Photo: © Maria Golomidova

Closing Party with

Jazzanova Live feat. Wayne Snow [D/NIG]

Thirty years—just imagine that. Founded in Berlin in 1995 as a DJ collective, they grew into a production crew and eventually became a band. Over the course of three decades, Jazzanova has explored nearly every variation of electronic music with jazz influences: acid jazz, future jazz, broken beat, house, and soul. Their 2002 debut album “In Between” is now considered a classic of the genre. In 2025, a deluxe edition was released featuring live reinterpretations and remixes by a new generation of producers. This music doesn’t age; it simply sheds its skin.

Live, the collective is a force unto itself. Not a DJ set, but a band concert with horns, vocals, and a rhythm section, often featuring guests, always with that blend of danceable immediacy and harmonic sophistication. That the festival ends here of all places, in the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, a sacred space transformed into a dance floor, is the dramatic climax. This brings us full circle from the Jazz Prize kickoff on Thursday to the collective movement on Sunday evening. Four days, seven venues, ten acts, a spectrum ranging from the bass clarinet to the dance floor. Anyone who hasn’t understood New Colours up to this point will understand it now, if not before.