Icelandic duo, Paddan, explore the more ambient side of the Jazz Underground
We’re really pleased to announce that this month the playlist is taken over by Icelandic duo, Paddan. The two men behind Paddan might be familiar if you were fans of the Sugarcubes or KUKL. Birgir Mogensen and Sigtryggur Baldursson got back together in 2019 to create Paddan — an experimentation in some ways and very traditional in others.
A couple months ago we featured the single off of their debut album, Fluid Time. So it’s fantastic to now have the guys back on the site to curate 10 new tracks for the Jazz Underground.
If this is your first time listening to the Jazz Underground, the idea of the monthly feature is to enlist producers and artists who are pushing the boundaries of what jazz in order to change the perception of the genre’s rotten public image — a genre that can sometimes be stuck in the past rather than something that is always evolving and growing. Each month we invite a new resident artist to contribute and curate the playlist to reflect how jazz is an ever-evolving genre of music.
As you might expect if you’ve listened to Paddan’s debut album, then it will be no surprise to learn that Birgir and Sigtryggur explore the more ambient side of jazz. What’s interesting with their contributions to the playlist this month is that they’ve selected tracks old and new to show how important this ambient improvisation is to the genre today as well as in the past. Track from the 70s and 80s from the likes of Santana, Brian Eno, Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, mix neatly in beside new tracks from Nala Sinephro, ADHD, and hist og.
—
Have a listen to the playlist below, and if you like what you hear, make sure to follow the Jazz Underground playlist on Spotify.
Cover artwork by Camille Deschiens
