Mundinova - W Drodze (2020)

Mundinova

Dorota Kołodziej - vocals
Michał Wilczyński - guitar
Marzena Cybulka - bass

Mateusz Szemraj - oud, rubab, baglama

Dariusz Kaliszuk - percussion

W Drodze

PRIVATE EDITION 2020

By Adam Baruch

This is the debut album by Polish ensemble Mundinova comprising of vocalist Dorota Kołodziej, bassist Marzena Cybulka and guitarist Michał Wilczyński. Percussionist Dariusz Kaliszuk and oud player Mateusz Szemraj guest on selected tracks. The album presents ten original pieces, eight composed by Cybulka and two by Wilczyński. Cybulka also wrote three of the lyrics (two in English) and co-wrote one with Kołodziej, and four lyrics were contributed by Justyna Paluch. Two pieces are instrumentals. The music was recorded at the fabulous Monochrom Studio and engineered by Ignacy Gruszecki with the usual spectacular sound quality.

The music is a wonderful Jazz-World Fusion project, with splendid themes beautifully weaved and excellently executed by the trio and guests. Although song oriented, the music offers unusual accompaniment performed basically just by bass and guitar, which again portrays the tendency towards minimalism so characteristic of Polish Jazz in 2019.

The World Music influences, although quite obvious both melodically and rhythmically, are not very specific, which is very effective. Attentive listeners will be able to hear some Flamenco (well guitar), Middle East, Slavic and other layers, mysteriously popping up when least expected.

Kołodziej offers splendid vocal performances, both while singing the lyrics with sensitivity and heartfelt honesty and even more so when singing marvelous vocalese. Wilczyński plays superbly tasteful guitar accompaniment and solos exuberantly but without unnecessary pathos. But it is Cybulka, who easily steals the show with her bass virtuosity, which should make many bassists truly envious. She is simply sensational and beautifully exemplifies that female intuition and feel are much more important than technical proficiency and showmanship trickery, albeit she lacks neither. She really has the Groove! Szemraj, as expected, adds some hair-raising moments of his own, which are the proverbial cherry on top.

Overall the album offers plenty of wonderful music, a rich variety of moods and melodic worlds, brilliant instrumental performances, all this in a pleasant, highly focused atmosphere, which makes listening a truly joyful ride. There is no pretentious slickness, no trying to sound somebody else, just some wonderful, straight-to-the-heart musical message. Brilliant stuff!

Jerzy Milian Unrealesed Tapes Indiegogo Project

Jerzy Milian is a legendary figure in the history of Polish jazz. A lavish and versatile composer, Milian was one of the members of Krzysztof Komeda's renowned Sextet, praised by Down Beat both as a jazz vibraphonist (LP „Bazaar”, 1969) and an able arranger. His music was regularly featured by the BBC. GAD Records, an independent Polish label, has launched a crowd-funding campaign aimed at the release of the artist's hitherto unpublished recordings. You could also help in making this happen!

A recently unearthed set of unique recordings by Jerzy Milian turned out to be a vast repository of captivating jazzy tunes. Out of the innumerable number of high-quality vintage tracks the GAD Records team have picked fifteen. Fine tunes, upbeat rhythms, and swinging grooves have become the essence of the "When, Where, Why" album, hopefully to be released later this year. Instead of putting out a finished product, the label decided to let the fans get involved in the process of its production. Hence the crowd-funding campaign at Indiegogo.com aimed at raising the $2500 necessary to cover production and licensing costs. The variety of goodies GAD Records offers to its donors ranges from a vintage thank-you postcard and a digital single with an unreleased track unavailable elsewhere to the actual CD album, a limited set of postcards and absolutely unique mixtapes. You even get the chance to become the project's executive producer!

Indiegogo.com, the world's second-largest crowd-funding platform, allows to support independent projects without any risk whatsoever. If the campaign fails to raise the necessary funds, nobody pays a dime. But the GAD Records team and Jerzy Milian believe it's going to work out fine. They have 45 days to reach their goal (until June 21).

http://www.indiegogo.com/milian

source: Michał Wilczyński