Christopher Willits

Christopher Willits
Christopher Willits in 2006
Background information
Born	April 8, 1978 (1978-04-08) (age 31)
Origin	Kansas City, Missouri, United States
Genres	Electronic music, glitch, pop, ambient, electroacoustic, experimental, noise
Occupations	Musician, artist, record producer
Instruments	Guitar, computer, electronic musical instruments, vocals, percussion, synthesizer
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Ghostly International, 12k, Overlap
Associated acts	Flössin The North Valley Subconscious Orchestra Taylor Deupree Ryuichi Sakamoto
Website	www.christopherwillits.com

Christopher Willits is a musician and multimedia artist located in San Francisco. His musical focus is characterized by guitar with 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. As described on his website; "notes and phrases hook and weave, creating complex patterns of interlocking rhythms, melodies and textures".^[1]

Biography

Willits completed a 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 visual arts training in painting, sculpture, and video art at the Kansas City Art Institute under the direction of Patrick Clancy.^[2]

Willits, as a solo artist or in collaboration, has released music on the following record labels: 12k (USA), Ghostly International (USA), Fällt (Ireland), Sub Rosa (Belgium), Nibble Records (USA), Ache Records (Canada), Yacca (Japan) and Plop (Japan). He has toured throughout Europe, 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, in which Willits was nominated as one of URB's next 100 artists.^{[citation needed]}

Willits has participated in numerous collaborative projects. The San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote; "Christopher Willits is the center cell of a rather complex indie-rock-avant-garde-electronic-art Venn diagram here in the Bay Area".^{[citation needed]} These projects include collaborations with 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. Flössin, a project featuring many of these friends (and organized/produced by Willits) had its first release on Ache Records in fall 2004. Willits have released three full-length CDs with Taylor Deupree, and one with Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Discography

• Live On Earth – Vol. 1 (self-released) - 2009
• Plants and Hearts (Room40) - 2007
• Surf Boundaries (Ghostly International) – 2006
• Little Edo (Nibble) – 2004
• Pollen (Fallt) – 2003
• Folding, and the Tea (12k) – 2002
• :plateaus, centers, stoma... (self-released CDR) – 2001
• storks and wires (self-released CDR) – 2000

Compilations

• Various artists – Idol Tryouts (Ghostly International) – 2006
• Various artists – SMM vol.2 (Ghostly International) – 2004
• Various artists – E*A*D*G*B*E (12k) – 2003

Collaborations

• Willits + Sakamoto (Christopher Wilits and Ryuichi Sakamoto) - "Ocean Fire" (Commmons/12k) - 2008
• Christopher Willits / Taylor Deupree – Listening Garden (Line) – 2007
• The North Valley Subconscious Orchestra – The Right Kind of Nothing (Ghostly International) – 2006
• Christopher Willits / Taylor Deupree – Live In Japan 2004 (12k) – 2005
• Flössin – Lead Singer (Ache Records, Yacca) – 2004
• Christopher Willits / Taylor Deupree – Mujo (Plop) – 2004
• Christopher Willits / Taylor Deupree – AS08 (Sub Rosa, Audiosphere) – 2003
• Saturn 138 (HWTBL) – 1998

References

External links

• Christopher Willits official website
• 12k Bio
• Flössin (Christopher Willits, Zach Hill and Miguel Depedro)
• Interview, 2003, by Fällt
• Interview, Fall 2006 by Stylus Magazine
• Interview, Summer 2009 by Headphone Commute