Clarice Jensen

Clarice Jensen’s mesmerizing avant-garde cello playing has seen her work with numerous artists, from Jóhann Jóhannsson and Max Richter through to Beck and Joanna Newsom. While also being the artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, Jensen has found time to release her own work, most notably 2020′s The experience of repetition as death and 2022′s captivating Esthesis.
Based in New York, Jensen graduated from the performing-arts institute the Juilliard School after studying under the American cellists Harvey Shapiro and Joel Krosnick. Finding her own unique sound by processing her cello through guitar pedals and electronics, her shape-shifting style caught the ears of numerous artists. Lending her talents to the likes of Jónsi, Mono, and Dustin O'Halloran, amongst others, her work could be heard on countless recordings throughout the 2010s, but it wasn’t until 2018 that Jensen made her own debut with the release of For This from That Will Be Filled on Berlin-based label Miasmah. The four-track release, which included a piece co-written with Jóhann Jóhannsson, brought Jensen’s unique playing style to the fore, setting her apart from the burgeoning experimental drone and neo-classical scene. The EP Drone Studies appeared the following year before she inked a deal with Fat Cat Records offshoot 130701. Although recorded in 2018, Jensen’s debut for the label, The experience of repetition as death, appeared in late 2019, with the deeply personal release — written while her mother was dying from leukemia — earning plaudits for its encompassing sound. Alongside her own work, Jensen still found time to score for movies such as 2020′s Sin Señas Particulares and 2021′s No Man of God, collaborate with Max Richter and Balmorhea, and serve as artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. In late 2022, Jensen issued her third album, Esthesis. Inspired in part by the phenomena of chromesthesia — in which sound involuntarily evokes an experience of color, movement, and shape — the album saw Jensen adding synths, piano, and vocals to her already evocative mix of cello and electronics. ~ Rich Wilson