Catalogue number: UKM 114
Release date: 31.05.2023
vinyl & digital
Info:
Official Promo Video: https://youtu.be/5l-JFS4IBjA
The idea for „PORTRETY” was simple – to invite esteemed drummers to record a song that will be signed with their name. There was no musical framework – they could invite guests or record everything themselves – no need to necessarily use drums. This is how the first PORTRAITS in 2019 were created, and now we present their next installment.
‘Part two’ seems to suggest a series, so just as with the bad joke from four years ago, I’ll lead with the short, age old adage: “10 musicians and a drummer”. Admittedly, it is rudimentary and unfunny, however, it is significant: It’s easy to forget an instrumentalist’s other specialities, but here, the drummers don’t let themselves to be forgotten.
This series – the brainchild of Marcin “Groh” Grośkiewicz – is composed of up-close portraits. A task which not only shifts accents, but also changes the lives of those normally considered the unsung heroes of the background. One of the tracks from “Portraits” was picked for an advertising campaign for a well known smartphone producer, others topped industry charts and inspired new bands where drums were in the spotlight.
Part two brings us eight drummers who are among the most multifaceted musicians on the Polish music scene. What are they doing here? Teo Olter tells a complex story, asking in the very title, where he is going? Wiktoria Jakubowska, known for backing big stars, shines through with her own composition. Miłosz Pękala – an interpreter of avant-garde composers and an academic lecturer – thoroughly entertains. Famous from Immortal Onion, Wojtek Warmijak energetically explores high tempos, while Wojtek Sobura – those slower, patiently sculpting a club beat with sonoristic* abstraction. Macio Moretti surprises, as expected, stylistically moving towards his hero: Zappa. Tymoteusz Papior impresses, effortlessly juggling accents and chopping time signatures. And Inferno, despite being associated with the group Behemoth, shows he can do it… drum-less. Some invite other musicians, but they always remain – as their studies or professional experience taught them to be – the musician with the widest set (be it drums or skills) on the team.
So, how does the second part of the series compliment the first? It further completes the gallery of collector’s cards with Polish Percussion’s superheroes and heroines. Each a different personality and an individual set of features. But does it satisfy? Strikingly.
Enough, I won’t drum it into you.
Bartek Chacinski
Translation: Sean Pom Palmer
*Quote from “Music in Movement”:The term sonoristics was created by the Polish music theorist Józef M. Chomiński. His original definition describes sonoristics as a technique, the essence of which is to „focus on purely sonorous values as the main means of expression, and thus a structural element of a composition”