Chorusing

As Chorusing, the songwriter and producer Matthew O'Connell layers analog synthesizers and tape delay across his austere, fragile folk compositions, producing a mesmerizing result. The project issued its first full-length recording in 2021 under the title Half Mirror.

Raised in Palmyra, Indiana, O'Connell developed an early obsession with metal drumming and rehearsed regularly inside the family garage during free hours. He and his siblings Joe of Elephant Micah and Greg sometimes captured tracks together on a four-track recorder. Once licensed to drive, he immersed himself in Louisville, Kentucky’s punk and hardcore community and played in his initial groups, an experience that prompted him to begin composing original material. During college he spent six months studying in Budapest, Hungary, where he kept assembling pieces using a borrowed guitar alongside electronic equipment supplied by the Kitchen Budapest arts and technology collective. In 2011 he relocated to Asheville, North Carolina for employment at Moog Music, spending workdays calibrating and constructing synthesizers while evaluating older analog delay circuits. Outside those hours he constructed his own instruments and refined the material that eventually formed his austere, contemplative first album, Half Mirror, issued in 2021. Featuring custom-built synthesizers, electric guitar, and tape delay as core elements, the record was tracked in a domestic setting following his move eastward to Raleigh and appeared on Western Vinyl.