The Wire Magazine, Bill Meyer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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SoundOhm Newsletter

Building upon the territories of sonority that graced 2021’s “Additive Inverse”, Jim O’Rourke & Jos Smolders return to Moving Furniture Records with “Albumin”, their second outing with the label as a duo.

Harnessing the towering talents of two of the most refined voices in contemporary electroacoustic practice, comprising two side-long works rooted in both of its artists’ interest in the spectral character of sounds, O’Rourke and Smolders dive off the deep end of pure sonic abstractions, interweaving stunningly rendered textures and harmonics into a disarming sense of musicality and pregnant ambience, culminating as one of the most engrossing experimental releases to appear thus far in 2026.

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Igloo Magazine, James Batista

Jim O’Rourke and Jos Smolders don’t need much of an introduction—at least not in the traditional sense. O’Rourke, the Chicago-born experimental musician, composer, and producer, has spent decades moving between post-rock (Gastr del Sol), indie rock (Sonic Youth), avant-garde improvisation (collaborations with Derek Bailey, Loren Connors, Oren Ambarchi), film scoring (Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car), and solo electroacoustic work released through his Steamroom series. Jos Smolders, the Dutch sound artist and founding member of the electroacoustic ensemble THU20, has been researching electronics since 1980. He started with tape experiments as a teenager, quit architecture studies at Delft Technical University to pursue sound full-time, and has since built a career around meticulous sound design, mastering, and restoration work at his EARLabs Studios. Their first collaboration, Additive Inverse (2021), was a careful exchange of sounds built over time. Albumin follows the same workflow, but this time O’Rourke took the lead, kicking off with a salvo of sounds extracted from his Kyma System.

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Uncut Magazine, Jon Dale

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Anxious Musick Magazine, Marek “Lokis” Relapse

(translated from Polish to English with Lingvanex)

And this time, with great pleasure and again, I invite you to read a column from the series „Clashes of the Titans”, in which he freely debates, focusing on collaborations between at least two or more artists. However, there is one condition: they must be names, nicknames, after hearing which, the Great Bell of the Musical Canyon rings, at least for me.

I wouldn’t want to spend half or most of my writing, as is often the case in such cases, on presenting both characters Albumin. First of all: this often leads to, here a word overused in film terminology is well suited: spoiler. A certain, top-down attitude, prejudice even before just personal familiarization with the topic. There will probably be immediate voices: isn’t the review itself a spoiler in itself? Answer it for yourselves. Secondly: sometimes it’s good to get off your butt and dig around, look for information on your own, of which there’s literally a lot about both Jim and Jos. Both as a written word or in audio form. I will close this topic with one sentence. Both musicians left, and continue to do so, a lasting mark on this limitless domain that is sound: both as creators, musicians, responsible for mixing, mastering, remastering, and audio restorations / restorations.

Albumin this is the second fruit of this duo, in which we are invited to two expeditions / explorations of over eighteen minutes into the world of sound. Again, their activities take place within the framework of musique concrète and electroacoustic composition. Although I personally am not a fan of a too academic approach to music, personally the end result of the album definitely exceeded expectations, jumping a level higher than the aforementioned debut Additive Inverse. Use Kyma System by O’Rourke and granular synthesis by Smolders introduces us to a spectral audio world full of abstractions, but also not entirely. Here, this abstraction takes on a more elaborate concept, taking on the flavor of metaphysics. And although it is still an artistic study of the anatomy of sound itself, its spectral and acoustic possibilities are the “human” element that adds the biological character of the whole.

Opening minutes (HP-HP) they bring the experience of residence, not so much in the cloud of spectral music, but also in the algorithm of spatial distribution of sound, called “sidereal sound”, propagated by coil. This characteristic taste of darkened, unidentified matter oscillating in space is impressive, growing into a sphere of fragmented micro-sounds. The great asset not only of this song, but also of the entire album is its eternal continuation, its endless narrative. The different segments work together, although they do not formally constitute a whole. Moving structures, devoid of rhythm, manifest themselves automatically in space. I don’t know the source of the sound, I’m partially guessing, but there are echoes of prepared strings, barrel organs, and water droplets, more like grinding than dripping. The only thing I can recognize 100% is the human voice appearing in the 10th minute of this expedition into timbre autonomy.

Essence Albumin there is the adoration of sound, the study of its possibilities, its structure, where the process of creation counts. Grain synthesis becomes an execution tool here, providing time stretching, frequency change, and virtually unlimited manipulation of the audio domain. In such experienced hands, anything is possible. The narrative tension built builds once, only to fade again with sounds à la prepared shakuhachi, evolving into a loop of the moving structure heard at the beginning of the piece.

R(OP-OP), the second installment of the album, draws mobile elements that, thanks to processing or spectral manipulation in real time, take on life, a frivolous existence in an invented world and space. In a way, it reflects what Asmus Tietchens proposed to us in the middle part of his career. Also interesting is the sound, which oscillates mostly in the mid and high registers without sticking a pin in the ear. In this way, the rare appearance of low bass foundations provides the perfect contrast to the whole, opening up zones that are often felt under our feet, treading on uncertain ground. As I mentioned above, music is constantly changing, there is no stagnation here.

It is a type of organic work with timbre, resonance and harmonic relationships. If the gentlemen are assembling or rather combining the whole thing into one monolith, it lacks the features of a typical drone. Rather, it becomes a massive tissue constantly changing its course or type of direction. Just where, for what purpose? I hope we find out this with Jim and Jos’ next collaboration.

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Musique Machine, Paul Casey

Following up 2021’s Additive Inverse, Jim O’Rourke & Jos Smolders come together again for more sonic experimentation and procedural processing with Albumin. Their second on Moving Furniture, these two tracks showcase Jim’s Kyma System generating the basis of the album before both he and Jos altered them separately in their studios. The result is a shimmering and ambulating collection of textures that flows, drifts, and pulls the listener into its midst to carry them forth through the duo’s process. Working very well together, the pair combine sounds to form an enigmatic sonic stew, unpredictable and enjoyable, collected and concentrated.

Albumin’s two pieces, “(HP)-(HP)” and “r(OP-OP)” are interesting in that they’re a mix of disquiet and comfort, but somehow at the same time. This may be due to the way they curl and flow, feeling very organic despite their very synthetic genesis. Each texture and tone encapsulates the duality that exists in us that we cannot avoid putting forth in all that we encounter. We have our own Jim and Jos deciphering the output of the real Jim and Jos, and each playthrough affects the listener differently. Albumin plays like a soundscape, but not in the traditional sense. To me, it’s like flowing down traces on a circuit board taking everything in; the green of the board replaces the grasslands and the copper traces become glowing rivers. To me, the sounds look like Tron meets Lion King. The highs and feedbacking pieces effectively pierce through the drones from time to time, catching the listener off guard, adding to that sense of disquiet. Albumin isn’t harsh by any means, but the fiery stabs serve to remind the listener that even the safest environs carry some inherent danger. As stated above, each playthrough of Albumin affects the listener differently. Mood, volume changes, atmospheres, whatever changes give the play a life of its own. I think this is due to the varying strengths of the sounds in the mix, some being obscured by a distant hum behind you, let’s say, leading to a more jarring listen, or getting the full range with headphones and eyes closed. It’s definitely an intriguing album; the output is very cared for and it shows.

Jim O’Rourke & Jos Smolders show how two artists half a world apart can truly collaborate with their second release, Albumin. Stimulating, intriguing, and constantly moving, the album flows and changes, each piece part of a greater whole while still having its own voice. Coherent and collected, this bit of experimentation shows the duo’s focus and drive to create pieces that are complete but still allowing the edges to be seen. Growing and changing with each spin, Albumin is a cool album that will get many plays.