Jessica Bailiff

Hailing from Toledo, Ohio, Jessica Bailiff launched her recording efforts in 1995 after forwarding a demo to Kranky Records on the recommendation of Alan Sparhawk from Low. The label issued her first album, Even in Silence, in 1998; its predominantly measured tempos, hazy production textures, and submerged vocal lines drew favorable notices that linked the work to shoegaze and slowcore. A follow-up, Hour of the Trace, appeared the next year and stayed close to the sonic approach of the debut. Bailiff’s next release, a self-titled album issued in 2002, adopted a darker tone and received enthusiastic coverage in publications devoted to experimental music, among them The Wire.

The following year she formed Clear Horizon with Dave Pearce of Flying Saucer Attack; the pair’s only album, released on Kranky, blended dense layers of white noise with indistinct folk elements. Throughout the 2000s Bailiff’s collaborative work expanded to include Odd Nosdam, Flashpapr, Casino Versus Japan, Rivulets, His Name Is Alive, and numerous additional artists. She returned with the largely acoustic Feels Like Home in 2006, an album partly shaped by 1970s British folk traditions. Old Things, a compilation of previously scarce single and anthology tracks, surfaced in 2007. Her next full-length studio effort, the enigmatically named At the Down-Turned Jagged Rim of the Sky, finally arrived in 2012.