Jessica Moss

Fuelled by a burning social and political conscience, the Canadian violinist and conceptualist turns protest into music.

After years of recording and touring with collaborative post-rock outfits Silver Mt. Zion and Black Ox Orkestar, Montreal-based violinist and composer Jessica Moss never intended to go solo. But when a remote collaboration nudged her into the practice room alone, she uncovered something unexpected. “I discovered a voice inside me that wouldn’t shut up. It was something shaped by years of collaboration, but never before expressed alone,” she reflects.

What began as a side project quickly evolved into a new creative venture. Assuming total artistic control, Moss found the freedom to pursue detail and nuance with a newfound intensity. “I could practice as long as I wanted, obsess over the tiniest details. No one was going to complain.”

Her solo work continues the urgency and political consciousness that defined her earlier bands. “The emotional intensity of the audience mirroring ours on stage was a real revelation,” she says of her time in Silver Mt. Zion. “Now, being the one to invite that exchange from the stage feels like a responsibility. Maybe this is my one true skill? And if so, I will respect it.”

On her latest album, 'Unfolding', the music is built through improvisation inspired by recent political upheavals and conflicts and then layered into dense emotional landscapes. “My albums always begin with a burning idea,” says Moss. “I need to express. I can’t make music unless there’s that heat behind it. From there, a lot of the process happens in my head before I ever press record.”

She continues, “I create the palette through improvisation, and then paint with it. The narrative tells me what to do while I’m working on it.”

The second half of 'Unfolding' is her most conceptual work to date: a four-part composition she describes as an “internal landscape designed like a weather system the listener moves through.” The piece ends with the choral cry of “until all are free” that’s meant to be sung collectively beyond the realms of recorded formats. In the face of genocide and late-stage capitalism, Moss says, “the best thing I could put into the world was something people could sing together.”

For Moss, the lines between personal and political are inseparable. “I wouldn’t even know where that line is in myself.”

- Julian Marszalek

See www.jessicamoss.net for more details and live dates.