MADAM ORANGE Pushes Improvised Heavy Music Into Uncharted Territory on Debut Album Parallax
Photo Credit: RICARDO ADAME
Chicago experimental duo MADAM ORANGE will release its debut album, Parallax, Oct. 23 through Amalgam, bringing together bass clarinet, drums, electronics, feedback and free improvisation across 11 tracks.
The project unites Emily Rach Beisel on bass clarinet, electronics and vocals with Bill Harris on drums and electronics. Both musicians arrive from established solo and improvisational practices, but MADAM ORANGE is built around the interaction between the two — often producing a sound far larger and denser than the lineup suggests.
Parallax moves between abrasive, highly amplified passages and quieter stretches built around texture, timbre and space. Rather than treating electronics as decoration, the duo uses processing and feedback to extend the physical characteristics of its acoustic instruments, creating a constantly shifting relationship between woodwind, percussion and electronic sound.
The resulting material sits outside conventional metal structures while retaining much of heavy music’s physical intensity. Improvisation, rhythmic collision, extended instrumental techniques and manipulated resonance take the place of traditional riffs and song forms.
MADAM ORANGE’s reference points stretch across avant-jazz, noise, experimental rock and electronic music. The project cites artists including NURSE WITH WOUND, ZU, ALICE COLTRANE, BOREDOMS, JOHN ZORN, SECRET CHIEFS THREE, RUINS, PETER BRÖTZMANN, MUSLIMGAUZE, SKULLFLOWER and ORNETTE COLEMAN as useful coordinates for listeners approaching the record.
The album was captured across two Chicago sessions in April 2024. “Root Rot,” “Antumbra,” “Mare Crisium,” “Old Paradigms” and “Malingerer” were recorded live at Hungry Brain on April 7, while the remaining material was recorded at Marmalade on April 12 and 13.
Harris recorded the sessions and later mixed the album with Beisel. Edward Hamel handled mastering, while Beisel and Harris also created the album artwork.
The record arrives after several years of touring activity for MADAM ORANGE, including Midwest dates in 2024 and East Coast and Canadian touring in 2023.
Outside the duo, Beisel works across improvisation, composition, education and curation in Chicago, combining extended woodwind and vocal techniques with analog electronics. Beisel also founded the Pleiades Series at Elastic Arts, a platform focused on increasing visibility and participation for femme, trans and nonbinary artists in creative music.
Harris is a percussionist, improviser, audio engineer and curator whose work spans jazz, noise, rock, bluegrass and experimental music. He founded Amalgam in 2015 as an artist-run collective and label devoted to improvised and experimental work and also co-operates the Chicago recording and performance space Marmalade.
Parallax Track Listing
- “Rilles”
- “Apogee”
- “Arid Place”
- “Root Rot”
- “Ephemeris”
- “Antumbra”
- “Mare Crisium”
- “Old Paradigms”
- “Too Fast And Not Enough”
- “Malingerer”
- “Straight Rilles”
MADAM ORANGE will mark the release with a hometown show Oct. 18 at Empty Bottle in Chicago alongside TRASHDOTCOM and IMELDA MARCOS. Additional winter and spring dates are in development.
Parallax will be released digitally and on CD Oct. 23 through Amalgam.