• Music - Youtube

    Zbigniew Namysłowski Modern Jazz Quartet: Lola (England, 1964) [Full Album]

    February 9, 2022 - By 

    Polish jazz legend Zbigniew Namysłowski has departed the world. He played alto saxophone, flute, cello, trombone and piano, and was equally at home playing straight-ahead jazz or acidy funk. He also played on what is considered to be the holy grail of Polish jazz albums, Krzysztof Komeda’s classic LP Astigmatic, as well as collaborating with local luminaries like Janusz Muniak, Leszek Możdżer, Vladislav Sendecki, Michał Urbaniak, and Andrzej Trzaskowski.  He was 82.  You can read his obituaries here and here. Requiescat in pace.

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    Various Artists – Zona Electronica

    February 5, 2022 - By 

    Zoharum are one of Poland’s longest-lasting experimental, ambient, minimal and industrial/dub/illbient labels.  On January 30, they released a comp of musicians who are critical in Poland’s underground music scene.  Among familiar names, of course, are Jeff Gburek, Hubert Heathertoes and Mike Majkowski, but the new names I’m hearing on this release are equally as intriguing.  Zoharum have done sterling work documenting the current goings-on of their local scene.

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    Jeff Gburek + George Christian – Thrown Extremes

    January 14, 2022 - By 

    During the next few weeks, I’ll be catching up on releases I could not get to in 2021.  This one is really a gem that I’m surprised I didn’t get to earlier, but thanks to Jeff Gburek reminding me of it, I can happily present this release he did in collaboration with another one of the blog’s dear friends, George Christian. The two tracks which go under the name The Charles Ives Observatory (Parts 1 and 2) bookend the centerpiece of the album, the 28-minute opus Magellanic Clouds.  The CIO tracks have the feeling of classic-era electroacoustic music imbued with…

  • Music - Youtube

    Dorota Barová – Dotyk

    January 12, 2022 - By 

    Czech vocalist and cellist Dorota Barová is a new name for me, but her rather glorious voice brings up memories of Portuguese singers like Teresa Salgueiro, who you might remember as the lead singer of Madredeus.  Barovà has had an impressive career, as her first album, the award-winning debut “Iluzja” (Anděl Award), propelled her to fame in the Czech indie music scene.  Her sophomore release, Dotyk (Touch), brings a collection of new songs and lyrics authored by Barová, which she recorded in trio with guitarist Miroslav Chyška (member of Illustratosphere, J.A.R. and Sexy Dancers) and bass guitarist Miloš Klápště (known…

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    Jeff Gburek – Gendhing Rebaban

    December 23, 2021 - By 

    As we near the close of a challenging 2021, we’re graced with a release by composer Jeff Gburek which features a rebab, a spiked fiddle.  It’s an instrument he studied in Indonesia under Pak Suhardi, blended with synthesizers and electronic bloops and bleeps which left me feeling like I was listening to some remarkable sound experiments out of the old BBC Radiophonic Workshop.  Jeff mentions below that there is no tradition of rebab-playing in Western electronic music, so he should be congratulated on consistently breaking new ground in this release. From his Bandcamp site: There aren’t many traditional compositions (if…

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    Jeff Gburek – Trans Beskid Radio Volume 4 Extended

    December 8, 2021 - By 

    The last week I was in the United States before heading off to China, I watched MEV (collecting Alvin Lucier with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum, may their names be ever remembered) and Kayhan Kalhor the weekend before.  It was an incredible week of music before heading to more surreal surroundings. Jeff Gburek’s latest album comes at a time where Alvin Lucier, whose mark on contemporary classical and experimental music in general is impossible to overstate, continues to inspire musicians as time passes.  It is a ghostly work, at once warm and organic, but imbued with a vibe of a…

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    Jacaszek & Kwartludium – Catalogue des Arbres

    November 24, 2021 - By 

    Michał Jacaszek is a Polish composer joined by the Kwartludium, a contemporary classical music quartet who, until coming across this recording, I had never heard of previously.  Jacaszek, the quartet, and the musicians who supplement this recording make a very tense, yet totally organic series of an electroacoustic series of soundscapes, which, as he says, are “forgotten songs performed secretly by my beloved trees.”  He lists his inspiration as coming from the legendary French composer Olivier Messiaen’s seminal work, “Catalogue d’Oiseaux.”  A stunning work to be inspired by, and the ensemble have done justice to Messiaen’s memory.

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    Bester Quartet – Piazzolla Angels

    October 25, 2021 - By 

    Poland’s For-Tune Records have been consistently releasing high-quality jazz and improv music for some time now, but their latest has a special place for me. This collection, with the exception of Por Una Cabeza (composed by Carlos Gardel) was composed by the inimitable Ástor Piazzólla and arranged Bester Quartet leader and accordionist Jarosław Bester.  It’s remarkable to hear how fluidly tangos by the masters can be translated so well into jazz and improvisational music.

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    Jeff Gburek – Diaphragmata

    August 25, 2021 - By 

    This release allows me to kill two birds with one stone.  First, it’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to review music by Jeff Gburek (one of the several venerable composers who always manage to find a welcome home on these pages), and this is a strikingly quiet and meditative album.  Second, I have sampled some of the wares of Muteant Sounds, a fine experimental label out of Florida in the United States, but I believe this might be the first album from that label I’ve had the change to listen to in full. Jeff explains the concept…