Kuross, Jens

Kuross, Jens

Crooked Songs

Woodsist

"Who on earth is Jens Kuross?" He's been hiding in plain sight: a fumbled career as an LA session musician and songwriter, a cabinet maker in Idaho. Crooked Songs, his debut for Woodsist, is mysterious, warm, and heart-stirring. Using just voice and electric piano, the music delicately enswathed by ambient synth – minimal without losing sight of his songcraft Crooked Songs suggests an otherworldly naturalism akin to a ghost returning to earth to observe the passing of time, life, and light. A Note from Hayden Pedigo: "Back in December of 2023, after being on the road for a month opening for Devendra Banhart, I played a solo show in the basement of a Shriner lodge in Boise, Idaho. I’d never heard of Jens Kuross, a local act selected by the promoter to open the show. Before the show, we went to dinner together and he told me, 'I'm just gonna play my Wurlitzer and sing with some ambient synth stuff and see what happens.'" "An hour later, with everyone sitting on that basement floor, Jens began to play. In the first twenty seconds, my wife and I looked at each other like, 'Are you hearing what I’m hearing?' Jens played these beautiful, touching songs that sounded something like Arthur Russell-meets-Harry Nilsson. By the second song, I was in tears. It was the first live performance that ever made me cry. At the end of his set, I told my wife that it was the single best live performance I had...