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Jaga Jazzist Premiere Live in Session Performance of “Oban”

Fans of the eclectic Norwegian jazz collective Jaga Jazzist are likely struggling to not let the anticipation for their newest record’s June 1 release date hit a breaking point,

9 years ago

Fans of the eclectic Norwegian jazz collective Jaga Jazzist are likely struggling to not let the anticipation for their newest record’s June 1 release date hit a breaking point, and as one of those fans, I can attest to just how difficult that’s proving to be. While the stellar title track from Starfire has been released in advance to tide us over, time has shown again and again that there’s no predicting the immense ground the group can cover over the course of a single record. With the album release only a few days away, Jaga have now released a live-in-session performance of “Oban” in association with Oslo Sessions. Check it out after the jump!

You can watch the entire gorgeously-shot video of it on Oslo Sessions’s website. It bears mentioning that in what was a rather strange move, the Todd Terje remix of “Oban” was released to the public well before the actual track — however, the actual album version as performed here sounds less overly trance-infused, and somewhat closer to an electronic take on the sound exhibited on their 2005 effort What We Must. That’s admittedly not the best description of the entire performance of the song, which spans over ten minutes in length, but one would be hard-pressed to find an account that gives the nuances of a Jaga song of this scale justice without having a word count nearing that of a research paper — plus, Nick does a better job than I do to begin with in his excellent review of Starfire.

The only real downside to the performance that I can think of is that the interviews with Jaga masterminds Lars and Martin Horntveth on either end of the video are presently in unsubtitled Norwegian. For now, I’m trying to tell myself that not understanding how the duo work the songwriting magic they do only adds to the enjoyment in a sense. (Though I guess it would be nice to know. Anyone want to start learning Norwegian with me?)

Starfire comes out June 1st on Ninja Tune. In the meantime, please pray for me and the scores of Jaga fans worldwide, as the anticipation is likely about to burst through my chest and star in its own James Cameron-directed franchise. Or you could pre-order the album over at Ninja Tune’s store. Maybe even both!

-AH

Ahmed Hasan

Published 9 years ago