Eiko Ishibashi and Jim O’Rourke have announced their fifth collaborative album, Pareidolia (August 29th, Drag City). The announcement is accompanied by the release of the title track and video, directed by Mark Focus.
The human tendency to perceive meaningful images in random patterns is known as pareidolia. It’s a concept that perfectly captures the essence of Eiko Ishibashi & Jim O’Rourke’s fifth collaborative album. In 2023, the duo embarked on a two-week tour through France, Switzerland, Italy and Ireland, marking their first time performing together outside of Japan.
Rather than a simple live album, Pareidolia is a “remix” of resonances from those shows. The duo’s creative process is rooted in pure improvisation; they prepare separately, and their dialogue unfolds in the moment of performance. This dynamic was deepened on tour as live acoustic signals from Ishibashi’s flute and harmonica were routed back into their computers, providing fresh material for manipulation. In a fascinating recursive loop, recordings of one night’s show were often integrated into the next performance’s soundscape.
The final mix of Pareidolia, released on Drag City, is a masterful rearrangement of these elements, blending a moment from, say, Paris, with another from Dublin to create an entirely new and unique dialogue, “as well as a kind of ‘best’ version of what they were doing on the tour.”
For the listener, the fluid and seemingly inevitable progression of sounds might suggest a deliberate structure. This is the album’s central conceit: it acts as a mirror, inviting the audience to find their own order in the artfully arranged chaos. Pareidolia is a challenging and rewarding listen, a testament to the duo’s intuitive synergy and the beauty of finding pictures in the noise.
Bandcamp: https://jimorourke.bandcamp.com/album/pareidolia