-io is the sixth album by vocalist and composer Haley Fohr, best
known as Circuit des Yeux.
A celebrated figure in Chicago’s music community, she has released acclaimed
albums via De Stijl, Thrill Jockey, and Drag City and toured throughout the
world. However, -io is Circuit des Yeux’s most ornate and elaborate work to
date, a set of compositions that nest Fohr’s otherworldly four-octave voice
amid a 24-piece string, brass, and wind ensemble.
The album was put to tape last fall by Cooper Crain at Chicago’s Electrical
Audio studio and mixed by Marta Salogni (Bjork, Holly Herndon) with Fohr acting
as arranger and producer. Written in the wake of personal loss and recorded in
the midst of the pandemic, -io maps a geography of grief – a place where
“everything is ending all the time”.
While Fohr’s music has never been short on ambition, these songs are striking
in their brilliance and strangeness. On -io, Circuit des Yeux has delivered a
work that is vivid, immense, and fully illuminated.
