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Ikue Mori

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Ikue Mori
Mori in 2017
Background information
Born (1953-12-17) 17 December 1953 (age 71)
Tokyo, Japan
Genres
Occupations
  • Musician
  • composer
  • graphic designer
Instruments
  • Drums
  • drum machine
  • sampler
Years active1977–present
LabelsTzadik

Ikue Mori (森 郁恵[2], Mori Ikue) (born 17 December 1953), also known as Ikue Ile, is a drummer, electronic musician, composer, and graphic designer. Mori was awarded a "Genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 2022.[3]

Biography

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Ikue Mori was born and raised in Japan. She says she had little interest in music before hearing punk rock. In 1977, she went to New York City, initially for a visit, but she became involved in 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 musician 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",[4] while Lester Bangs wrote that she "cuts Sunny Murray in my book."[5]

After DNA disbanded, Mori became active in the New York experimental music scene. She abandoned her drum set, and began playing drum machines, which she sometimes modified to play various samples. According to Mori, she was trying to make the drum machines "sound broken."[6] Mori gradually transitioned to working with drum machines, laptops, and live electronics, developing a distinctive style blending noise, rhythm, and melody.[7] Mori has described her creative process as similar to cooking, where she combines and transforms different sonic ingredients in real time to create something new and unexpected.[8] Critic Adam Strohm writes that she "founded a new world for the instrument, taking it far beyond backing rhythms and robotic fills."[9] 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 has collaborated extensively with composer John Zorn and has recorded many albums for his label, Tzadik Records. She has also designed the covers for many of their releases.[10]

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 2025, Mori was announced as a performer at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, as part of her collaboration with harpist Zeena Parkins in the project Phantom Orchard.[11]

Awards

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Mori received a 2005-2006 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. In 2022 Mori received the MacArthur Fellowship award ("Genius Grant").[12]

Discography

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  • Tracing the Magic (Tzadik, 2022)[14]
  • Quiet Passion (with Yuko Fujiyama and Graham Haynes; Intakt Records, 2022)[15]
  • Sand Storm (with Kaze quartet; Atypeek Diffusion/Circum-Disc, 2021)[16]
  • Crustal Movement (with Kaze quartet; Circum/Libra, 2023)[17]
  • Hit Parade of Tears (as Phantom Orchard with Zeena Parkins; Tzadik Records, 2024)[18]

With Lotte Anker & Sylvie Courvoisier

With Mephista (Mori, Sylvie Courvoisier and Susie Ibarra)

With Cyro Baptista

With Dave Douglas

With Erik Friedlander

With Fred Frith and Ensemble Modern

  • Traffic Continues (Winter & Winter, 2000)
  • Later... (Les Disques VICTO, 2000)
  • A Mountain Doesn't Know It's Tall (Intakt Records, 2015)

With Maybe Monday

With Rova::Orchestrova

With Kim Gordon and DJ Olive

With George Spanos

With John Zorn

With Medicine Singers

References

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  1. ^ Carlin, Matthew. "Ikue Mori". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  2. ^ "Ikue Mori - TOWER RECORDS ONLINE".
  3. ^ Stevens, Matt (12 October 2022). "MacArthur Foundation Announces 25 New 'Genius' Grant Winners". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  4. ^ Robbins, Ira; Mark Fleischmann; Robert Payes. "DNA". Trouser Press. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  5. ^ Bangs, Lester (1988). Greil Marcus (ed.). Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung. New York: Vintage Books. p. 303. ISBN 0-679-72045-6.
  6. ^ Frank J. Oteri (1 August 2009). "At Home in Strange Lands, Ikue Mori in conversation with Frank J. Oteri, July 16, 2009". NewMusicBox.
  7. ^ "Ikue Mori – Essential Tremors". Omny.fm. March 7, 2025. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
  8. ^ Mori, Ikue. “Soul Mechanical: Raw Tech in Real Time.” In Arcana: Musicians on Music, edited by John Zorn, Granary Books/Hips Road, 2000.
  9. ^ Strohm, Adam (20 October 2004). "Dusted Review: Zeena Parkins & Ikue Mori - Phantom Orchard". Dusted Magazine. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  10. ^ "Ikue Mori – Tzadik Records". Tzadik Records. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
  11. ^ "Ikue Mori – Essential Tremors". Omny.fm. March 7, 2025. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
  12. ^ "Ikue Mori". MacArthur Foundation. 12 October 2022. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  13. ^ "New From Tzadik #38". Avant Music News. October 26, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
  14. ^ "Tracing the Magic – Ikue Mori". Tzadik Records. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  15. ^ "Quiet Passion, by Yuko Fujiyama". Intakt Records (Bandcamp). April 22, 2022. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
  16. ^ "Sand Storm – I Care If You Listen". I Care If You Listen. September 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
  17. ^ "Crustal Movement – All About Jazz". All About Jazz. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
  18. ^ "Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori: Phantom Orchard plays the world of Izumi Suzuki". Roulette. Retrieved May 7, 2025.
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