Rafal Gorzycki / Kamil Pater – Therapy (EP) (2013)

Rafal Gorzycki - percussion
Kamil Pater - guitar

MW 005








By Adam Baruch

This album presents a live recording by a duo of Polish Jazz musicians: percussionist / composer Rafal Gorzycki and guitarist / composer Kamil Pater. These two talented personalities met earlier on, when they were both members of quartets, which recorded the splendid "Dziki Jazz" and later "A-Kineton" albums and here they cooperate in a much more intimate framework of a duo, which is of course more demanding and challenging. The album includes one continuous piece of music, performed without any breaks and edited as a single track. The music is not credited specifically to the participants and therefore should be considered as spontaneously created "on the fly" by the duo members. The music last for about 34 minutes, which marks this album as an EP rather than a full CD. It is a limited numbered edition of 200 copies only.

Musically this is a mixture of many different musical elements, inspirations and influences, obviously well based in the Jazz tradition of improvisation, but also encompassing electronic music, Rock and Fusion elements, folkloristic motifs and contemporary Classical structures. Although improvised and spacey / free, it also includes clear melody lines and forms, which makes it much more accessible to less experienced listeners than most Improvised Music recordings. Gorzycki and Pater have both already proven that although they feel very comfortable in the Free Jazz environment, they stay relaxed and elegant cleverly eschewing the aggression and alienation often associated with that genre.

As always with duo projects, the most essential quality a listener expects to find is the level of dialogue between the musicians and their mutual understanding / connection. This recording is a superb example of an almost telepathic bond developing between musicians playing together, which is always a source of great pleasure for the listener. In addition both these players display a masterly control of virtuosic proportions of their respective instruments, which is awe inspiring.

The music Gorzycki and Pater play here is quite different from what they played on earlier recordings, which of course gives us the opportunity to discover other layers of their complex artistic personalities. It is truly admirable that they continue to create and discover new territory time after time. This restlessness is an essential quality, which characterizes great explorers, and we, the bystanders have the enormous pleasure of reaping the fruits of they labor.

Overall this is a beautiful piece of extremely interesting music, which is unconventional, bold and experimental and yet at the same time is quite listenable and inviting. Very well done indeed!