Jaga Jazzist

The Norwegian large ensemble Jaga Jazzist has drawn listeners across post-rock, progressive jazz, left-field dance, and additional genres. Composer and multi-instrumentalist Lars Horntveth directs the project, whose rotating membership draws top players from Norway’s jazz and experimental communities. Their 2001 release A Livingroom Hush laced exuberant, lyrical jazz pieces with glitches, noise textures, and breakbeat drumming while nodding to Tortoise, Charles Mingus, and Squarepusher. By contrast, 2010’s One-Armed Bandit shifted toward progressive rock with fewer electronic elements, whereas Starfire (2015) and Pyramid (2020) favored extended suites over the concise tracks of prior work.

Horntveth, the band’s chief architect and songwriter, assembled the group in 1994 at age fourteen. Their first album, Jævla Jazzist Grete Stitz, surfaced two years later and introduced Norwegian audiences to a hybrid of jazz technique, electronic eccentricity, rap, and reggae. The Magazine EP followed in 1998, yet 2001’s A Livingroom Hush earned widespread acclaim and domestic distribution through Warner Bros. Coldcut’s Ninja Tune imprint licensed the record internationally in 2002, after which BBC listeners named it Jazz Album of the Year.

Early 2003 brought the Animal Chin EP, which opened the group to U.S. audiences, and The Stix arrived soon after, emphasizing electronics alongside drum’n’bass rhythms. The more guitar-driven What We Must appeared in 2005, preceding a five-year hiatus from recording and touring. One-Armed Bandit marked their 2010 return and introduced guitarist Stian Westerhus, who departed following that session.

Their subsequent undertaking paired the ensemble with the 25-member Britten Sinfonia for a concert collaboration that expanded the expressive range of both the Norwegian collective and one of England’s leading modern classical orchestras; the resulting Live with the Britten Sinfonia was released in May 2013. Starfire, issued in 2015, comprised a cycle of pieces inspired by celestial constellations and shifting global perspectives on the stars, reflecting Horntveth’s relocation from Norway to Los Angeles. In 2017 the non-album single “Prokrastinopel” featured Swedish guitarist Reine Fiske of Dungen and Fire! Orchestra. Pyramid, a 2020 collection of four extended compositions tracked in just two weeks, stands among the band’s most impromptu statements; issued on Brainfeeder, the Los Angeles label curated by Flying Lotus, the album was self-produced.