Jessica Moss is a violinist, composer, and solo performer based in Montréal. With over two decades of work in experimental music, she first came to prominence as a member of Thee Silver Mt. Zion and co-founder of Black Ox Orkestar. Since 2015, she has focused primarily on solo composition and performance, creating music shaped by live improvisation, deep listening, and a belief in the concert as a space for reflection and shared experience.
Moss’s solo performances are built from violin, voice, bells, loopers, and effects pedals, all operated live without pre-programmed sequences or computers. Her setup, designed by modifying equipment originally built for electric guitar, allows for dynamic shifts between stillness and intensity, melody and noise. Each performance responds to the room and its audience, unfolding slowly in real time.
Her sixth solo album, Unfolding (Constellation, October 2025), grows out of this approach. Developed over several years of touring, the album takes longform ambient structure as a starting point, using repetition and dissonance not as goals, but as part of an evolving musical logic. The record culminates in a choral piece based on the phrase “none are free until all are free,” with versions composed for both trained and community voices.
