WYNOŚ SIĘ Z MOJEGO DOMU by Stara Rzeka

 

Jakub Ziołek has been dwelling on my mind for quite some time. Through diversity of his projects such as  Ed Wood, Alameda Trio, Hokei, T’ien Lai, Innercity Ensemble and Kapital I learnt how much you can accomplish through your own, individual way of understanding different modals, genres, musical idioms and chisel your own way through the granite of musical matter. His consequence, being relentless and forward thinking makes him a humble trailblazer.

If you feel like touching something equally solid but also beautifully evasive in terms of looking for references to folk music, black metal, soulful ethnic jazz, ambience created through different means, and experimentation on different levels - here's a new album of Stara Rzeka (Old River ).

It's a bit of a hard jolt - starting from the title ''Get out of my home'' - nine tracks of gentle manoeuvres between depth of soulful acoustic sound which reminds me a bit of  Eyeless in Ghaza, Popol Vuh, Ben Chasny and Six Organs of Admittance, Roy Montgomery (and I could list more) but also something truly original and just taking music as it is - poetic and gentle, unorthodox in a way that it never feels like a cliché but still being on the verge of something you ''sort of'' know, you ''sort of''  heard yet still very fresh. 

Illustrative tones of guitar with vocals sounding both dreamy and distant yet very soulful and emotional. It leads to something evocative and elevating through both traditional means and a bit more experimental ambience as it is in ''Elegia''. 

I think Jakub has worked out his own idiom of acoustic songs that range through different dynamics - always reflective and magical but speeding up slowly towards some form of emotional rupture. Listen to ''Oberek z domu wilków". 

I think it's been a decade since the last album - a definite yes to re-visiting this intimate world of haste, peace and interesting tonal arrangements

released December 5, 2025

Music: Jakub Ziołek

with:

Hubert Zemler - drums & metallophones in "Wszędzie śnieg"

Tomek Popowski - drums in "Daleko, daleko"

Lyrics: Jakub Ziołek, except "Daleko, daleko" Gosia Zielińska

Artwork/cover design: Aleksandra Ołdak

„The world is there, without me, before me, after me. I am only my privates - my sex organs and my tongue, homeless fires”. - Michel Serres, The Parasite

„I have no house only a shadow. But whenever you are in need of a shadow, my shadow is yours”. - Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano