Locrian

Locrian is an experimental project founded in 2005 by Chicago, IL-based academics André Foisy (electric, 12-string, and acoustic guitars, bass, tape loops, plus a lot of effects pedals) and Terence Hannum (synthesizers, vocals, tape loops), who began collaborating in extremely piecemeal fashion — almost song by song, at times — so that their early discography grew to contain over a dozen official and unofficial bite-sized works, issued in limited numbers and multiple formats. Along the way, the pair was abruptly tasked with conjuring up a name after accepting an offer to perform their first live gig, so the self-confessed music theory nerd Foisy suggested Locrian, inspired by an exotic musical scale once banned by the Catholic church for being "evil" (as well as an even more obscure tribe of ancient Greeks). And, in due time, Locrian's rather scattered creative methods coalesced into more manageable album-sized portions — namely 2009's Drenched Lands, 2010's Territories, and 2011's The Crystal World — without relinquishing the right to mix and match musical styles (black metal, noise rock, industrial music, drone, etc.) as they pleased. As of the latter release, Locrian's lineup (always filled with guest musicians recruited from the Chicago area) was expanded with the confirmation of full-time percussionist Steven Hess.