Harris was born July 15, 1980, in Northern California and grew up around the San Francisco Bay area.[3] She grew up in a Fourth Way commune there which was inspired by the philosophy of George Gurdjieff. The community was known as "The Group", which would later serve as some inspiration for the moniker Grouper. According to Harris, the kids called each other and the parents 'groupers' sort of as a defiance. She says: "It was us making our own identities inside a pretty controlled environment, and sort of lashing back maybe... When I had to think of a name I felt annoyed at nothing sounding right. I wanted something that referenced me without referencing 'Me.'" According to her, she "felt like the music was at its barest just a grouping of sounds, and I was just the grouper."[4]"
After finishing college, Harris briefly moved to Los Angeles, where she worked with Mayo Thompson at Patrick Painter.[5] Harris is now based in Oregon. Harris’ first album was 2005’s Grouper, a self-released full-length CD-R, followed later that year by Way Their Crept on Free Porcupine (re-released in 2007 on Type Records). In 2006 she released a single (He Knows), one album, called Wide, and a collaboration with Xiu Xiu entitled Creepshow. Harris made available new material steadily through the years and continued to collaborate with various artists such as Roy Montgomery and Xela.
In 2008 she released Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill. An AllMusic reviewer Heather Phares praised the album for showing more musical range than Harris' previous work and for "letting more melody, more structured songs, and even a few phrases emerge from the ether."[6] Pitchfork gave it 8.2 stars calling the work "an arresting album of pastoral psychedelic pop".[7]
In 2011, Grouper released an album consisting of two parts: A I A: Dream Loss and A I A: Alien Observer, which was critically acclaimed by Pitchfork, while the latter part was noted for being more accessible of the two discs.[8]
Early in 2012, Grouper performed Violet Replacement in the UK and Europe, a pair of longform tape collage pieces which originally took shape for commissioned performances in New York and Berkeley. Besides, she collaborated with Jesy Fortino of Tiny Vipers to release an album Foreign Body under their common moniker Mirrorring.
At Berlin's Club Transmediale festival in early February 2012 Harris performed Circular Veil in collaboration with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma.[3] Somewhere between an installation and a performance, it found her extending her more concise music outward into eight hours of music, designed to mimic one full sleep cycle.
In 2013, Harris released an album, The Man Who Died in His Boat.
Grouper's studio album titled Ruins was released on October 31, 2014. The album is relatively stripped-down; piano, voice and field recordings.[9] The majority of the album was recorded in Aljezur, Portugal in 2011, while Harris was on a residency set up by Galeria Zé dos Bois.[10] That same year she appeared on The Bug's album providing vocals for the track "Void".[11]
In 2015, Grouper collaborated with independent filmmaker Paul Clipson on the film Hypnosis Display, commissioned by Leeds Opera North.[12]
In 2016, Grouper released a 7" entitled "Paradise Valley".[13]
In 2017, Grouper was one of the curators for the 11th edition of the Dutch Le Guess Who? festival. Her curated program included films La Double Vie de Véronique by Krzysztof Kieślowski and Lighthouse by Paul Clipson and music performances from artists Marisa Anderson, William Basinski, Marcia Bassett & Samara Lubelski duo, Brötzmann/Leigh, Ekin Fil, Keiji Haino, Roy Montgomery, Coby Sey, Tiny Vipers, Wolfgang Voigt and Richard Youngs.[14]
On March 8, 2018, Grouper announced her new album Grid of Points and released the first single "Parking Lot" from the album.[15] The album was released on April 27 via Kranky.
During her days as a part of a Fourth Way commune, Harris' primary sources for discovering music were limited. With a little help from her parents, whose musical tastes were eccentric and divergent, she discovered Eastern European folk and American avant-pop. Through her father, who himself was a composer, she would later discover contemporary classical and early music.[16] In 2008, when she released Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, Pitchfork compared it to classic ethereal releases from the British label 4AD, drawing comparisons to Cocteau Twins[7] and early His Name Is Alive.[17] The Portland Mercury described some songs from the album, such as "Wind and Snow" and "Stuck", sonically reminiscent of the Renaissance period composers Gesualdo and Monteverdi.[16]
Fishing Bird
Grouper Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Coming out from the tide
Through the top of the ocean
Fish in the water
Dive beneath the waves
Dive beneath the ocean
How long can you hold your breath
Flash of silver moving away
A shot in the dark
Feel it move when the the blows? up to the sky
Empty gutted
In the evening breeze
When you go back home to nothing
Up into the sky
How long can you hold yourself
Before the wind can pick up? in the dark
Up into the sky
How long can you hold yourself
Before the wind can pick up? in the dark
The lyrics to Grouper's song Fishing Bird seems to be about nature and the beauty of the sea. The fishing bird is seen as a symbol of freedom and grace as it comes out from the tide and flies through the top of the ocean. The fish in the water seem to follow the bird's graceful movements, diving beneath the waves and ocean. The singer wonders how long the bird can hold its breath underwater, which represents the fleeting and precarious nature of life. The "flash of silver moving away" and "a shot in the dark" could refer to the unpredictable and dangerous aspect of life, where one moment everything seems fine, and then it could all suddenly go wrong.
The second stanza, "feel it move when the the blows? up to the sky", could represent the wind and how it affects the bird's flight. The line "empty gutted in the evening breeze" could also symbolize the emptiness and loneliness that one can feel when they are alone, with the evening breeze representing a time of introspection and reflection. The phrase "when you go back home to nothing" could represent the feeling of being lost or feeling like one's life has no purpose.
Overall, Fishing Bird seems to be a contemplative and poetic song about the beauty and fragility of life, as well as the cycles of nature and the transient nature of happiness.
Line by Line Meaning
Fishing bird
Referring to a bird that is out to fish
Coming out from the tide
The bird is coming out from the tidal waters
Through the top of the ocean
Flying above the water surface to locate its prey
Fish in the water
The bird can see the fish beneath the water
Dive beneath the waves
The bird dives into the water to catch the fish
Dive beneath the ocean
The bird dives into the deep ocean water to look for prey
How long can you hold your breath
The bird can hold its breath underwater for a certain time
Flash of silver moving away
A fish quickly swimming away from the bird
Down in the darkness
The ocean's depths where it's difficult to see
A shot in the dark
Trying to catch fish in the deep ocean can be unpredictable and uncertain
Feel it move when the the blows? up to the sky
Sensing the movement of the wind and weather changes while fishing
Empty gutted
The bird did not catch any prey and becomes hungry
In the evening breeze
During the evening hours where the bird must fly back to its roost
When you go back home to nothing
The bird goes home without capturing any prey and remains hungry
Up into the sky
The bird flies upwards, possibly to its roost or to look for more prey
How long can you hold yourself
Asking how long the bird can endure hunger before finding food again
Before the wind can pick up? in the dark
Worried about the possibility of unfavorable weather conditions for fishing
Writer(s): Inconnu Compositeur Auteur, Elizabeth Anne Harris
Contributed by Mackenzie M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.