Glad to have entered early enough to catch a couple of tunes from CDY. Circuit Des Yeux from Chicago has one member, voice and electronics artist Haley Fohr. Armed with an otherworldly vocal range, effects table with voice manipulator and drum machine, Fohr applies her voice to clubby, industrial slices of her catalog. I saw her about ten years ago in the back room at Bar. On that evening she knelt in the corner and growled into the microphone for her set. Perennial critic’s darling, Fohr exudes uncompromising artist vibe. Look her up on Spotify and notice an intriguing side project, The Ballad of Jackie Lynn, where Haley inhabits the persona of a coked-out country singer and performs a song cycle about her dysfunctional fictitious life. Her booming low register is sampled and processed to produce a club choir amalgam.
Alan Sparhawk is adrift. Duluth resident started the critically acclaimed indie band Low in the 90s. Sparhawk formed Low with childhood friend and eventual wife Mimi Parker. Parker played drums and sometimes bass while Sparhawk played guitar. The real treat was their vocal duets. The voices chillingly complemented each other. Listen to under the radar records like The Great Destroyer or The Invisible Way and I dare you not to become a Low fan. In 2022, tragedy struck when Parker died of cancer. One can only imagine the personal and artistic devastation that resulted. Burying himself in his craft, Alan’s output has been uncompromising and wide ranging. On one recent recording, he puts his voice through some ultra pitch tuned modulator that sounds like a cross between Alvin of Chipmunks fame crossed with Laurie Anderson in a helium chamber. Largely unintelligible vocals set to dance beats are an unusual extension of the lyric heavy crescendo slowcore known as Low. His most recent record, backed by the Americana group Trampled By Turtles, is a delicious collection of literate songs. Unsure what to expect on this evening, the show starts with a set from the Chipmunk recording. Sparhawk joined by bass, and drums jumps around maniacally, like some kid that just raided the Molly cabinet. Perhaps dance therapy is one way to shake off the grief. The drummer even has red plastic rimmed glasses as if he were trying out for the Buggles. Alan switches to guitar for the second half and pulls from the other excellent recording. The versatility is amazing, at one point doing a cover from the recently departed Roy Ayers. Finishes the set with a nod to another recently deceased hero, David Lynch. While chatting with Manic Mark, I got a funny story about seating requirements from Low, we both resolve that Sparhawk is a true artist and can do whatever the fuck he wants. This evening will go down as a showcase of the resilient wide ranging artists on the scene. From the modern composition activism of Raven Chacon, to the vocal creativity of Haley Fohr, capped by the grief release of Alan Sparhawk…..wow.
