Steamroom 38

This is one 34:01 piece, composed from modular synths and field recordings. Cicadas and synths merge together as a low, oscillating hum. The result is mostly calm and restrained and pointillistic, a little staticky and noisy but strangely soothing, with some occasional rises in tension before an old antenna TV sound bridges to the next part of the composition. Peaceful, abstract but not stuffy. RIYL suburban white noise, subtle apocalypse film sound design. No words, no FCCs.

A note about Jim O’Rourke: there’s really no one like him. A serious experimental composer by his early twenties, Jim O’Rourke helped make Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and hugely influenced the way indie rock records sounded around 2000, joined Sonic Youth for a while, recorded a few brilliantly insane meta-pop records of his own, taught the School of Rock kids how to play their instruments, turned down a production request from the Rolling Stones, and rejected accidental stardom altogether and moved to Japan, where he lives now.