Jess Bryant is a Londoner and someone to whom music matters hugely. You have only to see her at a gig watching other bands with quiet intensity, and that is even more apparent when she is performing.
Jess has been playing and singing since childhood. Her style might loosely be called new-folk but that hardly does justice to the complexity of her work.
I first saw Jess performing on the venerable Tamesis Dock. a quaint floating barge handily situated on the river in the shadow of the Security Service’s bizarre orange monolith, around 18 months ago. It was the first of several times I have seen her, there was something way beyond the average to keep drawing me back. On that first occasion, she declared that she was burning bridges, or at least for the time being putting away her folk guitar and from here on it, it would be the breadth of a full band all the way.
What she produces, full band or bedroom studio, is intricate and suits her very special and resonant voice, the vocals providing a still centre to a soundscape filled with glittery charm.
Jess has been honing her debut album ‘Silvern’ with perfectionist intent. We’ve been lucky to have a sneak preview, and the music is beautifully strange and hypnotic, centred on her that voice and filled with what sounds uncannily like modern jazz played by toy soldier drummer boys in a music box.
I asked Jess for some biographical introduction, and this is what she had to tell us about herself. It’s a big story in a few words
“Bare facts are: grew up in London. My childhood was full of music and music making. I studied classical singing, piano, violin and for a while I thought I might go to music college to study singing. But I felt the need to write my own songs and that drew me away from the strictly classical world I was in. I taught myself guitar around 15 and started writing songs and learning guitar. So the guitar playing evolved as the songs evolved. I was very anarchic in my approach i.e. no theory, no scales, no sight reading as I was in a way rebelling against that context.
I had lived and breathed that way of approaching music and I wanted something fresh. I lived in Edinburgh for 5 years, studying at the university. Initially I started out doing a music degree but again found my creativity was stifled. I wanted to write music not study it. I switched to Philosophy, a joy to study, and made music making my evening pastime. I started playing on the acoustic scene as a solo performer. After moving to London I still played for a long while as a solo acoustic performer. It was only after finishing the album that I realised I needed to form a band to really try and play the album live. I had not intended to create a full band sound but it was just the way it grew in the studio. ”
The album is set for release in June, so we’ll be back before then with a full review. In the meantime, here is a track recorded live at the Daylight Music sessions in London’s Union Chapel
