2020 · Album
Pyramid
Brainfeeder · Released: 7 August 2020 · Peak chart position: Number 47, UK Independent Albums Chart
Eight Voices Ascending into Electronics
Jaga Jazzist's most adventurous record yet, folding synthesis into their established collective sound.
By 2020, Jaga Jazzist had spent nearly two decades building a reputation as one of Europe's most muscular large ensembles—tight, propulsive, architecturally ambitious. Pyramid marks a genuine shift: not a reinvention, but a deliberate loosening, a willingness to let electronic texture drift through the ensemble's foundation. The addition of David Wallumrød on analog synthesizer is the surface-level evidence, but the real move is subtler. The eight-piece still swings and locks as expected, but there's now space for something to float above or beneath the groove—something that wasn't there before.
The record breathes differently than earlier Jaga Jazzist work. Tracks develop through layering rather than through the head-body-head clarity of straight-ahead jazz arrangement. Wallumrød's synth work never dominates; it infiltrates, adds color, sometimes creates friction with the acoustic horns and rhythm section. This could have felt like a genre exercise, a "jazz plus electronica" checkbox. Instead, it feels organic to where the band was headed. The songs still have shape and momentum. What's changed is the air around them.
AllMusic awarded it four stars, and the record's appeal extends beyond the Jaga Jazzist faithful—this is their most accessible music without sacrificing the harmonic and rhythmic density that longtime listeners expect. It's not a departure that demands you forget what came before. It's what a maturing ensemble sounds like when it's brave enough to invite something unfamiliar into the room and trust the result.
Who's playing
David Wallumrødadditional, analog synthesizer
