Kara-lis Coverdale

Montreal-based Canadian composer Kara-Lis Coverdale works as a musician and arranger whose training in conventional compositional forms has long informed her parallel practice as an organist and music director across multiple churches. At the same time she produces experimental electronic and electro-acoustic works that frequently incorporate looped vocal fragments arranged into dense, shifting sonic environments.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Coverdale started piano studies and began writing music while still a child. At the University of Western Ontario she encountered electro-acoustic practices and started exploring digital manipulation techniques. After relocating to Montreal in 2010 she took the position of organist at St. John’s Estonian Lutheran Church. Her first release, the solo-piano EP Triptych I, came out at the close of 2012. That same period saw her contribute keyboards to Tim Hecker’s album Virgins and join his live performances; she also performed in and wrote music for theatrical pieces by Kara Crabb.

Constellation Tatsu issued the 2014 cassette A 480, whose pieces were built from digitally processed and looped vocal material. The following year Sacred Phrases released the cassette Aftertouches, which incorporated sections from Conversion Music, her 2013 wind-controller composition. Coverdale partnered with experimental artist LXV (David Sutton) on the album Sirens for the Mexican label Umor Rex and supplied piano arrangements for Lee Bannon’s Pattern of Excel. In 2016 she appeared on Tim Hecker’s Love Streams and on How to Dress Well’s Care. Boomkat Editions issued her one-sided LP Grafts in 2017.