16th June 2012 / 19:30
Barbican Hall
www.barbican.org.uk/music/event
Tickets: £15 - 22.50

A spectacular collaboration which underlines the fluidity, freedom and maverick brilliance of Norway's thriving music scene

Jaga Jazzist are unclassifiable, a 10-piece Norwegian collective whose music rampages across boundaries, combining jazz, electronics, post-rock and more with exhilarating energy and precision. Jaga are amazing live, they make the vast majority of live acts seem creatively stagnant and lethargic in comparison. Ever since their beginnings Jaga have been a band who search for something sonically different, a quest that's been going on for a decade now. Their live show was voted as the 6th best gig of the year in the Observer Music Monthly in 2003, behind Radiohead's legendary Glastonbury performance but before Bob Dylan at the Shepherds Bush Empire.

Their more recent project,the album titled 'One Armed Bandit' (released through Ninja Tune Records in 2009),  has been called, "...what all modern forward-thinking bands should aspire to be" by BBC Music and "intoxicating" by Q Magazine. The album takes influence from the afro-beat stylings of Fela Kuti and funnels it through Jaga's own style to present to a live audience an exhilarating performance that is above all, unique. For this one-off show, they'll perform new versions of songs from all four of their albums in specially-commissioned, widescreen orchestral arrangements. The concert also includes the first UK performance of 'Kaleidoscopic', a radiant and sublimely beautiful 35-minute long composition for orchestra and electronics written by Jaga Jazzist's creative lynchpin Lars Horntveth.

Praise for Jaga Jazzist

 "An exhilarating example of what man, brass and machines are capable of." -Observer

“Walking a fine line between being leftfield and hook-laden, Jaga Jazzist have delivered another selection of epic, psychedelic sojourns through electronics, brass and beats that consistently engage and excite.” -Music OMH 5/5

"A deft mix of electronica, Zappa-like humour and dance beats." -The Times

"Where they once twisted jazz into jagged, exciting forms, now Jaga are taking rock in whole new directions too. Marvellous" -The Metro