jade tree

jade tree is the instrumental alias of Canadian-born, San Francisco-based artist, Cara Best. With a background in songwriting, sound design, and psychotherapy, she blends vibey melodies, field recordings, and thick drums into warm, cinematic grooves. She produces using Ableton Live, Push 2, an SP-404 and weaving in recordings captured with a Zoom H5. Her music lives somewhere between chillhop, lo-fi hip hop, and jazzy boom bapAs a Tracklib sound supplier and sample creator, she expands her palette by sharing the textures she captures and carves into her beats.

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Style & Influences

jade tree blends lo-fi hip hop, boom bap, and chillhop with analog textures and soulful layers. Influenced by producers like Marco Polo, sweeps, J Dilla, and MF DOOM, she crafts immersive soundscapes using samples, field recordings, and processed textures.Armed with a Zoom H5 and a Roland SP-404, she captures and sculpts audio — from birdsong and crosswalks to conversations and distant foghorns — especially from her walks around San Francisco. These sounds often become part of her rhythm section or layered textures, giving each beat a sense of time and place.She also creates sample packs, sharing processed textures and original loops for other beatmakers and composers.

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