Willis Earl Beal’s debut album Acousmatic Sorcery was released by Hot Charity / XL Recordings on April 2nd 2012. The album’s 11 songs are taken from a series of recordings Beal made while living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He arrived there without a plan or enough money to live off and began singing warm, visceral and moving tunes to help him cope while sleeping rough. He spent the days drawing and printing up flyers, distributing them all over his new city. Eventually Beal found work as a night porter at a motel. It was during the late-night shifts that the 27-year-old musician from the south side of Chicago taught himself to make music.
