Belgian quartet Echoes of Zoo’s third full-length album, Collective Intelligence, is focused and mature - their most potent distillation to date of their powerful blend of blistering psych-jazz chops with Middle Eastern microtonal melodies, West African rhythms and other global sounds.
Collective Intelligence is also a motivating call to action for all of humankind. Inspired by the natural intelligence that coordinates and guides the movements of swarms, herds and flocks, it invites us as humans to come together and use our own collective intelligence to face and overcome global challenges. It’s a timely message that is mirrored in the music’s global reach, suggesting a musical utopia of cooperation and internationalism.
For founder and saxophonist Nathan Daems, that idea of collective intelligence underpins the group’s entire way of working: “The collective intelligence that we’re after is reflected in the music in a direct way – by the way we play together and how we function as a band. When we play together, we act as one. We can only be a good band if we display a form of sophisticated collective intelligence.”
In today’s scene, few groups carry as much intensely focused conceptual weight as Echoes of Zoo. First, there’s that heartfelt utopian impulse. On Collective Intelligence, we hear tracks informed by an Afro-Brazilian rhythm (Wolfpack Telepathy), by a traditional Arabic maqam scale (Multicellularity) and by a deep Indian raga (Murmuration). It’s a vision of a world where all people share their knowledge and resources, working together for the common good. And that, in itself, is a metaphor for Daems’s ultimately optimistic call for humanity to evolve and survive, together. “I find it important in this day and age to focus on the positive potential of humans,” he says. “Mind-blowing things are really possible. We see them all the time. The flock of birds in the sky for example, how they act as a collective. The only way forward is to start to act more as a collective. That’s what evolution is trying to force us to do. And it’s a good thing.”
A collaboration between Rebel Up! and Zephyrus. Full album to be released on October 2nd 2026.
- Released : 02/10/2026
- Supports : CD, LP, digital
- Label : Zephyrus
