Record Reviews

INNERCITY ENSEMBLE ~ II INSTANT CLASSIC 019 ~ POLAND ~ Jazz-Rock-World Fusion Recorded: 2013 Released: 2014 This is the second album by the Polish Improvised Music group Innercity EnsembleFind albums by this artist, which comprises of trumpeter Wojciech JachnaFind albums by this artist, guitarists Artur MackowiakFind albums by this artist and Jakub ZiolekFind albums by this artist, drummer Tomasz PopowskiFind albums by this artist and percussionist Rafal IwanskiFind albums by this artist, Rafal KolackiFind albums by this artist and Radek DziubekFind albums by this artist, who is also in charge of electronics. A guest percussionist Witold BargielFind albums by this artist also participates. The double CD album documents the output created during three-day long meeting dedicated to spontaneous improvisations and the six tracks on CD one and five tracks on CD two are all improvisations not credited to any specific musicians and are therefore assumed to be co-composed by all the participants. The music is a wonderful amalgam of Ambient / Electronic / Industrial / Jazz / World Music and a plethora of other influences, all combined to create dreamy sound vistas and atmospheric soundtracks, which flow gently influencing a serene and relaxed feeling of Nirvana. The music is completely non-aggressive and accommodating, which is a rarity as far as Improvised Music is concerned. Jachna plays some remarkable trumpet parts all along the developing pieces and his contributions are of course the most distinctive, whereas the rest of the musicians are more subdued into the amalgamated multilayered background. As I have already stated in the past Innercity Ensemble is one of the most original and interesting Polish acts of this kind and all three of their albums so far are absolutely worth getting and should bring a lot of joy to open minded listeners.

Updated: 10/05/2017Posted: 10/05/2017

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INNERCITY ENSEMBLE ~ III ISTANT CLASSIC 047 ~ POLAND ~ Jazz-Rock-World Fusion Recorded: 2015 Released: 2016 This is the third album by Polish Improvised Music group Innercity EnsembleFind albums by this artist, which consists of trumpeter Wojciech JachnaFind albums by this artist, guitarists Jakub ZiolekFind albums by this artist and Artur MackowiakFind albums by this artist, drummer Tomasz PopowskiFind albums by this artist, percussionists Rafal IwanskiFind albums by this artist and Rafal KolackiFind albums by this artist and Radek DziubekFind albums by this artist, who is in charge of electronics. In fact all the members play a plethora of different, mostly percussive, instruments on this album, which is characterized by this powerful percussive sound. Together they perform seven original compositions, which are not credited on the album´s packaging and therefore are assumed to be co-composed / improvised by all seven members of the band. For improvised music this album is remarkably well organized, with clear melodic themes and steady, although polyrhythmic intense percussive background. The music is beyond simple classification, as it mixes many diverse genres, like Jazz, Ethno, Jungle, Ambient and many other flavors, but the important thing is of course that the result sounds beautifully coherent and highly fascinating. The music creates a trance-like atmosphere, which absorbs the listener completely, taking him away from reality into an imaginary world of its own. Jachna plays most of the solo parts and his heartwrenching performances are the absolute centerpiece of this album. In the course of just a few years Jachna established his position as one of the most creative Polish trumpeters on a scene exploding with talent and fiercely competitive. Music connoisseurs with a developed imagination could envisage this music as "Miles DavisFind albums by this artist in a jungle". But of course the rest of the band also contributes beautiful sound vistas and percussive backgrounds, which are rich in textures and intricate details. Although there is a certain element of repetition, the mantra-like parts are never long enough to become boring and are always ornamented by a multitude if minimalistic musical gems. Overall this is a beautiful and fascinating piece music, which explores and probes uncharted territory, as music always should. This is definitely something ambitious music livers should enjoy immensely and as such is wholeheartedly recommended!

Updated: 11/11/2016Posted: 11/11/2016

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ARTUR MACKOWIAK / GRZEGORZ PLESZYNSKI ~ A SOUND OF THE WOODEN FISH WET MUSIC ~ POLAND ~ Jazz Recorded: 2014 Released: 2014 Polish Avant-Garde guitarist / composer Artur MackowiakFind albums by this artist and multimedia artists Grzegorz PleszynskiFind albums by this artist are associated with the Bydgoszcz based Nowa Sztuka Wet Music Foundation (Mackowiak is one of the founders). The Foundation also operates the Wet MusicFind albums on this label Records, which released several separate and collective recordings by these two artists earlier on. The music was recorded during one "live in the studio" session, with the participation of clarinetist Jerzy MazzollFind albums by this artist, who is featured only on the first part of the album, which comprises of three parts edited out of the entire session. The music is a flow of electronic / ambient sounds, guitar phrases and chords, plastic tube trumpet blowing, human voice reverberations and other weird noises, with Mazzoll´s clarinet mixed in (sadly only in the first part), which normally wouldn´t make any sense whatsoever, but here somehow being able to overcome the chaos and anarchy and come together as a flow, which is best received subconsciously, simply by allowing oneself to get emerged in the music (sound?) without trying to analyze it. The problem with this music, however, emerges in time as there is little if any development on the time scale and the repetition becomes trying in a long range. Therefore when Mazzoll is gone, the rest of the album offers more of the same (or rather less of the same), causing even a trained and patient listener like myself to wander what (or where) is the point in all this? Avant-Garde has a tendency to create self-indulging works, which lose the audience at one point or another. It is extremely difficult to be outrageously innovative and communicative at the same time, and this album fills that purpose only in part. But it definitely has its moments and is worth investigating by the brave-hearted listeners. That said, the will of the artists involved to pursue they own visions and dreams is extremely important and they deserve our respect for doing just that, taking the road less travelled.

Updated: 12/04/2019Posted:

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