Christopher Willits

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Christopher Willits
Background information
Birth name	Christopher Willits
Born	April 8, 1978
Origin	Kansas City, Missouri
Genre(s)	Electronic music Glitch Pop Ambient Electroacoustic music Experimental Noise
Occupation(s)	producer
Years active	1993 - Present
Label(s)	Ghostly International 12k
Website	http://christopherwillits.com

Christopher Willits (born April 8th, 1978 in Kansas City, MO.) is a musician and multimedia artist located in San Francisco. His musical focus is characterized by guitar + computer software processing and improvisation which generates a large palette of possible sounds including; melodic rhythms, grainy textures and smooth drones. Willits' music is electroacoustic in nature, in that both analogue and digital worlds are fused into one. Willits coined the term "folding guitar" in press releases and interviews surrounding his 2002 release "Folding and the Tea". Willits' guitar lines and harmonies are folded into each other using custom-designed software; "notes and phrases hook and weave, creating complex patterns of interlocking rhythms, melodies and textures". (quote from http://christopherwillits.com/about.html)

Willits completed his Master's Degree in Electronic Music at Mills College where he studied with Pauline Oliveros, Fred Frith and John Bischoff. At Mills he explored structure-generating processes in music; a focus not unfamiliar to former Mills affiliates John Cage and Steve Reich. Prior to Mills, Willits received a solid visual arts training in painting, sculpture, and video art at the Kansas City Art Institute. (info from http://www.christopherwillits.com)

Willits has released music on the labels 12k (USA), Ghostly International (USA), Fällt (Ireland), Sub Rosa (Belgium), Nibble (USA), Ache Records (Canada), Yacca (Japan) and Plop (Japan), and has toured throughout eErope, America, and Japan.

His music has received critical acclaim from publications such as The Wire, Grooves magazine, the BBC, XLR8R, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, where Willits was named one of the "Class of 2004", and URB magazine - where Willits was nominated as one of URB's next 100 artists.

Willits also has numerous collaborative projects which lead The SF Bay Guardian to write "Christopher Willits is the center cell of a rather complex indie-rock-avant-garde-electronic-art Venn diagram here in the Bay Area". Projects include Zach Hill (drummer from the band Hella), Miguel Depedro (Kid606), Brad Laner (Medicine), Nate Boyce, Latrice Barnett (singer/songwriter and bassist for Handsome Boy Modeling School), Taylor Deupree (12k record label founder), Scott Pagano (video artist), and Matmos. Flossin, a project featuring many of these friends (and organized/produced by Willits) had its first release on Ache Records in fall 2004. In addition, Taylor Deupree and Willits have released three full-length CDs. Willits is currently working on a full-length release with Ryuichi Sakamoto.

[edit] Discography

Christopher Willits - "Surf Boundaries " - CD/Digital - Ghostly International - GI52 - released Oct, 17th 2006
The North Valley Subconscious Orchestra (NVSO) (Christopher Willits/Brad Laner)- "The Right Kind of Nothing" - Digital - Ghostly International - GI52 - released Aug, 22nd 2006
Christopher Willits / Taylor Deupree - Live In Japan 2004 - limited edition CD - 12k - released 2005
Christopher Willits + Various Artists - SMM vol.2 - 12" LP - Ghostly International - released 2004
FLÖSSIN (Willits, Hill, Kid606) - CD/LP - Ache Records / Yacca (japan) - released 2004
Christopher Willits / Taylor Deupree - Mujo - CD - Plop - released 2004
Christopher Willits - Little Edo - 7in - Nibble Records - released 2004
Christopher Willits / Taylor Deupree - AS08 - CD - Sub Rosa / Audiosphere - released 2003
Christopher Willits + Various Artists - E*A*D*G*B*E - CD - 12k - released 2003
Christopher Willits - Folding, and the Tea - CD - 12k - released 2002
Christopher Willits - Pollen - CD - Fallt - released 2003 > recorded 2001
Christopher Willits - :plateaus, centers, stoma... - CDR - self-released - released 2001
Christopher Willits - storks and wires - CDR - self-released - released 2000
Saturn 138 - CD - HWTBL - released 1998