Record Reviews

ZAKOPOWER / ATOM STRING QUARTET ~ ZAKOPOWER / ATOM STRING QUARTET KAYAX 112 (Barcode: 5907678818737) ~ POLAND ~ Jazz-Rock-World Fusion Recorded: 2017 Released: 2017 This album presents a live recording documenting a meeting between two Polish musical entities: The Folk-Rock group ZakopowerFind albums by this artist, which takes its name form the southern Polish town of Zakopane, the capital of the Polish Highlanders, and the Jazz / Classical Atom String QuartetFind albums by this artist, one of Poland´s most revered and prolific music makers in the last decade. The album presents an instrumental introduction and eleven songs, almost all composed by Mateusz PospieszalskiFind albums by this artist, the musical director of Zakopower. Although all the songs (except one) are original, the music is decisively influenced by the unambiguous Highlander´s Folklore. The music is overall a typical Folk-Rock Fusion, with more that usual intricate string arrangements and some improvised Jazzy passages, which don´t dramatically influence the stylistic color of the music as a whole, but do enrich it enormously. In spite of the very crowded stage (fifteen musicians) the music is perfectly recorded and the individual vocals and instruments are all perfectly audible. Aside from the beauty of the music and the exquisite execution, the album is also important for other reasons. First, musically, as it demonstrates the infinite ways in which cross-genre possibilities are not only possible, but can also be immensely successful. And second, culturally, showing that Folklore and other musical traditions can and should be carefully preserved for the sake of our children´s children´s children. The album is breathtakingly beautiful and deeply emotional, saturated in the sound of violins, those played by Dawid LubowiczFind albums by this artist and Mateusz SmoczynskiFind albums by this artist of Atom String Quartet as well as those played by Zakopower´s leader Sebastian Karpiel-BuleckaFind albums by this artist. The Polish melancholy and lyricism are also present, as usual, this time in a Folk-Rock costume but no less effective. The Atom String Quartet´s contributions to this music are a brilliant example of their diversity and open-mindedness, which simply knows no limitations whatsoever - a truly great achievement on their part. Overall this is a highly sophisticated as well as deeply emotional album, which should satisfy the most demanding music connoisseurs of all genres. Musical bliss!

Updated: 29/05/2017Posted: 29/05/2017

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