Vesper Sparrow

Description

JJJJJerome Ellis's work flourishes in the spaces between silence and possibility. A Black, disabled artist of Grenadian and Jamaican descent, they weave soundscapes from saxophone, organ, dulcimer, electronics, and their voice. Improvisation is at the heart of their practice: Ellis sculpts sound as if it were marble, revealing unforeseen forms. Navigating between recorded music, performance, theater, multimedia installation, and spoken word, they build an interdisciplinary body of work that honors both time and their experience of stuttering. With Vesper Sparrow (Shelter Press), their second album, Ellis continues to explore the connections between music, stuttering, and Black identity. Inspired by Black religious tradition and family heritage, the album is built on a unique structure: a recording of stuttering that becomes the pivot of the four-part composition Evensong, before giving way to two central pieces, "Vesper Sparrow" and "Black-Throated Sparrow." For Ellis, the suspension of time through stuttering or granular synthesis opens new ways of inhabiting and sharing the moment. Recognized by critics and international institutions, Ellis's debut album The Clearing (2021) was awarded the Anna Rabinowitz Prize. Their works have been presented at the Venice Biennale, the Whitney Museum, the Rewire Festival, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A recipient of a Fulbright scholarship and a Creative Capital Grant, Ellis now lives in a monastery in Virginia, where they pursue their dream: to build a sound bath house, a space for communion and transformation through listening.