Mosaique - KAIROS - Klangforum Wien 

(monographic album), 0015108KAI 


Der polnische Komponist Marcin Stańczyk (Jg. 1977) zählt fraglos zu den vielseitigsten und originellsten Tonschöpfern seines Landes. 


Bisweilen scheint es, als ob es sich bei den Stücken Stańczyks um Wahnehmungsspiele handelt, die zwischen spontanen Entladungen und genau kalkulierten Effekten oszillieren. Komplexe Texturen, Klangfarben und Rhythmen nehmen den Hörer beständig gefangen, überfordern ihn mitunter, lassen aber stets eine dramaturgisch spannungsreiche Szenerie entstehen, der man sich nur schwer entziehen kann.


Kurzkritik von Dr. Kai Marius Schabram, 07.11.2023

https://magazin.klassik.com/reviews/reviews.cfm?TASK=REVIEW&RECID=38118&REID=20482

Impossible music (24.02.2022)


„It is certainly no coincidence that one of the first compositional reactions to the events of February 24, 2022 was a concept piece. And that it comes from Poland, probably not either. On the other hand, what distinguishes Marcin Stanczyk's "Impossible music (02/24/2022)" from Peter Ablinger's "Impossible Pieces"?


(article in German)

"Neue Musikzeitung, 2023"


https://www.nmz.de/artikel/de-ira-de-dolore-neue-werke-im-hallraum-des-kriegs


Georg Beck, Deutschlandfunk

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Mosaique - KAIROS (monographic album)


"It’s one of the most mesmerising displays of musical obsession that i’ve ever heard, a deeply engrossing exploration of a world that seems to be defined – and confined – by a single pitch".


"what i find most beguiling about Blind Walk is its beauty: the natural world we’re blindly walking through may be intimidating and bizarre, but it’s also stunningly glorious to behold".


Simon Cummings

http://5against4.com/2021/11/08/marcin-stanczyk-mosaique/


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"Stańczyk is a figure whose name I have come to recognise more readily in recent years as a significant presence in the context of Polish music (...). Stańczyk’s music might seem to constitute the missing link between composers broadly categorised as 'spectralists' on the one hand and the likes of sonic 'scientists' like Helmut Lachenmann on the other". 


"(...) a most impressive monograph. These five examples of Marcin Stańczyk’s art are each underpinned by original concepts and distinctive sonic universes. The composer could not have wished for more intense or intensive engagement than that provided by the consistently brilliant Klangforum Wien, here directed by Patrick Hahn".


Richard Hanlon

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Jan/Stanczyk-mosaique-0015108KAI.htm


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Mosaique - KAIROS - Klangforum Wien (monographic album)

0015108KAI


"It's an impression". "The main axis is shifting from anything based on the sound of spectral music to the spatial acoustic system of chaos and noise. What is interesting is the feeling of life like a jungle". "sound" has tonality, (...) and it is one of the trends of avant-garde contemporary music in this era. "Geyser" is a good analogy, and I think it's not a bad idea to look into avant-garde contemporary music from around here."


http://kokotonpapa.blog135.fc2.com/blog-entry-2168.html

Acousmatic Music - (double monographic album)

Anaklasis ANA015 - Ensemble Musikfabrik, LutosAir Quintet, Lutoslawski Quartet, Marco Blaauw, E-MEX Ensemble, New Music Orchestra


"Avant-garde of this era: Marcin Stańczyk's «Acousmatic Music» diversity and expressiveness. It's an impression"


"Various techniques such as ambiguous tonal feeling, noise system, spatial acoustic system, atonal chaos, jazzy polyphony mode, etc. are intertwined.

The musical technique expresses the feeling of tension and prayer with the existence and tension of life in a dark space. It is also a new ideographic music. Probably the avant-garde contemporary music of this era. Highly recommended for those who are interested in the world!


http://kokotonpapa.blog135.fc2.com/blog-entry-2220.html?fbclid=IwAR2onlxN2A_cvSnzQXiKQhSGm2pZMCoNnCBkMEKFNiRVKvMdV8jG4N2mlbk

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MusicWeb International - Richard Hanlon


"To my ears Stańczyk is rapidly developing into a unique, compelling voice".


"Sursounds is dream-like and expansive, seductive and lingering in its effect upon this listener at least – more impressively it retains that level of engagement during repeated listens."


"Unseen absolutely defies my wholly inadequate attempts at description, alas; it is however utterly gripping, remarkably fresh and effortlessly moving – it hits you in the gut. Its every charm is captured in a recording which is as vivid as it is subtle. Experiencing it through decent headphones is mesmerising".


http://www.musicweb-international.com/Classrev/2022/Nov/Stanczyk-acousmatic-ANA015.htm

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"Słuchanie utworów zawartych na płycie "Acousmatic Music" nie wymaga od słuchacza szczegółowej wiedzy na temat współczesnej estetyki i znajomości muzyki współczesnej. To utwory bardzo osobiste, emocjonalne i przystępne." "Brzmień elektronicznych w muzyce Stańczyka nie brakuje, ale podkreśla on, że akuzmatycznie można słuchać wszystkiego."


Filip Lech

https://culture.pl/pl/dzielo/marcin-stanczyk-acousmatic-music

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"Obiektywnie jest to niemal na pewno najlepsza tegoroczna płyta, jaką słyszałem". "Nie trzeba orientować się w muzycznej teorii, ani znać się dobrze na współczesnej poważce, lecz wystarczy pewne osłuchanie z mniej mainstreamowymi rzeczami, by dać się pochłonąć tym dźwiękom." 


https://pablosreviews.blogspot.com/2021/12/marcin-stanczyk-acousmatic-music-2021.html

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"Stańczyk zadbał o dramaturgię dzieł – zarówno na poziomie makro (kulminacje), jak i mikro (przemiany małych segmentów) – sprawiając, że pomimo swojej długości, są one w stanie utrzymać słuchacza w skupieniu.

Obok prowadzenia narracji należy wspomnieć również o genialnym wyczuciu barwy Stańczyka, o dużej dbałości o kolorystykę zarówno w kwestii naśladownictwa dźwiękowego, jak i wyrazu ogólnego dzieła. To jeden z aspektów, który pomaga nam w zatopieniu się w opowieść." 


"Utwory zawarte na płycie Acousmatic Music ukazują warsztat kompozytora, który potrafił wyważyć bezpośredniość przekazu z przestrzenią otwartą dla słuchacza. Wyjątkowe wyczucie barwy, dbałość o formę utworów, odpowiednio budowana narracja i dramaturgia, przemyślane plany brzmieniowe wpływające bezpośrednio na tok akcji, ciekawe historie zakomponowane w sposób niebanalny, interesujący dla słuchacza i możliwość doświadczenia nowego sposobu percepcji muzyki ze świadomością, że pomimo dużej wolności, jaka została nam, jako odbiorcom dana, nie zostaliśmy w niej osamotnieni, ponieważ kompozytor wcześniej zadbał o nasz komfort – właśnie z tym spotkamy się na płycie Acousmatic Music Marcina Stańczyka."


Gabriela Jarosz

"Jak zaopiekować się słuchaczem? „Acousmatic Music” Marcina Stańczyka"

http://meakultura.pl/artykul/jak-zaopiekowac-sie-sluchaczem-acousmatic-music-marcina-stanczyka-2563

Dark, Almost Night soundtrack (2021)


„Dunkel, fast Nacht“ ist ein wunderbar montierter Film mit einem herausragenden Soundtrack von Marcin Stanczyk, der eine kongeniale Ergänzung zu den Bildern liefert".


Von Hartwig Tegeler

https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/neue-filme-empathie-enge-und-erloesung-100.html

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Marcin Stańczyk, Dark, Almost Night, Dux 2021, Dux 1818 (49’)


Jeden z najpłodniejszych i najsprawniejszych kompozytorów średniego pokolenia okazuje się również mistrzem w dziedzinie filmowej ilustracji. Dźwiękowa recepta Stańczyka na oniryczny thriller Borysa Lankosza jest eklektyczna, erudycyjna, ale też świadomie osadzona w sprawdzonych konwencjach narracyjnych. Przeważnie orkiestrowa ścieżka dźwiękowa godzi naiwne walczyki i preisnerowskie wokalizy z wyrafinowaną heterofonią à la Krauze czy Szymański. Jak w koncertowej, tak w filmowej twórczości Stańczyk zachwyca wrażliwością i wyobraźnią fakturalno-harmoniczną. 


https://ruchmuzyczny.pl/article/1778

Michał Mendyk


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Dark, Almost Night (2019) – Marcin Stańczyk (DUX)


Dark, Almost Night (Ciemno, prawie noc) is a 2019 Polish crime thriller that centres around the disappearance of children. The film is described as “intensely menacing” and darkly atmospheric, and Stańczyk’s score mirrors those descriptions. Small-scale string orchestra is supported by various solo instruments (e.g., woodwinds) and the human voice to add various shades of emotion. Rather than providing hummable themes 

– which seem inappropriate for such a film – the music generates a number of listenable sound designs that are nuggets of emotion.


Alan Rogers

https://reelmusic.wordpress.com/2022/03/16/weekly-recommendations-w-e-4th-march-2022/

The Austrian premiere of Mosaique

Wiener Konzerthaus 16.02.2022, KONZERTKRITIK

Nur mit einem Cellisten (fulminant: der instrumental und vokal gleichermaßen geforderte Benedikt Leitner) und Elektronik schafft Marcin Stańczyk in seinem Stück Mosaique (2012) wiederum aus kleinsten Bausteinen ein dicht gewobenes Klangbild. Grandios! (daen, 17.2.2022)


Klangforum mit "Polish Perspectives": Kritisch, spielerisch und dicht

https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000133449334/klangforum-mit-polish-perspectives-kritisch-und-dicht

The English premiere of Some Drops 

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival


5:4, 18th November 2016


The highlight of HCMF’s opening night was Musikfabrik’s UK première of Marcin Stańczyk‘s Some Drops. A fascinating exploration of complex lyricism, the piece moves through a sequence of episodes beginning with a forlorn, strained trumpet (Blaauw again) behind the audience, interacting with the ensemble who are seemingly teetering at the cusp of letting loose something warm and familiar, yet always halting. As the trumpet progresses closer to the front of the space, the piece develops into a dense network of counterpoint, impressively combining individuated abandon with an overall sense of unity. Something of the opening atmosphere slowly returns, leading to an extended section of subdued, allusive music, utterly gorgeous and defying one’s ear to untangle the gently knotted components of its texture. Subsequent instances of a drum beat felt like a mis-step, at odds with the effective semi-vagueness permeating hitherto, yet this tiny flaw did nothing to reduce the work’s overall impression, which was rapturously lovely. I was grateful for these smaller-scale triumphs, which only seemed to reinforce how superficial the larger works had seemed.


Simon Cummings

http://5against4.com/2016/11/19/hcmf-2016-arditti-quartet-jennifer-walshe-ensemble-musikfabrik-peter-brotzmann/



At the opening night we had a piece by Stańczyk, Some drops for Musikfabrik, which I thought was a wonderful, fantastic piece of music. There was a big media response across social media and press to that piece. 


Graham McKenzie, the curator of HCMF

for Polish Radio Programme 2

http://www.polskieradio.pl/8/2776/Artykul/1696705,Polskie-kompozycje-na-festiwalu-w-Huddersfield



Some Drops performed at HCMF broadcasted by BBC Radio 3:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08f4hf0 [1:20:17]

The world premiere of Blind Walk

La Biennale di Venezia / Biennale Musica / Ensemble Musikfabrik
 
Il Manifesto
ANNO XLV . N. 238 . MARTEDI 6 OTTOBRE 2015
 
Blind walk, una pioggia di suoni in liberta

"... gli spettatori, tanti, belli, internazionali, nella Sala delle Colonne di Palazzo Ca’ Giustinian, sono invitati a indossare una mascherina. Gli strumentisti dell’Ensemble Musikfabrik, famoso e abilissimo si dispongono in tutti i punti della sala, chi in piedi chi seduto chi semisdraiato, e da subito cominciano a spostarsi, a deambulare senza una meta, senza un ordine stabilito, almeno cosi dovrebbe essere a sentire il compositore, che e il trentottenne polacco Marcin Stanczyk: «Una vera passeggiata non conduce in alcun luogo». Si spostano, passeggiano, ed emettono suoni molto in liberta eppure molto ben prescritti in partitura. Gli archi suonano soffiando suibordi della casse armoniche vicino alle corde, i fiati entrano in successione e sono piu ricchi di note, pur sempre rumoristiche. I numerosi percussionisti privilegiano secchi colpi di legnetti e di triangoli, prima radi poi piu fitti. Ad alcuni strumentisti sono affidati a intervalli irregolari, tali da simulare l’ad libitum, vocalizzi senza parole, anzi puri rumori di bocca saliva gola. I suoni sono brevi o brevissimi, si crea una specie di pioggia avvolgente di suoni dis-melodici e dis-armonici. In tutto il procedere di questa azione musicale c’e una scansione del tempo «implicita» ma ben avvertibile. E a che cosa si pensa dopo un po’, dopo che ci si e chiesti «ma dove l’ho sentito questo ondeggiare scandito con il corredo di fischietti, suoni di strada sardonici o tenui o flessuosi»? Ecco che si fa luce la risposta: l’Art Ensemble of Chicago e il modello. E infatti dall’angolo piu lontano ci sembra di sentire proprio lui, ma si, e Lester Bowie con la sua tromba di quando sapeva essere accattivante e «decostruttivo» nello stesso tempo. Anzi no, non diminuiamo Stanczyk: il possibie modello, l’eco di un innamoramento musicale."
 
Mario Gamba

 

read also:

Luci e ombre di un festival
http://www.veneziamusicaedintorni.it/dintorni/469/luci-e-ombre-di-un-festival.html

Mario Gamba

El Mundo

El Cultural

Silencio en Venecia

http://www.elcultural.com/blogs/que-raro-es-todo/2015/10/silencio-en-venecia/

Álvaro Guibert

«Il suono della memoria», Biennale Musica 2015

http://www.ilcorrieremusicale.it/2015/10/11/il-suono-della-memoria-biennale-musica-2015/3/

Gianluigi Mattietti

The american premiere of Mosaique

Mata Festival in NYC


“Mosaique” featured the cellist Jonathan Gotlibovitch, who exhaled, clicked and hissed as he plucked the cello and rubbed and tapped its body. Electronic bleeps and tones ricocheted around the hall; at one point, the beats briefly took on the seductive spirit of an R&B slow jam. The work was a full-body experience: Mr. Gotlibovitch artfully tossed aside each page of the score as he finished it, which felt as much a part of the work as the sound world.


The New York Times, Zachary Woolfe, 19 IV 2013 

Toru Takemitsu Award 2013


An extraordinarily ambitious piece. I know of nothing like it. Maybe a piece I would like to have written or certainly like to hear. What attracts me is the simultaneity of the perspective of the ideas and the music’s invention from moment to moment expressed in a notation that is both free and exact at the same time.  Nevertheless, it is a virtuoso piece of musical awareness.


Sir Harrison Birtwistle about SIGHS - hommage à Fryderyk Chopin,

Toru Takemitsu Award 2013 - winning composition, Tokyo 26 V 2013

Opening season Ircam 2014/2015


Du compositeur polonais Marcin Stańczyk, Aftersounds pour deux percussions et électronique met à l’oeuvre l’interaction sophistiquée entre le geste instrumental et la réponse de l’électronique, entre le son acoustique et sa transformation en temps réel. De dimension théâtrale, sollicitant l’oeil autant que l’oreille, l’oeuvre exige un dispositif instrumental très déployé et inclut le souffle, la voix et le geste-son, celui des deux interprètes/performers dessinant des arabesques dans l’espace de leurs mains munies de capteurs. Ils nous immergeaient dans un univers onirique où la partie électronique « parle » une langue imaginaire.

 

critique by Michèle Tosi (ResMusica)

http://www.resmusica.com/2014/09/16/lancement-de-la-saison-a-lircam/

Opening season Ircam 2014/2015


Aftersounds pour deux percussionnistes fait référence aux afterimages du peintre polonais Wladyslaw Strzeminski. Il introduit l’idée de « son premier » et de « son rémanent » résultant de la transformation en temps réel. S’Il superpose ces deux types de son, il pratique aussi la dissociation des sources sonores et des gestes instrumentaux. Cette approche virtuelle du son l’amène vers la « performance totale » ainsi grâce aux micros placés aux bouts des doigts des deux musiciens, ceux-ci par un simple frôlement des lames du marimba génèrent d’étrange sonorité. De même le ballet des mains au-dessus des instruments produits des volutes sonores. On perçoit chez ce compositeur une grande habileté à manier des techniques complexes sans perdre l’horizon du concert.


critique by Omer Corlaix

Ircam, the opening concert of season 2014/2015

http://omercorlaix-fr.over-blog.com/2014/09/ircam-concert-d-ouverture-fermeture-pour-travaux-cursus-2-et.html

International Society of Bassists Convention, San Francisco


Three Afterimages for Solo Double Bass by Marcin Stańczyk is a nine-minute, single movement work.  This piece is a fantastic sound study and is very dramatic.  At its core is a slow, deep groove.  It explores a variety of extended techniques such as bowing the tailpiece, body percussion, extensive use of harmonics, hammer-ons, etc.  There are extensive performance instructions that describe these techniques. In addition to a challenging bass part, there is also a substantial singing part for the bassists to execute.  The mood is dark and appealing.  Although idiomatically written for the instrument, this compelling work presents the adventurous bassists with considerable challenges.

 

Robert Black, ISB Convention, San Francisco, 2012

Bang on a Can Marathon, June 18, 2012, NYC

World Financial Centre, Winter Garden


The first piece delivered by the BOAC All-Stars – Chow, Bathgate and Cossin on vibraphone and percussion this time plus Robert Black on bass, Mark Stewart on guitars and Ziporyn on clarinets – was Nibiru, by Marcin Stanczyk, one of the composers who’s come up through BOAC’s MassMoCa mentoring program. An apprehensive blend of anxious, intense percussion and ominous outer-space motifs, it pondered the existence of the phantom planet from harmonic-laden drones to surfy staccato guitar to where Bathgate finally took it to the rafters, her cello’s high harmonics keening eerily over Ziporyn’s bass clarinet wash.

 

http://lucidculture.wordpress.com/tag/marcin-stanczyk/

Bang on a Can Marathon, June 18, 2012, NYC

World Financial Centre, Winter Garden


The Bang on a Can All Stars took to the stage to perform two new works by two young composers – the first of which is entitled Nibiru, composed by Polish composer Marcin Stanczyk. An esoteric soundscape that had each instrument playing completely different ideas, but conducted so that they happened together (...). Having the players vocalize into microphones while inhaling was one of several unique sonic experiments Stanczyk attempted – and to good effect. While the entire work seemed to be in a constant pulse (from the looks of the performers conducting on stage, the composer did a nice job of contrasting “free” sections with groove-based ideas.


Rob Deemer 
http://www.sequenza21.com/2012/06/liveblogging-the-2012-boac-marathon/


© 2010 Marcin Stańczyk
Project: Renata Leszczyńska, Translation: Marcin Stańczyk