Adventurous Releases from Poland
Soundtrack…
15 Corners of the World – Motion Picture Sound Essay
The film 15 Corners of the World includes simultaneous audio and images. Images do not supplement the music here, nor does the music simply illustrate the photos. Meanings, senses, feelings, and scenes are created where those two spheres cross. Without vision, there is no “moving of the viewer’s imagination, the inventory of his feelings, experiences, and associations”, as Eugeniusz Rudnik defines the goal of art in general.
Speaking about vision and sound forces us to find some sort of principle that would allow building comprehensible relations between them. Yet there is no universal principle—there is only the illusion of language that we have created for a single movie. We have built our own means of expression and used them so as to create an emotional and intellectual narrative. In that way, we have found images that have blended irrevocably with the music. Therefore, is the sound essay 15 Corners of the World incomplete? How does it relate to the movie?
Dark Ambient…
David Lynch + Marek Zebrowski – Polish Night Music
Barren train stations, Polish factories at night, and silent hotels where lonely travellers meet. These are the images and suggested narratives that pervade the spirit of Polish Night Music, the musical collaboration between American filmmaker David Lynch and Polish concert pianist and composer Marek Zebrowski.
Improv…
Leventhal, is, as far as I can tell, the debut from Kolega Doriana (Matylda Gerber – sax, Maurycy Wilczkiewicz – guitar and Jan Krukowski – percussions, electronics). It starts off firmly rooted in drone territory with a brooding and slowly evolving 15 minute track sustained by plaintive sax notes, only to gradually disassemble into a distorted and dystopian soundscape of flagellating fuzzy tones.
Following tracks adopt a similar narrative where more discernable acoustic improv sessions develop into full-blown free jazz and spiral into cascading noise. The album comes to a resolution of sorts with a more controlled finale that still makes few concessions.
Alternative…
Tomek Mirt: musician and graphic artist. Creates solo and in collaborations. His solo music is sometimes quieter than field recordings, which he likes to use. Sometimes repetitive but it can also be characterized by subcutaneous rapacity. He prefers analog electronics, prepared trumpet and guitar as well as field recordings and palette of ethnic and self-made instruments. All of Mirt’s recordings are made without use of computer, without edits on analog tape only. This way excludes the wide interference in recorded material. It causes the greater concentration on work.
Voice…
Derek Piotr is a Poland-born sound artist currently based in New England, whose work focuses mainly on the voice. He has been an intern to Meredith Monk, collaborated with AGF and Richard Chartier. Tempatempat could be seen as Piotr’s “gamelan album”; after records focused on the sound of bells (Airing, 2012) and Eastern tonality (Raj, 2013), this focus was the next logical step. Unlike Raj, where straightforward rhythms aimed to express simple, primal energy, Tempatempat sees Piotr construct deeply layered and largely complex song-based tracks, the majority of which veer close to pop territory.
Neo Folk…
“Rabbit Eclipse is the second full-length recording from the legendary Ksiezyc following on from their self titled debut from 1996. It was recorded in Warsaw throughout May to September 2015 within the idyllic Palladian palace Królikarnia (The Rabbit House). All original members gathered to conjure the peculiar hybrid of the ancient and the contemporary unique to the band.
With more expanded forms, Rabbit Eclipse presents a rich and subtle environment of beguiling narratives hanging in suspended tension. This opens up an entire new phase in the cycle of the band, where an enchanting discrete musical continuum of rich and subtle sound excursions are enveloped in a mysterious melancholia.
Rabbit Eclipse is another exemplary presentation from one of Poland’s most idiosyncratic and respected outfits.”
Sci-Fi…
Palcolor is an experimental electronic project from Warsaw inspired by old sci-fi movies, library music and early IDM. Made on voltage controlled synthesizers and modules with a sound somewhere in-between pretty downtempo tunes and raw and noisy droney soundscapes.
Busy year for Palcolor aka Emil Macherzyski with three notable releases.
Analog…
Whlhelm Bras – Visionaries and Vagabonds
“It has been two years since the release of the first warmly welcomed album by Wilhelm Bras. In this period his unusual ideas about electronic music have been constantly evolving, maturing and gaining even more distinct character. This was happening during multiple live performances, in clubs, at the festivals and small gatherings, in Poland and abroad, as well as in studio work. Visionaries & Vagabonds is a demanding album, complex and intensive, not only because of its raw and radical timbres, but also thanks to multi-layered polyrhythms and (dis)harmonies. One can find here tracks suitable for more progressive club audience among others, barely touching such aesthetic, including instead idioms of several other genres. ??All sounds are of analogue origin, coming from the synthesizers built by Wilhelm Bras himself.”
Radio Theatre…
Robert Piotrowicz, Lukas Jiricka – Samoobrona
“Helmut Kajzar recorded Samoobrona. Magiczny manifest [Eng. Self-defence. The Magical Manifesto], his play written between 1974 and 1975,three times: once in the radio and twice at home, performing an amateur mix of its fragments with conversations and other private noise. These performances were autonomous materials ready for release. Nonetheless, the “staging” of Jiika and Piotrowicz is to some extent more congruent with the spirit of the original work than any other performance, including the recordings made by the author himself. Instead of the text performed by a few voices in the theatrical space, we receive a two-channel narration, which may be replayed using home equipment.”
Experimental…
“Porcje Rosoowe is the Polish duo of Lech Nienartowicz and Mateusz Wysocki (a.k.a. Fischerle). Their sound pieces dedicated to insects play on the idea of reversed field recording. Instead of featuring actual recordings, Nienartowicz and Wysocki use digital tools to create complex and hyperrealistic micro worlds. Porcje Rosoowe started by combining glitch elements with free improvisation, but with each piece the duo have consistently been replacing any traditionally musical elements with the tools of mimicry to immerse listeners in manufactured reality.”
Acoustic…
Adam Golebiewski is a drummer improviser. Pool North was recorded live by Bartek Olszewski, with unedited acoustic improvisations for drumset and objects.