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Jim O'Rourke (musician)

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Jim O'Rourke
O'Rourke performing with Sonic Youth in 2004
O'Rourke performing with Sonic Youth in 2004
Background information
Born (1969-01-18) January 18, 1969 (age 55)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Occupation(s)Musician, instrumentalist, composer, singer-songwriter, record producer
Instrument(s)Guitar, synthesizer, piano, electric bass guitar, hurdy-gurdy, vocals
Labels

Jim O'Rourke (born January 18, 1969) is an American musician, instrumentalist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer.[1] He is best known for his numerous solo and collaborative music projects, many of which are instrumental, and has been acclaimed for his music that spans varied genres, including avant-garde styles such as ambient, noise and minimalism, and styles of rock like indie rock and post-rock.[2] He has been associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene, as well as with New York City when he relocated to it in 2000 for his tenure as a member of American indie rock band Sonic Youth. He subsequently moved to Japan and has since been a Japanese resident.[3]

Biography

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O'Rourke performing in Minneapolis, 2003

O'Rourke was born on January 18, 1969, in Chicago, Illinois. He is an alumnus of DePaul University.[4]

O'Rourke has collaborated with Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Kim Gordon, Steve Shelley, Derek Bailey, Mats Gustafsson, Mayo Thompson, Brigitte Fontaine, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Merzbow, Nurse with Wound, Phill Niblock, Fennesz, Organum, Phew, Henry Kaiser and Flying Saucer Attack. He has produced and instrumentally contributed to albums by artists such as Sonic Youth, Wilco, Stereolab, Superchunk, Kahimi Karie, Quruli, John Fahey, Smog, Faust, Tony Conrad, The Red Krayola, Bobby Conn, Beth Orton, and U.S. Maple. He mixed Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album and produced their 2004 album, A Ghost Is Born, for which he won a Grammy Award for "Best Alternative Album". During the recording of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, O'Rourke collaborated with Wilco member Jeff Tweedy and pre-Wilco Glenn Kotche under the name Loose Fur. Their self-titled debut was released in 2003 with a follow-up in 2006 entitled Born Again in the USA. He also mixed the unfinished recordings that made up a planned third album by the late American singer-songwriter Judee Sill, recorded in 1974 and mixed by O'Rourke for a 2005 release. In 2006, O'Rourke mixed Joanna Newsom's album Ys, and in 2009, he also mixed several tracks on Newsom's follow up Have One On Me.[5]

O'Rourke has previously been a member of Illusion of Safety, Brise-Glace with Darin Gray and Dylan Posa, Gastr Del Sol[5] with David Grubbs[6] and Sonic Youth. Beginning in 1999 he played bass guitar, guitar and synthesizer with Sonic Youth, in addition to recording and mixing duties with the group. He withdrew as a full member in late 2005, but continued to play with them in some of their side projects.

O'Rourke has also released many albums under his own name on a variety of labels, exploring a range of electronic and avant-garde styles.[5] His most well-known works may be his series of releases on Drag City, which focus on more traditional songcraft: Bad Timing (1997), Eureka (1999), Insignificance (2001), The Visitor (2009) and Simple Songs (2015). The titles of the first four albums all refer to films by the British director Nicolas Roeg; the first three by direct reference to film titles, the fourth being titled after a fictional album within Roeg's film The Man Who Fell To Earth.

With music director Takehisa Kosugi, he played for the Merce Cunningham dance company for four years. He was a guitarist for the 1999 premiere of Cunningham's ballet Biped with Gavin Bryars in Berkeley, California.

O'Rourke received a 2001 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.[7]

Since 2013, O'Rourke has used his Steamroom Bandcamp page to release reissues of rare and older material, as well as original newer pieces.

O'Rourke is currently in a relationship with Japanese musician Eiko Ishibashi, with whom he frequently collaborates.[8] The two met when Ishibashi played flute on an album of Burt Bacharach covers that O'Rourke was producing. They live and work closely together, but "keep a professional distance, sending each other data files to work on rather than jamming."[9]

In 2024, O'Rourke contributed to the soundtrack of A.S. Velasca (football club and total work of art created by Wolfgang Natlacen) by composing the Theme.

Work in films

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Drag City discography

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Partial solo discography

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References

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  1. ^ Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. p. 721. ISBN 1-84195-017-3.
  2. ^ Cooper, Sean. "Jim O'Rourke – Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  3. ^ Cohen, Jonathan (August 29, 2023). "From Japan, With Love: Catching Up With Jim O'Rourke". Spin. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
  4. ^ [1] Jim O'Rourke Biography at the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
  5. ^ a b c Richards, Sam (May 18, 2015). "Jim O'Rourke: indie's unsung perpetual polymath". The Guardian. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
  6. ^ Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, ISBN 1-84195-335-0, p. 522-3
  7. ^ [2] Jim O'Rourke Biography at the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
  8. ^ Beta, Andy (25 March 2022). "Eiko Ishibashi and the melodies that carry 'Drive My Car'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  9. ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (2024-04-08). "'Anger compels me forward': Drive My Car composer Eiko Ishibashi on evil, experimentation and exploding genre". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-07.
  10. ^ Bowe, Miles (July 26, 2018). "Catching Up With Jim O'Rourke". Stereogum.com. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  11. ^ Lim, Dennis (June 22, 2008). "Soft-Core Auteur Turns Attention to Radicals". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2010.
  12. ^ Ruiz, Matthew Ismael (4 May 2023). "Jim O'Rourke Details Hands That Bind Soundtrack Album, Shares New Song: Watch the Video". Pitchfork. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  13. ^ "Jim O'Rourke announces vinyl series for Editions Mego". tinymixtapes.com. April 14, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
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