Record Reviews

MINIM EXPERIMENT ~ DARK MATTER FOR TUNE 0107 (Barcode: 5906395808090) ~ POLAND ~ Jazz Recorded: 2016 Released: 2016 This is the debut album by a young Polish Jazz quartet Minim ExperimentFind albums by this artist, led by guitarist / composer Kuba WojcikFind albums by this artist, which also includes pianist Kamil PiotrowiczFind albums by this artist, Italian bassist Luca CurcioFind albums by this artist and drummer Albert KarchFind albums by this artist. The album presents five pieces, all original compositions by Wojcik. The music is a wonderful open format amalgam of melodic themes and free improvisations, full of energy, inspiration and surprisingly fresh ideas, which are even more amazing considering the young age of the musicians involved. There is a wonderful balance between the melodic content and the freedom of expression, which keeps this music coherent and focused on one hand and opened and unexpected on the other hand, an ideal all modern Jazz musicians are striving to reach, but only very few actually succeed. There is of course a certain minimalism involved, as the name of the quartet suggests, but it is that wonderful kind of minimalism which manages to emphasize the "less is more" effect, which again is very rarely achieved. The individual contributions by all for musicians are outstanding. The leader plays with a very clean, almost sterile sound, eschewing electronic effects and other cornucopia, which is remarkably fresh and effective. Piotrowicz, who already has a couple of solo albums under his belt, sounds outstandingly open minded here, very far from the pretty conventional approach he used on his own albums, almost as if he wasn´t himself. Curcio does a great job on the bass, playing sparingly but always right on the money, with his individual punches standing like pillars upon which the rest of the music rests comfortably or arco work creating additional layers of the overall soundscape. Karch, who already made his impressive statements on other Polish Jazz albums, is the ideal drummer, who does not play rhythm but is there alongside his partners exactly when needed. Overall this is a brilliant debut album, one of the best Polish Jazz debuts of 2016 and perhaps even one of the best albums of this year. It is with great pleasure that I am able to write these words on New Year´s Eve, rounding up my work as a reviewer for 2016. A beautiful finishing accord of a very intense year for Polish Jazz, hopefully to be followed starting tomorrow! Hats off!

Updated: 31/12/2016Posted: 31/12/2016

CD 1 Recommend To A Friend