BIO
Christopher Willits is a pioneering composer, guitarist, producer, visual artist, and co-founder & director of Envelop, a nonprofit with a mission to inspire and connect through immersive listening. As one of the core artists on the Ghostly International label since the early 2000s, Willits has navigated the field of contemporary ambient music with curiosity and ambition, realizing an acclaimed body of work that includes collaborative projects with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Taylor Deupree, and Tycho. This driven-yet-gentle devotion to deep listening led him to the forefront of cutting-edge spatial audio production, a nascent technology at the time of his 2017 album Horizon, now adopted widely across the music industry. Willits operates with the conviction that music can create physical and emotional space for us to slow down and feel the present moment, which is the central intention of his 2022 album Gravity, his most personal and refined to date.
Willits began his career with a string of critically acclaimed albums on the 12k label. The minimal sound introduced on those recordings remains at the core of his work: warm guitar tones woven into smooth, harmonic surfaces. Willits made his Ghostly International full-length debut with 2006 landmark Surf Boundaries. He'd expand his vision next through collaboration, working with Ryuichi Sakamoto (2008's Ocean Fire and 2012's Ancient Future), Zach Hill of Death Grips, Taylor Deupree, and, for 2014 LP Opening, with the whole band of Tycho. He also lent a hand in mastering the latter's album Awake, composed the original score for the documentary The Art of Listening, and continues to lead music production and meditation classes in San Francisco.
In 2017, Willits put forth Horizon, the first-ever spatial audio release on Ghostly International. The album's innovative 3D mix is mapped to surround listeners and align with sleep patterns, meditation, and other mindful practices. Like Horizon, his 2019 album Sunset utilized spatial recording to encourage listening from within. The five pieces move from warm to cool designed as a soundtrack to embrace the day's end; a collective letting go.
Willits composed his latest album, Gravity, during a period of profound change and challenge, processing the impending flux of the world while supporting his mother during her declining health. His natural response was to create music that soothes and facilitates a state of relaxation and clarity. There's a wave-like cadence and flow across the collection; a sense of stability afforded by gravity or the lack thereof, as much a resource as it is an expression.
ARTIST STATEMENT
”Music can allow us to feel and become more present with ourselves and others. It can catalyze inner change, and those changes within ourselves can influence changes in the world. At a young age, I realized that my life’s path was to make immersive music that helps us listen to ourselves, listen with others, and listen to the world around us. I am continuously learning and evolving through the music; letting go of all that I create as it creates me.”
