn is an author who spent much of his life researching, documenting, and preserving the ancient folk tales of Japan. He published a series of books in the late 19th and early 20th century including In Ghostly Japan, Kwa…
Elevator Music
Big tip! Laptop electronics pioneer Ikue Mori joins forces with vocalist Charmaine Lee for their highly anticipated debut release, Elevator Music, on Lee’s newly launched Kou Records. This 7” record marks the first official recording from the duo, whose collaboration began in 2019, and showcases their extraordinary blend of laptop electronics, modular synthesis, and the voice. Elevator Music captures the duo’s omnivorous imagination, merging Lee’s unique vocal techniques with Mori’s ever-evolvin…
Hit Parade of Tears
"Hit Parade of Tears" is an album inspired by the short stories of Japanese author Izumi Suzuki, married to musician Kaoru Abe, who tragically ended her life at the age of 36. Suzuki's wholly original short stories paved the way for the science fiction genre and in many ways predicted the cyberpunk movement. Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins have created a beautiful and mysterious collection of musical miniatures that reference Suzuki's sensibility with remarkable feeling and compassion. A touching tr…
Tracing The Magic
*In process of stocking.* "Tracing The Magic" is Ikue Mori's most varied and fabulous CD to date, and an absolute masterpiece. Seven pieces, each inspired by (and dedicated to) women artists whose powerful visions and and creativity led them to create well into the 80s and 90s: Joan Jonas, Louise Bourgeois, Agnes Martin, Judit Reigl, Leonora Carrington, Jakucho Sekuchi, and Toko Shinoda
The ensembles are some of today's most exciting musicians, including new friends (Charmane Lee, Sae Hashimoto)…
Archipelago X
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Laptop wizard Ikue Mori, master keyboardist Brian Marsella and classical percussion virtuoso Sae Hashimoto are Archipelago X, a dynamic new trio born during the 2020 pandemic. Recording at their home studios and exchanging tracks back and forth for months, the music is detailed, evocative and dramatically mysterious, blending electronica, classical, ambient, film soundtrack, pop and jazz into a remarkably original aggregate. Inspiring and engaging music by t…
Obelisk
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Universally acclaimed as a pioneer in live laptop electronics, Ikue’s signature style is still uniquely her own and has influenced two generations of laptop performers. Her new band project Obelisk is a super-band featuring three of the most acclaimed and original players in the Downtown scene—Okkyung Lee, Jim Black and Sylvie Courvoisier. Ikue’s startling compositions blend gorgeous melodies with hypnotic rhythms and evocative soundscapes. Strange and beaut…
Seven ElectroAcoustic Septet
UK multi-reed master Evan Parker brings an all-star electroacoustic septet to the 2014 Victoriaville Festival for the massive and wonderfully detailed two part composition "Seven", performed with Peter Evans, Okkyung Lee, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Sam Pluta, and Ned Rothenberg.
Stone, Brick, Glass, Wood, Wire - Photo-Graphic Scores 1992-95
**2 x CD box** Fred Frith's large, flexible ensemble project using marked photographs and rules as scores and featuring as permanent members Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins. Recordings are taken from five concerts, including the first in 1992 at AngelicA festival, and features 44 musicians, including: Jean Derome, Lesli Dalaba, Paulo Angelli, Co Streif, Rene Lussier, Jean Marc Montera, Guy Klucsevek, Myra Melford, Han Bennink, Chris Cutler, Daan Vandewelle, Massimo Simonini, and Hans Koch. Includes …
Syr 05
Taking a breather from the Free Kitten snazz (while Miss Julie births Alice and teaches inner city high school, Yoshimi lives about 10,000 miles away and Mark Ibold is aswamp in the madness that is Pavement), Sonic Youth's femme-mystere Kim Gordon has created a distinctly new trio of spontaneous composition and prose. Since reclaiming the electric guitar (her original instrument with the Sonic Youth) and developing a newfound post-Patty Waters free-vox technique, she has enjoined her vision with…
Chordis Et Machina
Ikue Mori and Christian Rønn are twin masters of unrule, radically attuned to time and sound, invoking the personhood of space and object, chordis et machina, as you'll soon discover once their music gets loose in your own environ. “Endless probing that hooks into your neurons, this album leaves sonic organisms floating around you. Even if that's merely an illusion, the alchemy of Mori and Rønn’s hyperactive stew is very real.” -Marc Masters Laid down at Elektron Musik Studion (EMS) in Stockholm…
Miller's Tale
Miller's Tale is the high point of the collaboration of the distinctive musicians Sylvie Courvoisier, Mark Feldmann, Evan Parker and Ikue Mori. In September 2015, they recorded the fully improvised pieces for this album. The album's track sequencing of first four whole group pieces followed by five duo pieces offer multifaced aural impressions and a rich listening experience. Henning Bolte writes in the liner notes: "Our ears usually first adhere to the known, the familiar. But they 'squint' to …