Kumio Kurachi is a Japanese singer-songwriter who has been active since the 1980's. This is his 11th solo album and only the second to be released outside of Japan following ‘Sound of Turning Earth’ (2018) on bison.Though his songs are written and performed primarily on guitar, “Open Today” is a return to Kurachi’s full, multi-instrumental recording style - featuring drums, bass, strings, keys and Kurachi’s rich, distinctive vocals in multiple voicings. Incredibly, all instrumental performances and arrangements were performed and recorded by Kurachi himself - marking a brilliant return to the fully fleshed out visionary world we fell in love with on Supermarket Chitose (Enban, 2006).The super fine detail and dense landscapes of ‘Open Today’ should come as no surprise really - Kurachi is an illustrator by trade and it bleeds right through to his music. Even to the non-native speaker Kurachi’s vocals hold centre stage - at times enormous and thundering over urgent guitar and toms, then switching to softly spoken words amongst keys. Frequently Kurachi multiplies, whether multitracking himself or summoning voices for the characters he writes from sightings on train platforms or supermarkets. His lyrics - translated to English for both formats - are more like poetry, and though written about the mundane they quickly become surreal, bringing the quality of dreams into the everyday. The hours spent on buses, trains or walking home towards a cheap flat - familiar to us all - are catalysts for microcosms of detail. Again, we shouldn’t be surprised - Kurachi is well known in Japan for winning the national championship of NHK's "Poetry Boxing" in 2002, which also might explain his amazing Discogs photo.Poet, illustrator, multi-instrumentalist - Kurachi is thought of by many as a genius. He’s worked with Jim O’Rourke, Tori Kudo, Eiko Ishibashi and Taku Unami (who did the mastering on this LP). There are lines to be drawn between Kurachi and Kazuki Tomokawa or Kan Mikami, but also Francis Plagne and Fairport Convention. Ultimately though there is nothing else like it - it’s a brand of strange songcraft that’s totally captivating. 

Free release from Sphagnum Moss to mark the turning of another year. OTO wishes you all a great time over the festive period and many thanks as ever for all the support! Half festive sound collage, half yuletide mix (or, at times, seemingly several mixes laid on top of one another), Sphagnum Moss takes a phantasmagorical trip alongside ghosts of Christmas past, present and future in a clamorous distillation of the season. From the opening massed pealing of church bells to stratified, spectral choirs; carolling brass bands to a fragmentary, yearning pop reverie; crackling wrapping to a convivial fireside poem, Sphagnum Moss brews a heady infusion of holiday cheer across 30 densely packed minutes. -- Many sounds created by Sphagnum Moss. Many other sounds sourced from: 15HVojta_Michael / aktivfilm / alienistcog / alorange / binG-Cr0ss-bE / Clagnar / dav_ID_b0wee / Davor / Deenmar_tin / felix.blume / Garuda1982 / Guialgarve / guyburns / Gvido / ID_23 / jarlathmc / jasminmadalen / jebwhylie / Jorj_Mykal / keithpeter / klankbeeld / klau78 / marfack / Marschal / Mar.Sounds / M_Riah_caree / nervousneal / nomadas / organicmanpl / Robhog / SavReese / simongray / SpaceboysAgency / TimOut789 / tonant / Urkki69 / Vitouliss / Walter_Odington / waterpump / Zabuhailo Huge thanks to every one. Most can be found at the incredible resource that is freesound.org

Noise;Iron hoofs, iron wheels, iron dinOf drays and trams and feet passing;IronBeaten to a vast mad cacophony. In vain the shrill, far cryOf swallows sweeping by;In vain the silence and greenOf meadows Apriline;In vain the clear white rain— Soot; mud;A nation maddened with labour;Interminable collision of energies—Iron beating upon iron;Smoke whirling upwards,Speechless, impotent. In vain the shrill, far cryOf kittiwakes that flyWhere the sea waves leap green.The meadows Apriline— Noise, iron, smoke;Iron, iron, iron. - Richard Aldington, 'Whitechapel' -- In 2005 I performed a set at Whitechapel Gallery as part of the first 'Wormhole Saloon' night. It was an 8-speaker surround-sound piece, but this basically just involved me playing four pre-prepared cassette tapes out of four walkmans whilst playing cello, violin and other bits and pieces over the top. Recently I found those four cassettes but I no longer have any recollection of what I played alongside, so this piece is a sort of collaboration with myself from nearly two decades ago, playing with the source material and adding new instrumentation on top.

Reaching, unthinking, I run my handAgainst the grainCatching fragments, taking passengersSharp delvers, of the greater wholeThough not of my aimingStill finding their markIn meA map, or suggestionNeedle-sharp in fleshThat should not yieldYet sometimes welcomesAnd meldsScrap and remnantSliver and crumbBlood and sapBone and seedSo that gradually, so slowlyAnd slightAs if barely noticingA solitary stem may rise from the throatThen branching, reaching, unthinkingRaise blooms to the sunAnd roots to the soilBelow. -- Written, recorded and produced by Oliver Barrett, 2018-2024

Otoroku presents "cracked breath folds", a heady, labyrinthine release from Nantes-based artist, David Papapostolou. Mixing phone recordings, percussion, saxophone, and voice, the album blurs the boundaries between found and composed, hi-fi and lo-fi, vocalisation and meaning, performer and place; with the outside world never far from encroaching upon the performed elements, sometime adjacent, often seemingly a willing accomplice. In David's own words: "I wanted to find some form of immediacy in the process of making the music happen. I explored creating material using means that I would have with me at all or most of the time: my voice, my phone, outdoor space. Finding a sense of freedom in voicing sounds outside, on the street, in an underpass. To reach that tipping point in pushing a musical situation towards something happening, It often feels like taking a bold step had been necessary." The bold steps of the undertaking are hard to refute. Opener, babnacrabni, sets the tone for the album, with disassociated spectral voices merging with the muted natural sounds, whilst a spasmodic saxophone line punctuates the crepuscular murk. Second track, crrrrrrrtttttttii runs on its own internal logic, each rising vocal refrain leading to the next in a ceaselessly yearning chorus that builds inexorably before seemingly interrupting itself, leaving the disparate threads to fray freely at the edge of the weave. Elsewhere, grrgles seems to eavesdrop upon an urgent undertaking whose purpose remains tantalisingly opaque; mlzaamlzfcrx's initial pastoral idyll gradually takes a turn into the eerie, with a tentative choir underpinned by cymbals sighing into the gloaming; and closer mmsmmsmsmmmm knots an intricate tangle of voice tones which gradually glitch and distort into new assemblages that slowly rise up out of the throat until only the breath remains. Drawing concrete meaning from the album's five pieces might be akin to seeing shapes in smoke; such a conspicuously personal creative approach must surely yield an equally unique response in each listener. Immerse yourself in its patterns however, and your own forms and visions will surely come. -- Recorded and put together between April and June 2024

Otoroku is proud to present a prodigious, captivating album of solo guitar improvisations from Basque musician, Joseba Irazoki. Ranging across 23 tracks, the two parts of the album act almost as fractal mirrors; each reflecting the other in myriad ways, teasing out fresh threads and intricacies with each listen. Gitarra Lekeitioak (Onomatopeikoa II) follows on from Irazoki's 2017 Gitarra Onomatopeikoa release, and that album's sense of untethered, questing curiosity is not only carried over but expanded upon even further here. Combining a fully committed approach to the guitar with an almost egoless lightness of touch, Gitarra Lekeitioak (Onomatopeikoa II) builds upon the already impressively scopious range of Gitarra Onomatopeikoa to dizzying effect. From the gated tone-and-noise and abrasive melodies of opener RO 276, to the driving, mesmeric thrust of 3KO; the yearning, twilight refrains of 396267, to the delicate, harmonic patter of MU; the acoustic virtuosity of CHESHIRE HOTEL to the semi-scrambled electronic ‘duet’ of OSOL, Irazoki makes full use of an impressively broad palette. Yet nothing feels forced, nothing is for show – there’s just a sense of open-hearted generosity. In lesser hands such a whirlwind tour of style and form might risk failing to get its hooks in deep enough, yet not only does Irazoki have the imaginative scope to tackle these varying approaches to the instrument, he has the technical chops to pull it off. Each composition seems to have an openness of intent that is utterly disarming; all cards are on the table and nothing is held back, resulting in a creative tour de force that builds, piece by piece, to a unifying cohesiveness that makes the whole far greater than the sum of its parts. Featuring contributions from long-time OTO favourites Rhodri Davies and Raphael Roginski, Gitarra Lekeitioak (Onomatopeikoa II) is nevertheless unmistakably a work of singular craft and vision. -- "I recorded this album between November 2023 and May 2024 in the studio of Eztegara's house. Iñigo Irazoki has done the mixing at Atala studios. This album is the continuation of "Gitarra Onomatopeikoa" that I released in 2017. I have continued to look for new paths with the guitar trying to work on my own voice, using "instant composition" formula. All the music has been created by me, except for the "Hotel Hor Cheshire", composed by Sazem. In two pieces I have been accompanied by the Polish guitarist Raphael Roginski and the Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies. The cover has been made by Ramón Zabalegi. Thanks to everyone who has helped me making the album." - Joseba Irazoki, October 2024, in tribute to Mikel Laboa.