Jess at the Palaise Ideal, an
experimental music festival in Chico, CA. Here, Jess plays percussion on a mandolin through processed electronics. This music was also performed for a modern dance piece, in which a reviewer complained about Jess' "racuous sawing on a mandolin."   Cool!

Jess  Rowland is a figment of her own imagination.  Like an electron,
she is  neither here nor there, and like absolute space, she is
neither up or down.  Mostly, she is sideways.

Jess is a San Francisco based composer, playwright, and performer.  Her diverse works have ranged from electronic conceptual pieces, modern jazz piano improvisation, musical puppet-theater, and multi-media video/music collaborations.  She is the composer in residence for Shift Physical Theater   modern dance troupe, which has cumulated in a
full-length artist-in-residence show at ODC Theater in San Francisco,  and which forms the basis for her first release on Edgetone Records , The Shape of Poison.

Multi-media has been a recent focus of Jess’s work.  In 2004, Jess received a grant fromthe American Composers Forum   to create a new multimedia piece based on John Ashcroft’s stint as a patriotic songsmith:John Ashcroft vs. The Space Librarians .  Soon after, Jess hooked up with the experimental label Pax Recordings , and released a CD of solo piano improvisations, H.29, which was quickly followed by Jess’s latest release, Scenes from the Silent Revolution   – a double disc set featuring  a DVD of the multi-media improve works, and a CD of new musical material.  Also notable: Jess played a Baloney Sandwich at the 2004 Big Sur Experimental Music Festival .

  She has also written puppet show musicals and musical theater for Dreamland Theater , including two full-length plays:The Truth About Teeth   and So Long Differently Thinking Persons .  There have been several releases of solo experimental electronics, including  Elevator, and The Lifeboat is on Fire .

Jess is a busy little bee.

Most recently, she has discovered The Meaning of Existence .