Ikue Mori presents new electronic music inspired by Lafcadio Hearn’s writings on Japanese folktales—particularly the ghost-story genre known as kaidan. In this solo performance, she reimagines supernatural narratives collected by Hearn a century ago in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, creating an evocative work of melody, texture, and taiko drumming patterns.

Ikue Mori (b.1953, Tokyo) started her career in 1977 as Ikue Ile, transplanted from Japan to Manhattan’s East Village, where she played drums in the No Wave band DNA with guitarist Arto Lindsay. An autodidact, she took to percussion immediately, developing a distinctive personal style that helped set the band apart.

Mori soon went on to become a key member of the downtown New York improvised music scene, using drum machines and samplers. She began an ongoing collaboration with saxophonist John Zorn and has appeared on many of his recordings, including early classics such as Locus Solus and Godard/Spillane.

Bridging the worlds of improvised music, experimental music, and rock, Mori has developed a singular approach to freely improvised laptop music, working with musicians across the improvising spectrum, including harpist Zeena Parkins in the duo Phantom Orchard and with Zorn and singer Mike Patton as Hemophiliac, and performing and recording with pianist Craig Taborn, saxophonist Ken Vandermark, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, trumpeters Dave Douglas and Butch Morris, and guitarists Fred Frith and Thurston Moore. She often records on Tzadik and has designed the covers for many of the label’s albums.

Commissioners of her work include the Tate Modern, the Montalvo Arts Center, SWR German radio program, Relâche, the Mary Flagler Charitable Trust, and the Sharjah Art Foundation in the United Arab Emirates. Mori was a 2022 MacArthur Fellow and has received numerous other honors, including the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists (2006), a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship (2000), and a Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction (1999). In 2005 she participated in the Ucross Foundation Residency Program. She has led workshops and lectures at Dartmouth College, Mills College, New England Conservatory, Stanford University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Gothenburg.

Lampo, established in 1997, supports artists working in new music, experimental sound, and other interdisciplinary practices. The Chicago-based organization's core activity has been and remains its performance series. Rather than making programming decisions around tour schedules, Lampo invites selected artists to create and perform new work, and then the organization provides the space, resources, and curatorial support to help them fulfill their vision. Lampo also organizes artist talks, lectures, screenings, and workshops, and publishes written and recorded documents related to its series.

Photo: Remi Angeli

Lampo Performance: Ikue Mori, Jun 7