Opened Ending by Jessica Moss

released October 15, 2020
Music composed, performed, recorded and mixed in the jamspace and at home by Jessica Moss

Film by Jem Cohen

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ARTIST STATEMENT:

 I’ve been thinking so much about mourning lately. About how we are all in it, one way or another. About how so many of us don’t have any way to ‘actively’ participate in mourning, outside of our own individual internal pain. This has been a deeply important element of performance to me – the desire to create a place for a shared moment of reflection, alone and free with one’s thoughts while simultaneously being surrounded by people who may be feeling something same.

Of course I miss this with my whole heart. 

I wish for us to find new ways to mourn together – to share some of this commonality with each other. I believe being true to these feelings can bring a renewed energy to carry on...

Since I was a kid, Jewish music has represented a kind of unspecified mourning to me. Engendering a profound sense of sadness, death, and a deep connection to renewal, to this day it’s the music I feel the deepest affinity with.
I’ve been involved in Jewish music projects before – in particular Black Ox Orkestar, which remains very close to my heart – but this is the first time I am releasing something alone from that place. I guess it’s time.

I have been an admirer, collaborator, and friend of the filmmaker Jem Cohen for near two decades now; that he agreed to come up with some images for this piece of music is a dream come true. Beyond their quiet beauty, I’ve always found Jem’s images raise a sense of mournfulness, have so much sadness and/but love for the world at their heart. I walk away from watching Jem’s work with eyes opened anew, heavy heart but dreaming...I hope a nine-minute glimpse of a world through his gentle eyes will leave you in some similar place. – Jessica Moss