Wendy Eisenberg

Wendy Eisenberg works as a singer and songwriter while also handling guitar, banjo, and poetry. Across free jazz, new music, extreme metal, and art song, her compositions probe intricate issues surrounding the human body and its occasionally shifting ties to creative work. She belongs to the experimental quartet Birthing Hips, whose debut full-length Urge to Merge came out that same year. In 2018 she put out a pair of improv albums herself. Both Auto and Bent Ring from 2021 received worldwide recognition. During 2024 she issued two further albums: Accept When, recorded with saxophonist Caroline Davis, arrived in April, while Viewfinder followed in September.

After completing studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, she has composed for and played in many ensembles, among them the experimental noise-punk group Birthing Hips alongside vocalist Carrie Furniss, drummer Owen Liza Winter, and bassist Andres Abenante. Her music writing appears in John Zorn’s Arcana VIII: Musicians on Music as well as assorted jazz blogs. Additional partnerships have involved Joe Morris, Damon Smith, Zorn, and Travis LaPlante. Performing solo, she has introduced new pieces by Zorn, Maria Schneider, and Bill Holman, to mention only a few. She maintains two concurrent solo paths—one focused on improvisation and composition, the other on songwriting and singing. Her first release, Collected Early Works, surfaced in fall 2015, then the EP Window Box appeared the following June. In April 2017 she brought out the “songs” album Time Machine on HEC, later reissued by Feeding Tube. Birthing Hips placed Urge to Merge on NNA Tapes in fall 2017. As an improviser she delivered two October 2018 titles: the solo date Its Shape Is Your Touch via VDSQ/Black Editions and the trio album The Machinic Unconscious on Tzadik with bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Ches Smith. She simultaneously issued the solo singer-songwriter recording Its Shape Is Your Touch.

In 2019 she joined guitarist Shane Parish for Nervous Systems, a forward-looking set of original folk material. Auto, her first Ba Da Bing release, reached stores in 2020 and featured both solo and ensemble versions of several tracks. The next year the guitarist and vocalist cut the trio album Universal Dwellings for Rataplan with violist Jessica Pavone and jazz drummer Devin Grey. She also completed the double-length Bloodletting, a single-day solo longform suite. That same period saw the limited edition of Bent Ring, pressed in 100 copies. After extensive touring and joint recording sessions in 2024, Eisenberg partnered with saxophonist and composer Caroline Davis on Accept When, issued in April by Heavenly Sweetness. September brought Viewfinder on American Dreams Records. Drawing from the Lasik procedure that restored her vision in 2021, she shaped a song cycle for improvisers whose opening piece carries the fitting title “Lasik.” The recording enlisted trumpeter and electronicist Chris Williams, pianist and keyboardist Andrew Links, bassists Tyrone Allen II and Carmen Q. Rothwell, trombonist Zekereyya El Magharbel, and drummer Booker Stardrum.