Q+A with: Tristan De Liège and Jambal

LA-based downtempo wizard Tristan De Liège recently teamed up with exceptional jazz quartet Jambal for their new single, ‘Collisions of Light’, released on the 1st of September via Tristan De Liège X Jambal Music. Evoking images of artists like St Germain, Arms and Sleepers, Azymuth, and Ezra Collective, it is the second release from their forthcoming album Enterprises of Great Pith and Moment. Their previous collaboration ‘Uncertainties’ was featured in the State Of Jazz Spotify editorial playlist and also received support from the UK National radio station Jazz FM with John Osborne. In addition to this, ‘Collisions of Light’ has already received support from CLASH Magazine and shows no signs of slowing down.

‘Collisions of Light‘ radiates a profound sense of calm. Echoing the style of artists such as Air, the piece begins with a wistful string sequence, complemented by understated jazz rhythms. Soon after, a haunting trumpet emerges, briefly weaving its way through before abruptly fading, leaving the listener yearning for more. We took some time to ask the crew some pertinent questions on music, life, and creativity.

Walk us through your creative process?

Jambal’s compositions often result from just jamming together and elaborating the ideas that we like the most afterwards. With this project it was a bit different, as Tristan already sent us sketches of ideas of his beforehand, which we then arranged, changed and developed during rehearsals. But nonetheless our music really comes from momentums that we create when we all sit in a room together and do what we like the most.

Who are your biggest artistic influences?

I’d say, that the UK Jazz scene in general has had a big influence on our band sound. But there are so many international artists we enjoy listening to and draw influence from; Mark Guiliana, Klein., Makaya McCraven, Ezra Collective, just to name a few.

What instruments do you play?

Besides our main instruments, the ones we play on the record, we all feel pretty comfortable at the piano and are very interested in music production.

What would you like to work with if you weren’t a musician?

I guess we’d all still be very drawn to an artistic profession, or at leat one that allows you to be creative everyday.

Whats one piece of gear you can’t live without? What equipment are you using?

The laptop has become so essential these days, we use it for music production, recording, writing down sheet music and planning our projects, so that would be my take. We currently play our live shows with a MacBook running Ableton for live backing-tracks and FX automations. The drum shells are usually from Gretsch and the Vibraphone from Musser. The Keyboard we’re using for additional keys is usually a Nord.

Tell us something unrelated to music. What are your hobbies?

We are all into grinding, pouring and drinking good coffee but also enjoy occasional Volleyball sessions and playing cards after long rehearsals.

If you could meet one performer/artist who would it be?

Speaking for Jambal it might actually be Kassa Overall, an artist we always come back to listening and who always delivers record after record.

What does the future hold for you as artists?

We’ve just been rehearsing a new live show for the upcoming album for a few weeks, so performing live gigs and playing festival shows again end of this year and over the next year are definitely on the agenda. We’ve also been working on some additional tracks that we recorded together with our debut album but who did not make the record; so we might release these at some point. But from a more general point of view, I think that we will continue to evolve as a band and get closer to a unified band sound that characterises us the best. We’re also to trying to grow our audience and to leave a small footprint outside of territories we know well.