Wojtek Fedkowicz Noise Trio - Distant Heroes (2020)

Wojtek Fedkowicz Noise Trio

Dominik Wania - piano, electronics
Jacek Fedkowicz - bass guitar, electronics
Wojtek Fedkowicz - drums, electronics

Distant Heroes

OKO-ART 2020

By Adam Baruch

This is the second album by Polish Jazz drummer/composer Wojciech Fedkowicz and his Noise Trio, which includes pianist Dominik Wania and bassist Jacek Fedkowicz. All three players use electronic effects on their respective instruments. The album presents ten original compositions, all by Wojciech Fedkowicz with three being co-credited to Jacek Fedkowicz and one to Wania.

The music is mostly within the mainstream Jazz idiom, with highly melodic themes, mostly very low key and overtly melancholic, with a few more open excursions, which are definitely the most exciting moments on the album. Although the album might at first appear as a regular Jazz piano trio release, it has a very specific sound and harmonic approach, mostly due to the application of the electronic sound effects, which distort the natural sound of the bass and the drums up to a point where the listener needs to readjust his “hearing concept” to be able to listen to this music. These effects are less dominant as far as the piano is concerned, which results in an almost "normal" piano sound. This unique overall approach is definitely controversial, and might scare some of the listeners away from the music, at least at first hearing.

It seems that Wania’s genius is able to conquer any obstacle and his playing on this album is as impressive as on any of his other recordings, which of course is always a cause of musical joy. His improvisations are full of brilliant colors and his musical flow is an artistic dream come true. He is, naturally of course, at the very epicenter of the music here, and the fascinating structures of his soli are alone a good enough reason to listen to this music carefully.

I personally find the playing around with the sounds more disturbing than productive, but that is of course a question of taste. Wania plays magnificently enough to make me want to listen to this music, and the rest is up to the individual listener. I can be hardly considered as a conservative music connoisseur, but not all types of experimentation or attempts to innovate are automatically acceptable to me, although I do appreciate the audacity to be different. It would be a great fun to hear this album without any electronic effects, just for the sake of comparison. Overall this is a very interesting musical twist and an exercise in "hearing", with an added value of some superb piano playing by the top Polish Jazz pianist of the day. Highly recommended for the brave hearted.

Wojtek Fedkowicz Noise Trio - Post Digital Dreamers (2013)

Wojtek Fedkowicz Noise Trio

Dominik Wania - keyboards, electronics
Jacek Fedkowicz - bass, electronics
Wojtek Fedkowicz - drums, electronics

Post Digital Dreamers 

Text by Dirk Blasejezak

To understand “Post-Digital Dreamers” one has probably to know the history of Wojtek Fedkowicz’ Noise Trio. It all started as a proof-of-concept project to show the influences of Drum & Bass on playing styles on the drums which lead to a longer collaboration in this band. This is important as there are lots of influences to hear on this album - and not only on the drums.

The trio manages to make a groove of most uneven bars like 11/8. I really like that, but I had in some breaks to stick with Saul Williams’ advise: “If you must count to keep the beat then count.” [from “Coded language”.] Those difficult bars are one of the ideas behind D&B and Wojtek and Jacek Fedkowicz (who are responsible for drums and basses) transport this perfectly on the album.

Dominik Wania on the keys is probably best known of the three from his works with Piotr Baron, Jacek Kochan, and Maciej Obara to mention just a few. What’s interesting here is, that there aren’t too many melodies he can use as a framework for his play - another drum & bass influence - so he is not that omnipresent he would be as the only lead instrument in a normal piano trio. This doesn’t mean that he (or the others) are not playing well - you just have to keep in mind what the band was about in the first place.

There is of course more to this record and from the line-up one can see, that all three are extensively using electronics. There’s no problem with that - quite the contrary - they’re just great. But I have to admit that I didn’t like this record very much in the first place, despite the technical perfection - or maybe because of it. I for one like it a bit less clean but that’s just preferential. Still that almost made me miss "Polskie Drogi 2.0", a wonderful composition and my favorite song on this album that’s unfortunately almost at the end of the record (you find a live recording of this song below). If you just like me have some problems with the crispy or digital sound I suggest you start with that video to get an impression of the playfulness of the band.