Adam Baldych: Endless (LP)

At the start of his career, Adam Bałdych astonished audiences and critics alike with his breathtaking virtuosity, quickly earning a reputation as the most outstanding jazz violinist of his generation. Today, he directs his formidable musical skills and his inexhaustible mastery of different timbres towards creating music of great depth and spirituality. On Endless, he explores questions that are both existential and deeply personal: What is true? What is of real importance? And, when the noise of the world falls silent, what is left? At a time when people find their very essence being called into question, often struggling to to remain visible and relevant amid constant change, Bałdych’s music stands out because it offers a different perspective: this is all about concentration, sustainability and trust. For several years, Adam Bałdych has been developing an aesthetic which could be described as “contemplative violinism.” What he offers listeners through his instrument, is not spectacle, but rather a space for pause and reflection. His music is like a wordless prayer, with the emphasis on humility and openness. The bow touching the string becomes a gesture of devotion, each and every pause is a space in which one can hear more than sound. This is violin-playing that makes no attempt to vanquish silence; what it does instead is to allow the silence to speak. For his new quartet on Endless, Adam Bałdych has brought together a group of particularly strong and individual musical personalities: Italian bandoneonist Daniele di Bonaventura, French double bassist Michel Benita, and Swedish pianist Jacob Karlzon. This constellation of astonishing individuals creates a space where fascinating encounters happen naturally and inevitably– between different cultures, sensibilities, and perspectives. Endless was recorded live in the concert hall of the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice – a place where the architecture of sound meets the architecture of silence. The space and the live situation leave a tangible imprint on the album’s music: one hears the air, the movement of the bow, the moment of stillness before a piano note enters. The music emerges from the borders of the inaudible, as if the artists were asking: How much sound is needed to bring the music to life while preserving the silence? Perhaps this is the reason why the sounds of Endless, it seems, have not in any way come to an end with the album’s final note. They persist, they echo – and they invite us to keep revisiting this unique musical space again and again.