Lisel is the solo project of singer, producer, and experimental artist Eliza Bagg. Bagg is known as one half of the band Pavo Pavo, and has spent the last few years developing a prolific career in her own rite, from collaborating with indie and electronic acts like Helado Negro and Julianna Barwick, to honing her work as a classical singer, performing in avant-garde operas by Meredith Monk with the LA Philharmonic, to the work of John Zorn and Caroline Shaw. Lisel grew from Bagg’s desire to turn inwards as a way to get in touch with her own sense of authenticity. “I had found space in the classical world that made sense for me,” says Bagg, “but I realized I needed to make something that was truly mine.” This led to a year-long writing and recording process, with Bagg waking up every morning to spend time alone with just a microphone and her computer. “My main instrument is my voice, not a keyboard or a guitar, so I wanted it to be the genesis of every song,” she says. “I was trying to use the resources I had within me, within my body, to make something that feels true about the way we live our lives now, in 2019. That’s why I wanted to focus on my voice—I wanted each song to be literally made out of me.” And Bagg’s voice is a true marvel: intimate and warm while also impossibly crystalline and heavenly, which Pitchfork once compared to “a lovelorn alien reaching out from the farthest reaches of the galaxy.” It’s a worthy instrument from which to construct a world.