Jaga Jazzist - Live With Britten Sinfonia (Album Review)
Thursday, 02 May 2013
Written by Ben Bland
The old cliché is that live albums are rarely essential and, to be fair, there is a certain degree of mileage in that. Does anyone really need Metallica to release another live DVD where they play the same setlist again, but this time in Peru? Didn’t think so. On the other side of the equation, however, some live albums really do act as valuable documentations of moments in a band’s career, whether the visual element is included or not, and ‘Live with Britten Sinfonia’ may just do that for Jaga Jazzist.
The Norwegian post-jazz (forgive me) heavyweights are, after all, one of the most consistently thrilling acts to have emerged in the twenty-first century thus far. Their blending of classic jazz traits with those of electronica, post-rock and progressive rock has earned them the chance to potentially mess it all up with an orchestra if nothing else. Not that ‘Live with Britten Sinfonia’ does see the band mess up.
In fact, if anything the orchestral addition to their sound rendered on this album only works in their favour, beefing up their already diverse and fascinating textural palate. Critiques may argue that the addition of the Sinfonia adds nothing but extra power to a piece like ‘Oslo Skyline’, but when that track’s climatic peaks are performed with the kind of gravity domineering force on display here it seems churlish to offer any negativity. The fact is, it sounds unfathomably brilliant throughout.
As much as anything the Sinfonia itself deserves praise here for the way they manage to adeptly, and discretely, meld into some of Jaga Jazzist’s more brain frying compositional moments. Overall, though, this is still the moment of one very important band from Norway, and listening back to it brings that shiver of excitement one associates with all good live albums. There’s just the added bonus that the music on offer is some of the best you could possibly hope to find anywhere in the world.
‘Live with Britten Sinfonia’ is out on Monday 6th May via Ninja Tune.
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The Norwegian post-jazz (forgive me) heavyweights are, after all, one of the most consistently thrilling acts to have emerged in the twenty-first century thus far. Their blending of classic jazz traits with those of electronica, post-rock and progressive rock has earned them the chance to potentially mess it all up with an orchestra if nothing else. Not that ‘Live with Britten Sinfonia’ does see the band mess up.
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