Jim O'Rourke

Once Chicago-based multi-talent Jim O'Rourke sends out a wondrous postcard in The Visitor, an ambitious symphony of skittering jazz and classical pop that never settles down in one place. Since leaving American pals like Sonic Youth and Wilco behind to work and live in Japan, O'Rourke's recent output has occasionally seemed downright anthropological — the 2008 live-in-Tokyo album Mimidokodsesuka by his powerful improvised trio Osorezan certainly comes to mind. The Visitor is comparably less furious than anything Osorezan might attempt, with O'Rourke crafting a single 38-minute piece that's breathlessly intricate yet flows with refined energy. Single-handedly commandeering what must be hundreds of instrumental flourishes, O'Rourke comes across like a mad academic bolstered by a perfectionist's ear yet smitten by the raw chaos at his fingertips. With its cascade of moods and chilly feeling, every instance of The Visitor's indefinable shape counts. If he was ever gone, Jim O'Rourke is most definitely back.