Otoroku Schallplatten & CDs

Review: After the success of their 2021 release 'The Bent Bow Must Wait to Be Released', musician, writer and filmmaker Sunik Kim is back with more brilliance. This time this second crucial album comes as two side-ing pieces that pair playful synth innovation with "a touch of slapstick humour, a la Henry Cow." It has been crafted using MIDI instrumentation and is about the art of fining beauty and order in chaos. Complex structures and regularly breaking rhythms intertwine with harsh clusters of keys and sweeping orchestral manoeuvres all making this as intense as it is rewarding.

Review: First vinyl re-issue of Evan Parker's duo with George Lewis. Transferred from the original masters, Otoroku initially discovered that the original Incus LP was cut at the wrong speed - and so, they present the first vinyl issue of the correct masters, or 'mastas' as Adam Skeaping, the legendary engineer who is also responsible for Six of One and Compatibles, fondly calls them. Lewis had not long recorded his solo, which mixes lively hints of Ellington and tender lyricism with total experimentation in three part overdubbed trombone. 'From Saxophone To Trombone' veers towards his wilder end of technicality, some of Lewis' rarer, starker improv - all avant garde burbles and bubbles, breath control and scalar flights. It's a recording of two young masters, documented beautifully, and released for the first time on vinyl at its intended speed.

Review: A full LP reissue of Collective Calls, the first duo LP from Evan Parker and percussionist Paul Lytton. Mythically alluded to as "an improvised urban psychodrama in eight parts", Collective Calls makes use of electronics, pre-recordings and homemade instruments to wryly enact self-investigation. Having just recorded the cliff-jumping Music Improvisation Company with Derek Bailey, Christine Jeffrey, Hugh Davies and Jamie Muir, Parker was at the point where [he] was thinking, 'what's the next thing?' On Collective Calls, only the fifth release to appear on the newly-minted Incus label, percussionist Paul Lytton arrives with an arsenal of sound making sources to push Parker into ever new territory.