Members: Marcin Masecki – director, piano, Maurycy Idzikowski, Filip Mazur – trumpets, Michał Górczyński, Tomasz Stawiecki – clarinets, Bartek Smorągiewicz, Tomasz Duda – saxophones, Michał Tomaszczyk, Piotr Wróbel – trombones, Jerzy Rogiewicz – drums
„Polonaises” – Marcin Masecki's new project – is a 10-piece brass orchestra, playing polonaises he composed.
As the artist puts it: “Polonaise, a national dance, is a forgotten, downright dead form. It no longer serves its role as a ball dance, it is no longer music to raise people's spirits. Today we only hear polonaise at proms and Chopin recitals.” This “lack” of polonaise became one of the main stimuli to compose the material. Further incentive was an exquisitely fruitful conversation with Jan Bernad on the role of folklore in contemporary art, and him inviting Masecki to a pre-premiere performance of „Polonaises” at the Kody Festival in Lublin.
When it comes to the compositions themselves, one may say they consciously combine different aesthetics including: a third-league marching band, 19th century elegance, and classical composing techniques (the first piece is written in the form of a sonata-allegro). As modern compositions they also include a rich sonic palette from today's musical landscape. We can hear references to surf rock, hip-hop, samba, jazz. On top of that we have Masecki's typical fascination with everything that is crooked, awkward, uncomfortable, oscillating between merit and lack thereof, sometimes even frenetically.
Most pieces had been written in the beginning of 2012, during the author's one-month stay in Uruguay. In December his orchestra entered the studio and recorded an album which will be published by the Lado ABC record label and the National Audiovisual Institute (NInA). The Rozdroża foundation, which organises the Kody Festival, is an additional partner.
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