https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lxWIbcadLrbY45oIkBUtvoBHXJrU9OXhg

Michał Górczynski - bb, bass clarinets
Paweł Szamburski - bb, bass clarinets
Wacław Zimpel - alt, bb, bass clarinets, taragot
Mikołaj Trzaska - bass, bb metal clarinets

Recorded during the concert at Nove Kino Praha on Festival of New Jewish Music, Warsaw 2 April 2011.

By Adam Baruch

This is the third album by Polish clarinet quartet Ircha, founded and led by Mikolaj Trzaska, which also includes Waclaw Zimpel, Pawel Szamburski, and Michal Gorczynski. The quartet members play a range of different instruments belonging to the clarinet family and create a completely unique sonic experience, which is unparalleled and completely original. This album was recorded live and consists of seven pieces, which combine original compositions by the entire quartet or individual band members with traditional folkloristic themes from different cultural backgrounds, like Gypsy, Armenian, and of course Easter European Jewish music.

Ircha is one of several different ensembles that Trzaska leads or participates in, which in the last decade greatly contributed to the so-called "New Jewish Music" which is being created in Poland, is also a part of a general Renaissance of the Jewish Culture in Poland. This quite surprising phenomenon seems to sweep the Polish cultural landscape like a tsunami, but a highly productive, rather than a destructive one. Many of these attempts to create a new, contemporary face of the Jewish Culture is created by Jazz and Improvised Music Artists, like Trzaska, and many are released by the Kilogram Records label, owned by Trzaska and his charming wife.

It is quite difficult to imagine that just four clarinets can create such complex and emotionally overwhelming music. I had the pleasure to attend a concert by Ircha recently and the experience was simply awe-inspiring and spiritually enlightening. Of course, Improvised Music is usually easier to absorb live than by listening to records, as the presence of the musicians and the visual elements contributes to the immediate contact between the musicians and the audience. A concert recording is, after all, only a "second hand" experience. And yet sometimes the strength of the performance can overcome the barrier of lack of personal conta.......
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