TALsounds / Todd F Dillon

TALsounds

Natalie Chami is a proud Canadian-born Lebanese American who adopted the TALsounds moniker in 2009 for her explorations in the drone, ambient, and improvisational disciplines. Since choosing the TALsounds moniker, Chami has spent over a decade building a brilliant career as a solo artist in Chicago and beyond. Through her masterful synth work, operatic vocals, and nuanced sculpting of mood and atmosphere, Chami’s music strikes a balance between the extremely personal and the selflessly transportive. She spirals effortlessly through a never-ending carousel of solo improvisations and collaborations with other artists, and she seems to evolve with each performance, no matter how lofty and grandiose or humble and intimate those performances may be.

After a series of tape releases on labels like Hausu Mountain and Moog’s own physical imprint, Chami released her first TALsounds LP, Love Sick, with New York’s Ba Da Bing Records in 2017. Her second LP, Acquiesce, arrived in 2020 on NNA Tapes. Performed entirely by Chami and produced by Cooper Crain (Bitchin’ Bajas, Cave), Acquiesce is a perfect amalgamation of Chami as composer and improviser.

Whether she’s opening for Merzbow or Mary Lattimore, Tim Hecker or Tortoise, Mdou Moctar or Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Chami is adept at drawing audiences into her entrancing performances and leaving them wide open to receive whatever comes next. Chami has performed across America and Canada, and she traveled to Europe in 2018 for a string of dates with Chicago composer Haley Fohr (Circuit Des Yeux).

Outside of her work in live performance and music production, Chami was a founding faculty member at the Chicago High School for the Arts, Chicago’s premier public high school for music and the arts, where she served as the Vocal Chair and developed curriculum for a variety of courses, including vocal technique and music technology. She also oversaw the development and implementation of anti-racist and trauma-informed curriculum at ChiArts, and she built relationships with various organizations in order to provide opportunities for students, including music conservatories and universities around the world. In addition to maintaining a private voice studio for students since 2010, Chami was tapped in 2019 to be an influencer and ambassador for the online musical instrument marketplace, Reverb. Leveraging her individual expertise and community collaborations, Chami now works with a talented Product Specialist team at KORG USA, where she creates curriculum on synthesizers, hosts frequent educational live streams on KORG products, and produces marketing videos on various synthesizers and effects. She also scored her first film in 2020, Head to Head, which follows women experiencing traumatic blows to their self-image after unexpectedly losing their hair due to Alopecia, Lupus, or chemotherapy.

Acquiesce is available now on NNA Tapes, and TALsounds will tour with Mdou Moctor throughout the western United States in Fall 2021.

Bandcamp

Todd F Dillon

As one third of the St. Louis-based band, Huht, Todd F Dillon is a multifaceted collaborator, keyboardist, and solo composer. His work with Huht focuses on a hypnotic simplicity that blends heavy percussion with a deeply moody ambience. The result is dark and rhythmic explorations with no self-imposed limits. The band also blends elements of Krautrock, Prog, Noise and Jazz.

In the wake of social-distancing, Dillon has begun to further extend his craft into solo keyboard and synthesizer excursions. Recalling the compositional simplicity of Erik Satie, the gentle electronics of Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster/Harmonia), and the experimental atmospheres of Asmus Tietchens, Dillon creates sonic miniatures, often 2-3 minutes in length.

Soundcloud   Bandcamp