Marcin Bożek & Danny Kamins: Ignorantka

Even if you do not speak Polish—and I count myself among those who do not—you can still grasp the meaning behind Ignorantka, the 2025 collaboration between bassist Marcin Bożek and saxophonist Danny Kamins. The word translates roughly to "ignorant," but here it carries a more nuanced meaning: not simply uneducated, but unaware—blind to what lies beyond perception. As the liner notes (also in Polish) suggest, the skies above us hold the remnants of nebulae and galaxies that no longer exist. Since energy and mass can neither be created nor destroyed, Boźek and Kamins explore the idea that these cosmic remnants can only be transformed or transferred into new forms. Their music inhabits this very process—the sound of creation, destruction and rebirth.

In other words, the Polish bassist and American saxophonist embark on a kind of star trek, journeying through six Polish cities in search of new sounds and new audiences—boldly venturing where few have gone before, at least musically.

The four-track album begins with "The Slow Burn," where Kamins' sopranino saxophone and Boźek's electric bass probe and dissect notes like astronomers scanning deep space. Kamins' terse, pointillistic phrasing recalls Roscoe Mitchell, while Boźek coaxes vibrations that seem to atomize into pure texture. As the recording unfolds, the duo's sonic particles begin to coalesce. On "The Need for the Unused," Boźek's resonant bass lines ground Kamins' cascading torrents of sound until the two merge into a roaring mechanical dance—Kamins as the pneumatic press, Boźek as the turning gears.

The dialogue continues on "A Situation of Wider Options," where metallic saxophone pops and elastic bass tones create a shimmering, space-borne conversation. Finally, "An Exhausted System" closes the set with a gritty, stop-start groove—both musicians pulling and releasing energy as though reviving a dying star.

With Ignorantka, Boźek and Kamins transform the language of free improvisation into a cosmic dialogue—a meditation on what disappears, what endures and what is reborn through sound. It's an exploration that reminds us: even in the void, creation never truly stops.

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