As a producer who has gained most of his popularity from TikTok, berlioz is truly revolutionizing what jazz looks like today. Discovering Berlioz’s EP Jazz Is for Ordinary People, released in 2023, changed my life. Jazz is a genre that many people would never seek out, or maybe even dislike. As an avid jazz listener, I have often told my hesitant friends that jazz is an acquired taste. But berlioz has been changing that with his unique and irresistible blend of jazz and house, birthing a radical child of club music and improvisation in his fascinating sound. Jasper Attlee adopted the stage name berlioz in 2022, after releasing music as Ted Jasper since 2017. His music quickly became a viral phenomenon, and he has since earned a devoted group of listeners.
Released on July 12th, open this wall is his first full-length album. “My hope is that [open this wall] can serve as a positive affirmation for you all," berlioz wrote on instagram, "there are so many walls facing us individually and collectively, it was cathartic to make an album that (I feel) gave me the power to open some of the these walls, and breathe new energy into my life… I hope it does the same for you.” The album is just that: a cathartic, genre-defying, wall-breaking opus.
“My hope is that it [open this wall] can serve as a positive affirmation for you all, there are so many walls facing us individually and collectively, it was cathartic to make an album that (I feel) gave me the power to open some of the these walls, and breathe new energy into my life… I hope it does the same for you."
The album begins with “ascension”, a sweeping rabbit hole into berlioz’s sound. Graceful strings give way to panoramic, loose piano phrasing contrasted with straight-ahead drums. A moment of silence blooms into a grooving, larger-than-life electronic jazz tune, complete with house-inspired drums and a featured saxophone solo. Contemplative piano leads the song further as percussion and saxophone steal back the energy of the track.
The beautiful title track, “open this wall”, comes second. It features a sample of an interview with Nancy Wilson from PBS, which begins with “I am, and I’m wonderful, and I know there’s this supreme power that gives me the ability to be everything if I just allow it to happen”. In an interview with Clash, berlioz states, “I want these words to be a balm for every listener”. The track is emotional. It pulls the listener into a moment of warm and raw awareness at the same time. As Wilson speaks of the importance of allowing things to happen rather than fighting against your reality; she says, “open this wall for me please”. Gentle piano and saxophone lull the track into a state of meditation, full of motion and tranquility all at once.
“I am, and I’m wonderful, and I know there’s this supreme power that gives me the ability to be everything if I just allow it to happen”
“peace” opens with a sample of berlioz’s wife quoting Alice Walker:
“I’m hardly desperate for anything, really. I feel that whatever is mine is looking for me. I don’t feel desperation. The world is pretty much the way that it is and you have your life in it”.
The sample continues to explore finding peace within hardship, by accepting your present state of being. Meanwhile, an electric jazz combo swings forward, highlighting saxophone, trumpet, guitar, and keys, oceanically flowing with the music. The percussion adds a modern, electronic feel to the piece.
The album continues with “hot slow”, a melancholic, downtempo track featuring bossa-inspired modern percussion layered with thoughtful and expansive saxophone. About halfway through, the percussion shifts towards a more house-inspired sound. It soon cuts away to merge with the piano before returning to the original cadence, effortlessly catching the music and driving it towards an emotional and sparkling finale.
“ode to rahsaan” is a crucial tribute to the origins of jazz music, particularly featuring the voice of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, who has been an essential figure in the genre since the late 50s. It is a shimmering homage to ‘black classical music’: entrancing, enthralling, motivic, and flawlessly swinging. It takes everything that makes a jazz standard great and builds upon it, creating a perfect blend of past, present, and future.
berlioz continues to nod to the greats of music in “nytmp”, only this time, he is appreciating cities rather than artists. As the track’s featured speaker says:
“In New York, Tokyo, Milano, and Paris, you have to feel that music, you have to understand – baroque to jazz to modern to world music…it’s fantastic.”
The song is undeniably vivacious: a joyful ode to music around the world, and the cities that music has taken the artist.
“joycelyn’s dance” is the delicate yet formidable tribute to berlioz’s wife for being not only his partner in life but also in music, as his co-producer and creative director. The track leaps from gently meandering saxophone lines to driven techno-swing, with a unique xylophone feature luring the song forward. It truly is a dance: light yet substantial and deftly bewitching.
When speaking with Clash on “indigo dream”, berlioz said:“You just have to listen – I remember playing this out for the first time at my street party in Shoreditch – it’s bliss in WAV form.” And the track is nothing short of blissful. It opens with an enchantingly simple melody that placidly wades through the underwater soundscape that it creates. As effortlessly as it began, its mood then seamlessly shifts into the warmth of berlioz’s iconic jazz-house. Ethereal female vocals reminiscent of a siren call float across the sun dappled sounds, which eventually nebulize as they fade out.
“free fall” is a scintillating love song, as rhythmic as a heartbeat and as gentle as the rise and fall of breath. The track is passionate and radiant, with a hand drum percussion feature that sets it apart. It is truly well-rounded: at once earthy, airy, aquatic, and ablaze. This song is my personal favorite off of the album, and both maintains and expands upon berlioz’s captivating sound.
“You want things to go well, but you know, you survive things. It makes you a little easier and it’s interesting.” These words beautifully accompany “something will happen”, emphasizing berlioz’s message for the album as a whole: that despite the inescapable negativity that surrounds us, you will persevere and return more whole and more yourself than ever before. This simultaneously mournful and hopeful piano and sax-driven track is achingly sweet, percussive, and painfully picturesque. “Something will happen” and “something will be learned” are sung and spoken throughout the piece. Whether that “something” is good or bad remains to be said, but something will inevitably happen. And in that simple fact berlioz finds solace.
“You want things to go well, but you know, you survive things. It makes you a little easier and it’s interesting.”
The album concludes with an “outro”. This track opens with glimmering strings and piano before welcoming trumpet and double bass. It lacks the techno-inspired percussion that the majority of the album highlights. Instead, it is a reflective journey back home and complements open this wall as divinely as it began.
Overall, open this wall is the culmination of berlioz’s sound thus far, and a trailblazing force in genre as a whole. It is a moving accolade to the human experience, and a celebration of music that transcends time and tradition. Whether you are a die-hard jazz fan or have rejected it altogether, this album is definitely a must-listen.
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