Zero Cross Failure Solo album by Nora Jim
About the album
I started to polish a few songs in February 2025 and recorded them over and over again, until I had the best versions of 7 songs, featured on this album. Everything is live recorded, no overdubs and cuts. There is one exception: on the second track I added the beginning from another take (the theme is extra long in that way).
The title song „Zero Cross Failure“ is dedicated to my printer (Brother HL- 2310).
One day in 2023 my printer had a zero cross failure (a zero crossing signal detection error), which made it unusable. So a couple of days later, I was about to throw it away, as I imagined repairing this old printer, would cost me just as much as buying a new one. While removing the toner, I saw that a paper was stuck in the system. The removal led to the resurrection of the printer, it automatically did a reset and printed a test paper (which can be seen on the album cover, and which I currently sell for 12. 000 €). The line in the song „now I got a paper“, refers to this test print, but can of course be seen in a larger (or ironic) sense: When does failure lead to resurrection?
Later I found out, that “Zero Cross Failure”, besides being a term for an electronic problem, also describes a stockout in logistics. Both meanings resonate with the music on this album, and with what it could stand for.
The album combines hope with darkness, and danger with joy. The first track, „Blues 25“, a blues likely form in a 5 time signature about new years resolutions, switches constantly between a major and a minor chord, pointed out by the lyrics singing „minor, minor, major. Medium, medium levels“ and: „Sadness, satisfaction. Reset, resurrection“.
The second track of the album "Why Can't I Just Play Music" is also published on YouTube together with a melancholic music video that I filmed on the Tempelhofer Feld in the summer.
There is an extended version of the songs „I wonder why“ and a solo version of „Assumptions of the Day“ on the album. Both songs were released as singles in December 2025, Assumptions of the Day together with the saxophonist Patricio Böttcher.
The album will be released end of January on bandcamp (eventually later this year on tape). There will be a release concert at Valentinstüberl, Donaustraße 112, in Neukölln on January 31st.
The drummer Esteban Ruiz will join me on stage. Last year Esteban and me started a duo project where we improvise together on the songs and I’m very happy to be presenting the album in this open and experimental way for you.
Track List
1. Blues 25
2. Why Can’t I Just Play Music
3. Perfection Game
4. The Days are Over
5. I Wonder Why
6. Assumptions of the Day
7. Zero Cross Failure
Nora Jim
piano, voice, composition, production, cover art
