eX.II – JAZZ IS PUNK: REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS

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eX.II – Jazz Is Punk Free jazz · Spoken word · Noise · Electronics Unit Records · January 23, 2026

Jazz has always known where it comes from. This record doesn’t forget.

The second chapter of the eX series, Jazz Is Punk was recorded live at Brewery Studios Berlin with Marius Max on tenor saxophone, Nick Dunston on double bass, and Dylan Greene on drums. Kalo appears throughout on voice, effects, and electric bass, composing and arranging the entire record from within the improvisation itself.

The title is a lineage claim. Jazz and punk share the same refusal: to make music that power structures didn’t sanction, in forms the industry didn’t expect, with voices that weren’t supposed to carry that kind of weight. Jazz Is Punk draws that line and stands on it.

Three tracks honor women who changed what a voice could mean: Leontyne Price, Nina Simone, Afeni Shakur. From there it moves through the full arc: the closed doors, the circling systems, the cost of persistence,  and arrives somewhere freer. Imperfection as beauty. The self as enough.

Music

Album Cover: Sera Kalo eX.II – JAZZ IS PUNK // Labe: Unit Records // Photo: M.Tidou // Artwork: Severin Koller

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