Miłosz Skwirut - Road Movies EP (2019)

Miłosz Skwirut

Katarzyna Pietrzko - piano
Dominik Bieńczycki - synth
Miłosz Skwirut - double bass
Max Olszewski - drums
Jorgos Skolias - vocals
and others

Road Movies EP



PRIVATE EDITION

By Adam Baruch

This is the debut EP album (under half an hour of music) by young Polish Jazz bassist/composer Miłosz Skwirut, recorded with several other young Polish Jazz musicians like pianist Katarzyna Pietrzko, keyboardist Dominik Bieńczycki, guitarist Marcin Hilarowicz, drummer Maksymilian Olszewski, percussionist Łukasz Kurzydlo, vocalist Susanna Jara-Małecka and veteran vocalist Jorgos Skolias, who appears on one track. The album presents five original compositions, all by Skwirut.

The cinematic term "road movie" refers to the genre which tells a story of a person leaving home and venturing on a journey of discovery, which often changes the hero's perspective of life and shapes his character. The strong World Music influences, which are reflected in Skwirut's music, are the analogy to a virtual journey into different cultures, with the compositions serving as mini-soundtracks of that imaginary journey's chapters.

The music is based on strong melodic motifs, which are then ornamented by World Music rhythms and an atmosphere of mysticism and exoticism, crated by the vocalese and synthesizer parts and Skwirut's use of arco. All the participants do a truly splendid job, which suits the intended atmosphere of the music ideally. As expected the vocals by Skolias are one of the highlights of this offering.

The album is obviously just a glimpse at Skwirut's abilities as a composer and a player, rather than a full-fledged musical offering, for which we have still to wait. But this glimpse is certainly fascinating and intriguing enough to create an anticipation of things to come. Considering the fact that Jazz-World Fusion is not a very popular and strongly present idiom on the contemporary Polish Jazz scene, especially that exploring World cultures beyond the Slavic sources, this music is a breath of fresh air. In short, this is a very nice introduction to the musical world of Milosz Skwirut, which offers great compositions and excellent playing by his cohorts, rising high hopes for his future ventures!