An Interview with the Jazzrausch Big Band on the Album Release
A Look Behind the Scenes at Euphoria
For years, the Jazzrausch Big Band has been one of Europe’s most extraordinary ensembles. With its unique blend of big band sound, electronic club beats, and uncompromising live energy, it thrills audiences and critics alike—from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Rolling Stone magazine to the Munich Philharmonic and Lincoln Center in New York.
Their new studio album, *Euphoria*, will be released on July 3, 2026. We spoke with band members Florian Leuschner (saxophone) and Marco Dufner (drums) about the making of the album, the band’s special dynamic, and the euphoria that builds between the stage and the audience.
Your new album is called *Euphoria*. What does this term mean to you—is euphoria more of a musical state or a social longing?
Marco: “We came up with the title because it sums up the band’s energy pretty well in a single word. There are 15 of us in the band, and our strength is that together we convey a very positive energy on stage. This creates a collective euphoria between the audience and the big band.”
Florian: “When the band gets together, there’s always positive banter and a very special vibe that develops. It’s the same with the audience—there are people there who don’t know us, but we still leave them with a feeling they’ve never experienced or expected before. People have no idea what a techno-jazz band does. The band is always having a blast, and that feeling spreads to the audience very quickly. When people come up to us after the show and say, ‘Thanks for being here,’ I say back, ‘Thanks for being here, because without you, it would just be a rehearsal.’ This euphoria arises from our shared experience. So the audience is swept away—in the most positive sense.”
For years, the Jazzrausch Big Band has been blending jazz, techno, and classic big band sounds. Did you feel like you were breaking new ground again with this album?
Florian: “This album is the logical follow-up to the previous one. What was hinted at in *Bangers Only! * has now become a completely new album. The sound is bouncy, but also dark, techno-inspired, and raw. These elements might seem contradictory at first, but now it’s simply a completely new album that builds on what was hinted at before.”
Was there a moment during the creation of *Euphoria* when you completely abandoned your original ideas?
Marco: Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Leonhard Kuhn is the composer for the Jazzrausch Big Band and also handles the electronics in the band. He’s always written our music. Up until now, all our music was composed with the studio in mind, and we’d read the sheet music there for the first time. So there was little creative leeway. This time, we worked with more lead time, and the process in the studio was more rigorous. We had the opportunity to test things out at our concerts beforehand to see how the audience would react, and then bring those insights back to the studio.
Florian: “The pieces were written half a year in advance and then matured on stage for the studio—so it was a completely different development process.”
Techno is often associated with repetition, while jazz is associated with spontaneity. How do you manage to blend these two apparent opposites so organically?
Florian: “Jazz can also be repetitive. But jazz perhaps has more spontaneity inherent in it. In both directions, the possibilities are completely open. It always depends on what ‘grammar’ I use in the songs or what ‘vocabulary’ I employ. That’s why you can also combine classical music with techno. The genres can be seamlessly blended and even benefit from each other. This allows the forms of expression to be combined into something new.”
Marco: “The essence of jazz is the element of improvisation—whether it’s old or new jazz. This element is also present in electronic dance music; for example, the DJ has to decide on the spot: When do I drop the beat? When do I switch tracks? When do I start a build? It’s a different stylistic device, but essentially the same thing, so there are definitely clear similarities here. You’re influencing the music in the moment. With the Jazzrausch Big Band, every piece features solos in which individual musicians improvise over a certain section of the piece. It’s the same as in jazz, except that—when combined with techno—it takes place in a different genre. Jazz has always evolved and incorporated influences from other genres, so this apparent contrast is actually quite natural.”
Many aren't die-hard techno fans, and others aren't jazz fans. How do you win over your audience anyway?
Florian: “Some people don’t like techno, others don’t like jazz. But the feedback is that, in the end, people always think it’s awesome. The sense of connection in the show is super important: there are 15 performers on stage, and they’re all very different. Not everyone is loud or up front—some are quieter. That’s super important because it allows the audience to relate to us in a different way. And euphoria manifests itself in different ways—both on stage and in the audience. The unifying element has always been super important. People need to be able to relate to what’s happening emotionally.”
Marco: “We have 15 different personalities that the audience can identify with. That’s why we also have a very diverse audience—because people can relate to different personalities. That way, we include everyone, and it brings us together.”
If every musician in the Jazzrausch Big Band brings their own musical personality to the table—how does that ultimately result in a unified sound?
Florian: “We’ve been around for 13 years, and if we didn’t meet regularly to discuss things, we wouldn’t be here anymore. And if we’d never argued, we wouldn’t be here anymore either. Thanks to Leonhard’s music, though, it still feels like a single entity, because everyone has a musical role, and we miss each person when they’re not there. We’ve been able to travel a lot together, racked up so many kilometers together, hang out even when we’re not performing, and can even drive together for twelve hours at a time. It’s a large social network that also makes music together—or vice versa. The fact that everyone is important shows up in the little things—whether they’re running gags or much more.”
Marco: “The project allows everyone to be who they want to be. It’s not like, ‘You have to wear this’ or ‘You have to act that way’—that’s not how it is with us. The show is designed so that everyone has musical freedom and can express themselves individually through their solo spot. We’re also very spontaneous on stage—that’s what makes the band so special.”
What would you like someone to say about your band after hearing "Euphoria" for the first time?
Marco: “I really have to hear them live sometime.”
Florian: “I would’ve said the same thing. When it comes to the album, I’d want to listen to it again. Everyone knows that you listen to certain albums depending on the situation—even if it’s just one track, because it really moves you emotionally. And that’s what I’d hope for—that the album moves you emotionally.”
Finally: If you had to describe the album in just one sentence—without using the word “Euphoria” or musical genres like jazz or techno—what would that sentence be?
Florian: “The album strikes a balance between positive, bouncy tracks and dark, techno-inspired soundscapes, leaving room for complexity and improvisation, yet it always remains danceable.”
Experience it live now
If you want to not only hear the energy of “Euphoria” but also experience it up close, you should definitely catch the Jazzrausch Big Band on stage. That’s where the very collective euphoria that Florian and Marco talk about in the interview unfolds—an intense interaction between the band and the audience that happens anew every night.