16.05.2011 : JAGA JAZZIST + TORTOISE + FIELD MUSIC + AUSTIN PERALTA On the 2nd of June, Jaga Jazzist will do an exclusive performance in Bergen, Norway - at the festival Festspillene i Bergen. This is the first concert since the 90s where Jaga invite guest musicians to perform with them on stage, and probably the first concert ever for Jaga where they do not play exclusively Jaga Jazzist material. Guests: David William Brewis and Peter Anthony Brewis of FIELD MUSIC (UK) Dan Bitney + John McEntire + Jeff Parker of TORTOISE (US) AUSTIN PERALTA (US) Brothers David William Brewis and Peter Anthony Brewis are core members of UK act Field Music. Their 2010 album received much critical acclaim, amongst others 5 / 5 in Uncut. Jaga Jazzist saw Field Music play at the Øya festival last year, and have been big fans since then. That Jaga Jazzist are inspired by Tortoise should not come as a surprise to anyone. Jaga's last album was mixed by John McEntire, and by coincidence, Tortoise is starting their European tour in Bergen on the 3rd of June. With Tortoise already in town it was natural to invite some of their members to join in. Austin Peralta is a young classicaly trained pianist. He has performed and worked in many musical fields - both classical, jazz, hip hop, electronica, rock etc. He has cooperated with artists such as Flying Lotus and Erykah Badu. He is also the son of skate-legend Stacy Peralta. Jaga are big fans of both father and son. With this armory of musical force the audience in Bergen can expect an exclusive and explosive concert, with a lot of surprises... Say no more!

16.03.2011 : AMERICA HERE WE COME!!! AMERICA HERE WE COME!!! Finally we're coming back. Hurrrray! The dates are (more dates soon): Tue 06/21/11, Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA Wed 06/22/11, Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA Fri 06/24/11, The Triple Door, Seattle, WA Sat 06/25/11, Coastal Jazz, Vancouver, BC Tue 06/28/11, Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis, MN Wed 06/29/11, Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL Thu 06/30/11, Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, ON Sat 07/02/11 Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa, ON Sun 07/03/11, LPR, New York, NY

26.07.2010 : ROBOT ONLINE STORE Jaga Jazzist T-shirts, new Bananfluer Overalt 12", Live At Cosmopolite DVD ++ much more for sale here. Go to ROBOT and find the JJ stuff you've been looking for

23.07.2010 : JAGA JAZZIST GOES TO CHURCH Check out video of Jaga Jazzist performing a dogma version of the song "Toccata" in Tønsberg's grand church, Tønsberg Domkirke. See Even crawling on the floor doing the pedals on the church organ and Marcus playing guitar from the preachers chair This video is made by the excellent music program, NRK Lydverket. Enjoy!

09.06.2010 : BIG INTERVIEW IN PROG SPHERE "Nick: So, it’s been 5 years since you’ve released What We Must and this year you’re back in the game with a brand new album called One-Armed Bandit. Why that long break? What happened with the band during that break? Some of band members have quit. Tell us a bit more. Martin: Between 2002-2005 we toured constantly and we thought we should take a break before we started going on each other’s nerves. It was supposed to sbe a few months but it ended up being almost two years before we started to rehearse for a new album..." You read the whole thing HERE!

07.06.2010 : FREE DOWNLOAD OF BANANFLUER OVERALT EP MINIMIX You can have a taste from the upcoming remix ep. It's out July 12th on Ninja Tune. Press LINK to download the minimix Or listen here: Jaga Jazzist - 'Bananfluer Overalt' (Mini-mix) by Ninja Tune

19.05.2010 : GREAT PICTURES FROM ROCKEFELLER, OSLO 06.05.10 Photos by Robin Ottersen and Thomas Rodahl Dedekam

18.05.2010 : CHECK OUT NEW WEB RADIO SHOW WITH MARTIN HORNTVETH AS GUEST 99 Minutes #1 A new initiative from MIC Norway: a brand new webcast featuring one of Norway’s most respected music journalists and DJs; Guttorm Andreasen aka DJ99 and a carefully selected playlist offering some of the country’s finest. New and some older music by: Children and Corpse Playing in the Streets, Fjorden Baby!, Unni Løvlid Ensemble, Sternklang, Ras Nas, Elephant9, Hovedøen Social Club, Diskjokke, Jaga Jazzist, Serena Maneesh, Jøkleba, Årabrot, Niko Valkeapää, Datarock, Side Brok, Gjermund Larsen Trio LISTEN HERE!

16.05.2010 : ONE-ARMED BANDIT TOUR 2010 STAGE DECOR The making of...

12.05.2010 : FREE DOWNLOAD: NME Presents 220 v/Spektral (FINAL Mix) FREE DOWNLOAD! NME Blog presents: "Jaga Jazzist - 220 v / Spektral (FINAL Mix)" taken from the upcoming "Bananfluer Overalt EP" FINAL is the solo project of 22 year old Magnus August Hoiberg from Oslo. He writes and performs electro and disco. His first single "What U Just Said" (released late 2009 on his own label FINALBEATS) caught the attention of french label Kitsunè, who asked him to do some remixes. After that he´s done remixes for Jaga Jazzist, Lindstrom & Christabelle, Classixx, Ralph Myerz & The Jack Herren Band, with more to come. www.final.no PRESS LINK TO LISTEN

28.04.2010 : WE'RE COMING TO FUJIROCK, JAPAN WE'RE COMING TO FUJIROCK JAGA JAZZIST | MySpace-musikkvideoer

20.03.2010 : LIVE AT COSMOPOLITE DVD OUT NOW!!! A SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND RELEASE: "Jaga Jazzist is 15 years! To celebrate this anniversary we have together with the band put together a DVD to celebrate this. We're happy to announce the first ever live documentation of Jaga Jazzist in the band's career. And as Jaga Jazzist is known as a fantastic liveband, we all thought it was about time. The concert was filmed at Cosmopolite in Oslo the 4th of April 2005. The concert was directed by Marius Revold with a big film crew making this a spectacular concert film. Also included on the DVD is exclusive interviews with the band member as well as all the videos the band has ever made. And as if this was not enough, there is a special bonus track here that has never been released, but strangely enough there was made a video for this track (!). So you get a new video and a new track all in one, the beautiful “Synchronize Yr Watches”. You can buy the dvd here:

09.03.2010 : AWESOME LIVE REVIEW FROM LONDON IN MUSIC OMH "Having seen their latest album score them another Top 10 chart placing in their Scandinavian homeland, Norwegian nine-piece Jaga Jazzist have seen their stock rising on these shores too. The band's increasing popularity away from Norway, buoyed by latest long-player One-Armed Bandit, is exemplified perfectly by the crush of bodies inside the Islington Academy tonight, which is so rammed it's almost uncomfortable. But when the band, masterminded by composer Lars Horntveth, do strike up, it's clear to see how they've built such a healthy momentum. Taking over the whole stage and filling it with their presence, the nine members synchronise, breaking into their latest material. They artfully manage to concoct a musical cocktail that combines jazz with prog rock references but is drenched in melody and movement and, thankfully, lacks any self-indulgence; rather, they produce jazz with a modern twist that successfully avoids being overly noodly or pretentious. As another evolving, hook-filled epic twinkles and squirms out of the speakers, each member of the band looks lost in the moment. From the intense closed-eyed reverie of keyboard player Øystein Moen, to the ear-to-ear grin of trombonist Erik Johannessen, to madly bearded drummer, Martin Horntveth who sits at the front of the stage directing, it's this clear passion that makes Jaga Jazzist such an exciting prospect live. With each member successful in their own right, instruments are swapped, at times mid-song, betraying the clear talent and musicianship that runs throughout the band. Visually they may dance along the blurred boundaries between geek and cool but their music transcends all of that. From sax to keyboard to maraca to tuba, countless instruments are thrown into the mix, resulting in a full-bodied sound that's sometimes intense, at others fragile. Together they create and share an energy that washes in waves from the stage, engulfing the audience. The gentle, piano-led beginnings of Toccata gradually build and then burst like an aural firework display over the crowd. Each tightly choreographed track comes across like an organised cohesive jam, as cheery twinkling funk mixes with jazz and post rock. One richly layered jam gives way to another extended brass workout complete with a strobe-lit wigout midway through. Back catalogue favourite All I Know Is Tonight receives a fantastic response from the audience before another new offering Touch Of Evil, which flits from dark atmospherics to jaunty electronics in a stroke, whips the heaving crowd up further. The encore comes in the form of Prognissekongen (which loosely translated means King Of The Prog Gnomes) and while the second encore may stretch proceedings just a little too far (with each composition lasting well over five minutes), this is the sound of a confident, creative and original band on the cusp of wider success and acclaim. As the whooping, sardined audience would no doubt agree, Jaga Jazzist's star is in the ascendant." - by Ian Roullier, 4 out of 5 stars

28.02.2010 : 220 V / SPEKTRAL LIVE AT BYLARM 2010

23.02.2010 : FANTASTIC ALBUM REVIEW IN ALL ABOUT JAZZ "After a five-year break from recording, Jaga Jazzist is back. The Norwegian group's Molde Jazz 2009 performance—its first in four years, barring a single 2007 date in Singapore—provided clear evidence that the touchstones defining this sibling-run group remain intact (multi-instrumentalist Lars Horntveth writes all the music; percussionist Martin Horntveth is the onstage spokesperson for the band; and sister Line Horntveth, in addition to tuba, flute and vocals, acts as the publicity face for the group). But there have been some changes afoot as well. Performing much of One-Armed Bandit at Molde, Jaga Jazzist's mélange of rock energy, jazz vernacular, minimalistic tendencies, episodic composition, expansive instrumentation and electronic manipulation has never sounded better. Not since 1970s British progsters Gentle Giant has there been a group combining so many multi-instrumentalists, playing music so complex and ever-shifting that it's a paradoxically exhausting yet exhilarating experience just trying to keep up with who's playing what. The comparison to Giant is superficial at best, though Jaga Jazzist shares its ability to couch detailed writing with visceral rhythms that ground even the most byzantine tracks. This may be music for the mind in its challenging metric shifts, elaborate counterpoint and textural expansiveness, but it's also music for the body. Even as trumpets, trombones, saxophones and tuba coincide and alternate with angular guitars, vibraphones, harps and keyboards, it's almost impossible to experience propulsive tracks like the riff-driven, near-blues of "Bananfleur Overalt" or the Frank Zappa-esque title track—even the irregularly metered "Music! Dance! Drama!"—without engaging in a little booty shaking. There have been some personnel shifts in the group, even as it trims down from the tentet of What We Must (Ninja Tune, 2005) to One-Armed Bandit's leaner nonet. Most significant is the recruitment of guitarist/harpist/percussionist Stian Westerhus, who returned to Norway after a number of years abroad and has done a terrific job of finding his way into everything from the big band free improv of Crimetime Orchestra and Monolithic's equally extreme Black Science (Vendlus, 2009) to his beautifully packaged solo LP, Galore (2009), on Rune Grammofon's The Last Record Company imprint. He plays far more arrangement on One-Armed Bandit than he did in performance at Molde; a sonic explorer who lends a vital new edge to Jaga Jazzist. But longstanding JJ'ers, including vibraphonist/marimbist/guitarist/keyboardist Andreas Mjøs and trumpeter/bassist/keyboardist/French hornist Mathias Eick—whose own career as a leader has been on an upward trajectory since the release of The Door (ECM, 2008)—keep momentum and color moving forward on tracks like the synth-laden, densely guitar-driven "220 V/Spektral" and tuned percussion-heavy "Toccatta," which suggests how Philip Glass might sound, were he to add a kick-ass drummer to the mix. Jaga Jazzist's international success has been something of a remarkable confluence, but proves that music needn't be dumbed down to find an audience. With the unfailingly exciting One-Armed Bandit, Jaga Jazzist continues to make music as deep as it is danceable, with a revised line-up that will only get even better with more touring under its belt." - John Kelman See the review HERE

19.02.2010 : STEREOGUM ABOUT BYLARM SHOW "The night ended with its most satisfying set, a masterfully seamless performance by Jaga Jazzist. We wrote about the nine-person electro-jazz ensemble during our last trip to Norway, but catching them indoors, in the beautiful sit-down Sentrum Scene theatre, was a bit of a revelation. Live, they sound like one person, not a small army. The stage was decorated with One Armed Bandit slot-machine fruit and a flashing/pulsing light show -- they could've played without any decoration and remained just as immersive. Like if Tortoise were still interesting. With horns. (Check out One-Armed Bandit, if you haven't. It came out the end of January via Ninja Tune.) Not a bad thing to have swarming your head while wandering back to the hotel in even more snow at 2AM." - Brandon Read the whole thing HERE

09.02.2010 : ONE-ARMED BANDIT IS "TRACK OF THE DAY" IN Q MAGAZINE "An experimental Norwegian ten-piece that hover in a sphere where preciously few other acts dare to tread might not instantly entice you, but stick with us, our story most certainly gets better. Their latest album One-Armed Bandit, their fourth, and first in five years, has received standing ovation from a collective ensemble of music lovers, including four stars from the nice people at MOJO. Ambitious, joyous and incomparably fascinating, their world is an eccentric blend of jazz, prog, Frank Zappa and fruit machines. Excruciatingly essential listening."

08.02.2010 : 4 OF 5 IN TINY MIX TAPES "The first thought I had after firing up Jaga Jazzist's new album One-Armed Bandit was, "Oh, this is supposed to be a masterpiece." Somehow, the scent of aspiring mastery I detected didn't reek of ego. This baffled me. If you were leading a 10-piece instrumental jazz band, how would you avoid stinking up the room with ego? Would you take several years off between albums, so that the band had no choice but to adopt side projects or day jobs? Would you accept payment for gigs in food and hugs to avoid having to divide your money 10 ways? Would do you spend several months writing out all the charts by hand, revealing it to the band piece by piece, keeping them in the dark, like American voters, making them blind accomplices in an ingenious master plan? I don't know the answers to any of these questions. As it turns out, there's a lot I don't know; I thought history rendered albums like this impossible. I can only think of two possible antecedents to this sort of thing. The first is albums from guys like Squarepusher, the electronica/jazz hybrids that have been coming out in Europe on Ninja Tune for the last decade and a half. The second is stuff from guys like Chick Corea and Pat Metheny, the sort of self-consciously progressive jazz fusion that was born in the 70s and died with disco. These days, American jazz has too much of an identity complex to attempt anything of this breadth or scope. Nobody in the states writes anything this ambitious without being drunk on either his own ego or high on the fumes of a phony, rhetoric-infused idea of jazz (except maybe Pat Metheny). And nobody in Europe has been able to work effectively on this scale without being a one-man band. Jaga Jazzist is far from being a one-man band. Not because the ensemble is bursting with "personality," but because any of the players is as likely to step into the foreground and carry a melody as they are to step back and take their place as one of the gears of counterpoint. And there is a ton of counterpoint going on, so many tracks to mix that it gave the first engineer a case of tinnitus and they had to send it all the way to John McEntire in Chicago. Between all the different horns, guitars, and synthesizers, it is a miracle that it sounds so damn transparent. This music is light on its feet, like a boxer. It packs a punch, from the assured and swaggering melodic work to Martin Horntveth's muscular drumming, which, at its best, one-ups Steven Drozd. But besides a punch, it also packs a healthy sense of responsibility. 2005's What We Must was beautiful and bigger-sounding, but what One-Armed Bandit forfeits in romance, it gains in subtlety and balance. Then again, the opener "One-Armed Bandit" has tonal shifts that are jarring enough to remind the listener that subtlety was probably not one of this band's goals. This is music you feel in your head; there is a definite prog bent to the way it is put together, which is even more noticeable now that the stylistic leftovers from UK jungle and state-side sample-based hip-hop have faded far into the background. There are a lot of heavy and complex moments on this album, such as the Wagnerian grandeur that peaks four minutes into "Toccata," or the stubbornly un-head-noddable and FX-heavy buildup that occupies center stage in "Music! Dance! Drama!" — and the arrangements prepare the listener for them, when necessary. At heart, they do not feel pretentious or needlessly impenetrable, but a mindfuck is a mindfuck, no matter how polite and well-mannered it is. Don't let yourself be lulled by the fact that "Book of Glass" sounds like a friendly indie rock song for a little while. Don't get startled or upset by the blatant foreshadowing in "Touch of Evil." Through all the heady displays of technique, try to keep your cool. Don't forget the feeling you got during the first track, when it suddenly turned from a fusion jam to something that sounded like slot machines, and then brought the first melodic theme back, in a different key, with a new set of accompaniments, like a man doing magic tricks with a straight face. It is no accident; Jaga Jazzist is trying to blow your mind. It is supposed to feel like a masterpiece." - B McGhee See the review HERE

05.02.2010 : NEW T-SHIRTS FOR SALE ON EURO TOUR 2 designs, 8 colours, 6 sizes

02.02.2010 : #10 AT NORWEGIAN SALES CHARTS We have entered our first week in the Top 10 of the Norwegian national record sales charts (VG Lista) !! Thanks to all of you!

29.01.2010 : ONE-ARMED BANDIT LIVE ON NRK STORE STUDIO

25.01.2010 : #3 AT ITUNES NORWAY!!! We're proud to announce that "One-Armed Bandit" is 3rd most sold album on iTunes Norway right now

24.01.2010 : ONE-ARMED BANDIT OUT TOMORROW One-Armed Bandit album finally out TOMORROW!! We would like to thank: Jørgen Træen, John McEntire, Vegard Waske, Joakim Haugland, Chris Sansom, Mike Hartung, Mark Vaughan, Yngve Næss, Rune Grønn, Anette Andersen & all at Sonet/Universal Norway, Peter Quicke & all at Ninja Tune, Ray Hearn, Shota Wakanabe & all at Beatink Japan, Voices Music & Entertainment, Jonas Holst and Patrick Sventelius at Sony/ATV, Audun Borrmann and Jens Sundbø at Cabin Recorders, Øystein, Erlend, Behnam & Bjørnar at Bureau Storm, Sinan Ors & Elastic Artists, Norsk Kulturråd, Fond For Utøvende Kunstnere, MIC/UD & Fond For Lyd og Bilde for all of their support, Yokoland, Petter Stangjordet and all at Hornaas Musikk, Håvar Gjestvang & Audiomedia for Istanbul cymbals, Kevin Radomski/Marianne Christiansen and Pro-Mark for drumsticks, Frank Østrem, Christian Snilsberg & Lydrommet and Luthman Norge Special thanks to our families and friends + a über humble bow and huge applause to all our wonderful fans! A very special thanks to the Øya Festival and Molde International Jazz Festival for supporting this album. Without you it would not be possible!

23.01.2010 : 4 OF 5 IN THE TIMES "The nine-strong Nordic pranksters bustle energetically between instrumental jazz and prog rock, never letting complexity obscure a good pop tune. The ghost of Frank Zappa’s Peaches en Regalia hangs over the title track, with its skittering keyboards and horns, and Toccata is rocked-up Steve Reich. But mostly Lars Horntveth, writer of these nine tunes, is inventively his own man. After tubas, church organs and electro beats, Touch of Evil brings the album to a suitably dramatic close." - John Bungey See it HERE

20.01.2010 : SUPERDUPER REVIEW AT BBC.CO.UK "Few records of 2010 will contain songs quite so mind-bogglingly broad." According to Jaga Jazzist mainman Lars Horntveth, the ten members of his Wu-Tang-like jazz clan have left their mark on some 300 different records, producing, arranging and playing on albums by Adjágas, Susanna and the Magical Orchestra and assorted Scandinavian acts. It’s further proof, if any were needed, that these are musicians whose ambidextrous talent lets them change direction at the drop of a hat, something they’ve done once again on their latest thriller, One-Armed Bandit. Led by Lars, Martin and Line Horntveth, this Norwegian ensemble are what all modern forward-thinking bands should aspire to – a group who don’t so much cut-and-shut man and machine (a la most indie-dance bands) as they do reconcile the two as a seamless, super-evolved, silver-plated being. Jaga Jazzist have been cutting through this fjord for 15 years now, moving from avant-jazz and lush post-club music to dazzling, horn-blasted future rock, and they show no signs of standing still. Those worlds they’ve already visited – free-jazz, drum’n’bass, rock, electro – all pop up on One-Armed Bandit, but so do some mightily unexpected ones. Paying as much mind to jazz intellects as they do our collective booty, Jaga Jazzist have kicked out the jams on this fifth album, hitting a groovily propulsive, freaky, fun-loving patch of form by flying the “mothership,” as Lars once called the band, to the farthest reaches of electronic jazz-rock. Tweaked with a heavy dose of prog, especially the becloaked OTT style of Zappa and Yes, this is properly cosmic stuff, bringing to the table FX-laden jams, afrobeat, Wagner-inspired bombast, baroque-inflected deep-funk and the knowing, horn-y sound of 1960s spy films, all of this intermingled with Jaga’s terrific fusion of breaks, synths, killer horn lines and taut, muscular rhythms. Few records in 2010 will contain songs quite so mind-bogglingly broad, playful, beguilingly pretty and intense as these slowly unfurling ensemble pieces. Among the gems are the mathematical, angular post-rock of Prognissekongen and Music! Dance! Drama!, the latter doing what it says on the tin as it shifts between celestial electronics, sweeping horns and old-school car chase music rendered for an apocalyptic future. Tocatta is a fantastical, pulsing piece with glassy, repetitive melodies that acknowledges Steve Reich, while album closer Touch of Evil gallops along madly like a kind of ornate version of rave with touches of metal and Middle Eastern music. It’s difficult to imagine where on Earth they could go after this. - Chris Parkin See review HERE

20.01.2010 : LARS HORNTVETH IN CMU DAILY MAILOUT "Q1 How did you start out making music? - My first song ever was written for Jaga Jazzist. I was fourteen years old and the song was called 'Ove's Dream'." Read the whole thing HERE

18.01.2010 : FLYING LOTUS ABOUT JAGA JAZZIST IN PITCHFORK MAG "Pitchfork: Is there anyone else you'd like to work with down the line? FL: Björk is the next one for me. If I work with Björk, then I'll be a happy soul, man. And Jay Electronica. That needs to happen this year. I'd really like that. Prince-- that'd be kind of fun. I have some beats for Prince, man. Pitchfork: That would be amazing. FL: I've been really feeling this Jaga Jazzist stuff. I've been doing a remix for them as well, but it'd be nice to actually work on a track together. They're this really crazy electronic jazz band on Ninja Tune." Read the whole article HERE

17.01.2010 : KIND WORDS FROM ROUGH TRADE "The brand new brilliant and unique album from norwegian supergroup jaga jazzist. it has been four years since we heard from the band that perhaps more than any has defined the contemporary norwegian music scene in the intersecting landscapes of jazz, pop and electronica. jaga jazzist has been referred to as a ten-headed chimera; a sweet sounding powerhouse of swaggering horns, feline jazz, clever electronics and subtle rock; an instrumental panoply brought together in travels along lush melodic ridges or pooled into cascades of catchy music. now a new record is completed, but this time around the ten heads have been replaced with another image; that of the one-armed bandit." www.roughtrade.com

13.01.2010 : 8 Of 10 IN CLASH MAGAZINE In the wrong hands, jazz-fusion and prog can be dangerous musical fodder, but when undertaken by Norwegian alt-musos Jaga Jazzist, the result can be spectacular. While 2005's "What We Must" explored post-rocky Sigur Rós territory with mixed result, "One-Armed Bandit" sees them back to the electronic wonk-jazz that they do so well. Big layers of instruments dual with and complement each other via weird time signatures, and inspired, complex riffs that sound like they're scoring a car chase from a cult Seventies film, mixed with bursts of electronic futurism - perhaps best displayed on the album's title track - a manic, brilliant piece of instrumental songwriting that shows Jaga Jazzist to be at the top of their game 8/10 Tristan Parker

13.01.2010 : 4.3 OF 5 IN THE MILK FACTORY It’s been over five years since Jaga Jazzist were last heard of. Although the band has existed in one form or another for over fifteen years, formed by then teenage brothers Lars and Martin Horntveth, with sister Line, and a handful of friend, it is not until they signed to Smalltown Supersound in 2001, and were later licensed to Ninja Tune for Europe, that the band gained widespread recognition outside of their native Norway, with albums such as A Livingroom Hush (2001) and The Stix (2002) causing more than a stir. Their last album to date, What We Must, saw the band, renamed Jaga for the occasion, adopt a harsher, grittier stance and distil their usual blend of progressive power jazz with a heavy does of rock. More subtle and elegant than its predecessor, One-Armed Bandit is not so much a return to the sound of The Stix as an evolution of whatever genres the band has been amassing over the years. Still firmly driven by a powerful rhythmic section, with at its heart Martin’s flamboyant drumming, and rich orchestrations, this album is once again a vibrant and eclectic collection which obstinately refuses to settle in one particular place, instead erupting in glittering melodies (One-Armed Bandit, Toccata, Prognissekongen), seventies overtones (220 Vv / Spektral), angular rhythms (Bananfleur Overalt), ethnic flavours (Music! Dance! Drama!) or brash progressive stabs (Touch Of Evil). Lars Horntveth began writing the album in early 2008, before the band regrouped and started rehearsing and recording with long term collaborator and producer Jørgen Træen, who had to retire half way through the sessions due to ill health. The mixing of the album was consequently completed in Chicago by Tortoise’s John McEntire. Inspired by Fela Kuti, Frank Zappa and Wagner, according to Lars, One-Armed Bandit is above all a vivid expression of the band’s core sound and of its cohesion as an ensemble. Influences undoubtedly inform some elements of the record, but they are incorporated within the band’s overall sound so as to become integrant part of it. Overall, One-Armed Bandit is much more fluid and open than its predecessor, and while the harsher sound the band developed for What We Must can still occasionally be heard, it is here much more tamed and softened, and integrated into the overall musical structure. Prior to taking a rather long break, Jaga Jazzist were starting to show some signs of fatigue, resulting in a slight loss of focus. Refreshed and reinvigorated, the ensemble is once again bursting with ideas. One-Armed Bandit might not quite have the panache of The Stix, but it is a refreshing offering from a band in its prime. 4.3/5 By themilkman See review HERE!