Musician, composer, and forward thinking artist Jessica Roch wants to connect to an audience at a human level. She wants her music to feel organic, alive, and connect emotionally as much as it does intellectually. The London-based musician weaves and guides us through everything from jazz to folk to experimental to ambient music within her compositions, taking the listener on a sonic journey.
Jessica Roch has just released Human Music: Live Improvisations I, her debut record with Indianapolis, IN-based ambient label Past Inside The Present. The record collects live, improvisatory performances from 2022 through 2025 in various venues; concert halls, intimate venues, and assembly rooms across London. These are striking, poignant, and eloquent pieces of music that touch on everything from Max Richter to Zoë Keating to Steve Reich to William Basinski, but always feels singular and distinct.
When discussing Human Music: Live Improvisations I Roch explains it like this: “This album is an unambiguous protest and rejection of AI-generated “music”. It is imperfect, it is raw and it is unpredictable. That is the beauty of live improvisation. It is innately human.”
That raw and unpredictable nature comes through elegantly on opener “London Live Session, Oct. ’25”. Delicate piano notes waver in the air, which builds with layered vocals, strings, and electronics into an otherworldly delight. Likewise, “Threadsafe King’s Cross, Dec. ’24” opens on bubbling synths which lead into layers of string and ambient touches that gives it all a dream-like feel.
Each piece holds an almost spiritual heaviness to it, but without kneeling to any one God or religion. If anything, they feel like tomes for the Human Condition, an escape into a secular church where worship is replaced by love for our fellow humans. “St. John On Bethnal Green, Oct. ’24” aches in longing through simple strings and sparse cinematic touches, while “Liquid Light Session One and Two” bring to mind green pastures, open skies, and mournful folk ballads. We close on “Howard Assembly Room, Leeds Jun. ’24”, a sublime work of strings, piano, and electronics.
Human Music: Live Improvisations I is a gorgeous work of human creativity, connection, and the hopeful thought that music is best experienced in a room full of fellow humans listening to magic be made before their ears. Hands to keys, fed by heart and mind.
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