Articles by Maciej Stasiowski

Album Review

Raphael Meleteas: Someone Else

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by Maciej Stasiowski
September 14, 2026

It is September already, and the days arrive tinted by the fallen leaves' reds and yellows. Somehow, we are thrown back to late August, finally granted enough time to enjoy a cool drink and listen to the record, just like people used to in the pre-accelerationist era. On Raphael Meleteas's very brief debut LP, musical arrangements become moods, and these turn to tangible locations--a kaleidoscope of seasonal atmospheres captured in song. Someone Else was put together as ...

Album Review

Jack Wyllie: Eternal Spring

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by Maciej Stasiowski
September 7, 2026

Starling murmurations are an amazing sight and a wonder illustrating swarm intelligence. How come none of the birds collide with their peers? Decoded by computer modeling, emergent behavior in complex systems unveils patterns that go well beyond single-component contribution. It is tempting to hear out flocking behavior that transforms individual instruments into a rich tapestry--a wall of murmur--and ascribe it to natural phenomena, especially when the comparison is justified by the album's title. This is the case of Jack Wyllie's ...

Multiple Reviews

Voo Voo Runs the Voodoo Down

by Maciej Stasiowski
August 1, 2026

Voo Voo is the faux-phonetic transcription of how Wojciech Waglewski's initials should be pronounced in English--instead of the default “double U" times two. By no mere coincidence, it is also the name of a group he has been running since 1985. Having secured his band this way for sailing on international waters already at the outset, it is surprising that after four decades of extensive musical activity, Waglewski's quartet--since 2011 consisting of its leader (guitar, vocals), Mateusz Pospieszalski (saxophones, keyboards, ...

Album Review

Robert Jukič 4 + Bram De Looze: Congregation

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by Maciej Stasiowski
July 12, 2026

How about approaching this one through visuals rather than sound for a change? Album covers alone do a remarkable job of transporting us into a particular state of mind, and Robert Jukic's catalog testifies to a consistently compelling visual identity. Izza's (ZKPRTVS, 2022) forsaken armchair beside a crooked telegraph pole or the disintegrating Ford Cortina in the woods on We All Bleed (Real Over Junk, 2026) are every bit as persuasive as the music itself--because of the atmosphere they evoke. ...

Live Review

Beat at Uber Eats Music Hall

by Maciej Stasiowski
July 1, 2026

Beat: Performing the Music of 80s King Crimson Featuring Adrian Belew, Steve Vai, Tony Levin and Danny Carey Uber Eats Music Hall Berlin, Germany June 15, 2026 How do you form a supergroup if half your dream team is already in the band? While the codename for the touring incarnation of the 1980s King Crimson line-up, Beat, seems like a piece of fan fiction from the depths of ...

Album Review

Nils Berg & Norrbotten Big Band: Paid To Cry

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by Maciej Stasiowski
June 9, 2026

When faced with the trauma of loss, we stifle. Tears flow when the defense shields are eventually down or the dam is allowed to overflow with emotion. Crying out loud--pardon the pun--turns into a performance that comes with its own measures of mastery in feigning the lament for the screen or--as in the case of Nils Berg and his 2025 collaboration with Norrbotten Big Band --the speakers. Rest assured, lachrymose arrangements are genuine, melodies verge on the cathartic. With the ...

Album Review

Rahul Mukerji: Mridhangit

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by Maciej Stasiowski
May 31, 2026

Mridhangit is a portmanteau of the instrument mridangam, employed extensively on the new record by Rahul Mukerji, and the Hindi word for song or music (git/geet). First ignited on the artist's 2017 release Ma De Re Sha (Self Produced, 2017), the project has solidified into a recognisable signature: guitar-led instrumentals anchored in Indian percussive rhythms, shaped through tablas (both programmed and live) and the mridangam, with occasional accents of clarinet and duduk. The compositions are concise, introducing their ...

Album Review

David Torn: Now I Imagine A Place Not The Same

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by Maciej Stasiowski
May 30, 2026

Lacking recognizable features, yet constituting a genre of their own, John Constable's 1821-1822 cloud studies come up as an evocative metaphor for David Torn's Only Sky (ECM Records, 2015). What Constable referred to as “skying," almost two centuries later, made a comeback as an arrangement of distortions, loops, and cascaded signal processing, which Torn jokingly nicknamed “guitaring." That album collected improvised compositions for a solo guitarist and a halo of effect pedals and--with a little help from the cover photograph--connoted ...

Film Review

Köln 75

by Maciej Stasiowski
April 19, 2026

Köln 75One Two Films / Extreme Emotions / Gretchenfilm / MMC Studios Köln GmbHDIrector: Ido Fluk2025 There is a scene mid-way through Ido Fluk's whimsical dramedy that plays like an European art-house tune. Three figures are traveling at night in a tiny Renault 4. Keith Jarrett (musician, played by John Magaro) is in the front seat, Manfred Eicher (label owner/producer--Alexander Scheer) at the wheel, and Michael Watts (with Michael Chernus embodying the universe's idea of ...