Laurel Halo makes diaphanous electronic music that resists tidy categorization. Since her 2012 full-length debut, Quarantine (Hyperdub), her output has wafted between ambient, jazz, and avant-garde pop without fully inhabiting a single genre. Her latest release, last year’s Atlas (Awe), is like a collection of maps that lead to the dreamy and nostalgic recesses of the imagination. It opens with a collage of sensual textures and acoustic instrumentation that feels like collapsing upward into a journey through clouds. Over the subsequent nine tracks, the Los Angeles based composer maintains that sense of magical adventure, even when she veers dark.
On Atlas, Halo is joined by a cast of experimental acoustic powerhouses, including saxophonist Bendik Giske, who brings a sound intensely visceral and elegant in equal measure; cellist Lucy Railton, whose solo work aims to evoke physical sensation; and violinist James Underwood, better known as Iskra Strings, whose technical skill has made him part of contemporary classical music’s upper crust.
For her Epiphany Center for the Arts debut, Halo will present Atlas in its entirety, playing piano and live electronics alongside cellist Leila Bordreuil, who has helped Halo bring the moody, organic, and improvised qualities that make the record her magnum opus to stages across the world. The concert is part of a curated series by Reflections and will feature the live video image mapping that distinguishes shows organized by the deep-listening art series. Go experience audio-visual electronic art at its most tender, complex, and human.
Laurel Halo & Leila Bordreuil Matchess opens. Fri 11/8, 7 PM, Epiphany Center for the Arts, 201 S. Ashland, $41.72, all ages