Raphael Roginski - Bach Bleach (Multikulti, 2009)

Raphael Rogiński - guitars

Multikulti, 2009

(Editor) We seldom place on our blog materials as supplied by recording labels but this one is exception as we agree with every word of praise about Raphael Rogiński "Bach Bleach". Exceptional talent in Polish avantjazz and fantastic record indeed!!!

Raphael Rogiński became the most original polish guitar player. For some the master of klezmer free jazz, for another experimenter of Fennesz quality. And recently he recorded the compositions of Jan Sebastian Bach…. "Bach Bleach" it’s the most amazing album recorded in the last few years in Poland. The release was excommunicated by the Polish Bach Association immediately after its publishing. There is no better recommendation than that!

Rogiński explains some aspects of his work on the record:

"My arrangements are rather free – not only in terms of sound, but also pace, rhythm, texture… I don’t believe in ideal, pure Bach, performed note for note. If the west European tradition can be divided in mathematical- tomistic and intuitive- popular stream, I deem myself definitely closer to the latter one. When we were recording this album I listened to some recordings of a highly esteemed, French harpsichord player Pierre Hantai and I was terrified because I had an impression of listening to a computer. Meanwhile, ever more experts claim, that in Bach times this kind of crystal-clear performance of a score was not striven for. I learned about this some years ago during excellent workshops for early music in Jarosław.

In my experiments with electric coupling and dirty „margin sounds” I wanted to show, that Bach’s compositions are not abstract, mathematical constructs, but living music, organically coupled with the body of the performer and the anatomy of the instrument. That’s why I decided on very sensitive recordings, using eight microphones – you can hear my breath, movement of my muscles, cracks and buzzing of the guitar. But above all I discovered dazzling silence between the notes – that’s the reason for sometimes radically slowing tempos. I realized, that this special stillness, negation of turmoil, can give the listener real catharsis. It may sound pretentious, but some people would cry on my concerts. This unique ‘economics’ attracts me much more in Bach’s music than the complicated polyphonic constructs. There is no redundant sound, not a bit of noise."

Author of text: Krzysztof Szamot (source)