Michał Wróblewski Radiostatik – Lucid Dream-Live At Filharmonia Szczecin (2019)

Michał Wróblewski Radiostatik

Michał Wróblewski - keyboards
Andrzej Gondek - guitar
Michał Kapczuk - bass
Sebastian Kuchczyński - drums

Lucid Dream-Live At Filharmonia Szczecin

FILHARMONIA SZCZECIN 007


By Adam Baruch

This is the fourth album by Polish Jazz keyboardist/composer Michał Wróblewski recorded live with his ensemble called Radiostatik and the Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra. Radiostatik was originally formed in NY in 2015, when Wróblewski was invited by trumpeter Terrence Blanchard to record an album, which resulted in the studio version of "Lucid Dream", and which sadly remains so far unreleased. The American-Polish lineup of Radiostatik, which was created to perform the material live, includes two American vocalists: singer Andre Washington and rapper Raashan Ahmad, the leader on Fender Rhodes, guitarist Andrzej Gondek, bassist Michał Kapczuk and drummer Sebastian Kuchczyński. The album presents twelve original compositions, all by Wróblewski and arranged by him, with lyrics by him and Ahmad.

The music is a exactly what it promises to be, a Jazz-Pop Fusion with orchestral arrangements, based an excellent melodic themes, which sounds as American as American goes, the kind of stuff which usually gets nominated for Grammy over the pond. It is catchy, groovy, smooth and easy on the ear, but in this case it is also highly musical and truly excellently put together. If it proves anything, it is the fact that European composers and musicians can easily beat the Americans at their own game.

Except for a few instrumental soli, the music has very little to do with Jazz, which means that the Polish Jazz lost the talents of Wróblewski for a while, but personally I am quite convinced he will be back to his musical roots again. In the meantime he can pursue other goals and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this as long as the music is well done and does not deteriorate to the normal level of contemporary Pop, which is killing us mercilessly.

The orchestral parts are the real surprise of this album, ideally suited to the music and performed with great taste and skill. Such class of Pop instrumentation is almost completely absent from contemporary Pop music, probably because it is simply too expensive. But the album proves that a real orchestra can not be replaced by synthesizers. Overall this is a highly entertaining and classy Pop album with some Jazzy features and orchestral ornamentation, beautifully executed and accessible to a wide music loving audience, which should satisfy every true popular music connoisseur. Definitely worth investigating!