Cafe Oto

Last updated

Cafe Oto
Cafe Oto, Dalston, E8 (5273183631).jpg
A view to the entrance to Cafe Oto
Cafe Oto
Address18–22 Ashwin St
London
United Kingdom
Coordinates 51°32′49″N0°04′29″W / 51.5469°N 0.0747°W / 51.5469; -0.0747
Opened2008
Website
www.cafeoto.co.uk

Cafe Oto is a venue for free jazz, experimental and free improvisation performances located in the Dalston district of London, United Kingdom.

Founded in 2008 Cafe Oto (sound or noise in Japanese) is located in the heart of Dalston and provides a platform for experimental music ranging across all genres from folk, rock, noise to electronica. In 2012 it was noted by Vogue Italia as the 'coolest venue in London'. [1] Occasionally artists take up brief residence across an entire week, such as Sun Ra Arkestra playing five nights in a row. [2]

The venue is used to record live albums released under the cafe's OTOROKU label, among them Peter Brötzmann, John Butcher, Lol Coxhill, Phil Durrant, Fred Frith, Mats Gustafsson, Alexander Hawkins, Joe McPhee, Roscoe Mitchell, Thurston Moore, Paal Nilssen-Love, Steve Noble, Other Dimensions in Music, Han-Earl Park, Evan Parker, Eddie Prevost, Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, Damo Suzuki and Ken Vandermark. [3] Around the corner from the venue Cafe Oto maintains the Oto Project Space, utilised by aspiring artists and filmmakers to develop their craft through practice and workshop areas.

In May 2020, the venue launched a new in-house digital label TakuRoku featuring works created in response to the London lockdown and social distancing measures with 50% of the profits going directly to the artist, [4] providing a way to help sustain both Cafe Oto and the artists involved. [5]

Related Research Articles

Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any general rules, instead following the intuition of its performers. The term can refer to both a technique—employed by any musician in any genre—and as a recognizable genre of experimental music in its own right.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalston</span> Human settlement in England

Dalston is an area of East London, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is four miles northeast of Charing Cross. Dalston began as a hamlet on either side of Dalston Lane, and as the area urbanised the term also came to apply to surrounding areas including Kingsland and Shacklewell, all three of which being part of the Ancient Parish of Hackney.

Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original elements, and the idea of deliberately challenging or alienating audiences. Avant-garde music may be distinguished from experimental music by the way it adopts an extreme position within a certain tradition, whereas experimental music lies outside tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMM (band)</span> British free improvisation group

AMM was a British free improvisation group that was founded in London, England, in 1965. The group was initially composed of Keith Rowe on guitar, Lou Gare on saxophone, and Eddie Prévost on drums. The three men shared an interest in exploring music beyond the boundaries of conventional jazz, as in free jazz and free improvisation. AMM never achieved widespread popularity, but have been influential in improvised music. Most of their albums have been released by Matchless Recordings, which is run by Eddie Prévost. In a 2001 interview, Keith Rowe was asked if "AMM" was an abbreviation. He replied, "The letters AMM stand for something, but as you probably know it's a secret!"

The Music of North Dakota has followed general American trends over much of its history, beginning with ragtime and folk music, moving into big band and jazz. With the development of mass media, local artists in North Dakota, as in the rest of the country, saw a rapid loss of opportunity to create, perform, and sell popular music to the regional audience that had previously provided a market. Punk Music is a major genre in the modern youth scene of North Dakota.

British jazz is a form of music derived from American jazz. It reached Britain through recordings and performers who visited the country while it was a relatively new genre, soon after the end of World War I. Jazz began to be played by British musicians from the 1930s and on a widespread basis in the 1940s, often within dance bands. From the late 1940s, British "modern jazz", highly influenced by American bebop, began to emerge and was led by figures such as John Dankworth, Tony Crombie and Ronnie Scott, while Ken Colyer, George Webb and Humphrey Lyttelton played Dixieland-style Trad jazz. From the 1960s British jazz began to develop more individual characteristics and absorb a variety of influences, including British blues, as well as European and World music influences. A number of British jazz musicians have gained international reputations, although the music has remained a minority interest there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knitting Factory</span> Nightclub in New York City

The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States.

The Jazz Cafe is a music venue in Camden Town, London. It opened in 1990 on the former premises of a branch of Barclays Bank and has had several owners throughout its history as a music venue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joyful Noise Recordings</span> American independent record label from Indianapolis, Indiana

Joyful Noise Recordings is an independent record label from Indianapolis, Indiana. The label was founded in 2003 in Bloomington, Indiana by Karl Hofstetter, who also played drums on many of the label's first releases. Joyful Noise maintains an active roster of over 30 bands playing various musical styles, though according to the label, each artist "in one way or another bridges the gap between pop and noise."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Nicols</span>

Maggie Nicols, is a Scottish free-jazz and improvising vocalist, dancer, and performer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tzadik Records</span> American record label

Tzadik Records is a record label in New York City that specializes in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995. He is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases. Tzadik is a not-for-profit, cooperative record label.

The Bay Area Improv Scene is a commonly used name for a loose association of musicians and composers centered in the San Francisco Bay Area who create a style of music that evolved largely from avant-garde jazz and modern classical music, with influences from other areas such as Electronic art music, Free improvisation, and Musique concrète. Other names of this scene tend to use phrases such as "Creative Music" to try to incorporate a wider focus than just the improvisational approach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radu Malfatti</span> Austrian musician and composer

Radu Malfatti is an Austrian trombone and harmonica player, and composer. He was born in Innsbruck, in the province of Tyrol, on December 16, 1943. Malfatti is associated with the style of music known as reductionism and has been described as "among the leaders in redefining the avant-garde as truly on-the-edge art." His work "since the early nineties... has been investigating the edges of ultraminimalism in both his composed and improvised work." He also operates B-Boim, a CD-R-only record label focusing on improvised and composed music, much of it his own.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senyawa (band)</span> Indonesian experimental band

Senyawa is an experimental band from Java, Indonesia, consisting of Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi. The band was formed in 2010 in Yogyakarta.

The Jist is a Norwegian experimental contemporary jazz duo comprising Natalie Sandtorv and Torgeir Standal.

Daniel Blumberg is an English artist, musician, songwriter and composer from London who works between drawing, improvisation, song form and film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Last Night From Glasgow</span> Independent record label in Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Last Night From Glasgow is a not-for-profit independent record label based in Glasgow, Scotland. It was established in 2016 and relies on a crowdfunding business model to operate. The label's name is taken from the line "When I called you last night from Glasgow" in ABBA's Super Trouper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Thomas (pianist)</span> English jazz pianist

Pat Thomas is a jazz pianist from Oxford, England.

Another Timbre is a record label, based in Sheffield and known for its releases of free improvisation, experimental and contemporary classical music. It was founded by television sound recordist Simon Reynell, who also engineers and produces most of the label's recordings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmanuelle Waeckerlé</span> Experimental musician

Emmanuelle Waeckerlé is an experimental musician, multidisciplinary artist and composer based in London. Her text scores, publications, and performances explore the materiality and musicality of language while proposing playful encounters with our "interior or exterior landscape and each other."

References

  1. Why east London's Cafe Oto is Britain's coolest venue
  2. The gig venue guide: Cafe Oto, London The Guardian
  3. Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed 12 September 2014)
  4. Eede, Christian (19 May 2020). "Cafe OTO Launches Digital Label, TakuRoku". The Quietus. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  5. "Cafe Oto launches lockdown music label TakuRoku". The Wire.