One of the world’s most brazenly experimental composers, Swiss artist Jessie Cox makes music about the universe and our future in it. Through avant-garde classical, experimental jazz and sound art, he has devised his own strand of musical science fiction, one that asks where we go next.
Cox’s music goes forward. When he describes
it, he compares it to time travel and space exploration, likening the role of a
composer to that of a rocket ship traversing undiscovered galaxies. He is influenced by a vast array
of artists who have used their music to imagine futures, and takes Afrofuturism as a core
inspiration, asking questions about existence, and the ways we make spaces habitable. Known for its
disquieting tone and unexpected structural changes, his music steps into the unknown, and has been
referred to by the New Yorker as an example of ‘dynamic pointillism’, a nebulous and
ever-expanding sound world that includes ‘breathy instrumental noises, mournfully wailing
glissandi, and climactic stampedes of frantic figuration’.