★Bolt
Homo ludens
Józef Patkowski, the long-time head of Polish Radio Experimental Studio and a tireless moderator of musical life, exposed Poland to the world. In 1957 he initiated the Studio’s work by organizing a symposium about creating music for magnetic tape. The roll call from this day includes many composers, broadcasters, personalities from the worlds of theatre and cinema, poets, choreographers, intellectuals and engineers. Among them was then 24 years old Krzysztof Penderecki.The studio became a …
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 prin…
Raphael Roginski plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes African
You may know Raphael Roginski for his justly celebrated treatments of Jewish and Eastern European music, including his Shofar trio (with Mikolaj Trzaska and Macio Moretti) and his work with Wac‚aw Zimpel (Music of the Yemenite Jews, Hera’s Seven Lines). Though these and related projects are important to Roginki’s ambitions as a guitarist, composer, and activist, his interests and influences range widely—see for example his collaboration with DJ Lemar (also reviewed on the blog) or his recor…
Prominences
Prominences can last for many months just like unrealized love opens up a core of unstable emotions, left beyond the edge of the “Sun”, alternating between peaceful rides during the solar eclipse and strong spectral lines in its emission spectrum.like the northern winds, prominences blow its solar spell straight inside of your chest. Delicate resonating textures surround you, light piano massages your brain, bells are whispering the secrets, keeping concept parts of its mystery.
Tekla Mrozowicka…
Komuna// Warszawa plays Luc Ferrari Tautologos III
In 2011, the prose score of 'Tauologos III', served as framework for a chamber opera prepared in Komuna// Warszawa. Its core element consisted of three separate performances of a short fragment of Alfred Schnittke's String Trio. Violinist (Julia Kubica), violist (Wojciech Walczak) and cellist (Filip Rzytka) played their own parts of the given movement one after the other. Their performances were recorded live and finally overlapped and played back with no synchronization. The procedure was sprin…
play Alvin Lucier Chambers
Rinus van Alebeek and Michal Libera set out for a dozen of excursions into Calabrian towns armed with Italo Calvino's 'Invisible Cities' as a guide book, to recite, talk, read, listen, drink coffee, perform, play, record, play back... or: blow, bow, rub, explode, scrape, walk, ignore, talk, screw, dance, whistle, which are all suggestions of Alvin Lucier to make large and small resonant environments sound. The material recorded during these attempts to make invisible cities of Calabria sound was…
Pole Reports From Space
Pole Reports From Space collects together archival recordings and new commissions from the Polish Radio Experimental Studio on the theme of space. The Polish Radio Experimental Studio was founded in 1957, and like other electronic and experimental radio stations, frequently produced interpretations of the sounds of deep space, alien sound effects and the whirrs of the future. Pole Reports From Space is compiled and partly commissioned by Bolt Records.The Polish Radio Experimental Studio has been…
Unchained
A lenghty composition for four pianos by two legendary composers, African-American Julius Eastman, and Polish minimalist Tomasz Sikorski, here performed by Emilia Sitarz, Bartek WÄ…sik, Joanna Duda and Mischa KozÅ‚owski, and it's absolutely amazing for its strange combination of frivolity and darkness. It sounds light and repetitive, with phrases that move like long grass in the wind, almost dancing and joyful, only to come down again in dark rumbling chords full of dread and ill omen. As …
Samoobrona
"Magiczny manifest [Eng. Self-defence. The Magical Manifesto], this play was 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 Jiricka 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 auth…
In Dialogue With Eugeniusz Rudnik
"Making music is to be in constant dialogue with your own aesthetics and preferences. In inspired moments, you can get surprised by where the process leads you. And in welcoming circumstances, there are no limits or sneaking doubts that disallow you to try out any possibility. The electronic music made by Eugeniusz Rudnik unquestionably encourages such a position. Working with his music has been greatly inspiring, and the nature of his music feels strangely fitting to my own approach to e…
Different Trains
The album is a collection of works of Arturas Bumsteinas inspired by Central European cultural landscape (soundscape). It includes radio play "Wielka improwizacja" commisioned by Bôlt Records. "Wielka improwizacja" is based on the monologue from the 3rd part of the poetic drama "Dziady (Forefather's Eve)" by Adam Mickiewicz and the archival recording of its reading done by the Polish poet Miron Biaoszewski. Most parts of this composition were recorded in and around the site of the Basilian…
Attitudes
Kåre Kolberg is a pioneer of electroacoustic music in Norway, and he was the first Norwegian composer to write a piece of computer music (in 1973). […] Kolberg’s basic ideas for electroacoustic form were shaped in his first works made in Sweden and Poland in the early 1970s, and he used a collage technique with easily recognizable elements that communicated well with audiences. Later, he extended his technique by adding a more electronic-sounding and abstract timbral palette. In Polish Ra…
Kartacz
If I were to look at the ideas promoted by the Experimental Studio against Ma e Instrumenty's practices, I would refer to the concept of music which is - for certain reasons - 'impossible' studio electronic productions, preparing instruments, using and editing tapes - all those practices once broadened the perspectives of the art of sound. However, the 'unreachable' sound combinations produced by Ma e Instrumenty could also be considered as an attempt to overcome the 'impossibility' in music. Ho…
Polygamy
In all respects, Andrzej Biezan (1945-83) was an original and creative composer. His main means of expression were intuitive creation based on general assumptions and well balanced improvisation respecting proportions typical of traditional narrative. According to Biezan's approach, music that is written down is 'music about music'. True creation is only possible in the present moment - neither in the past nor in the future. It is an activity performed in real time. Any reference to the r…
Solitaire
Beautifully presented reissue of classic archival electroacoustic works, within "Warszawa-Oslo" project, a recollection, phonographic documentation and reactivation of bonds between Polish and Norwegian electro-acoustic music, presentation of their individual character and unquestionable significance on the international scale. This beautifully designed set (with extensive booklet of note) collects some of the most exciting, shimmering and crystalline electronic sounds to be unearthed in quite a…
Fete galante et pastorale
There were several ‘firsts’ involved in my initial encounter with Zygmunt Krauze’s music: my first visit to Poland (1970), my first ‘Warsaw Autumn’ festival and its first concert (19 September), and the Warsaw premiere of Krauze’s first Piece for Orchestra (1969). The memory has stayed with me ever since, not least because here was a work that was distinctly different from the other new Polish music that had so far filtered westwards. I was familiar with some Lutosławski, Penderecki …
Red Sun
What makes the music of Kasia Głowicka special? First of all space. Deep and extensive. As in ambient music. Built by reverbs, echoes and electronics. Against this background - a piano. Flickering , rippling . Cascades of repeating notes and rhythms. As in minimal music . Tonal associations, but with different development. Clear sounds, distorted, appear then re-appear hear and there as whispers and crackles. As in glitch music. But clearly you hear the skills of a seasoned composer –…
Martian Landscapes
I have never been to Mars, but sometimes i drop by... pictures and films we have access to give us a false impression that we already know something. My Mars is still populated with images from our childhood linked with hundreds of films and science fiction novels. i sympathize with misinterpretation of the illusion caused by old telescopes, as if the surface of Mars was covered with a network of irrigation canals being a proof of high civilization. combination of curiosity and fear stemm…
Champion of the world has no monopoly on the legions
Recorded by Bartek Kalinka, Jan-Sep 2012 using acoustic guitar, modular synthetizer, percussion (sampled and live)
Sleep (An attempt at trying)
Sleep (an attempt at trying)“ is a radio suite for vocalist, narrator, improvising ensemble and electronics. In this project Bumšteinas explored the subject of insomnia which makes it a very autobiographic project. The main sound material for “Sleep” came from the sleeping-aid and relaxation tapes, that Bumšteinas bought for himself in various fleamarkets around Europe. The course of personal therapy wasn't too successful and due to nocturnal boredom Bumšteinas started dabbling with the function…