Grid of Points
Liz Harris’ sparse, 22-minute record follows the trajectory of her 2014 album Ruins to a place that feels even more wind-blown and remote.
Grouper’s Grid Of Points finds the artist at her most vulnerable, while Dr. Dog loses momentum on Critical Equation, and Okkervil River’s In The Rainbow Rain is pretty but a little schmaltzy. These, plus Speedy Ortiz in this week’s notable new releases.
Liz Harris has managed to capture an emotion and deliver it in its rawest and purest form.
One of Liz Harris' greatest strengths as an artist is her ability to shift the scope of her work without sacrificing what makes her music so affecting -- she's just as powerful on longer releases like A I A or shorter ones like Grouper's 11th album, Grid of Points. Harris wrote these songs in a week and a half, a cloudburst of creativity that stopped as suddenly as it started when she came down with a fever. At seven songs long, Grid of Points is one of her briefest and seemingly simplest albums. Wisely, Harris didn't try to inflate it into something more elaborate. Instead, she makes the most of her unrivaled skill at capturing the essence of a moment with pieces like "The Races," a snippet of glorious harmonies that feels like it's barely unfolded when it ends. As on Grouper's previous album, Ruins, Grid of Points' focus on voice and piano reaffirms that these are the only elements Harris needs to create something beautiful and moving. The stark instrumentation -- or lack thereof -- puts her melodic gifts at the fore of gracefully cascading tracks such as "Blouse" and "Parking Lot."
Liz Harris' new album as Grouper is starker and even more stripped-back than before, but filled with as much beauty as ever.
Although organic implements like acoustic guitar and piano have long figured prominently in the music Liz Harris has recorded as Grouper, th...
Grouper's new album of whispery piano ballads - Liz Harris tenth LP - is so intimate you can literally hear an aeroplane pass overhead at one point.
Among the more compelling artistic reconfigurations in the last decade is the one undergone by Liz Harris's experimental Grouper project, which in 2014...
'Group of Points' by Grouper: Leslie Chu reviews Liz Harris' AKA: Grouper forthcoming release, out April 27th via Kranky
Grouper - Grid of Points review: dropping the dead deer at the top of the hill and descending