Today

£12 TICKETS AT THE DOOR

NEW IN THE SHOP

Hardback, 285pp Goldsmiths Press, 2026 The STEIM foundation in Amsterdam was a music studio radically dedicated to the live, physical performance of electronic sound. From 1969 to 2021, the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music supported artists in building new instruments, insisting on tangible, hands-on engagements with electronic sound.This book provides a comprehensive overview of STEIM’s work, drawing on original interviews and extensive primary source research in the archive of its longtime artistic director, Michel Waisvisz (1949–2008). It traces the studio’s evolution from its roots in the anarchic, situationist spirit of 1960s Amsterdam to the famous Cracklebox and to a long line of pioneering developments in sensor-based instruments between 1984 and 2000.A primary focus is Waisvisz’s landmark instrument The Hands (1984)—the world’s first sensor-based gestural controller—and the SensorLab platform it inspired. This emerging expertise fuelled an international artist-in-residence programme, attracting figures like Jon Rose, Nicolas Collins or Laetitia Sonami among many others and fostering a global wave of experimental instrument design.The common thread through this history is a paradigm called Touch, which championed musicians’ embodied presence over automation and predefined control. By documenting the pursuits of immediacy within highly mediated technologies, The STEIM Touch offers a crucial historical lens for today’s ongoing negotiations between artificiality and physicality in music creation.

Andi Otto – The STEIM Touch - The emergence of sensor-based musical instruments

Printed on the Stanley / Stella Creator 2.0 tee -- nice unisex cut on fairwear black organic cotton. Set-in sleeve1x1 rib at neck collarInside back neck tape in self fabricTwin needle topstitch at sleeve cuff and hem CompositionShell: Single Jersey, 100% Cotton - Organic Combed Ring Spun / Heather Haze: 70% Organic Cotton - 30% Recycled Cotton, Combed Ring Spun, Fabric washedWe have collaborated with long term Cafe OTO friend Han Bennink to design the first ever OTO t-shirt. These are made on good quality fair trade Stanley/Stella tees - more info under the design detail.  The Dutch drummer and multi-instrumentalist Han Bennink has had a colossal impact and influence in the fields of free jazz and improvised music - not just as a percussionist but also as an organiser, designer and visual artist. Bennink trained at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterda and was strongly influenced by the anti-art of Dada. Out of what he calls 'a kind of involvement with things', Bennink reuses seemingly worthless objects from his immediate environment, such as broken drum skins and sticks. They are given a second life in his sculptures and installations. For his drawings and collages, Bennink draws on his personal memories and intuition. Birds and airplanes often return in these, symbols of the same freedom that he personifies during his performances. His artwork graces the covers of several corner stone recordings released on FMP, ICP, Incus, hat ART, psi and more. "It simply has to be beautiful and preferably appeal to an emotion as well. In [Bennink's] case that emotion doesn't have to be very dramatic or deeply hidden. You could rather call his art, his visual art anyway, light-footed, the way poems by Rutget Copland and Hans Verhagen can be." - Hans Sizoo, Jazzwereld nr 16. Photo by Corral

Han Bennink Tee

New Events

Sunday 6 December 2026

CAFE OTO WINTER FAIR

Free Event

Saturday 5 December 2026

Mohammad Syfkhan – 'I Love You Ireland' album release

£20 £17 Advance £13 MEMBERS

Monday 15 February 2027

Upset the Rhythm presents:

OLD SAW

£16 £14 (DICE)

Saturday 14 November 2026

Maxine Funke + Clayton Noone

£19 £17 Advance £12 MEMBERS

Coming up

Tuesday 20 October 2026

Evan Parker / Steve Swell / Mark Tokar / Klaus Kugel

£17 £15 Advance £10 MEMBERS

Wednesday 21 October 2026

Nebbia / Downes / Lisle: Exhaust

£18 £16 Advance £10 MEMBERS

Thursday 22 October 2026

Bitchin Bajas + Ryley Walker

SOLD OUT returns waiting list

Friday 23 October 2026

Sergeant + Daisy Ray

£17 £15 Advance £10 MEMBERS