Lisel

Eliza Bagg, a classically trained violinist and soprano from Durham, North Carolina, records as Lisel, generating an uncanny, ethereal fusion of orchestrated indie pop and inward-facing synth explorations built from altered vocal fragments. Her first full-length under the name, Angels on the Slope, appeared in 2019. Following the 2023 collection Patterns for Auto-Tuned Voices and Delay, Bagg advanced her approach on The Vanishing Point in 2024, intentionally merging pop and hyperpop conventions with avant-garde material.

After completing music studies at Yale, Bagg maintained parallel paths, joining forces with classical and experimental figures such as Meredith Monk, John Zorn, and Julianna Barwick while belonging to the indie acts Plume Giant (2010-2015) and its continuation, Pavo Pavo, both of which she co-established with fellow Yale alumni Oliver Hill and Nolan Green. The Brooklyn-based Pavo Pavo entered an indefinite hiatus after releasing its second album, January 2019’s Mystery Hour on Bella Union.

Now residing in Los Angeles, Bagg introduced Lisel through the single “Digital Light Field” that May. The self-produced Angels on the Slope, issued by Luminelle Recordings in July 2019, combined densely edited vocal tracks with rock, symphonic, and electronic elements to produce a highly melodic result. Lisel supported San Fermin on tour later that year.

During the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, she recorded the remote 2021 Lisel album Mycelial Echo with Booker Stardrum. Bagg subsequently returned to contemporary Western art music projects, including performances in Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone (Renaissance Opera, 2022), Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding’s Iphigenia (Cal Opera, 2022), and her own experimental “Expostulation(s) of Mary” (Wild Up Endless Season, 2023); she also contributed vocals to Roomful of Teeth’s Rough Magic and Vampire Weekend’s Only God Was Above Us. In February 2023, Ba Da Bing Records released another Lisel album, the aptly titled Patterns for Auto-Tuned Voices and Delay. The same label issued October 2024’s The Vanishing Point, an even more alien set that intensified the techniques of Angels on the Slope by incorporating pop and hyperpop gestures alongside more advanced vocal manipulation.