This is the debut album as a leader by young and upcoming Polish Jazz trumpeter / composer Emil Miszk, who has made a significant mark on the local scene lately. On this album he leads an impressive octet, called Sonic Syndicate, which also includes saxophonists Piotr Chęcki and Kuba Więcek, trombonist Paweł Niewiadomski, guitarist Michał Zienkowski, pianist Szymon Burnos, bassist Konrad Żołnierek and drummer Sławek Koryzno. The album presents seven original compositions, all by the leader.
This music is also the epitome of European Jazz, being completely open to all musical styles and influences, managing to amalgamate them in a perfect way. There is a lot of tradition here, some conscious and some subconscious, but absolutely no stagnation or repetition. This is exactly what European Jazz aesthetics is all about – experiment and elegance, good taste and talent. This kind of music can probably only be made in Poland.
One can grasp "Mandala" from many perspectives - first, as music from the heart and as flow. But beyond these concepts we all naturally understand, it can also be grasped on a higher level of complexity, via intellect and under a microscope. One could then notice layers of detail, rhythmic and harmonic textures, various percolating genres and free improv expression.
The album is the product of the cumulative experience of the musicians that comprise Algorhythm. Musicians whose roots stem from work with well known performers such as Leszek Możdżer, Tymon Tymański and Sławek Jaskułke - as well as committed work on their own projects. “Mandala” is therefore the product of musical, as well as personal explorations of the collective’s members.
The album’s title is tied to the tibetan monks’ tradition of mandalas - layered, gossamer designs of colored sand, cast on a circle within a square. Their subsequent destruction is meant to remind one of the ever-changing nature of things. In this way, the band indicates their readiness for change, the destruction of their own efforts to build compositions.
“Mandala” is the fruit of a winter recording session in “Monochrom” studio located in wilderness among mountains. It was mixed at “Bass Hit” Studio in New York City by Grammy winning engineer Dave Darlington (Wayne Shorter’s “Alegria”, Madonna’s “Erotica”).
