Music for Music: Liza Bec
Liza Bec by Betsa Boo
The Big Reveal
By Dan Ursini ©2025
There is nothing like the sweet energy of discovery—and that dynamic animates every moment of The End Times, an album by Liza Bec, a London-based composer, instrumentalist, singer, and producer. Liza’s approach to the creation of this music, particularly the collaborative elements, reflects a deep dual background in both music and science. After launching a successful career as a classical musician, Liza experienced a profound health crisis which prompted a shift from music to medicine. It is beyond the scope of this column to discuss details, apart from stating that they were hit by a condition that only one in ten million individuals get, and that the courage, perspective, and resourcefulness that they displayed in dealing with this is just as rare. More information can be found in the links at the end of this article.
When Liza returned to music, they embraced genres heavy on improvisation: jazz, world, electronica—even elements of John Cage’s mid-century experiments with aleatoric (chance) music. Going a step further, Liza started inventing instruments— notably the roborecorder. It is an ordinary plastic recorder which they have repurposed to a radical degree through incorporating a circuit board and MIDI output capability. The roborecorder plays a key role throughout the album, especially in “The Roof.” Liza comments, “When you’re watching the sunrise after a truly apocalyptic night, sometimes a sense of really deep peace comes on you, washing over fatigue, discomfort, unease, whatever stayed with you from the previous day. A fresh start. I really like the idea of waking up in the morning with a new, fresh soul.” This song highlights Liza’s stellar capacity for creating otherworldly melodies, quite tender and aching, and for articulating them to a gentle and deft amplitude:
Liza reflects, “I’m fundamentally a recorder player and, although I do a lot of work with electroacoustics, I still love that clarity and simplicity of playing acoustically. That contrast between electronic and acoustic sounds is something I often explore in my work. It’s like slipping between different sonic dimensions; it really transforms a performance space.” Beyond that, Liza continues to innovate—turning common objects into electroacoustic instruments. On The End Times, handy use is made of a blackboard customized to produce synthesizer music in accord with the sound of chalk moving across its surface. David Ryder Prangley capably makes this media sing. A trailer for the album shows how this is done:
Another avenue of innovation concerns manipulating the time-schedule for making the album in the most productive terms. Liza offers this analysis: “Fundamentally I like to think of recording as an experiment. You spend a very long time contemplating your hypothesis, working out all of your variables, constructing your apparatus, and devising a method. Choosing the ingredients is key—and that includes the space, the people, the vibe, and the objects. After all that, it’s the fun part—you get to run the experiment and see what happens.” Liza detailed the particulars of studio experience in doing The End Times: “The whole process of recording this album was audacious, as we had two days in the studio and no rehearsal time. Talk about a limitation! After working for an extremely long time writing and preparing the material, I had a theory that if we got the right people in the room and pressed record, magic would happen. I find that if you rehearse, things get worse before they get better, so it’s better to capture that first magic moment when things slot into place!” Liza continued, “For most of the tracks, we did two or three takes in total. Since it was the first time the four of us had played together, I was interested in capturing the group’s first reactions both to the material and each other. None of them knew how the blackboard was going to sound before playing each track—there was a different setup for each one, so it was a big reveal!”
Considering the album project as a whole, Liza explains, “The End Times is carefully conceived as the soundtrack to a story set in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, inspired by my experience there as a first-year student. Each track brings a moment from the novel to life and has a script, score, and stage directions.” The first composition, “Arrival,” has passages of marvelous heartfelt wordless vocals and compelling recorder solos, while scattered abrasive disruptions whiz by in the background. Such balanced contrasts in textures emerge in each of the eight tracks.
Those deep contrasts sustain musical tensions that provide another signature element. They are everywhere. A prime example is “Mass.” From the start, the tension pulsates, enhanced by the impassioned singing and chanting, and, midway, dissolves into explosive moments. Liza explains, “Mass is all about the tension between queer identity and the restrictions imposed by religious tradition.” They add, “I wanted to bring that tension out into the open, start off with a seemingly traditional setting of the Latin Creed and then make it dissolve into complete chaos.” In the background is a quiet, urbane voice whispering sinister remarks. Again, the speaker is David, who provides splendid narration throughout the album.
“‘The Tortoise Race,’” Liza comments, “is based on a real incident at a real College Tortoise Race. It was recorded live in a theatrical fashion with no edits.” Its music comprises a distinctly unnerving sports soundtrack. In live performances, David excels as a commentator, especially, as Liza says, “when he whips the tortoises up into a frenzy! It’s staged as an epic battle between Harry Bassett on trumpet and Elaine So on xylophone, with a roborecorder backdrop.” Also present are Hammond organist Alex Veitch and drummer Dave Smith, who complete the album’s brilliant band.
The album’s closing track, “Nothing Really Ends” is one of a couple compositions with a traditional form, and it serves as a vehicle for a superb ensemble performance. The arrangement is impeccable—especially the percussion. Liza is a compelling vocalist throughout the album, and, on this track, their performance is stunning in its phrasing, precision, and emotional depth. The lyrics evoke the transcendence over the limitations in all our lives. They state at one point, “Let’s stay in this maze forever in a sound/Never turn it down.” Indeed, there are moments when the music itself embodies that transcendence.
The End Times highlights Liza’s unique gifts in appreciating the linkage between transcendence and the discovery process. It imbues a bold excitement into every moment of this music—regardless of its theme or vibe. This album is a rapturous statement by a fully committed artist.
About Liza
Article via Epilepsy Association
About Liza’s Projects
Info at Spiral Dial
The End Times novel is not yet published.
The End Times album is available in various formats at Bandcamp.
Dan Ursini and his wife Valerie live in Oak Park, Illinois. Over the years he has done many kinds of writing. Ursini served as the first resident playwright for the Steppenwolf Theatre of Chicago (1978-1983); he worked for ten years as a Contributing Editor for Puerto Del Sol magazine; he wrote performance art pieces presented at such Chicago venues as Club Lower Links and Club Dreamerz. Ursini wrote radio theatre presented on NPR in the early 1990s. Throughout all this, he has worked full-time at the Law Library at DePaul University where for a decade he also wrote articles for Dialogue, the DePaul law school’s alumni publication. A particular highlight was his role as a researcher for a documentary, Race to Execution, about the connection between race and capital punishment in the U.S.A. In 2007 it was broadcast on the PBS series, Independent Lens. Apart from all this, Ursini was active for some years as a bass guitarist in various Chicago blues/gospel/funk/lounge configurations. Currently Ursini is working on his latest novel. Dan can be reached at: danursini@aol.com
Leave a Reply