{"id":33159,"date":"2026-08-19T14:18:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T13:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/?p=33159"},"modified":"2026-08-19T14:18:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T13:18:52","slug":"echoes-of-zoo-unveil-higher-levels-from-upcoming-third-album-collective-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/?p=33159","title":{"rendered":"Echoes of Zoo unveil \u2018Higher Levels\u2019 from upcoming third album Collective Intelligence<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: Alexander Deprez<\/p><\/div>\n

Echoes of Zoo<\/a> are gearing up to release their third album, Collective Intelligence<\/em>, arriving on October 2nd through Rebel Up!<\/a> and Zephyrus Records<\/a>.. Led by founder and saxophonist Nathan Daems, alongside Bart Vervaeck, Lieven Van P\u00e9e and Falk Schrauwen, the Belgian quartet continue to refine a distinctive musical language that draws from jazz, psychedelic rock, dub, African rhythmic traditions and adventurous improvisation. Collective Intelligence<\/em> takes inspiration from the ways animals coordinate as swarms, herds and flocks, using that natural intelligence as both a musical starting point and a hopeful call for humans to cooperate, communicate and face global challenges together. Daems comments:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe collective intelligence that we\u2019re after is reflected in the music in a direct way \u2013 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Following \u2018Flock Logic\u2019, the album\u2019s exhilarating first single, which grew out of the band\u2019s time touring Brazil in early 2024, Echoes of Zoo have unleashed a second single, the effervescent \u2018Higher Levels\u2019. The title draws directly on the album\u2019s wider fascination with animal communication and coordination, as Daems explains:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe title points to the sophisticated ways animals communicate and coordinate as one, to what we casually call telepathy, though that label says more about our own limits than what\u2019s actually possible in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He adds:<\/p>\n

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“On this tune, we channel our love for the bittersweet melancholy of West African highlife, then push it into new territory with quarter tones \u2014 notes between the usual 12 pitches of piano and guitar \u2014 and time-stretched grooves that sit between strict mathematical subdivisions.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Listen to \u2018Higher Levels\u2019 now.<\/p>\n