Seventeen year old Jessica Lees, a 6th form student at Lymm High school, has recently collaborated on the soundtrack for a documentary about the life of the Danish artist Asger Jorn to mark the occasion of what would have been his 100th birthday.

London based composer and producer, Mike Woolmans, formerly a member of Steve Wright’s legendary Radio 1 ‘posse’, was commissioned to write a soundtrack to reflect the often abstract work of the late artist. In keeping with this concept, he used an abstract musical technique called ‘granular synthesis’. This involved recording Jessica’s vocals and then breaking up the sound, shattering it like grains of sand then reassembling it to take on the quality of an instrumental piece. Whilst it sounds like an orchestra, all of the elements of the music are constructed from layers of Jessica’s voice.

The documentary, entitled ‘Man siger ikke nej til Asger’ (You do not say no to Asger)

was premiered at The National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen in late February in the presence of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.

The soundtrack made such an impression on those in attendance that after the event, the director of the documentary Lene Hansen of Nordisk Films, reported that she had been approached by members of the audience asking if the music was available to purchase.

Jessica, who live in Lymm, studies fashion and performing arts and also regularly works as a catwalk model covering local wedding, fashion and prom dress shows. (She is also a fully qualified lifeguard!)

Working around her studies, Jessica continues to explore her potential in both fashion and music. Mike considers her to be a bright prospect for the future and is working on composing some songs exclusively for her which he says will, ‘definitely be in a more traditional vocal form’ and are to be released later this year.