For two weeks in 2023, Eiko Ishibashiand Jim O’Rourke toured a wonderful passage in Europe through France, Switzerland, Italy and Ireland. Pareidolia, out August 29 on Drag City, shapes an ideal collage from the best resonances and relationships from those nights. The duo’s fifth collaborative release is a dynamic medley of color and shape appealing to your suggestibility, wherever you find it. Watch the music video for their single edit of “Pareidolia” and see for yourself!

Improvisation is the preferred collaborative mode for Eiko and Jim. They both prepare separately, without discussing anything beforehand. The dialogue in the moment determines the performance, making for a unique experience each time they play. The aforementioned 2023 shows marked the first time Jim and Eiko had played together outside Japan; for each performance, their live signals — sounds from their laptops, with Eiko playing some flute, and both playing a bit of harmonica intermittently — were routed back to the hard drives to provide further material to experiment with the following night. Pareidolia’s final mix is one further rearrangement of these elements — say, a bit of Jim from Paris against Eiko in Dublin for a minute, before bringing them both back into the same room for a spell. The choices and edits represented here make yet another unique dialogue, as well as a kind of 'best' version of what they were doing on the tour.

The world “pareidolia” is defined as: “the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern; to see shapes or make pictures out of randomness.” Eiko and Jim’s new album could present as a hot-wired noise onslaught, with all faders up full — though, the single edit out today offers a glimmer of an awe-inspiring zenith from the pair. Endless possible interpretations await! Listeners hearing something more should proceed to investigate Pareidolia in full on August 29, 2025.