Grouper (band)

Grouper
Harris performing at St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow, April 2012
Background information
Birth name	Elizabeth Anne Harris
Born	1980 (age 36–37) West Marin, California, U.S.
Origin	Portland, Oregon, U.S.
Genres	Ambient, drone, folk experimental, dream pop
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter, producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	2005–present
Labels	Kranky
Associated acts	Mirrorring, Slow Walkers, Raum, Xiu Xiu, Inca Ore, Roy Montgomery, Helen
Notable instruments
Epiphone Coronet, Wurlitzer

Grouper is the solo project of musician and artist Liz Harris. After releasing material independently beginning in 2005, Harris released the critically acclaimed Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill (2008), followed by four more records, including a two-part concept album, A I A. Her tenth studio album, Ruins, was released on October 31, 2014.

Harris' music, described as "ethereal" and "hazy," often consists of guitar layered with vocals and tape loops. She has collaborated with a number of other artists, including Xiu Xiu, Tiny Vipers, Lawrence English, and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. She resides on the Oregon Coast.

Harris was born in Northern California and grew up around the San Francisco Bay area and in Oregon. Liz Harris grew up in a Fourth Way commune in northern California, which was inspired by the philosophy of Armenian mystic George Gurdjieff. The community was known as "The Group", which would later serve as some inspiration for the moniker Grouper. According to Harris, the kids called each other and the parents 'groupers' sort of as a defiance. She says: "It was us making our own identities inside a pretty controlled environment, and sort of lashing back maybe... When I had to think of a name I felt annoyed at nothing sounding right. I wanted something that referenced me without referencing 'Me.' According to her, she "felt like the music was at its barest just a grouping of sounds, and I was just the grouper.""

Due to her upbringing, Harris did not receive a conventional education, of which she said: "I’m sure that if I’d gone to public school I’d have been thrown into a separate classroom or given Ritalin. Instead I was given a lot of space and time alone to come up with my own methods. Mine allow me to be myself; to be precise, and to relax/remove at the same time... Obsessing on the details, with a zen-like approach.”