
Grouper
Sound
Biography
Grouper is the solo project of musician, artist and producer Liz Harris (born July 15, 1980). She has released material on her own label and other independent labels since 2005. Grouper released the critically acclaimed Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill in 2008, followed by five more records, including a two-part album, A I A, and the piano-led album Ruins. Her twelfth album, Shade, was released in 2021.
Known For

IT CAME FROM AQUARIUS RECORDS tells the story about the San Francisco based independent record store, Aquarius Records. Having closed in 2016 after 47 years, this small apartment-sized store championed local, underground, independent, and challenging music to the masses - most memorably with their infamous bi-weekly, college essay-length, new-release lists. Six years in the making, interviewing collectors, musicians, and store owners, the film has a very personal angle, with lots of behind-the-scenes footage (and drama) that shows both the joy and excruciating stress that comes with running — and closing — a store like this, helped in no part by the changing city around them.
It Came From Aquarius Records

A collection of films from an eclectic array of contributors commissioned to raise funds for the Bristol independent cinema The Cube.
The Film That Buys the Cinema
A segmenting gaze into the private lives and emotional horror of four neighbors.
The Perception of Moving Targets

Under the name Nivhek, Liz Harris (Grouper) maps richly detailed inner worlds where enigmatic vibrations and voices glide dimly in and out of the void. Double album After its own death / Walking in a spiral towards the house consists of opaque assemblages of Mellotron, guitar, field recordings, tapes, and broken FX pedals. In pacing, palette, and poignancy, these sides rank among Harris' most stark, primordial work: fragile, feverish, ominous, and otherworldly. Accompanied by visuals from experimental filmmaker Takashi Makino which were made exclusively for live shows of this album.
Nivhek

Exploring impressionistic, emotional and sensory environments found within the vast natural and urban landscapes of America. Neither image nor sound takes precedence: the two interact and combine preserving a raw sense of the discovery that field recordings and in-camera edited film rushes often yield.
Hypnosis Display
Experimental film of black & white Rorschach voids by Liz Harris of Grouper that accompanied the book 'Divide'.
Mirrorhall Pt.1 Jeweled Light

Engine materializes Liz Harris’s self-confessed obsession with engine sounds from cars and trains, and noise explosions heard at drag races. For Harris, that is the sound of excess, power, sex, destruction, capitalism, and oil becoming an airborne pollutant. All the same those are the sounds of transformation, from which comes life. With an original film by Takashi Makino shown in the background, Engine is a large stage machine of guttural bass tones and constant revving up that mimics our heartbeat and breathing, and pumps the blood in our veins.
Engine

Two girls, members of a Mennonite community in the USA Deep South, have a first encounter with the outside world, which the short movie lets you view through their innocent, alien eyes. "The dirty ones" may be their term for all outsiders.
The Dirty Ones

No description available.
Memorial

A dreamy, impressionistic 16mm film of light on water, comprised mostly of sepia tones.
Headache

A dream lament for a drowned world. Filmed in London, Zurich, San Francisco, Berkeley and Napa. Music by Grouper.
Made of Air

Experimental film for Grouper by Takashi Makino
Film for Shade

A feature length film by Dicky Bahto, to accompany Grouper's live performances in 2022.