With a deep and eclectic love of music, Jelly Cleaver is heavily involved in both the jazz and DIY/post-punk scenes in London. She’s previously released on taste-maker labels Nice Swan (Sports Team, Pip Bloom, English Teacher) and Gearbox Records (Binker and Moses, Theon Cross). She also runs regular jam nights at Windmill Brixton, the breeding ground for bands like Black Midi and Shame, which have been called “joyful” and “intimate” by Jazzwise.
Jelly’s also an activist, and a strain of political dissent runs through her music. During the lockdown, she helped develop a workshop on Anti-racism which she delivered to Extinction Rebellion groups across the country as well as presenting the workshop at Brainchild Festival. Her recent project Cosmovisions builds from these radical roots, imagining a world where humankind can live in harmony with nature and itself.
There’s no way a single listen will be enough to take in all the layers of “Cosmovisions“, the latest genre-melding single from guitarist, producer, and singer-songwriter Jelly Cleaver. With an opening bass line that would feel right at home on Herbie Hancock’s Thrust, Cleaver’sarrangement quickly expands into a rich galaxy of R&B harmonies sung over jazz melodies, cascading harps, electric piano, and strings that reveal more of themselves with each visit.
“I was inspired to write this song after reading Arturo Escobar’s book ‘Designs for the Pluriverse’. It’s such a beautiful book and the idea of Cosmovisions he described left a lasting impression on me. I hope this song can inspire other people too,” says the artist.
