photos by Ricardo Adame
“…there’s a cinematic quality to ‘Mare Crisium’ that creates a great tension between the sprawling, chaotic interplay between Beisel and Harris and the building sense of dread from the background droning.” – Everything Is Noise
Everything Is Noise is hosting the exclusive premiere of “Mare Crisium,” by Chicago avant drone/jazz duo MADAM ORANGE – the new entity uniting Chicago-based musicians/solo artists Emily Rach Beisel and Bill Harris. The song marks the latest preview of the band’s eclectic debut 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.
Beisel reveals, “‘Mare Crisium’ really showcases the strange ways that Bill and I both extend our instruments. The first sound you hear is Bill playing melodica while I do death-growl vocals into the bass clarinet. Throughout the track, we take turns alternately providing a textural layer or acting as a rhythmic provocateur. This role-switching, and our tendency to push our instruments outside their typical purview, is a core element of MADAM ORANGE.”
With their premiere of the song, Everything Is Noise writes in part, “This boundary-pushing approach is immediately apparent on ‘Mare Crisium,’ which stretches the sonic confines of what many in more traditional spaces might refer to as music. It’s urgent, foreboding, but somehow playful as Beisel and Harris engage in a call-and-response that reminded me of a horror film score. Despite the track itself being highly improvisational, there’s a cinematic quality to ‘Mare Crisium’ that creates a great tension between the sprawling, chaotic interplay between Beisel and Harris and the building sense of dread from the background droning.”
Stream MADAM ORANGE’s intriguing “Mare Crisium” first on Everything Is Noise RIGHT HERE.
Parallax will be released on CD and digitally on October 23rd. Find preorders HERE, and watch the performance videos of “Rilles” HERE and “Apogee” HERE.
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: Everything Is Noise Premieres “Mare Crisium” By Chicago Drone/Jazz/Improv Duo; Debut Album, Parallax, Nears October 23rd Release On Amalgam first appeared on Earsplit Compound.