Home » Ono

Tag: Ono
Posted inMusic

Jordan Reyes explores Zen at the release show for his album Everything Is Always

by Monica Kendrick

Experimental musician Jordan Reyes has dipped his fingers into many genres. His early works display his devotion to the modular synth, but he’s increasingly branched out in unpredictable directions, like flood waters overflowing a creek. The Chicago-based musician (and occasional Reader contributor) delved into dark ambient on 2020’s Fairchild Soundtrack + Border Land (a score […]

Posted inMusic

Jordan Reyes blends ritual, electronics, and western vibes on Sand Like Stardust

by Steve Krakow

From the first wordless vocal incantation on “The Pre-Dawn Light,” which opens Jordan Reyes’s new Sand Like Stardust, it’s clear you’re about to embark on an auditory vision quest; as the Chicago multi-instrumentalist and vocalist slowly adds layers of chants at different pitches, the sound evokes a sunrise ritual. In the album’s promotional materials, Reyes […]

Posted inMusic

Ben Baker Billington’s Quicksails builds whole worlds from serene synths

by Leor Galil

Many prolific musicians call Chicago home, but multi-instrumentalist Ben Baker Billington is a veritable Energizer Bunny. He’s been contributing otherworldly experimental sounds to the scene since his mid-aughts stint in noise project Druids of Huge, and his musical resumé is too long to reproduce in full here. Any outre artist looking for an open-minded collaborator […]

Posted inMusic

Chicago industrial trio Civic Center streamline their surreal sound on The Ground Below

by Leor Galil

Local postpunk label Chicago Research quickly became a locus for bizarre, depraved sounds after launching in February 2019, in part because the people involved are longtime friends as well as like-minded musicians. Industrial surrealists Civic Center put out one of the label’s first releases (a cassette called A Place for the Weak), and all three […]

Posted inMusic

Legendary Chicago experimentalists Ono confront centuries of race-based violence on the transformative Red Summer

by Steve Krakow

I could write a novel about Ono. This Chicago avant-garde group are one of the great bands, and their story is endlessly fascinating. Few groups that had their heyday in the 80s have come back in the late aughts sounding completely rejuvenated and vital. Most important, they’ve continued to progress, honing their wild experimentation into […]