PRESS
Selected Features:
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Bandcamp
Jessica Ackerley’s Interdisciplinary Approach
15 Questions Blog
15 Questions Interview with Jessica Ackerley
Guitar Moderne
Select Reviews:
The Wire Magazine: Review - September 2024 Issue "A singular compositional voice is manifested at all times" - All Of the Colours Are Singing" (AKP Recordings)
Chicago Reader: March 2024 "Honolulu guitarist Jessica Ackerley meets Chicago’s improvised music community for the first time"
The Wire Magazine: Feature - October 2023 Issue: Feature
Pitchfork: 2022 Review "While they work steadily toward a blended identity, they frequently veer off into a series of fascinating side conversations."
- "Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster" (577 Records, 2022)
The Wire Magazine: September 2022 Issue "Jessica Ackerley is one of the most exciting guitarists to have emerged from the US free music scene in recent years"
- "Across Water," "A Maneuver Within," and "Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster" triple album review
The Wire Magazine: November 2021 Issue "Jessica thinks and and plays fast when they feel like it, throwing knotting balls of notes here and there and strumming furious chords"
- "Friendship: Lucid Shared Dreams and Time Travel" with Daniel Carter (577 Records, 2021)
The Quietus "They start with nothing, but most of their careful, meticulously etched exchanges and dialogues are surprisingly tender, illuminating heightened listening and camaraderie." - "Friendship: Lucid Shared Dreams and Time Travel" with Daniel Carter (577 Records, 2021)
Neu Guitars "One of the best albums of this sad and breathless 2021. Jessica Ackerley is one of the names to follow in the coming years. Highly recommended." - "Morning/mouring" (Cacophonous Revival, 2021)
Free Jazz Blog "a rich array of guitar music styles, ranging from deliberate arpeggios to ebullient single-string firecrackers, in other words, a beautiful rush of plink-plonk and tasteful tonal clusters." - "Morning/mouring" (Cacophonous Revival, 2021)
Dusted Magazine "in their attention to tone, harmony, velocity and structure, these pieces speak as much to intellect as to emotion." - "Morning/mouring" (Cacophonous Revival, 2021)
The Wire Magazine: January 2020 Issue "For Ackerley, this session is a revelation; her playing here is much more aggressive than the jazz-rooted compositions heard on the albums she sells through her Bandcamp page.” - Bill Meyer - "Exremities" with Patrick Shiroishi (Notice Recordings, 2020)
Avant News Now "The result is an endearingly unclassifiable mix of indeterminacy and pattern, restraint and liberation, and intellect and emotion. Like so many people in modern creative music circles in this era, Ackerley and company are completely comfortable in between multiple genres. And that, along with stellar musicianship and writing, is what makes A New Kind of Water so compelling." - "A New Kind of Water" (s/r 2019)
All About Jazz "With the delightful Coalesce, Jessica Ackerley asserts her artistic identity. Her work demonstrates her independence and refusal to conform, yet it is rooted firmly in that which has influenced her. If she maintains this course Ackerley has a brilliant career ahead of her."- "Coalesce" (s/r 2017)
Jazz Right Now - "Coalesce showcases Ackerley’s ability to paint with sound, using the guitar as her medium." -"Coalesce" (s/r 2017)
Full Review List:
“Best Album of the Year” Lists
2024 ちくわ Blog (Japan): Best Albums 2024 “All Of the Colours Are Singing”
2024 Avant Music News: Best Albums 2024 “All Of the Colours Are Singing”
2024 Burning Ambulance: Best Albums 2024 “All Of the Colours Are Singing”
2024 Culture Darm: Best Albums 2024 “All Of the Colours Are Singing”
2024 Vinyl District: Best Albums 2024 “All Of the Colours Are Singing”
2024 Salt Peanuts Critics List: Best Albums 2024 “All Of the Colours Are Singing”
2024 KLOF Magazine: Best Albums 2024 “All Of the Colours Are Singing”
2023 Vinyl District: Best Release of 2023 “Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster”
2022 Bandcamp: Best Experimental Music of 2022 “A Maneuver Within”
2022 Bandcamp: Best Ambient Music: August “Across Water”
2022 Bandcamp: Best Experimental Music: May “A Maneuver Within”
2021 Vinyl District: Best Albums 2024 "Friendship: Lucid Shared Dreams and Time Travel"
2020 Bandcamp: Best Experimental Music: August “Nervios calavera en roja…”
2019 Free Jazz Blog “A New Kind of Water”
2019 Jazz Times Critics Choice “A New Kind of Water”
2017 Avant Music News “Coalesce”
2017 Jazz Right Now “Coalesce”
Reviews and Features
2024 Wire Magazine: Review “All Of the Colours are Singing”
2024 Vinyl District: Review “All Of the Colours are Singing”
2024 KLOF Magazine: Review “All Of the Colours are Singing”
2024 Salt Peanuts: Review “All Of the Colours are Singing”
2024 Avant Music News: Review “All Of the Colours are Singing”
2024 Free Jazz Blog: Review “All Of the Colours are Singing”
2024 DUSTED: Review “All Of the Colours are Singing”
2024 Chicago Reader: Artist Feature
2023 Wire Magazine: Artist Feature - October Issue
2023 I Care if Your Listen: Mutual Mentorship Festival Review2022
2022 Bandcamp Artist Feature: “Jessica Ackerley’s Interdisciplinary Approach”
2022 Pitchfork Review: SSWAN’s “Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster.”
2022 DUSTED: SSWAN’s “Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster.”
2022 The Vinyl District: SSWAN’s “Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster.”
2022 Wire Magazine (September Issue)
“Jessica is one of the most exciting guitarist to come out of the free jazz scene in the recent years.”
2022 BBC Radio Artist Feature
2022 Grammy News - Mutual Mentorship Feature
2021 The Quietus: "Friendship: Lucid Shared Dreams and Time Travel" with Daniel Carter (577 Records, 2021)
2021 The Vinyl District: "Friendship: Lucid Shared Dreams and Time Travel" with Daniel Carter (577 Records, 2021)
2021 The Wire Magazine: Review "Friendship: Lucid Shared Dreams and Time Travel" with Daniel Carter (577 Records, 2021)
2021 Neu Guitars Blog: "Morning/mourning" (Cacophonous Revival, 2021)
2021 Wire Magazine: "Morning/mourning" (Cacophonous Revival, 2021)
2021 Free Jazz Blog: "Morning/mourning" (Cacophonous Revival, 2021)
2020 The Wire Magazine: Review "Extremities" with Patrick Shiroishi (Notice
Recordings, 2020)
2020 Salt Peanuts: Review "Extremities" with Patrick Shiroishi (Notice
Recordings, 2020)
2020 Guitar Moderne: Feature Interview
2019 Avant Music News:"A New Kind of Water" (s/r 2019)
2019 The WholeNote Magazine: Feature Interview
2017 All About Jazz: "Coalesce" (s/r 2017)
2017 Jazz Right Now: "Coalesce" (s/r 2017)