The Borderland would like to invite you to another concert in the Sejny Jazz Cooperative – New Music Festival in Sejny!
The music is going to be performed by Dominik Strycharski, and his band Core. The ensemble will present their acclaimed album Alert.
Sejny Jazz Cooperative, Saturday, 15 August, 7 pm. Admission free.
Following the release of Symphony of the Ursus Factory in 2021, Dominik Strycharski Core has returned with new material. While the previous album was created as a soundtrack for a film work, Alert stands as an independent musical entity, conceived and composed from beginning to end by the quintet's leader.
“Improvisation constitutes only a small part of this music, because I wanted it to be a highly conceptual, cohesive and precise album with a very clearly defined atmosphere. Above all, I wanted all the structures that appear on it to be the result of some deeper thought” – this is how Dominik Strycharski describes the concept behind the album.
In terms of genre, Alert eludes any straightforward classification, bringing together elements of contemporary music, musique concrète, minimalism, jazz and electronics, while at certain points embracing a powerful, almost rock-like expressiveness. The experimental and exploratory nature of the album resonates with its mood: dark, minor-key and even apocalyptic. As Dominik Strycharski explains:
“This album was born out of my sense of insecurity, from the presence of wars around us, from my conversations with people, and from reflecting on the fact that the entire sense of security we experienced in Western civilisation was merely a kind of illusion. I have a sense of an impending catastrophe, but one quite different from the kind discussed in the media. The piece ‘We Are the Blink’ offers a very human, melancholic reflection on the fact that even 100 years of human life is an incredibly short period of time compared with the lifespan of any planet or other cosmic entity, while at the same time, from our own perspective, it represents an enormous span of life, dramas and struggles.”
Alert was written by Dominik Strycharski for a quintet – and for this particular line-up – with all the compositions completed before rehearsals began. During the rehearsal process, the musicians of the Core ensemble also introduced elements of collective improvisation.
“We left these as completely intuitive passages, based on what each of us wanted to play” – Strycharski emphasises, adding: “This music could only have been created by this particular line-up, and for that reason it is unique.”
Line-up:
Dominik Strycharski – flutes, electronics
Grzegorz Tarwid – prepared piano, synthesiser
Wojciech Jachna – trumpet, electronics
Zbigniew Kozera – double bass
Paweł Szpura – drums