Grouper, St John at Hackney

Since they began trickling out in 2005, Liz Harris's records as Grouper have conjured a unique atmosphere. Crumbling structures, buffeted by wind. Overgrown, penumbral forests. Grey skies coated in mist. Abandoned cabins, all cobweb and dust. And, very occasionally, a glimpse of the sun, so obscured as to seem transcendent.
Initially, Grouper belonged to the world of the avant-garde. Debut Way Their Crept, which followed on the heels of limited CD-Rs, is a forty-minute slab of disintegrating drone, garnished with wordless mantras and crackling, fragmented guitars. But by 2008’s Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, Harris’s music had evolved into something less ambient. The dreamy pop melodies buried beneath the earthly fuzz became more prominent, creating something emotionally as well as atmospherically affecting. It was widely accredited one of the finest releases of its year, and followed by the equally acclaimed set AIA: Dream Loss and Alien Observer (2011) and The Man Who Died In His Boat (2013).
With Ruins (2014), Harris has unearthed her finest set yet. Recorded in Portugal during an artistic residency, it is her most intimate, unadorned collection. There is a piano, tape noise and voice, occasionally joined by accidental field effects like the ping of a microwave. It is difficult to hear this music without being lifted into the foggy realm of half-remembered sensations.
For her evening in Hackney’s St John’s Church, Grouper will perform both songs and ambient pieces, accompanied by original films from artist Paul Clipson. Pedal steel drone maestro Heather Leigh Murray will support. It promises to mesmerize.