Olo Walicki, Gaba Kulka, Maciek Szupica - The Saintbox (2012)

Olo Walicki - bass

Gaba Kulka - vocal

Maciek Szupica - visuals

The Saintbox (2012)

The Saintbox sprung to life in 2010, when Olo Walicki, composer and double bass player, invited Maciek Szupica (visuals), an Gaba Kulka (voice, lyrics, several small instruments) to cooperate on the project: holding on to a loose outline of themes such as spirituality and ritual, they created new material, and premiered it during the Jazz Jantar Festival in Gdansk (November 2010). The Saintbox was born as a multimedia spectacle in which the visual is as vital as the sound. The debut was very well received: “The Saintbox is groundbreaking and surprising. From the beginning it was obvious the concert will be nothing like the rest of them.” “Submerged in folk, and improvised music on equal part, Olo Walicki’s pieces sound every bit as mysterious and intricate, as their sacral inspiration would suggest. When combined with Szupica’s pictures, they create a true musical ritual.“

Inspite of Olo’s yass background, the feel and structure of Saintbox’s music is rather like an eerie, dearmlike movie soundtrack. It points to classical music, experiments in electric jazz of the seventies, rock and folk (with echoes of Peter Gabriel, Led Zeppelin and Sufjan Stevens). At times it’s dark and unsettling, often lyrical, sometimes humorous. The lyrics (in English, French, German and latin) written or interpreted by Gaba add a curious Babel tower in the midst of the music.

Aside from the live performances (including those at Leszek Mozdzer’s Enter Festical in June 2011, and the Zubroffka short film festival in Bialystok) – the band has devoted most of the past year to recording the album – with guests including Macio Moretti, and the Gdansk Philharmonic Brass. The album has been produced and mixed by Marcin Bors, who has, among other works, produced Gaba’s “Hat, Rabbit” album.

Track listing: 1. Fiolet 2. Comfort Credit Image 3. Somnia 4. Desantisbox 5. L'hiver 6. Hope 7. Eulalia 8. Luna 9. Third Coming

source: http://thesaintbox.com