The Cello That's Not A Cello

I remember the first time I heard cellist Clarice Jensen’s music. She’s a Juilliard grad. Started playing at three. Ensembles and symphonies. I thought I knew what I was in for. The record player was spinning and I sat down on the couch. It was lucky I did. The music blew me away.

To describe her music is basically impossible. It’s not classical, or ambient either. She told me it should elicit “meditation and disorientation.” Critics have described her music as “foghorn-like” or “wheezy squeezebox” or my favorite, “small tornados of Bach toccatas.”

They don’t know how to describe it, and neither do I. But I'll tell you this: she busted through the glass ceiling of classical music and soars with drones of uncomfortable lasting beauty. I was excited to find out that when I interviewed her and listened to her perform live in our studios, I felt exactly the same.

I left exhausted and exhilarated — and eager to find more musicians who hack apart the barriers between musical genres.

—Charles