Polar Waters by Joshua Jaswon Octet

“The saxophonist’s heartfelt album on ecological themes is adventurous and musically playful.’’
Neil Spencer, The Guardian / The Observer 2023

“Jaswon’s boldest statement yet – a personal manifesto for what jazz can and should be right now, nearly a quarter of the way into the 21st century.’’
Brian Glasser, Jazzwise

“Impeccably performed…a powerful soundtrack for desperate times”

BBC Music Magazine / 5★ Album Review, Garry Booth

“Jaswon’s pan-European Octet deftly combine driving jazz with lyrical condemnation”

Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman

“It bears repeated listening and there’s always something more to discover.”
Alyn Shipton, 4★ Album review, Jazzwise

The Joshua Jaswon Octet is a Berlin-based contemporary jazz ensemble, featuring a broad cross-section of young musicians from Europe's leading jazz scenes. Lead by the London-born saxophonist and composer, the ensemble released its debut album Silent Sea in October 2020, which was selected by BBC Music as one of the best jazz recordings of 2020/21 and received 4 and 5 star reviews across the UK and international media.

Following this release and in beginning to write new music for the octet, Jaswon wanted the compositional method to somehow relate more strongly to creative processes and approaches that had been informed and influenced by science and the natural world. These early ideas lead to encountering the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) and the three Science-Poetry (SciPo) anthologies. SciPo explores the creative common ground between science and poetry and Jaswon was hugely interested in collaborating with some of these writers to create a new body of work that traversed the borders between poetry, science and music.

Saxophonist and Composer

joshuajaswon.com