Jarboe

Jarboe explains that her original idea for the cover of the remix set Dissected (The Living Jarboe) was "me lying on an autopsy table nude with some organs removed." But as she collaborated on the design with photographer Cedric Victor-DeSouza, it evolved into something less elaborate: her face with a sewn-up gash running from forehead to chin. "That seems less gory or industrial."

Gory and industrial are words that could be used to describe her former band, Swans. As well as punk, sexy, debauched, and plain goddamn house-shaking loud. In her 14-year partnership with Swans founder Michael Gira, singer and keyboardist Jarboe — who plays the Jorge Hernández Cultural Center this Tuesday — was responsible for some of the creepiest, most strident music in American rock. Although the New York City–based band mellowed and expanded their sound as they grew, their trademark remains a churning caterwaul — alleviated by the more colorful melodic and ambient interests Jarboe introduced to Gira — mated to lyrics about exploitation and dominance.

So it’s a little surprising when Jarboe proves to be such a cheery presence over the phone from a hotel room in Portland, Oregon, one of the stops on her first major US club tour, her voice further sweetened by the honey tones of a slight Southern accent that’s the result of her Mississippi upbringing. Although maybe it shouldn’t be. There was always an undercurrent of humor in Swans songs like "Raping a Slave" and "Red Velvet Wound." And since that band broke up, Jarboe has been intent on exploring her broad musical interests. "My own identity as an artist is much different from Swans. Being a studio musician and playing in a lounge band before I met Michael and growing up exposed to church music, I’ve been through a lot musically, and I’m having fun now rediscovering my reference points and trying to incorporate more and more elements of classic rock in my sets. I’m doing an interpretation of ‘Reason To Live’ by Kiss on this tour. I was invited to play an industrial festival in Greece, and I’m going to work up a Led Zeppelin cover for that because I know they’re not going to expect it."

Jarboe has crafted her own surreal playground of dance music, ambient experiments, and soaring ephemera on five solo discs. And she’s continued to explore themes of sexuality and identity that are often summed up visually by her CD covers, including the photo of herself nude except for a chastity belt adorned with vicious hooks on 2000’s Anhedoniac (The Living Jarboe). Another liberation point was establishing herself as an Internet-based artist (www.thelivingjarboe.com) so she wouldn’t be label-dependent. But right now what seems to be moving Jarboe again is collaboration. On this tour she’s backed by the intriguing Italian ambient rock experimentalists Larsen, who record for Gira’s Young Gods Records. There’s also a new DVD, Krzykognia (The Living Jarboe), of a March 2003 Jarboe/Larsen performance in Gda<t-70>´<t$>nsk. And she’s almost finished an album of duets recorded with male artists, including Ministry’s Bill Rieflin, Einstürzende Neubauten’s Bliza Bargeld, guitarist David Torn, and singer Iva Davies of Icehouse.

"My next step," she says, "is going to be a CD of me alone — my piano and guitar and voice. I have to complete the duets as a kind of filter to center myself. You have to be centered in yourself to do something as stripped down as just one instrument and your voice."

Jarboe and Larsen, with opener Thalia Zedek, play the Jorge Hernández Cultural Center, 85 West Newton Street, at 8 p.m. this Tuesday, August 19; call (617-927-0061.