Jay Gambit is an American artist, composer and designer living and working between Brooklyn and Philadelphia.
After a decade performing and releasing as a fixture in the American experimental music scene with releases on labels like Fusty Cunt and Chondritic Sound with his Crowhurst project, an unlikely partnership with Gavin Bryars sparked a pivot to more composed and symphonic work.
Most recent endeavors include the score to ‘The Last Hillbilly’ which premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2020 and the upcoming THORNS project with multimedia artist Gage Lindsten.
Additionally, he was the vocalist of the post-punk band Executioner’s Mask which released albums on Profound Lore Records and A La Carte/Summer Darling and contributor to albums from Dragged Into Sunlight, White Ward, Fawn Limbs, Sleepwalker & Culted.
About
For better and/or worse… a brief timeline.
2011-2013: Interviewing bands for MaximumRockNRoll, playing with a noise rock band called Drug Ring at house shows in Philadelphia. Design contributor for Three One G Records creating flyers for Dead Cross, Retox and the book ‘Born Upside Down’ by Becky DiGiglio and Justin Pearson.
2012-2015: Working, living in Los Angeles. Doing occasional page layout work for Hustler Magazine. Volunteering at Cinefamily. Releasing tapes on Chondritic Sound, Fusty Cunt, Nice Dreams Records amongst others with splits and collaborations with Foie Gras, Dreamcrusher, and Asher White. Performer at David Kordansky Gallery as part of the ‘Intersist’ show curated by David Schafer. Curator of the ‘Try To Forget’ show at Glitter Death Gallery and ‘Inferno’ at Human Resources DTLA. Festival appearances include Sux by Suxwest 4 & 5, International Noise Conference LA, Wonder Valley Noise Festival and early shows with Wreck and Reference, The Body, and Full Of Hell.
2015-2019: The trilogy of Crowhurst metal albums begins with the Jack Shirley produced ‘I’ which features contributions from Eugene Robinson of Oxbow and Buñuel which received universal acclaim from Decibel, Noisey and the general blogosphere. This was followed by ‘II’ which was met with even more acclaim from a more mainstream publications like The Creator’s Project, and concluded with the Kurt Ballou produced ‘III’ - widely considered one of the defining heavy albums of the 2020’s and praised by Whatculture, PopMatters, Revolver and countless others.
These albums were supported by additional remixes and collaborations with noise legends like Vomir, Black Leather Jesus, Gnaw Their Tongues, and Controlled Bleeding. Performances supporting these albums included appearances at Black Kvlt Fest IV (Miami), Austin Terror Fest (Austin), Northwest Terror Fest (Seattle), Days Of Darkness 2 (Baltimore), Damnation Festival (Leeds), SWR Metalfest (Portugal), and two performances at Roadburn Festival (Tilburg) before the pandemic concluded the run.
Legendary archival label Prophecy Productions acquires the rights to the full 80+ album Crowhurst back catalog.
2019-2024: An unlikely friendship is sparked from a composition class with Gavin Bryars and results in the collaborative album ‘Incoherent American Narrative'‘. This was followed by their first commissioned score to the documentary ‘The Last Hillbilly’ which premiered as part of the ACID program at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival and contributions to Robbie Smith’s existential horror film ‘Grieve’.
Simultaneously, they took on the role as lyricist and vocalist of the post-punk project Executioner’s Mask which released two albums on Profound Lore Records and was remixed by members of Deafheaven, Xiu Xiu and Kontravoid amongst a laundry list of others. Their final record was presented with art by Gerald Scarfe - best known for their iconic cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’.
2025-beyond: Wouldn’t you like to know?
Current Projects
Crowhurst - THORNS (in production)
Djeliya - Original Motion Picture Score (post-production)
Experiments
I’m always taking commissions to do weird, new stuff.
Maybe we can do weird, new stuff together.
Write me an email at jaygambit@gmail.com.
If all else fails, you can send me a singing telegram.
Contact