Jim O'Rourke

Jim O'Rourke (born January 18, 1969) is an American musician, instrumentalist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer.

He is best known for his numerous solo and collaborative music projects, many of which are instrumental, and has been acclaimed for his music that spans varied genres, including avant-garde styles such as ambient, noise and minimalism, and styles of rock like indie rock and post-rock.

O'Rourke was born on January 18, 1969, in Chicago, Illinois.

He is an alumnus of DePaul University.

O'Rourke has collaborated with Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Kim Gordon, Steve Shelley, Derek Bailey, Mats Gustafsson, Mayo Thompson, Brigitte Fontaine, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Merzbow, Nurse with Wound, Phill Niblock, Fennesz, Organum, Phew, Henry Kaiser and Flying Saucer Attack.

He has produced and instrumentally contributed to albums by artists such as Sonic Youth, Wilco, Stereolab, Superchunk, Kahimi Karie, Quruli, John Fahey, Smog, Faust, Tony Conrad, The Red Krayola, Bobby Conn, Beth Orton, and U.S. Maple.

He also mixed the unfinished recordings that made up a planned third album by the late American singer-songwriter Judee Sill, recorded in 1974 and mixed by O'Rourke for a 2005 release.

His most well-known works may be his series of releases on Drag City, which focus on more traditional songcraft: Bad Timing (1997), Eureka (1999), Insignificance (2001), The Visitor (2009) and Simple Songs (2015).

The titles of the first four albums all refer to films by the British director Nicolas Roeg; the first three by direct reference to film titles, the fourth being titled after a fictional album within Roeg's film The Man Who Fell To Earth.

With music director Takehisa Kosugi, he played for the Merce Cunningham dance company for four years.

Beginning in 1999 he played bass guitar, guitar and synthesizer with Sonic Youth, in addition to recording and mixing duties with the group.

He was a guitarist for the 1999 premiere of Cunningham's ballet Biped with Gavin Bryars in Berkeley, California.

He has been associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene, as well as with New York City when he relocated to it in 2000 for his tenure as a member of American indie rock band Sonic Youth.

He subsequently moved to Japan and has since been a Japanese resident.

O'Rourke received a 2001 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.

Their self-titled debut was released in 2003 with a follow-up in 2006 entitled Born Again in the USA.

He mixed Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album and produced their 2004 album, A Ghost Is Born, for which he won a Grammy Award for "Best Alternative Album".

During the recording of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, O'Rourke collaborated with Wilco member Jeff Tweedy and pre-Wilco Glenn Kotche under the name Loose Fur.

He withdrew as a full member in late 2005, but continued to play with them in some of their side projects.

O'Rourke has also released many albums under his own name on a variety of labels, exploring a range of electronic and avant-garde styles.

In 2006, O'Rourke mixed Joanna Newsom's album Ys, and in 2009, he also mixed several tracks on Newsom's follow up Have One On Me.

O'Rourke has previously been a member of Illusion of Safety, Brise-Glace with Darin Gray and Dylan Posa, Gastr Del Sol with David Grubbs and Sonic Youth.

Since 2013, O'Rourke has used his Steamroom Bandcamp page to release reissues of rare and older material, as well as original newer pieces.