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]
Living Room
Grouper Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Can't figure out why that place feels so hard to be in
We′re all of us at this ill-fitting party
Busy pretending to relate
And it's getting harder and harder to fake
Acting like everything's in its place
I′m looking for the place the spirit meets the skin
Can′t figure out why that place feels so hard to be in
Busy pretending to relate
And it′s getting harder and harder to fake
Acting like everything's in its place
Harder and harder to fake
Acting like everything′s in its place
The lyrics of Grouper's song "Living Room" are full of introspection and self-reflection. The singer expresses their desire to find a place where spirituality and physicality intersect, yet they cannot seem to locate it. They feel uncomfortable in the situation they find themselves in, surrounded by people who are pretending to connect with each other, when in reality, they are just putting on a façade. The singer expresses the difficulty of faking everything and how, with time, it has become more challenging to maintain that illusion.
The song can be interpreted in several ways, such as a critique of how superficial our social interactions can be, where we wear masks to fit in and gloss over our insecurities. It speaks to a sense of disconnection and isolation that stems from the superficiality of our relationships. However, the song also carries a sense of hope, as the singer continues to look for that connection that transcends the physical and emotional barriers that separate us.
"Living Room" is a beautiful and somber song that speaks to the desire for authenticity in a world where so much is artificial. It reminds us of the importance of being true to ourselves and the difficulties that come with that pursuit.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm looking for the place the spirit meets the skin
I am searching for the intersection of the intangible and tangible parts of being, where emotions and physicality merge.
Can't figure out why that place feels so hard to be in
It's confusing why this intersection isn't easier to exist in.
We're all of us at this ill-fitting party
As humans, we are all equally out of place in this world.
Busy pretending to relate
We keep ourselves occupied by pretending to understand and connect with others.
And it's getting harder and harder to fake
As time progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain that pretense.
Acting like everything's in its place
We are putting on a facade, acting like we have everything under control and are at peace with our surroundings.
Harder and harder to fake
It is becoming more and more challenging to uphold this illusion.
Acting like everything's in its place
We continue to pretend that everything is fine and in order, but the reality is the opposite.
Writer(s): Elizabeth Anne Harris
Contributed by Alexandra K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.