Jim O'Rourke

Composer, guitarist, producer, and all-around polymath Jim O'Rourke's wide-ranging catalog has found audiences with experimental music fans, indie rockers, and many others while bridging the gaps between isolated compositional communities. As a guitarist, he's recognized for his prepared guitar and improvisation, and for playing with noise rock pioneers Sonic Youth, in Loose Fur with members of Wilco, and with experimental rock group Gastr del Sol, to name a few. Some diverse highlights of his prolific output include teaching the child actors the songs for Richard Linklater's film School of Rock (2003), winning a Grammy for producing Wilco's album A Ghost Is Born (2004), and playing guitar and piano on Richard Thompson's score for the Werner Herzog documentary Grizzly Man (2005). He cracked the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart with his 2015 LP Simple Songs. He has collaborated extensively with partner Eiko Ishibashi, on releases like the improvised 2025 effort Pareidolia.