Bill Orcutt

Rooted in the Miami scene of the early 1990s, Bill Orcutt first came to prominence as part of Harry Pussy, a duo formed with drummer Adris Hoyos, where punk, noise rock and free improvisation were pushed toward an intentionally abrasive form. After the group's dissolution at the end of the decade and several years away from the musical forefront, Orcutt resumed solo work with A New Way to Pay Old Debts (2009), the starting point for an oeuvre focused on the guitar—acoustic then electric—often reduced to brief melodic cells, abrupt cuts and rhythmic deviations that reinterpret blues, American folk and jazz from an experimental perspective. Active on improvised and experimental music scenes in the United States and Europe, Orcutt has also developed collective formats, notably a duo with Chris Corsano and the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, heard on Music for Four Guitars (2022). Orcutt’s trajectory, also linked to the Palilalia label, thus continues a constant interplay between composition, transformed cover and improvisation.