Lisel "One At A Time" - The Otherworldly Sound of 2023
Liza Bagg, Lisel, Avant Pop Goddess, Ethereal Alien, Experimental Contemporary Classical Musician and Independent Artist
I have, in the past, shared the ever-expanding work of my college roommate Susie’s extraordinary daughter Liza Bagg. I claim to be Liza’s 15th Fairy Godmother, and her Mom didn’t dispute it. (She has hundreds of Fairy Godmothers at this point; everyone loves her.)
Please take a trip into another dimension and listen to her latest avant-pop offering, “One At A TIme.” Layers of Liza’s pure soprano float in hypnotic repetition. Her gestures are both mysterious and elegant. An NPR music critic called “One Step At A Time” the soundtrack for 2023.
This is but one example of her work. She is the go-to soprano for contemporary classical composers, and her 2022-23 schedule is jammed with premier and repertoire performances. She has a YouTube channel you want to subscribe to.
“One Step At A Time” - an avant-pop otherworldly space and, possibly, the soundtrack for 2023
“Called “otherworldly, warped” (Stereogum) and “billowing, crystalline” (Gorilla vs. Bear), Lisel is Bagg’s sweeping, ethereal avant-pop project. A “fractured, futurist form of pop” (WNYC), Lisel’s music is grounded in her extensive career as a vocalist of Renaissance, Baroque and minimalist/post-minimalist singing styles, as she “disintegrates her voice into a euphoric, Auto-Tuned goo, emerging from the other side of the abyss an electro-pop alien” (NPR).
As Lisel, Bagg has received particular recognition for her use of extended vocal techniques and unique vocal sound, which Pitchfork compared to “a lovelorn alien reaching out from the farthest reaches of the galaxy.”
She self-produces the music, usually beginning with manipulated vocal samples, processed vocal improvisations, or patterns built from extended techniques, and her voice grounds the otherworldly landscape of her music, which “revels in small electro-pop ecstasies that burrow inward” (NPR). ”
She loves these descriptions, loves being called an ‘alien.”
As a child, Lisa was expression in motion. She would dance in the balcony at the Monadnock Festival. Her mom tried to get her to sit, but it was impossible. She studied viola and voice and dance as a young person. She attended music camp with Yoyo Ma’s son. Since relocating from Durham to Yale to Brooklyn to LA, she has absorbed the West Coast vibe. See below.
Ethereal Avant-Pop Goddess