Record Reviews

ADELA KONOP / GRZEGORZ PLESZYNSKI ~ FINLANDIA ANTIDEPRESSIVE ~ POLAND ~ Avant-Garde Jazz Recorded: 2018 - 2020 Released: 2021 This is the debut album by the Polish Avant-Garde Jazz duo comprising of vocalist Adela KonopFind albums by this artist and multi-instrumentalist / composer / lyricist Grzegorz PleszynskiFind albums by this artist, a representative of the Bydgoszcz scene, which has been the most creative Avant-Garde environment on the Polish scene. Saxophonist Tomasz LicakFind albums by this artist and drummer Maciej WrobelFind albums by this artist guest on the final track. The album presents eight original compositions / improvisations, not credited on the album’s artwork and assumed to be co-created. The music is a completely unique amalgam of human voice and layers of electronic sound vistas with some additional sounds like plastic trumpet and keyboards. Shocking with its forwardness at first, the music soon becomes flowing and penetrating the listener’s consciousness, trans-like and overwhelming, but constantly changing and offering an intrinsic tension, which keeps the listener mesmerized. Pleszynski proves again to be a class by himself as far as crossing musical borders and completely shunning stereotypes. The focus of the music is obviously concentrating on the vocal parts, and Konop stands up bravely to the challenge, as nothing could have prepared for what she is required to do here. She wonderfully utilizes the entire known and expands into the unknown scope of vocal vocabulary, which includes everything from straightforward melody to completely wild vocalese, multi-tracking vocal effects, and other wonders that don’t have a name for it yet. She is absolutely sensational from the first note she utters to the last second while the music is playing. Pleszynski wisely steps back supporting the vocals with his instrumental work reduced mostly to creative background, showing a beautifully minimalist approach. His sensitivity and imagination are also brilliant and complete the vocal parts most amicably. The music created by the duo is a perfect example of the result being way more than just the sum of the ingredients. I don’t precisely know why, but the music sounds deeply sacral to me, without any specific religious references. The sound resonance and echo used during the recording create an atmosphere of a great cave / huge cathedral space, and the trumpet often sounds like church organs. This is completely subjective of course, but it made a powerful impact on me while listening to the music. Overall this is a phenomenal album, surely one of the most innovative and impressive vocal recording I happened to come across in many years. An absolute must hear to all followers of Jazz / Avant-Garde vocals and all lovers of beautiful weird music the world over. An eye (well, ear) opener like few others.

Updated: 02/05/2021Posted: 02/05/2021

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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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NOEL / PLESZYNSKI / MAZZOLL ~ GREEN ANTIDEPRESSANT ~ POLAND ~ Avant-Garde Jazz Recorded: 2013 Released: 2017 This is a wonderful Avant-Garde recording created by the British (resident in Berlin) artist Ann NoelFind albums by this artist, who reads texts from her journals, with Polish avant-gardist Grzegorz PleszynskiFind albums by this artist, who plays plastic tube trumpets and Polish Jazz clarinetist Jerzy MazzollFind albums by this artist who plays the bass clarinet. The album present nine collages of voice and improvised music. The entire project could be looked upon as an extension of the Jazz & Poetry idiom, with the liberties and lack of formality typical of the Avant-Garde approach. It is neither spoken word not music, but an amalgam of the two, mostly spontaneous and meaningful in the spur of the moment, but also relevant in retrospect, at least to some listeners. Considering the limited possibilities intrinsically embedded in the "lineup" creating this music, the result is way beyond all expectations. Whether treated at the detailed level, as three separate ingredients or as an amalgam of expressions, the result is communicative and striking, provided the listeners are open-minded and artistically liberal enough. For all those people who repeatedly ask "why do we need all that Avant-Garde nonsense", my answer, as usual, is that without Avant-Garde (in Art / Science or any other activity involving the brain) the reverse process humanity is going through (i.e. from man to ape) would be even faster than it is today. With that in mind, this is definitely something worth investigating, for listeners who did not lost yet the capacity to listen and participate…

Updated: 12/04/2019Posted: 16/02/2018

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