Jazz and Experimental Music form Poland proved to be an excellent way of introducing young Polish artists to new audiences and to London's cultural scene. The festival featured work from Polish musicians and audio artists. Eight events took place, of which one was learning event. It has provided a new ground for future international collaborations and encouraged participants to develop new projects.
The festival also achieved wide recognition through BBC Radio 3 which featured the festival on several of its programmes including: Jazz on 3, Late Junction and In Tune, which invited Marcin Masecki to play two live improvised pieces based on Scarlatti Sonatas and was broadcast digitally to almost every country worldwide. Concert at Servant Jazz Quarters was broadcasted live by NTS Radio.
The press response to the festival was much better than Deconstruction Project had expected. The festival was listed in most major newspapers including The Guardian Guide which listed the concerts as one of the five best London music events at the beginning of December 2011. We have also received 4-star reviews (The Guardian, The Telegraph).
We heard madly accelerated scale fragments, or limping shards of melody, against arpeggios unfolding at different speeds. Satie’s muffled pathos, and the manic patterning of Nancarrow’s player-piano music seem to be its ancestors. But now and then the real source of this postmodern fracturing was startlingly evident: the harpsichord sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph ****
A mini-festival of contemporary Polish jazz, run over the last few days by arts promoters Deconstrution Project, brought the story up to date, introducing some seditious jazz stars of the 21st century (...). The Guardian ****
Marcin Oleś meanwhile has the tone and beauty in mind of a player of Palle Danielsson’s quality and the ideas of a musician who thinks beyond his instrument, pulsing tremendous cues to his brother and opening up dramatic spiritual vistas that made the duo seem more like an orchestra. Wonderful stuff. Stephen Graham, Jazzwise
We were also featured in:
Jazz Forum
Financial Times
The Independent
The Time Out
The feedback from audience members was equally positive with 98% considering the overall idea of the festival and its programme to be excellent.
Given the overall success of the first edition of the festival, Deconstruction Project plans to repeat it in future years. So, if you missed the concerts last year we hope to see soon!
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To see more photos (by Jordan Matyka) please click here.
