Hannah Marcus is a songwriter and “recent olfactory experimenter” who was born and raised in Manhattan, NY. Coming from a Classical music background, Marcus’ grandfather was the pianist and composer Ernst Levy.

She applied herself to songwriting in earnest after moving to the Bay Area, then Los Angeles, and producing the songs documented in upcoming release The Hannah Marcus Years: 1993 – 2004.

This is “a representative collection of material” that Marcus produced over that time period. It is being digitally released through Bar-None records this April. The compilation includes work Marcus made with members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, drummer/producer Tim Mooney (of Toiling Midgets American Music Club and The Sleepers), Mark Kozelek, and others. 

After moving back to New York, Marcus did the soundtrack for the documentary Refrigerator Mothers about the plight of mothers of children with autism growing up in the late 50s and early 60s. She also formed the band The Wingdale Community Singers with author Rick Moody and guitarist/composer/polymath David Grubbs. They released 3 albums together between 2005 and 2013.   

Marcus shifted gears and for a number of years focused her musical attention on studying traditional fiddle and Cajun accordion. After returning to performance, she played accordion, fiddle and prepared guitar on Matana Roberts’ record “Coin Coin Chapter 4” and toured with Roberts in the winter of 2022. 

Marcus has a “Cajun-esque” band called Red Aces and also a Noise duo called WIntersea Playboy with guitarist Olli Hirvonen. Marcus has lately been involved with olfactory art and has been exploring “scent-inflected sound performances”, including “the olfactory divination ritua” Citromancy performed in several iterations in New York (at Olfactory Art Keller with WIntersea Playboy) and in Los Angeles (in conjunction with The Institute for Art and Olfaction’s “Scent Week”) in 2023.   

Another collection of unreleased material recorded at the Hotel2Tango will be available in late Summer on streaming and vinyl under the title Ten Bones from a Virgin Graveyard.  Marcus is also set to record some new material in Montreal in May 2024 with Radwan Moumneh. She is working on a mixed media song cycle about “19th century chemistry, vitalism and the advent of synthetic scent molecules.”