Since 1999 bassist Rafal Mazur and saxophonist Keir Neuringer (Stability Group, Infinity Quartet) have performed together, bringing an intense physicality and range of sonorities to their improvisations.
"Mazur and Neuringer met in October 1999 at a drummerless jam session in one of Krakow's cellar jazz clubs and have been performing together in various formations ever since. They formed the free-jazz trio Stability Group in 2000, Infinity Quartet (with Ryan Zawel on trombone and Marek Choloniewski on electronics) in 2001, and co-founded an improvisation collective [i.e] that has connected many musicians internationally. Yet it is their duo that has been a primary force in their individual musical developments since 1999. Mazur and Neuringer share an intuitive sense of form developed in real time and in tandem with each other, and produce an extraordinary range of sonorities in light of the limited physical sound sources they use (acoustic bass guitar, occassionally bowed, and unamplified saxophone). In their years of playing together they have moved between and within extremes of energy and restraint, opening up for audiences what is essentially a long-running dialogue between two close friends expressed in musical terms."-Keir Neuringer website
"Keir Neuringer has cultivated a personal and intensely physical approach to solo saxophone improvisation that honors, builds upon, and eschews diverse music-making traditions. Vehemently critical of the destructive behavior of industrial civilization, in his work (as a composer, performer, bandleader, writer, interdisciplinary artist and curator) he seeks to bring audiences into a state of emotional and intellectual curiosity that meets the conditions for meaningful dialogue with the culture at large. He works with a wide and undefined network of inspiring musicians, including bassist Rafal Mazur, turntablist DJ Sniff, and the contemporary music group Ensemble Klang."-Keir Neuringer website
"Rafal Mazur's involvement with music began in his youth with violoncello studies in Krakow. He switched to bass guitar in the late 1980's. Since 2000 he has played an acoustic bass guitar built to his own specifications by luthier Jerzy Wysocki. He has developed an advanced and individual approach to his instrument, and to improvisation in general, in which sonority, extended technique and gesture combine effortlessly in performance. He has taken an important role in Kraków to support young artists and improvised music. A founder of the ImproArt studio of improvisation, he has performed jazz and improvised music in clubs and festivals across Poland and Europe, and in China, South Korea and Israel. In recent years he has collaborated with Lisa Ullen, Frederic Blondy, Charlotta Hug, Raymond Strid, Keir Neuringer, Zsolt Sores and Attila Dóra and others. His current focus is the trio "Ensemble 56". "Mazur/Neuringer Duo" and "Ullen/Dóra/Mazur Trio". "-Rafal Mazur website