Feed Me Weird Things presents:
Emily Beisel & Bill Harris
with special guest TBA
Tue, Apr 2 at 8pm
Chicago-based improvisers Emily Beisel (bass clarinet, electronics) and Bill Harris (drums, electronics) join forces this spring for a special midwest tour of the US and Canada. Beisel and Harris utilize electronics, amplification, and feedback to augment their acoustic sounds, creating a sonic space that can at times be aggressive, dense, and massive, as well as subtle, spacious, and sensitive.
Emily Beisel
Emily Rach Beisel is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, educator, curator and woodwind specialist. Beisel is known for visceral performances blending extended vocal and instrumental techniques with analogue electronics and rich bass clarinet tone. Their solo album Particle of Organs has been described as "Operatic, wild and dark. It showcases the raw, unadulterated power of the body and the instrument, weaving together sounds that are both corrosive and tender."
As a curator, Beisel seeks to increase the visibility and involvement of femme, trans and nonbinary artists in the creative music community. They founded the Pleiades Series at Elastic Arts, presenting monthly performances along with a community-based free improvisation jam for femme and nonbinary performers.
Beisel is a member of the contemporary ensemble Fonema Consort, touring most recently in Brazil, Mexico, Minneapolis and New York and premiering works of living composers including James Dillon, Richard Barrett and Julio Estrada. Beisel holds a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 10-208.
"Beisel's "Particle of Organs" is heavy stuff, sounds retrieved from the deeper places - the underworlds, the lightless subterranea, the crushing ocean trenches. Beisel pokes around in the sonic depths and brings leviathans out to play. It's a raw, abrasive, oppressive, and thrilling journey."
- Dave Foxall, A Jazz Noise
"Beisel's "Particle of Organs is an absolute trip that digs deep into flesh and bone, ripping through rhythmic spackle and distorted gauntlets like Beisel is performing ancient, uncharted rituals."
- Foxy Digitalis
Bill Harris
Bill is a Chicago-based drummer and improviser working in areas of improvisation, noise, rock, and country. His work has been presented nationally and internationally at performance series, festivals, clubs, and art installations such as Elastic Arts, Constellation, Experimental Sound Studios, The Empty Bottle, The Hideout, Evanston Space, Beat Kitchen, Spot Tavern, Lincoln Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, and The Chicago Museum Of Contemporary Art.
Some of his primary groups and projects are:
Je'raf, a psychadelic funk/free jazz/hip-hop group from the future.
KAH, an improvising trio with Jeff Kimmel and Ishmael Ali.
Hearsay, with Allen Moore and Ishmael Ali.
Joybird, with Jess McIntosh and Aaron Smith
Errata, with Ishmael Ali and Eli Namay.
Additionally, Bill focuses on solo work incorporating non-idiomatic acoustic and electronic material, using feedback and timbral manipulation. He has recorded two solo records, Blinking Glue, and ONOMAT.
Some of his most frequent collaborators include Ishmael Ali, Jake Wark, Carol Genetti, Emily Beisel, Allen Moore, Timothee Quost, Dave Rempis, Jess McIntosh, Jim Baker, PT Bell, Gerrit Hatcher, Eli Namay, Peter Maunu, Matt Piet, Brianna Tong, Wills McKenna, David Fletcher, Aaron Smith, Jeff Kimmel, Molly Jones, and Keefe Jackson.
In 2015 he started Amalgam, a 100% artist-run collective and label dedicated to showcasing works of improvised and experimental music in Chicago and elsewhere, with a bi-monthly series at Cafe Mustache. Bill is also an audio engineer working in both studio and live contexts, and operates an independent studio in Chicago with engineering, mixing, mastering, and production credits on labels such as Amalgam, Astral Spirits, No Index, 577 Records and Ears&Eyes. In 2020 he started and co-operates a recording studio called Marmalade.
"Bill Harris builds a thumping, peg-legged groove a beat at a time, and then trips up his own cadence with random cowbell offbeats."
- Bill Meyer, The Wire
"Harris...[maintains] a firm pulse while jabbing his partners with sputtering lines that suggest he could keep time even as he and his kit tumbled down a flight of stairs."
- Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
