Ikue Mori (もりいくえ Mori Ikue, born 1953 in Tokyo, Japan) is a drummer, composer, and graphic designer. She often records on Tzadik, as well as designing the covers for many of their albums. Mori has played on many projects led by composer John Zorn. 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The modern skyline of Tokyo is highly decentralized. ... A drummer is a musician who plays the drums, particularly the drum kit, marching percussion, or hand drums. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Graphic design is the applied art of arranging image and text to communicate a message. ... See Tzadik for other meanings of the word. ... John Zorn (born September 2, 1953 in New York City) is a American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist. ...

Mori was born and raised in Japan. She says she had little interest in music before hearing punk rock. In 1977, she went to New York City, initially for a visit, but she fell into the music scene, and has remained in New York since. Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, and is at the center of international finance, politics, communications, music, fashion, and culture. ...

Her first musical experience was as the drummer for no wave band DNA. Though she had little prior musical experience (and had never played drums), Mori quickly developed a distictive style: One critic describes her as "a tight, tireless master of shifting asymmetrical rhythm"[1], while Lester Bangs wrote that she "cuts Sunny Murray in my book" (Bangs, 303) His comment is no small praise, as Murray is widely considered a major free jazz drummer. A drummer is a musician who plays the drums, particularly the drum kit, marching percussion, or hand drums. ... No Wave was a short-lived but influential offshoot of punk rock centered in New York City during the late 1970s and early 1980s. ... DNA was a short-lived but influential New York rock band, associated with the no wave movement. ... Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ... Lester Bangs (born Leslie Conway Bangs, December 14, 1948–April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist, author and musician. ... Sunny Murray is one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming. ... Free jazz, or avant-garde jazz, is a movement of jazz music characterized by diminished dependence on formal constraints. ...

After DNA disbanded, Mori became active in the New York experimental music scene. She abandoned her drum set, and began playing drum machines, which she sometimes modified to play various samples. In recent years she has used a laptop as her primary instrument, but is still sometimes credited with "electronic percussion". Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. ... An extended 4-piece drum kit A drum kit (or drum set or trap set - the latter an old-fashioned term) is a collection of drums, cymbals and other percussion instruments arranged for convenient playing by a sole percussionist (drummer), usually for jazz, rock, or other types of contemporary music. ... A Boss DR-202 Drum Machine A drum machine is a device designed to imitate drums and/or other percussion instruments. ... In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording. ... Laptop with touchpad. ...

Beyond her solo recordings, she has recorded or performed with Dave Douglas, Butch Morris, Kim Gordon, and many others, including as Hemopheliac, a trio with Zorn and singer Mike Patton. Dave Douglas (born March 24, 1963) is a US jazz trumpeter and composer. ... Lawrence D. Butch Morris is an American jazz cornetist, composer and conductor, born February 10, 1947 in Long Beach, California. ... Kim Gordon (born April 28, 1953) plays bass and guitar in the rock band Sonic Youth. ... Mike Patton featuring in the video for Epic. ...

Her latest recording, Myrninerest, is inspired by outsider artist Madge Gill. Her 2000 release, One Hundred Aspects of the Moon was inspired by famed Japanese artist Yoshitoshi. Illustration by Madge Gill Madge Gill (1882 – 1961), born Maude Ethel Eades, was an English outsider and visionary artist. ... Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839 - June 9, 1892) (Japanese: 月岡 芳年; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi 大蘇　芳年) was the last great master - and one of the great innovative and creative geniuses - of the Japanese woodblock print. ...

External Links

• IkueMori.com (official site)
• Discography of Ikue Mori
• Ikue Mori, Interviewed by Theresa Stern, Novembre 1997

Sources

• Bangs, Lester, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic: Rock'N'Roll as Literature and Literature as Rock'N'Roll, 1988