Jherek Bischoff

Seattle-based Jherek Bischoff is equal parts songwriter, producer, performer and composer. He has also been called a "pop polymath" (The New York Times), a "Seattle phenom" (The New Yorker), and "the missing link between the sombre undertones of Ennio Morricone and the unpredictability of John Cale" (NME), but no need to get too braggy: This music speaks for itself.

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However, in case it does not speak for itself to you, here's some background: In his 30 odd years, Jherek has played in numerous bands and musical configurations including Parenthetical Girls, Xiu Xiu, The Degenerate Art Ensemble, The Dead Science, Amanda "Fucking" Palmer, the Wordless Music Orchestra, and a various & sundry mix of musicians around the world. Jherek is an instinctive collaborator who has done so since his formative days spent sailing the world with his family, hopping ashore at various ports to serve as an impromptu Bischoff family backing band to locals. (Don't get the wrong idea. This wasn't a luxury trip by a privileged family. The Bischoff clan scrimped and saved in order to take this surreal, multi-year trip.)

Which is to say, Jherek collaborates instinctively and trusts himself to be his own best teacher. Indeed, all this music-making has largely been self-taught. That last bit can be the most surprising, especially in the context of his new album Composed--a meticulously arranged, multi-tracked album of nine orchestral pieces featuring a different guest vocalist on almost every track, including luminaries David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, Mirah, Carla Bozulich (Evangelista, Geraldine Fibbers), Craig Wedren (Shudder To Think), Dawn McCarthy (Faun Fables), Zac Pennington (Parenthetical Girls), Soko and more. Avant ringers like Deerhoof's Greg Saunier and Wilco's Nels Cline provide instrumental solos.

DIY in the purest sense, Jherek first composed the album on a ukulele. Next he produced, engineered, and mastered the album, resolving to achieve an orchestral sound without the orchestral cost by recording the music one instrument at a time using just one mic and a laptop.(He spent one summer in his native Seattle, biking around town his gear in a backpack, cruising between various musicians' houses, capturing their performance one track at a time.) The result bares traces of his past playing in DIY bands, his desire to make great pop music, and a love affair with the potential of the orchestra, all informed by his deep familiarity of a catalog of compositional ideas & technique. It took years. It was worth it. (With Jherek, it always is.)