Stare Taśmy - Kryzys Czytelnictwa

 

Stare Taśmy (Old Tapes) from Cracow, Poland has emerged recently being released on a cd and a tape brings together 4 friends - musicians and artists from different backgrounds together in something you could easily dismiss as an impossible collaboration. 

Małgorzata "Tekla" Tekiel - a phenomenal bass player who's been active since 90's in a wide range of underground projects working with Karpaty Magiczne members, Lech Janerka, Będzie Dobrze, Morświn, Pochwalone and Püdelsi among many others. 

Paulina Owczarek who's playing saxophone is an interdisciplinary artist of classical training active both within composed an dimprovised contemporary music, she also works with Morświn.

Tomek Chołoniewski - drummer and percussionist active beyond any classifiable realm again both within composition and improvisation but also in quite interesting experimental art projects.

Marcin Barski, once running hyperactive Audiotong label/project is a open form artists who has recently done a solo album with American Reading Group rec.

Together they created a unique project which has an improvised feel to it but having stable structures of rhythm section and themes of Paulina's saxophone brings out the voiceover and plundered archive of sounds which are quite frankly diversify the understanding of moral and political chaos and dysfunction of current situation in Poland. 

Songs/not so much songs are a comment of punk/free jazz nature with nuanced elements and interesting stacattos (Alkohole Twarde reminds me of the best year of jazz-core such as Rhythm Pigs, No Means No or Assassins of God with fury of Zorn's Painkiller). But let it not deceive you - they are more than that - at times you can feel some bits of experimental prog like Henry Cow or Art Bears or even Camberwell Now with the maestry of Magma but without its pathos. A great selection of vocal and audio material is a non stop drilling commentary and a narrative that is both impulsive and neurotic but funny and abstract as well in the range of existentialism and breaking the lethargic Cracow spleen ( yes, there is something of that sorts). 

The minimalism of the bass/drums section with quite transparent and melodic parts of saxophone blend excellently and it actually helps to feel that this kind of music might be something looked for by wider audience as it has quite a structured and listener-orientated aspect. But don't let it persuade you that "Kryzys Czytelnictwa" is an easy-listening. It has grit and dirt of hard core punk and in-your-face defying message with jazz and polyrhytmic vibe. A sign'o times.

 bandcamp link