photos by Ricardo Adame
MADAM ORANGE – the new entity uniting Chicago-based avant musicians/solo artists Emily Rach Beisel and Bill Harris – presents a live performance video of “Apogee.” The track is found on their eclectic solo album, Parallax, nearing release on Amalgam.
Both formidable solo artists, Emily Rach Beisel (bass clarinet, electronics) and Bill Harris (drums, electronics) combine their respective sonic worlds into MADAM ORANGE, a project that often sounds like far more than two people playing, pushing toward the outer limits of heavy improvisation, rhythmic interlock, amplification, and feedback. Their music moves fluidly between dense, aggressive intensity and spacious, highly sensitive textures, driven by a near-telepathic musical connection and a shared interest in extending acoustic instruments through electronics. Having toured throughout the Midwest, East Coast, and Canada, including Midwest tours in 2024 and East Coast and Canadian tours in 2023, the duo is now on the verge of delivering their recorded debut, Parallax.
Through eleven unhinged but focused movements combining free-range and non-compliant techniques, MADAM ORANGE’s Parallax is the candid rock purist’s worst nightmare yet offers the adventurous spelunkers of the musical world’s most exterior realms a vast expanse of uncharted chasms and corridors in which to venture, and perhaps not return. Theatrical and ethereal woodwind tactics delivered via subtly employed electronic manipulations and vast outboard effects, lightly-grinding/unconventional percussive and rhythmic flow, and an overall sense of auditor boundary-testing coalesce and writhe like an alien ecosystem living in the cracks of reality.
Half of the songs on were recorded live at the Hungry Brain and the rest of the album was recorded at Marmalade, all by Bill Harris, who also operates the Amalgam label. Emily Rach Beisel and Bill Harris created the album’s cover art and mixed the audio which was then mastered by Edward Hamel. MADAME ORANGE’s output should capture your attention if Nurse With Wound, Zu, Alice Coltrane, Boredoms, John Zorn, Secret Chiefs Three, Ruins, Peter Brötzmann, Muslimgauze, Skullflower, and Ornette Coleman permeate your listening habits.
“Apogee” is the latest preview of the album, which arrives through a new video showcasing the duo performing the song in an intimate live studio setting. Fresh off the heels of a 2023 US East Coast tour, “Apogee” sees MADAM ORANGE take to the studio to capture a more intimate document of their sounds, with both Beisel and Harris creating a sonic landscape with jagged, interweaving small sounds, both acoustic and electronic. The melding of these sounds together into one cohesive mass, in way that obscures who is doing what and how, showcases the deep musical connection of the duo.
Watch MADAM ORANGE perform “Apogee” on YouTube HERE and stream the song at Bandcamp HERE.
Parallax will be released on CD and digitally on October 23rd. Find preorders HERE, and watch the prior live performance video of the song “Rilles” HERE.
Additional previews of the album will drop over the weeks ahead.
MADAM ORANGE has booked a hometown release show for Parallax on October 18th, with additional tour dates coming together for the Winter/Spring.
MADAM ORANGE Live:
10/18/2026 Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL *Parallax release show w/ Trashdotcom, Imelda Marcos
Emily Rach Beisel is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, educator, curator and woodwind specialist. Beisel is known for visceral performances blending extended vocal and instrumental techniques with analogue electronics. Their works is described by A Jazz Noise as, “…heavy stuff, sounds retrieved from the deeper places… Beisel pokes around in the sonic depths and brings leviathans out to play.” As a curator, Beisel seeks to increase the visibility and involvement of femme, trans, and nonbinary artists in the creative performance community. They founded the Pleiades Series at Elastic Arts, presenting monthly performances, community-based free improvisation sessions and a biennial PleiadesFest. Beisel holds a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 10-208 and is honored to be a 2024 3Arts Awardee in Music.
Bill Harris is a percussionist, improviser, and audio engineer in Chicago. He also operates and produces for Amalgam, a Chicago-based label and collective, and co-operates Chicago recording studio and performance space, Marmalade. He’s a prominent Chicago-based percussionist, improviser, audio engineer, and curator working in areas of improvisation, jazz, noise, rock, and bluegrass. Presented both nationally and internationally, Harris’s work focuses on a number of dedicated groups, ad hoc groups, and solo work, with over three decades of studying, practicing, and creating music.
Additionally, Harris focuses on solo work incorporating acoustic and electronic material, using feedback and timbral manipulation. He has recorded four solo records, and in 2015 he started Amalgam, a 100% artist-run collective and label dedicated to showcasing works of improvised and experimental music in Chicago and elsewhere, with a bi-monthly series at Cafe Mustache. Amalgam has been widely recognized in publications such as The Wire and has been a vital tool and resource for promoting both emerging and established artists from Chicago and elsewhere, drawing from and representing the hugely diverse and collaborative music scene of Chicago. Harris is also an audio engineer working in both studio and live contexts, and operates an independent studio in Chicago with engineering, mixing, mastering, and production credits on labels such as Astral Spirits, Aerophonic Records, Clean Feed, Trost, No Index, 577 Records, and Ears&Eyes.
https://www.amalgamusic.org
https://amalgamusic.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/amalgam_chicago
https://www.facebook.com/amalgamusic
The post MADAM ORANGE: Chicago-Based Eclectic Drone/Jazz/Improv Duo Posts “Apogee” Single/Performance Video; Debut Album, Parallax, Nears October 23rd Release On Amalgam first appeared on Earsplit Compound.