Jealov is reluctant to tell you much about itself. Its members say they’re travelers from Belgium, but that’s about all they’re willing to share. Their press photos are uniformly blurry, their videos feature people who are definitely not in the group, and their YouTube site explains itself cryptically: “I am Jealov. You are Jealov. We are Jealov. This is Jealov.”
The group’s facelessness is a perfect visual manifestation of its hazy, subconscious approach. Jealov cultivates its sound gradually, developing it from abstract fragments into concrete landscapes combining fragments from memories of musical past, travels around the world, and the air itself.
By most indications, Jealov is anchored by a core of three members - Yann-Alex Janssens, Rick Roels, and Mathieu Seynaeve - who augment their music with contributions from their friends around Brussels. Though Yann and Mathieu knew each other in what they call a “lost childhood,” the group’s members became friends while attending university in in the city. Jealov was conceived on a surfing vacation, which partially explains the group’s aesthetic allusions to the “naive, sunny sounds” coming from the halfway-across-the-world Southern California beat scene. - Dead Music |
