Algorhythm - Termomix (2019)

Algorhythm

Emil Miszk - trumpet, piano, percussion
Piotr Chęcki - tenor saxophone
Szymon Burnos - rhodes, moog, programming
Sławomir Koryzno - drums, percussion

Termomix


ALPAKA 010

By Adam Baruch

This is the third album by young Polish Jazz ensemble Algorhythm, this time reduced to a quartet which includes trumpeter Emil Miszk, saxophonist Piotr Chęcki, keyboardist Szymon Burnos and drummer Sławomir Koryzno. It presents fourteen short compositions, which are not credited on the album's artwork and therefore assumed to be co-composed by all four members of the ensemble. In fact even the name of the ensemble is (almost) missing from the artwork.

The music and the ambience of this album are radically different from their earlier work and moves almost completely away from the traditional Jazz idiom into contemporary ambient/electronic music, Avant Rock and Avant-Garde explorations. However, Jazzy improvisations, are still an important ingredient of the music, and as such are an obvious link with the past. This album must have taken the followers of the group and the Polish Jazz scene by surprise, as it is both quite unexpected and stylistically revolutionary.

In order to appreciate this music properly one has to put aside the ensemble's earlier work and accept the music for what it is rather than judging what it should/could have been, which some "critics" graciously implied. Of course experimenting and searching for new ways of expression is always welcome, even if it produces a less appealing or immediately accepted result.

Obviously this music sets a challenge in front of the listeners, who have to decide if they are willing to follow the musicians on their new path or let this music pass them by. The audiences are more often than not much more stagnant and conservative than the music makers, which creates the commonly accepted reserved attitude towards Avant-Garde, blaming the musicians for leaving the listeners behind, but it fact it is the listeners who are lingering behind of their own choice.

Personally I find this album as a bold and important experiment, which finds the ensemble in a transitory stage between the established and safe musical environment and a new experimental milieu, without actually quite making up their mind. The future will tell if this was just a one time venture or a start of a new aesthetics which will be further developed.

Whatever the future may hold for them, Algorhythm deserve respect for daring to experiment and looking into new forms of expression, threading the less travelled road. Their individual ability as instrumentalists is already well established and now is the time to forge their unique personal musical identities. May the Force be with you.