Two Chicago improvisers, a bass clarinet, a drum kit and a wall of electronics walk into two live rooms — and come out sounding like far more than two people.
By The Superfan — CelebnMusic247
Some debuts arrive quietly. This one arrives like weather. Madam Orange — the Chicago duo of Emily Rach Beisel on bass clarinet and electronics and Bill Harris on drums and electronics — release their debut album Parallax today, Friday, October 23, through Amalgam on CD and digital, per the release from Earsplit PR.
Both players came to this project with formidable solo reputations, and Parallax is built on what happens when two complete sonic worlds collide. Across eleven tracks, the duo pushes toward the outer limits of heavy improvisation — rhythmic interlock, amplification and feedback — moving fluidly between dense, aggressive intensity and spacious, sensitive textures, per the release. It is the sound of two musicians extending acoustic instruments through electronics until the duo starts to feel like an ensemble, driven by what the release describes as a near-telepathic musical connection.
The album was captured the honest way: live. Half of Parallax was recorded live at Chicago’s Hungry Brain and the rest at Marmalade, and the album was mastered by Edward Hamel, per the release — no studio gloss standing between the listener and the room where these improvisations actually breathed. Avant Music News hosts an exclusive stream of the album around its release, and performance videos for two tracks, “Rilles” and “Apogee,” were posted ahead of the album, each one a window into how physical this music is when it is made in real time.
There is a third preview worth your headphones. Everything Is Noise premiered the track “Mare Crisium,” and Beisel explained what makes it tick: “‘Mare Crisium’ really showcases the strange ways that Bill and I both extend our instruments. The first sound you hear is Bill playing melodica while I do death-growl vocals into the bass clarinet.” Beisel added that the pair take turns providing a textural layer or acting as a rhythmic provocateur — “a core element of Madam Orange,” per Everything Is Noise.
None of this comes out of nowhere. Beisel and Harris have taken this duo on the road hard — Midwest tours in 2024 and East Coast and Canadian tours in 2023, per the release — and a fall East Coast run in support of Parallax has carried the new record to live rooms this season. That road-testing shows in the premise of the album itself: this is improvised music that has already survived contact with real audiences.
Parallax is out now via Amalgam — stream it and order the CD through the label’s Bandcamp, and keep up with the label and the duo’s orbit on Instagram at @amalgam_chicago.
The 247 Take — Drone, jazz and improv all claim Madam Orange, and Parallax refuses to sit still for any of them. If your Friday needs one genuinely unpredictable listen, two people from Chicago just built you a whole weather system.
More music news at CelebnMusic247.com
Sources: Earsplit PR | Everything Is Noise
