Pixel, "Nothing Beats Reality" from 'Golden Years' (Cuneiform Records) by Cuneiform Records

"...a quirky, catchy blend of pop hooks and jazz-centric soloing...it's rare for a group so young to emerge with such a fully formed and distinctive concept, but Pixel seems to have accomplished just that."
– AllAboutJazz

“The first thirty seconds of this album was enough to tell me that I would probably like Norwegian band Pixel. I did...this band has something new to say musically and produces tunes that are toe-tappingly, wantonly catchy."
– London Jazz News

"...unique and compelling."
– Expose

The award-winning Norwegian jazz quartet Pixel is in the vanguard of a scene brimming with exceptional young musicians, charting an exhilarating, improvisation-steeped jazz path infused with the cathartic energy of indie rock. Pixel’s third album Golden Years captures the next step in the band’s rapid evolution.

Pixel consists of double bassist and vocalist Ellen Andrea Wang, drummer Jon Audun Baar, trumpeter Jonas Kilmork Vemøy, and saxophonist Harald Lassen (with everyone contributing vocals).

Pixel tends toward translucent textures, tight orchestration and pop-inflected songcraft. While the sound is essentially acoustic, Vemøy and Lassen increasingly employ subtle effects that provide deeper textural depth to the already charged mélange of bright harmonies and protean rhythmic thrust.

Golden Years is the result of Pixel’s bustling 2014, a year in which the quartet played nearly 100 gigs (while also each pursuing projects of their own). When they started the recording process at the end of the year, everyone brought new songs to the table, tunes documented over five intensive days in the studio. Together these extraordinary musicians created an expansive album and sound unlike any other band on the scene. Still growing and discovering what they’re capable of, the musicians of Pixel are in their prime, and the group’s third album makes a compelling case that these are the best of times on the Norwegian scene.