Jesse Olsen Bay

sound maker

RELEASES

weather/weight (2022) 8 instrumental tracks, improvised live in the dance studio. Guitar, voice, percussion, piano, and electronics...spacious, drifting music, full of unusual sounds and surprising twists and turns.

greenest leaves (2017) 9 quiet, intimate songs, written and slowly shaped over six years, and recorded in a single night in an old barn. Solo voice and guitar with crickets and frogs. Ruminations on life as a father and husband, seeking beauty and solace in dreams, trees, love, grief, the everyday.

Makings (2014) 20 songs based on unpublished writings by my grandmother, acclaimed author/activist Tillie Olsen. An evocative weave of voice, guitar, piano, percussion, toy instruments and found objects brings Tillie's words to life.

Ojito (2009) Folk songs, minimalist soundscapes, lo-fi experimentation, and field recordings collaged in reflection and dialogue with the landscape of New Mexico's high desert. Much of Ojito consists of recordings made on a hand-held tape recorder while wandering the hills and arroyos, later digitized, edited, and collaged to form the album's skeleton. "The thoughtful turns of expression, the playful interaction between words and silence, make for though-provoking and emotional music..." - North Bay Bohemian

3 Aerial Dances EP (2013) 3 songs and ambient interludes written for the Ann Hamilton Tower in Geyserville, CA.

COLLABORATIONS

CURRENT

Ramon & Jessica - eclectic singer-songwriter duo w/ Dina Maccabee

Miners - folk excavations / extrapolations

Myrtle Street Klezmer - ecstatic Klezmer

O Ksenos - traditional Greek folk music and Rembetika

Goode & Eivel - cozy and raw

Montague Marching Band - community music and mobile dance party


ART-HIVAL

Open Graves - site-specific electro-acoustic improvisation (with Paul Kikuchi)

Gazelles