Various Artists

PRES Revisited. Jozef Patkowski In Memoriam

Label: Bolt Country: Poland

"The album's core is the recording of the concert dedicated to Polish Radio Experimental Studio in London's Cafe Oto (CD2). Electronic pieces from the Studio were turned into instrumental structured improvisations performed by legends of improvised music, members of AMM John Tilbury and Eddie Prévost, coming back to playing violin, Phil Durrant and two Polish musicians of the younger generation - guitarist Maciej Sledziecki based in Cologne and Warsaw cellist, Mikolaj Palosz. In their solo sets, they presented their individual variations on the compositions created in the Studio. Their collaborations were framed by graphic scores based on original recording and prepared by Denis Kolokol. His attempt was to make use of the idiosyncratic instrumental language of each of the improvisers; language that owes so much to the development of electronic music. CD1 consists of original, remastered recordings of the pieces that were performed in Cafe Oto as they seem to be among the greatest productions of the Studio."-Bolt

"Polish Experimental Studio was among the first institution of the kind in the world. Established in 1957 by Józef Patkowski as a department of the Polish Radio, Studio quickly became a central point in polish electronic music. 50-ies and 60-ies were its most vibrant times; Boguslaw Schaeffer, Wlodzimierz Kotonski, Tomasz Sikorski, Krzysztof Penderecki and many others were composing the first polish electronic pieces, often as a collaboration with directors of animated films. These were also the days of intense cultural exchange with other countries (John Tilbury for example was a close collaborator of Tomasz Sikorski). Over the last two last decades situation of the studio became a huge mystery. Semi-opened, it ceased to publish anything and made the classical recordings almost unavailable. There is a hope for change if the plans of Bôlt. New Music in Eastern Europe label will become reality.

In 2007 Michal Libera organized an unofficial 50th Anniversary of the Studio inviting Frederic Blondy, Piotr Bukowski, Karol Koszniec, DJ Lenar, Raphael Rogi?ski and Dagna Sadkowska to recreate electronic pieces for live setting. Their perspectives were different - few of them tried to represented technological processes in improvisations; others kept the original form or structure or worked on developing a given material. Experimental Studio Revisited in London is a step further. Denis Kolokol prepared scores based on his interpretation of the pieces to be performed in London by Phil Durrant, Maciej Sledzicki, Mikolaj Palosz, Eddie Prévost, John Tilbury. Each one of them will also present his own solo version of the proposed pieces. The final piece will be "Symfonia", a graphic score by Boguslaw Schaeffer designed for sound engineer."-Cafe Oto

Read more about this item

At The Squid's Ear!