PYRAMID

I cherish the previous three albums of the Jaga Jazzist a lot. In fact, "What We Must" for me is one of the best albums of the 2000s. I like the powerful big arrangements, and how all the musicians come together in one big stream that however still leaves room for some subtleties, majestic rather than heavy; also their melodies have a capacity to stay in my mind for long, and to take me with them.

Pyramid is maybe their most relaxed album (at least of the later ones). There are still eight musicians listed for this one, but over large parts of the album we hear say 3-5 at a time, so somewhat more space is left for escaping the stream of things, which also takes more time to kick in during the four pretty long and slowly developing instrumental tracks. It seems they wanted to integrate some post rock elements in here; there are also some electronic elements (particularly in Apex with its sequenced synthesizer rhythm that at time sounds a bit like the 2019 Battles album I just reviewed yesterday). Some of the best moments come when a sparse rhythmic beginning is re-interpreted and changed in a surprising yet logical manner when new instruments come in, for example in the build up of Spiral Era and The Shrine.

However, the typical Jaga Jazzist elements like the breezy nordic woodwind and brass melodies are still there. Arrangements are leaner than before but still the musicality works well putting together very organic and natural sounding music. So I can well imagine both Jaga Jazzist fans and people with a melodic post rock or also somewhat jazz influenced background enjoying this, and actually I do, too. It is indeed very nice and relaxing music. This one issue I have with this is that the amount of ideas and variation isn't much for 39 minutes of music. It's a good album from beginning to end, still I somehow feel that they might have put only 30-50% of the energy and work into this than into their previous efforts, with some of the best parts harking back to their earlier albums, for which reason I will only give this 3.2 stars. Anyway its nature may appeal to some and may even make it an entry point to the great Jaga Jazzist if you come from the right direction.