Berlioz curates your Friday night playlist
Jasper Attlee, better known as Jazz-house sensation Berlioz, tends to prefer spending his Friday nights ‘watching colours’ with his wife rather than the hustle and bustle of a busy bar.
The enigmatic producer and beatmaker will often spend a night in with his wife letting the night slip by listening to NTS radio or watching music videos that have recently been released.
The impressionist-inspired musician has quickly become a staple on jazz and dance playlists since first beginning to drop music and animations on Instagram.
A lifelong jazz enthusiast whose first CD purchase was A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, Attlee quickly became transfixed with the French touch, a loose, nostalgic term associated with the likes of French superstars Cassius and Daft Punk.
‘I listened to so much French touch growing up. It’s such a warm feeling that style of music gives me,’ Jasper explains. ‘To start with I labeled Berlioz “If Matisse made house music”.
‘It was so off the cuff. It was only a few singles into the project and I already knew Matisse was a huge inspiration for the project.
‘Impressionism and Matisse were just huge cornerstones for what Berlioz's design would be.’
The producer’s obsession with the impressionist French painter runs deep through his music and he too aims to ‘paint outside the lines’ using saxophones and gentle beats reminiscent of pastel colours.
Matisse himself has even bled through into his music and a rare radio interview with the colourful artist is sampled on his song La Danse.
With no budget to start with to promote his work, Jasper spent hours chopping up Japanese and Korean arthouse films, Twin Peaks and Spanish animations to bring his music to life.
‘I just spent hours and hours trying to find the perfect little 15 seconds to go with a song from a movie or an animation,’ he explains.
A quick scroll through his Instagram and you’ll find his music layered over film snippets ranging from Disney animation Aristocats, the DJ’s name is inspired by one of its mischievous kittens, to snippets of Wes Anderson films featuring the likes of Timothée Chalamet, Bill Murray and Willem Defoe.
Higher up there are animations of couples dancing before they lose their human form and become swirls of bright colours, soundtracked by a Berlioz hit.
Ahead of the release of his debut album in July, Jasper will tease his new work at one of his biggest shows yet, a Shoreditch street party hosted by Krankbrother on Saturday.
‘It’s terrifying man,’ he explains when asked if he’s looking forward to how the crowds will respond to his new music for the first time. ‘I’m going to cook up something really special for it to make sure the songs have a space around them in the set so people know where they are and what they’re listening to.’
Listen to the full Friday night playlist here.
Bossa Antigua - Paul Desmond
The Thief That Stole My Sad Days (Ya Blessin Me) - moodymann
The Mountain - Abdullah Ibrahim
Sweet Thing - Chaka Khan
No Curse Lifted (rivers of love) - MIKE
