Vol. 1 by Visti's Vinyl Collective

Visti’s Vinyl Collective offer wholesome brew of world, jazz, electronic and pop on debut album.
In his native soil of Denmark, Jonas Visti is best known for his radio show Visti’s Vinyls, in which he journeys time and space in search of interesting sounds – whether dusty afro-beat, Ethiopian jazz virtuosos or obscure 70’s Tropicalia.

His new project, Visti’s Vinyl Collective, extends the musical ethos of his radio program into a creative force of its own. Gathering some of the finest talent on the Danish jazz scene – and inviting a small selection of international guest features – Visti has crafted an album of manifold styles but a singular ethos: warm, positive, colorful music for a world that could use it.

The album is written and produced in collaboration with William Winding whose electronic influence can be heard on several tracks. Emma Sehested Høeg, Dawda Jobarteh and Markus Artved have also written music on the album.

Q&A ̄
What is Visti’s Vinyl Collective?
JV: Through the last decade of my work as a DJ and radio host, I’ve met a ton of incredibly talented, cool and generous musicians. People who have captivated me with their uncompromising spirit and genre- (and consciousness-) expanding approach to music.
I feel incredibly lucky to have just a few of these individuals working on this record. Artist who had never worked together before but went into this project with no reservations or prejudice. This is Visti’s Vinyl Collective: a group of incredibly talented artists, who meet each other across cultures and genres and time periods and moods.
It's a project that will hopefully only grow with time, and which will probably have released music in all thinkable genres in the year 2032.
For many years I’ve had my artistic outlet through DJ’ing and music journalism, but I’ve long felt that something was missing, something that I haven’t been able to articulate before now. And this has culminated in this very free and luckily not very chart-oriented album, which is meant to be nothing but its own little organic shape – until it wants to be something else.

What is the musical idea behind the album?
JV: There isn’t a single record or artist or genre or era that has inspired this album more than any other. Primarily it has been an interplay between the people I wrote the music with and those who were in the studio recording it, who colored it in with their voices and instruments.
But I can state that it is a record that contains elements from afrobeat, soul, house, soundtracks, jazz, boogie and pop. To be honest, genre is one of the last things I concern myself with when I create music. Mostly I see it as reductive concepts that make it easier to market your music to an audience. Which I guess makes sense in some way...

How was the process?
JV: Chaotic. I’ve been figuring it out as I went along. I’ve played music all my life but to gather so many fantastic people on one record with so many musical expressions, it hasn’t been an easy task. Artistically as well as logistically, I’ve been challenged in ways I haven’t felt before. At times it was a tumultuous experience, but that also means that the accomplishment means more to me. And I honestly can’t wait to get working on the next record with new collaborations.

Visti’s Vinyl Collective is comprised of musicians from the Danish jazz scene who collaborate with special guests from South America and Africa. Musically, the project is a creative extension of DJ & radio host Jonas Visti. Like his radio show, its not really bound by genre or conventions but by an easy-going, warm, colourful sensibility and an ethos focused on the collective functions of music.