Biography

Putting a danceable twist on art rock, Krautrock, and avant-garde influences, Chandeliers’ kaleidoscopic electronic jams are artful yet accessible. The founding members consisted of the quartet of Chris Kalis, Dan Jugle, Dan Quinlivan, and Scott McGaughey, whom played with adventurous indie rock bands like Icy Demons, Killer Whales, Michael Columbia, and Mahjongg. They began making electronic music in 2005 as an escape from Chicago’s chilly winters, debuting live early that year at University of Chicago and former Lumpen space Buddy. Harry Brenner quickly came aboard to add live drums and percussion. Their first recording, the Circulation EP, arrived two years later and the albums The Thrush, Dirty Moves, and Roulé (a split with like-minded Chicagoans Mahjongg) revealed more layers of Chandeliers’ entrancing energy. In 2011, Cinema 16 commissioned the group to perform original live scores to Wallace Berman's Aleph; and Elmen Etting's 1933 nature/dance film Oramunde. The grooves continued on the 2012 album Founding Fathers, deemed "one of the most exciting records to come out of the Chicago underground in a long time" by the Chicago Tribune. In 2015 Lisa Armstrong joined Chandeliers and the group composed a number of live scores, including a live score to the 1981 Hungarian animated film Feherlofia at CIMMFest 2015 and scored the feature film Orders, directed by Eric Marsh and Andrew Stasiulis.