New Release!

The Shape of Poison  (2007)  Edgetone Records EDT4056  

Available for purchase through
Edgetone Records

Available for purchase through
Pax Recordings

Shape of Poison is a new approach to interacting solo piano performance and electronics, mixing unique live electro-acoustic experimentation with cut-up gamelan, crunched-out casiotones, and other uncharted sonic landscapes. The pieces documented on this CD were originally commissioned by dance choreographer Manuelito Biag, and recorded live at a February 2007 performance of his artist-in-residence project at ODC theater in San Francisco. Intended originally for dance, the music attempts to convey an enveloping environment in which drama and movement can play out.

The San Francisco Chronicle has described this music as "lush and spell-like", and the San Francsico Bay Guardian has called Jess' performance "inspired".

Some musical excerpts from Poison:    Poison 1      Poison2         Poison3    

Available for purchase through
Pax Recordings

H. 29  (Water)  (2005)  Pax Recordings

 

This Review from Paris Transatlantic magazine sums it up pretty well:

"The ten tracks are fused in a single unpredictable pastiche where snippets of Beatles and Beach Boys, extracts from radio shows and Spanish soaps are battered to a bloody pulp, with Rowland lurching between drunken folk and Atom Heart Mother-era Floyd, anger grounded in irony, gluing acoustic guitars, political speeches and electronics together with a couldn't-care-less attitude that transcends the anarchy of her invention, a latterday poor man's Pierre Schaeffer – and I mean that as a compliment. But wait until you see the DVD. . . A collage of absurd "World of Barbie" cartoons and children shows is pasted to segments from "How to style a scarf", with Barbie, Ken, impossibly stupid dancers, kids screaming with dilated pupils like they were on cocaine and a model's fake smile all over the place meshing in a concoction of drums, looped voices and crunchy cut-ups. In another episode, Ronald McDonald and his dog entwine their idiocy with blow-job scenes from adult movies in an infernal picture/noise ecstasy; but the real masterpiece is the first video, where, amidst scenes from Japanese B-movies, 1976 American Bicentennial commemoration clips and out-of-sync sepia-tinged 8mm film, John Ashcroft sings "Let The Eagle Soar" on CNN, his crooning wonderfully layered over Rowland's spastic tempi and ill bass lines. The final moments of this mini-movie, underlined by all-American choirs, patriotic frenzy at full blast, made me cringe. This stuff is scary" -MR

This one-of-a-kind 2-disc set also features  cover art by Chris Woods .  (The painting on the cover, Houdini, later appeared in the movie Clercs II, along with some of Chris other amazing artwork. 

Music Clips: John Ashcroft Vs. The Space Librarians         Invisible/Anymore




















 

 

 

Elevator   (Experimental Easy Listening )  (2000)

At every turn the boundaries of “elevator music” are pushed to the breaking point, smashing through outdated notions and pulverizing the sonic equivalent of the cubicle partition that has constrained serious easy-listening music for far too long.

available at CDbaby
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 S oundchaser, Live at Cafe Du Nord  (2000)

A guitar-keys trio, that takes a more conceptual and modern jazz approach. Jess lays keys. This is an excellent quality live recording mixed and mastered from the soundboard and perhaps the best live  performance by this short-lived trio.

available at CDbaby.com
for music clips and purchase

 

This collection of piano improvisation represents taoist practice in sound. Jess Rowland turns off all her electronic devices for a change, and goes back to basics: free-form explosions like a Sun Ra organ blast, unexpected tonalities like Schoenberg, and crisp edges like Cecil Taylor, it's crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Jess plays her unique form of "stream-of-consciousness composition" inspired by the I Ching symbol for Water (number 29), action through inaction, as the symbol represents "staying true to oneself under all conditions."

Music Clips:      Water 3             Water12

 

 

More music available through the (sort of) complete Back-Catalogue

 

The Lifeboat Is On Fire  (2002)

The Lifeboat Is On Fire    is sure to leave you speaking backwards in Esperanto. Don’t worry, the Esperanto part wears off, though learning a new language is always useful and personally fulfilling. The music, however, leaves a lasting neural imprint.


available at CDbaby
for music clips and purchase