Charlie Looker | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Charles A. Looker [1] |
Born | New York City | May 23, 1980
Instruments |
|
Labels |
|
Website | charlielooker |
Charles A. Looker (born May 23, 1980) is an American composer, improviser, vocalist, and guitarist known for his work in experimental metal, [3] contemporary classical, [4] avant-jazz, and Renaissance and Medieval musical forms. [5]
Looker is a graduate of Wesleyan University, where he studied with Anthony Braxton and Alvin Lucier. [6]
Alongside his work as a solo artist, [3] Looker also leads an Early/Renaissance-music inspired project, Seaven Teares; [7] performs improvised "death-jazz" with Period, whose rotating cast includes Darius Jones, Chuck Bettis, and Mike Pride; [8] played in Sculptress, a duo with Chuck Stern; [9] and leads the industrial-metal duo Psalm Zero, formerly alongside Castevet's Andrew Hock. [10] He is the songwriter, guitarist, and lead vocalist for avant-rock band Extra Life [11] and a former member and co-founder of avant-garde band Zs. [12] He worked with Dirty Projectors and appears on their record Rise Above . [13] Other collaborators include M Lamar, [14] Mariel Roberts, Ty Braxton, [15] Mary Halvorson, Mick Barr, Tim Berne, Nat Baldwin, [16] Earle Brown, Sam Mickens, Kelly Moran, Dax Riggs, Lingua Ignota, [17] Matthew Welch, [18] Stu Watson, William Parker, [19] and Glenn Branca.
He founded Last Things Records, a label that has released recordings by Extra Life, Larkin Grimm, Parenthetical Girls, Psalm Zero, and Sculptress.
In 2011, Looker was named one of NPR Music's "Top 100 Composers Under 40". [20]
Year | Artist | Title | Label |
---|---|---|---|
2002 | Lavender | Get Your Eye [21] | Newsonic |
2006 | Extra Life | Three-Song EP | FuckingA |
2008 | Extra Life | A Split (EP) [5] | Shatter Your Leaves |
2008 | Extra Life | Secular Works [22] | Planaria / I & Ear / LOAF |
2010 | Extra Life | Made Flesh [23] | LOAF / Africantape |
2011 | Extra Life | Ripped Heart (EP) [24] | Last Things |
2012 | Extra Life | Dream Seeds [25] | Northern Spy |
2013 | Seaven Teares | Power Ballads [26] | Northern Spy |
2014 | Psalm Zero | The Drain [27] | Profound Lore |
2016 | Psalm Zero | Stranger to Violence [28] | Profound Lore |
2018 | Charlie Looker | Simple Answers [3] | Last Things |
2020 | Psalm Zero | Sparta [17] | Last Things |
2020 | Charlie Looker | Pleasures Of A Normal Man | Last Things |
2020 | Seaven Teares | Older Than Love | |
2022 | Extra Life | Secular Works, Vol. 2 [29] | Last Things |
2024 | Extra Life | The Sacred Vowel [30] | Last Things |
Year | Artist | Title | Label |
---|---|---|---|
2000 | Daniel Carter / Charlie Looker / Greg Stare | Light | Aristocracy Communication |
2003 | Zs | Zs | Troubleman Unlimited |
2005 | Zs | Buck [31] | Folding Cassettes |
2005 | Zs | Karate Bump (EP) [31] | Planaria |
2006 | PERIOD | PERIOD | FuckingA |
2006 | Seductive Sprigs | Seductive Sprigs [32] | FuckingA |
2007 | Zs | Arms [33] | Planaria |
2008 | Zs | The Hard (EP) | Three One G |
2011 | Sculptress | Cuckold | Last Things |
2012 | Zs | The Complete Sextet Works 2002-2007 [31] | Northern Spy |
2014 | PERIOD | PERIOD 2 [34] | Public Eyesore |
2021 | Jeremiah Cymerman / Charlie Looker | A Horizon Made of Canvas [35] | Astral Spirits |
Year | Artist | Title | Label |
---|---|---|---|
2002 | Alvin Lucier | Vespers and Other Early Works | New World Records |
2002 | Matthew Welch | Ceol Nua | Leo Records |
2005 | Mike Pride | Scrambler [36] | Not Two Records |
2006 | Earle Brown | Folio and Four Systems | Tzadik |
2007 | Dirty Projectors | Rise Above | Dead Oceans |
2016 | Tredici Bacci | Amore Per Tutti [37] | NNA |
2017 | M Lamar | Surveillance Punishment and the Black Psyche [38] | Negrogothic |
2021 | Xiu Xiu | OH NO | Polyvinyl |
2023 | Xiu Xiu | Ignore Grief | Polyvinyl |
Weasel Walter is an American composer, improviser, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and founder of ugEXPLODE Records. Walter's work has been informed by techniques and traditions of music including Avant-garde, experimental, no wave, free jazz, extreme metal, punk jazz, hardcore punk, noise, new music and free improvisation. He coined the term "brutal prog" to describe the aggressively dissonant strain of prog played by groups like his band the Flying Luttenbachers.
Sung Tongs is the fifth studio album by American experimental pop band Animal Collective, released on May 3, 2004 by FatCat Records. The album, newly exploring freak folk, received high critical reception upon its release and was featured in best-of lists at the end of 2004 and the decade of the 2000s. Only two of the band's four members play on the album, Avey Tare and Panda Bear, a first since Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished (2000), which was originally credited to the duo and only later retroactively classified as part of the band's discography.
William James Basinski is an American avant-garde composer based in Los Angeles, California. He is also a clarinetist, saxophonist, sound artist, and video artist.
Chris Corsano is an American improviser.
The Disintegration Loops is a series of four albums by the American avant-garde composer William Basinski, released in 2002 and 2003. The albums comprise tape loop recordings played for extended time, with noise and cracks increasing as the tape deteriorated. Basinski discovered the effect while attempting to transfer his earlier recordings to digital format.
Aelita is the fifth studio album by German electronic and jazz band Tied & Tickled Trio. It was released on 1 June 2007 by Morr Music.
Extra Life is an American experimental band from Brooklyn, New York. Extra Life is known for their unusual rhythms and time signatures and for frontman and composer Charlie Looker's unique singing style, which often uses melisma and is inspired by Medieval and Renaissance music.
Zs is a Brooklyn, New York-based experimental band. Since the band's inception, Zs has incarnated as everything from a sextet to a duo, now solidified into the quartet of Patrick Higgins, Greg Fox (percussion), Sam Hillmer and Michael Beharie (electronics). While Zs' music has been variously categorized as no wave, noise, post-minimalist, drone, and psych, it is primarily concerned with making music that challenges the physical and mental limitations of both performer and listener. The band has been heralded by The New York Times as "one of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York."
Devra Hoff is an American bassist, composer, and arranger. She is a member of Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory and co-founder of Mendoza Hoff Revels.
Northern Spy Records is a record label in Brooklyn, New York that specializes in avant-garde music, noise rock, and experimental jazz. The label was founded by Tom Abbs and Adam Downey in 2010 after working for ESP-Disk.
Reginald Lamar Cox, known professionally as M Lamar, is an American composer, performer, and artist. He is an operatic countertenor and pianist whose work incorporates film, sculpture, installation, and performance.
Xe is the seventh studio album by American experimental ensemble Zs. It is their second album to feature guitarist/composer Patrick Higgins and percussionist Greg Fox, noted for his work with Liturgy and Guardian Alien. The album artwork was designed by Tauba Auerbach and was acquired for the permanent collection of the SF MOMA in 2016.
Avant-pop is popular music that is experimental, new, and distinct from previous styles while retaining an immediate accessibility for the listener. The term implies a combination of avant-garde sensibilities with existing elements from popular music in the service of novel or idiosyncratic artistic visions.
Untitled Unmastered is a compilation album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was released on March 4, 2016, through Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. It consists of previously unreleased demos that originated during the recording of Lamar's album To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), continuing that work's exploration of politically charged and philosophical themes, as well as its experimentation with free jazz, soul, avant-garde music, and funk styles. The album received widespread acclaim from critics, and it debuted atop the US Billboard 200.
Patrick Higgins is an American avant-garde composer, guitarist, and producer from New York City, known for his work in experimental and contemporary classical music. Higgins plays guitar and composes in Zs, described by The New York Times as "one of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York." Heralded as a "formidable concert music composer" and "one of the most gifted guitarists working today", Higgins has received attention for bridging traditions including baroque chamber music, contemporary noise, and 20th century minimalism.
Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile is a studio album by Matana Roberts. It is the second installment of the 12-part Coin Coin series. It was released by Constellation Records October 1, 2013.
Mazy Fly is the second studio album by American experimental pop musician Spellling, released in February 2019. It is her debut recording with Sacred Bones Records, making her labelmates with artists like Jenny Hval and Zola Jesus.
PTP, also known as Purple Tape Pedigree, is an American artist collective and independent record label based in New York City. PTP has been called "New York’s experimental incubator", and the collective has released recordings named among the best in new experimental, hip hop, metal, avant-garde, and electronic music. Pitchfork noted that "PTP's mission seems to be to annihilate genre boundaries and revel in the brilliant debris", and VICE has called PTP "home to some of the most boundary pushing music being made".
Arthur Doyle Plays and Sings from the Songbook Volume One is a solo album by saxophonist Arthur Doyle. It was recorded in 1992, and was released in 1995 by Audible Hiss. The album features music from the "Arthur Doyle Songbook," written during his five-year imprisonment in France. It was recorded using a portable cassette machine.
Charles Baker Stern was an American composer, musician, writer, and visual artist known for his work in experimental music. He was frontman and composer of Time of Orchids, played in Sculptress, and released solo and band works under the name Stern. He was born and lived in New York City. He died on December 10, 2023, at the age of 44.