There’s a moment in Annette Peacock’s “I’m the One” where her scat singing merges with the song’s synthesizer oscillations. The effect is stunning woman-machine synergy that elevates a classic track to “holy shit!” status. In a more subdued but no less riveting manner, Chicago musician Haley Fohr manifests similar throat-instrument harmony with Circuit Des Yeux. But rather than analog-synth circuitry, Fohr’s voice evokes the woody, lugubrious timbre of a cello, or even a bass saxophone. Nobody else in rock or pop today sings like Haley Fohr.
It would be enough if Fohr were simply to improvise a cappella, but she’s also a songwriter and guitarist of rare complexity and delicacy, with a fantastic backing band—all renowned for their improvisational prowess: drummer Tyler Damon, upright bassist Andrew Scott Young, and keyboardist/guitarist Cooper Crain.
