Lutosphere
Andrzej Bauer, Leszek Możdżer and m.bunio.s – a musician from the creative DJ scene – came together one evening to perform their own music inspired by the works of Witold Lutosławski. The outcome was a coherent and communicative programme which, apart from jazz and improvisation, managed to incorporate elements of classical contemporary music. This was a tribute to Lutosławski, honoured by the Polish Parliament, which proclaimed 2004 “the Witold Lutosławski Year”.
Lutosphere is a project of three artists from three rather different musical milieux, brought together by the music of Witold Lutosławski, an uncompromising artist, author of his own musical idiom.
Programme
- Intrada
- 4-fingers
- Kantylena
- Chillout
- Concerto Loop
- Bukolika
- Passacaglia
- Sacher
About Lutosphere
One may wonder whether successful collaboration of an improvising jazzman, virtuoso classicist and avant-garde DJ is at all possible. Can musicians from such utterly different artistic backgrounds find a common ground? How to reconcile the perfectionism of classical performance with the unpredictability of jazz improvisation? How to amalgamate the refined sound of acoustic instruments with the relentless rhythm of an electronic beat? And, last but not least, how to combine them all into a palatable interpretation of Lutosławski’s music?
Nevertheless, this get-together of artists with such disparate stylistic roots, dissimilar traditions and creative experience may produce music with an original and novel sound. Andrzej Bauer is well acquainted with Witold Lutosławski’s music and has performed it under the baton of the composer himself, closely cooperating with him. Możdżer claims that he quoted Lutosławski’s piano Study in his free-jazz improvisations at the 1992 Jazz Juniors competition, from which began his foray into jazz. Coming from the young club scene, DJ Bunio, too, expresses a strong fascination with Lutosławski.
LUTOSPHERE is an attempt to create a new musical quality, within which Możdżer, Bunio and Bauer demonstrate high flexibility and considerable detachment from their earlier accomplishments. An electronically distorted cello, filtered through heavy-metal fuzz, Możdżer improvising on six notes (in Sacher Variation for solo cello), Bunio painstakingly generating asymmetrical rhythmic intervals taken from Lutosławski’s scores, and all this overlaid with the voice of the composer himself: “What was yesterday is no longer good! Only what is today can be good! And when what tomorrow brings is good – what is today will be good no longer!”
(Leszek Możdżer/Justyna Rekść-Raubo)
Other projects
My concert projects. Old and new. The projects I develop and perform cover a wide stylistic spectrum. Some relate to performances of the classical repertoire, some are modern creations combining performance and composition, using digital technology and multimedia.
