Lisel - Angels on the Slope (2019)

"I always find myself seeking out art that's totally immersive," says Eliza Bagg, the singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who records as Lisel. "Things that transport you to a place where our everyday, familiar thoughts about the world don't quite fit exactly." With her self-produced album Angels on the Slope, Bagg has done exactly this. Each song is grounded in specific, strange vocal sounds, and the resulting album forms a diverse, otherwordly landscape where one wanders between the gauzy and ethereal and distorted, beat-driven pop.Bagg has spent the last few years developing a prolific career as a classical singer, and she credits her experiences performing the music of Bach and Renaissance composers as crucial to developing her pure, ethereal vocal style. She currently spends her time singing new, experimental classical music, from avant-garde operas by Meredith Monk with the LA Philharmonic, to the work of John Zorn and Caroline Shaw, as well as working with indie and electronic acts like Helado Negro and Julianna Barwick. She has also collaborated as one half of the band Pavo Pavo for the last three years. Lisel grew from Bagg's desire to turn inwards as a way to get in touch with her own sense of authenticity. "I had found space in the classical world that made sense for me," says Bagg, "but I realized I needed to make something that was truly mine, that sprung from my own voice. It suddenly became an urgent priority." This led to a year-long writing and recording process, with Bagg waking up every morning to spend time alone with just a microphone and her computer. "My main instrument is my voice, not a keyboard or a guitar, so I wanted it to be the genesis of every song," she says. Bagg meticulously constructed each one, beginning with samples of her voice as the foundation, either by singing a note in a particular style or by manipulating them through the recording software Ableton, in order to create a vocal color that would be the defining feature of the song.