Grouper - Hold/Sick [Room40, 2010]

The songs of Grouper aka Elizabeth Harris are densely compelling micro-universes. Each piece is layered with glowing washes of reverb and softly howling echoes of delay, in which Harris positions herself. Soft focus, and at times lost amid the clouds of audio, her voice emerges with a haunting fragility.

Grouper's work epitomises the potentials of textural songwriting - a practise of ukiyo-e like qualities, where audio colours are squeezed through a gauzy treatment, ultimately imprinting new and unexpected sound-shapes.

For her limited edition 7” tour single Grouper unveils two works, unsettled explorations into the counterpoints of the human condition. “They’re about feeling like an observer of one's owns emotions,” Harris explains, “You’re in that space where you’re not sure whether to follow or reel them in.”