Bill Horist

Seattle-based guitarist Bill Horist delivers an idiosyncratic and richly emotive take on the world’s most ubiquitous instrument. Known internationally for his prepared guitar treatments, he’s played on dozens of records, performed throughout the Americas, Europe and Japan and has collaborated with numerous leading lights in a beguiling range of genres. His work is widely regarded alongside experimental guitar masters like Fred Frith and Keith Rowe.

Bill is no stranger to followers of Right Brain Records. He’s one third of the mind-blowing guitar trio Lotus Lungs. He released an improvised live album Church and State with Amy Denio. He co-anchored the posthumous Wally Shoup album 2x4tet. And, most recently, Bill released a remarkable solo prepared guitar album, Substratum.

Bill is also a talented underwater photographer with a prolific collection of scenes from the oceanic floors of the Pacific Northwest, Indonesia and other exotic dive locations. (See photo examples here.) This cross-genre interest serves as the overarching theme of Substratum. His mysterious guitar alchemy builds audio imagery that complements the visual in a multi-sensory experience. As you listen, consider that this music was recorded live, without overdubs or edits.

“Horist turns his axe into a conduit for... unspeakable passages, unsettling moods, and unusual timbres. It’s hard to imagine anyone listening to this on drugs not descending into madness. And that’s one of the highest compliments I can give to a piece of music. ”

— Dave Segal, The Stranger

Church & State originated in two live concerts, rare joint performances of Bill with fellow Seattle luminary Amy Denio in iconic structures built in 1906: the Good Shepherd Chapel and the Georgetown Steam Plant. The latter was a real-time improvised soundtrack for a screening of the classic silent sci-fi movie Metropolis.

Saxophonist Wally Shoup was widely beloved in Seattle’s free improv community and beyond. When he passed in 2024, Bill and several close associates put together a tribute album to benefit Wally’s surviving partner. 2x4tet is a sequence of alternating electric and acoustic quartet pieces recorded in recent years, highlighting the chemistry Wally ignited. Other contributors are Dennis Rea, Greg Campbell, Paul Kemmish, John Seman and Olli Klomp.

“Bill Horist’s latest release of prepared guitar is a remarkable set of experimental improvisations... both worldly and alien... shows the possibilities of what a prepared guitar can do in the right hands... there is much beauty to be found in the abstract.”

— Waveform Magazine

Lotus Lungs features Bill alongside fellow guitar innovators Matt Benham and Tom Scully. Their album features a disparate cacophony of spontaneously woven compositions.