Worthlis
Bill Harris
Photographer: Ricardo Adame
Norman W. Long
Photographer: Nathan Keay
Norman W. Long and Bill Harris' collaboration goes back to 2020, where they recorded the record Anemoi (Amalgam) over the pandemic with Ishmael Ali and Wills McKenna. Since then, they've collaborated on other ad-hoc projects, bills, and recording sessions.
Worthlis is the improvising duo of laptop musician Derek Worthington and bassist and analog electronics performer Ben Willis. Building on a collaborative relationship of over a decade, the instrumentation and approach has evolved from performance to performance, and typically involves Worthington processing Willis’s sounds through an instrument built in SuperCollider. The duo explores the textural and formal possibilities of its unique instrumentation, juxtaposing gradually evolving drone-like structures with abrupt, glitchy timbral shifts.
$15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door
About the artists
Norman Long’s work centers on walking, listening, improvising, performing, teaching, field recording, and exploring memory, place, ecology, and race. Long has performed and exhibited at Yale University’s Center for Collaborative Arts & Media in Newhaven, High Zero Festival in Baltimore, as well as the Experimental Sound Studio, Kavi Gupta Gallery, The Renaissance Society, Chicago Humanities Festival, Chicago Cultural Center, and the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial all in Chicago. Long has performed and toured with Angel Bat Dawid and the Brothahood, the Ali/Harris/Long/McKenna group, Honey Pot Performance Spectralina, Todd Carter, Xris Espinoza, Carol Genetti, Damon Locks, Jamal Moore, Tatsuya Nakatani, Joe Namy, Cristal Sabbagh, Ami Yamasaki, and Sara Zalek. He has released his compositions on labels such as Hausu Mountain, Reserve Matinee, LINE, and Room40. Anemoi is the latest ensemble release with Ishmael Ali, William Harris, and Wills McKenna. His solo album, BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN, was released in September 2021 on Hausu Mountain, and Return and Recovery is his latest solo release on LINE.
Bill Harris is a percussionist, improviser, and audio engineer in Chicago. He also operates and produces for Amalgam, a Chicago-based label and collective, and co-operates Chicago recording studio Marmalade. Bill is a prominent Chicago-based percussionist, improviser, audio engineer, and curator working in areas of improvisation, jazz, noise, rock, and bluegrass. Presented both nationally and internationally, Bill's work focuses on a number of dedicated groups, ad hoc groups, and solo work, with over three decades of experience studying, practicing, and creating music.
Additionally, Bill focuses on solo work incorporating acoustic and electronic material, using feedback and timbral manipulation. He has recorded three solo records: MACRODOSE (2024), Blinking Glue (2022), and ONOMAT (2021).
In 2015 he started Amalgam, a 100% artist-run collective and label dedicated to showcasing works of improvised and experimental music in Chicago and elsewhere, with a bi-monthly series at Cafe Mustache. Amalgam has been widely recognized in publications such as The Wire, and has been a vital tool and resource for promoting both emerging and established artists from Chicago and elsewhere, drawing from and representing the hugely diverse and collaborative music scene of Chicago. Bill is also an audio engineer working in both studio and live contexts, and operates an independent studio in Chicago with engineering, mixing, mastering, and production credits on labels such as Astral Spirits, No Index, 577 Records and Ears&Eyes. In 2020 he started and co-operates a recording studio called Marmalade, where he also curates performances for local and traveling artists.