Jaga Jazzist have an amazing new video for their track “Apex” from the group’s recently released LP Pyramid, out now on Brainfeeder. The Norwegian 8-piece self-produced their newest record, after working for years with producer/collaborator Jørgen Træen, and the result is a record that truly feels like a collective effort. Jaga Jazzist drummer and cofounder Martin Horntveth explains, “It was hard but felt natural to do ourselves, as five of us are producers and make records for a living.”
Like much of the group’s work, “Apex” is cinematic in scope as evolving melodies decisively propel the track forward with headlong momentum. The video for the cut was directed by Leif Henning Broch Johnsen and Christian Mona, and it features choreography by dancer Marianne Haugli. Cold, Brutalist architecture and dramatic landscape provide striking backgrounds here for this ultimately hopeful meditation on quarantine. The directors explain:
“Living through a pandemic, “Apex” takes up the role of a soundtrack for the merciless pressure of quarantine and isolation. It’s the perfect accompaniment for a journey into the dark reaches of our sanity, where time just floats, no matter how hard the clock works to move on. Because we all felt it – the creeping malaise tightening its grip. And then a feeling of defiance. The desire to break free from the isolation. To express ourselves and relentlessly fight on, no matter what comes in our way, or how alone we are.”
