Echoes of Zoo album release Collective Intelligence

Sufism, Balkan music, Rage Against the Machine that merge with sounds from the animal world. This is just a selection from the huge treasure trove of sources of inspiration for Nathan Daems's psych-jazz group Echoes of Zoo. This autumn, Echoes of Zoo is coming with new work. Their third album, Collective Intelligence, once again starts from the world of flora and fauna, with collectivity and formality as the common thread this time. The group looks at the coordination of animals, think of swarms and ecosystems, and celebrates with their songs the pleasure that arises when individuals move as one whole. In this way, this celebration of collectivity also gets a political edge: an invitation for people to tackle global challenges together, and a call for connection and shared responsibility. All this to West African rhythms, carried by Middle Eastern melodies, with here and there psychedelia, jazz, and dub. In short: the third album of Echoes of Zoo is a danceable call to come together. Nathan Daems founded Echoes of Zoo in 2018, together with members of Black Flower, Compro Oro and De Beren Gieren. Since then, they have released one EP and two albums. The albums BREAKOUT (2021) and Speeches of Species (2023) both draw inspiration from the animal world. Nathan became fascinated by the differences between humans and animals, but also by the similarities. For example, songbirds turn out not only to sing to communicate, but possibly also out of pleasure. The idea of music as a means of communication in the animal world formed the source of inspiration for Speeches of Species.