Djesse Vol 1 - Jacob Collier (2018)

Collier is a sort of wunderkind genius with some new and cutting-edge views on harmony having to do with fourths, fifths, and something he calls “negative harmony.” If you don’t understand any of that watch this explanation and I can almost guarantee you still won’t.

Not just a theorist, though, Colllier creates his own music as well as gorgeous and endlessly fascinating arrangements of others’ music.

Djesse is his 4-volume set of experiments in all the different ideas of tonality its applications that apparently rattle around in his head in the space where most people his age store the names of Pokemon.

While the other volumes get into more pop-oriented sounds, this one is mostly orchestral. Performed by Metropole Orkest, we get fun and bombastic sounds that only an orchestra can make, arranged along the lines of Collier’s unique vision.

Tracks I Liked

With The Love In My Heart - sounds like somebody got a Prince song drunk and then told it not to think about breathing, which of course it immediately started thinking about.

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - One of my favorite Police songs, exquisitely rendered.

All Night Long - If the Police was a re-rendering, this Lionel Ritchie song is completely taken apart and reconstructed.