A combination of folk chanteuse and noise maven, Chicago-based Circuit des Yeux’s sound vacillates seamlessly between lo-fi and effortless-sounding songwriting sophistication. She appears tonight in support of her most recent solo LP "Overdue", alongside sets by Tsembla and Kuupuu, two experimental artists at the center of Finland's psych-folk scene. Marja Johansson AKA Tsembla crosses electronics, objects, and samples in a warped wave of abstracted textures. Kuupuu, a solo project of Jonna Karanka, blends low-tech electroacoustics and high-north songcraft into charming, surprising and unique forms.
Circuit des Yeux is the solo project of Chicago-based artist Haley Fohr. Named for the nerve in the eye that supplies power to the act of seeing, Circuit des Yeux launched in 2008 following a stint with the autodidactic duo Cromagnon. A combination of folk chanteuse and noise maven, Fohr’s sound vacillates seamlessly between lo-fi and effortless-sounding songwriting sophistication. Says Pitchfork, “the emotional depths can be intoxicating, and even life-affirming”. Between 2009-11 Fohr released three solo records and a series of EP’s and 7-inches with De Stijl, gaining international momentum with literally hundreds of live appearances around the world. Fohr’s highly anticipated 4th LP under the name Circuit des Yeux, Overdue (Ba Da Bing!, 2013), recorded over two months in a custom-built Chicago studio, is her most sophisticated to date. This most-recent work weaves a sonic bildungsroman, documenting the transition from collegiate cloister in pastoral Bloomington, Indiana to the noisy, haggard Chicago South Side. ISSUE hosted Circuit des Yeux's debut Brooklyn performance in 2008.
Tsembla is the musical work of Marja Johansson, a Swedish-Finnish
artist operating out of Turku, Finland. Utilizing a wide range of
instruments, electronics, objects and manipulated samples, the music
of Tsembla rides on waves of warped melodies, fluttering rhythms,
abstract voices and mutating textures, crossbreeding the known and the
imaginary. Nouskaa henget (New Images, 2013) is her third release, after the 7Ӊ۬ Tuplafiesta (Vauva, 2009) and the LP Fauna (Ikuisuus, 2011). Loosely assembled, rough edged compositions, rich in details, come together into odd instrumental miniatures in an almost-pop format, venturing into fourth world territory from a lattering, wheezing and boiling DIY kitchen.
Kuupuu is a solo project of Jonna Karanka, is a self-taught musician and visual artist from Finland who inhabits a semi-magical world where the mundane and the mysterious meet and make wonderful music together. Using tapes and loops, instruments both traditional and modern, Kuupuu's blend of low-tech electroacoustics and high-north songcraft is charming, surprising and unique. She's been involved in such psyche/improv/neo-folk groups as Hertta Lussu Ässä, Avarus, The Anaksimandros, Kukkiva Poliisi, Hockey Night, Olimpia Splendid, Way Of The Cross, Trio Jäätelö etc. Kuupuu plays partly improvised spooky boogie with tapes, loops, samples, beats, keyboards, effects and voices. Karanka has performed music in such places as Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Anthology Film Archives and Issue Project Room in New York, Stockholm's Culture House and the Flow Festival in Helsinki. Kuupuu has released records from 2003 onwards on such labels as Dekorder, Time-Lag Records, Cabin Floor Esoterica, Threshold Tapes and Foxy Digitalis.