For generations of jazz musicians, the popular music of their youth provided material to be pulled apart, reharmonised and reinvented. For Dublin quartet 8-bit Funk, that source material happens to include Super Mario, Pokémon, Sonic and other landmarks of video game music.
On 30 October, the group will release Level Design, a six-track debut album that takes music from the world of video games and reimagines it through jazz, funk, fusion, neo-soul and electro-rock.
The album will be preceded on 2 October by its first single, “Bob-omb Battlefield”, 8-bit Funk's organ-driven jazz-funk arrangement of the instantly recognisable theme from Super Mario 64.
A New Source for Jazz Standards?
There is an interesting idea underpinning the project beyond the obvious appeal of nostalgia.
Much of the repertoire now regarded as jazz standards didn't begin life as jazz compositions. Generations of musicians drew from the popular culture around them, adopting songs from Broadway musicals, films and the popular songbook before transforming them through improvisation and reinterpretation.
For bassist Leon Laisne, there is a parallel with the music that accompanied a later generation growing up.
Many of the video game soundtracks of the 1990s and 2000s contain the strong melodies and harmonic structures that lend themselves naturally to jazz interpretation. They are also tunes that can carry an immediate emotional connection for listeners who spent their formative years exploring the worlds those melodies accompanied.
In that sense, 8-bit Funk aren't simply playing jazz versions of video game themes. They are approaching familiar music as repertoire: taking compositions their generation already knows and finding somewhere new to go with them.
Building 8-bit Funk
8-bit Funk brings together Leon Laisne on bass, Eoghan McCloskey on drums, Luca McArdle on keys and Yuzuha O'Halloran on saxophone and flute.
The quartet has spent the past year and a half developing the project on stage, with appearances including Portlaoise Jazz Festival and Dún Laoghaire Festival.
Jazz Ireland readers may also have encountered the band at Arthur's Jazz Club, where they presented a special Zelda-heavy set alongside music from other games. Described at the time as a mixture of “nostalgia, Funk and classic Jazz,” the show demonstrated how readily the group's concept could expand into a full live programme.
The band reports that the Zelda Special sold out, another indication that there is an audience for music sitting at the intersection of jazz culture and the enormous musical legacy of video games.
Level Design
The six tracks on Level Design draw from games including Pokémon Gold & Silver, Super Mario 64, Chrono Trigger, Baldur's Gate 3 and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Rather than imposing a single sound across the entire collection, 8-bit Funk have allowed the individual pieces to move in different directions. Across the album, the quartet explores organ funk, fusion, neo-soul and electro-rock while retaining jazz and funk at its core.
First up is Bob-omb Battlefield, originally composed for Super Mario 64, which arrives as a single on 2 October.
It is an appropriate introduction to the project. Super Mario 64 belongs to the era of video games at the heart of the band's concept, and its music will be immediately familiar to many who grew up with the game. 8-bit Funk recast the theme as an organ-led jazz-funk arrangement, moving it from the Nintendo 64 into the sound world of the quartet.
There is also something fitting about the title Level Design. Just as a game designer can take familiar elements and construct an entirely new environment around them, these arrangements begin with existing musical material before rebuilding it through the personalities and instrumentation of the four musicians.
From Nostalgia to New Repertoire
Nostalgia is clearly part of the attraction of 8-bit Funk, but Level Design also raises an interesting question about where jazz musicians find repertoire.
The music absorbed during childhood inevitably changes from one generation to another. For musicians who grew up during the rapid expansion of video games in the 1990s and 2000s, game soundtracks can occupy much the same personal space as television themes, film scores, records and popular songs.
And video game music itself has developed enormously. What was once created within severe technological limitations has grown into a vast musical culture encompassing everything from electronic music to orchestral scores, while decades of game themes have become deeply embedded in popular memory.
8-bit Funk's approach is to bring some of that music into the language of a working jazz ensemble — not simply reproducing the original arrangements, but using them as starting points.
Having spent a year and a half establishing the band on the live circuit, Level Design represents the next stage of that project and the quartet's first step onto record.
“Bob-omb Battlefield” is released on 2 October 2026, ahead of the release of Level Design on 30 October.
8-bit Funk will celebrate the release of the album with a launch party at Doyle's Corner, Dublin, on Friday 30 October from 8pm, bringing their mix of video game music, jazz, funk and more to the stage.
Links
[Pre-save “Bob-omb Battlefield” on Spotify]
[8-bit Funk – Level Design Album Release Party at Doyle's Corner]
[Visit the 8-bit Funk website]
Connect with 8-bit Funk
