Ikue Mori
Encyclopedia
also known as Ikue Ile, is a drummer
, composer
, and graphic designer
.
. In 1977, she went to New York City
, initially for a visit, but she fell into the music scene, and has remained in New York since.
Her first musical experience was as the drummer
for seminal no wave
band DNA
, which also featured East Village hero Arto Lindsay
. Though she had little prior musical experience (and had never played drums), Mori quickly developed a distinctive style: One critic describes her as "a tight, tireless master of shifting asymmetrical rhythm
", while Lester Bangs
wrote that she "cuts Sunny Murray
in my book" His comment is no small praise, as Murray is widely considered a major free jazz
drummer.
After DNA disbanded, Mori became active in the New York experimental music
scene. She abandoned her drum set, and began playing drum machine
s, which she sometimes modified to play various samples
. According to Mori, she was trying to make the drum machines "sound broken." Critic Adam Strohm writes that she "founded a new world for the instrument, taking it far beyond backing rhythms and robotic fills." In recent years she has used a laptop
as her primary instrument, but is still sometimes credited with "electronic percussion".
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
. The trio released three albums, Death Ambient (1995), Synaesthesia (1999) and Drunken Forest (2007).
Beyond her solo recordings, she has recorded or performed with Dave Douglas
, Butch Morris
, Kim Gordon
, Thurston Moore
, and many others, including as Hemophiliac
, a trio with John Zorn
and singer Mike Patton
, as well as being a member of Zorn's Electric Masada. With Zeena Parkins
, she records and tours as duo project Phantom Orchard. She often records on Tzadik, as well as designing the covers for many of their albums.
Mori has drawn inspiration from visual arts. Her 2000 release, One Hundred Aspects of the Moon was inspired by famed Japanese artist Yoshitoshi
. Her 2005 recording, Myrninerest, is inspired by outsider artist Madge Gill
.
In 2006, she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, and graphic designer
Graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
.
Biography
Ikue Mori was born and raised in Japan. She says she had little interest in music before hearing punk rockPunk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
. In 1977, she went to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, initially for a visit, but she fell into the music scene, and has remained in New York since.
Her first musical experience was as the drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
for seminal no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
band DNA
DNA (band)
DNA was a No Wave band formed in 1978 by guitarist Arto Lindsay and keyboardist Robin Crutchfield. Rather than playing their instruments in a traditional manner, they instead focused on making unique and unusual sounds...
, which also featured East Village hero Arto Lindsay
Arto Lindsay
Arthur Morgan Lindsay is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He is a 1974 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida....
. Though she had little prior musical experience (and had never played drums), Mori quickly developed a distinctive style: One critic describes her as "a tight, tireless master of shifting asymmetrical rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
", while Lester Bangs
Lester Bangs
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist, author and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock 'n' roll criticism....
wrote that she "cuts Sunny Murray
Sunny Murray
James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray is one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming.-Biography:...
in my book" His comment is no small praise, as Murray is widely considered a major free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
drummer.
After DNA disbanded, Mori became active in the New York experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
scene. She abandoned her drum set, and began playing drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
s, which she sometimes modified to play various samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
. According to Mori, she was trying to make the drum machines "sound broken." Critic Adam Strohm writes that she "founded a new world for the instrument, taking it far beyond backing rhythms and robotic fills." In recent years she has used a laptop
Laptop
A laptop, also called a notebook, is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device and speakers into a single unit...
as her primary instrument, but is still sometimes credited with "electronic percussion".
In 1995, she began collaborating with Japanese bass guitarist Kato Hideki
Kato Hideki
Kato Hideki is a Japanese musician and composer. He was a seminal member of the Tokyo Noise music scene of the late 80s and early 90s, collaborating with Japanese experimental musicians such as Otomo Yoshihide, Tatsuya Yoshida, Makigami Koichi, and Yamatsuka Eye. He led his own bands, Player...
(from Ground Zero
Ground Zero (band)
Ground Zero was a Japanese noise/improvisation band during the 1990s led by guitarist and turntablist Yoshihide Otomo that had a large and rotating group of performers with two other regular performers-Musical style:...
), and together with experimental guitarist Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
(from Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
), they formed Death Ambient
Death Ambient
Death Ambient is a United States experimental and ambient music trio comprising Kato Hideki , Ikue Mori and Fred Frith . The group was formed by Hideki and Mori in 1995 and recorded two albums, Death Ambient in 1995 and Synaesthesia in 1999...
. The trio released three albums, Death Ambient (1995), Synaesthesia (1999) and Drunken Forest (2007).
Beyond her solo recordings, she has recorded or performed with Dave Douglas
Dave Douglas (trumpeter)
Dave Douglas is an American jazz trumpeter and composer whose music derives from many non-jazz musical styles, including classical music, folk music from European countries and Klezmer. He has been a member of the experimental big band Orange Then Blue...
, Butch Morris
Butch Morris
Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris is an American jazz cornetist, composer and conductor.-Biography:Before his musical career, Morris served in Vietnam during the Vietnam War....
, Kim Gordon
Kim Gordon
Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She has sung and played bass and guitar in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, and in Free Kitten with Julia Cafritz...
, Thurston Moore
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
, and many others, including as Hemophiliac
Hemophiliac (band)
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.-Discography:...
, a trio with John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
and singer Mike Patton
Mike Patton
Michael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...
, as well as being a member of Zorn's Electric Masada. With Zeena Parkins
Zeena Parkins
Zeena Parkins is a harpist active in rock music, free improvisation and jazz. Parkins plays standard harps, as well as several custom-made one-of-a kind electric harps; she also plays piano and accordion...
, she records and tours as duo project Phantom Orchard. She often records on Tzadik, as well as designing the covers for many of their albums.
Mori has drawn inspiration from visual arts. Her 2000 release, One Hundred Aspects of the Moon was inspired by famed Japanese artist Yoshitoshi
Yoshitoshi
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was a Japanese artist.He is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing. He is additionally regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of feudal Japan, and the first years of...
. Her 2005 recording, Myrninerest, is inspired by outsider artist Madge Gill
Madge Gill
Madge Gill , born Maude Ethel Eades, was an English outsider and visionary artist.-Early years:Born an illegitimate child in East Ham, Essex, , she spent much of her early years in seclusion and was placed in an orphanage at the age of 9...
.
In 2006, she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
Discography
- Painted Desert (1989)
- Hex Kitchen (1993)
- Garden (1996)
- B/Side (1998)
- One Hundred Aspects Of The Moon (2000)
- Labyrinth (2001)
- Myrninerest (2005)
- Bhima Swarga (2007)
- Class Insecta (2009)