Maciej Obara Quartet – Frozen Silence (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 47:10 minutes | 896 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
Frozen Silence is the third ECM release from alto saxophonist Maciej Obara’s Polish-Norwegian quartet, bringing the story forward from Unloved and Three Crowns, recordings which confirmed the ensemble’s standing as one of the most strikingly original European bands of the present moment. The quartet’s creative sense of musical interplay is again to the forefront of this newest album, recorded in Oslo in the summer of 2022, which may be their strongest statement to date. Obara’s new music optimally highlights his intuitive musical relationship with Dominik Wania, while Ole Morten Vagan and Gard Nilssen continually transcend rhythm section roles to interact persuasively with the saxophonist and the pianist.
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Maciej Obara Quartet – Unloved (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 48:30 minutes | 944 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
The fluidity, as well as the evidence of Maciej Obara’s saxophone must not significantly hide the depth of his music. With Unloved, the Polish saxophonist pens a ninth album that is at first glance very lyrical but that first and foremost leans on the exchanges with the other musicians from his quartet: the pianist Dominik Wania, the bass player Ole Morten Vågan and the drummer Gard Nilssen. In the Rainbow Studio in Oslo where they shut themselves away in January 2017 with producer Manfred Eicher, the four men have serenely juggled with space and silences. Aside from the eponymous title written by the great Krysztof Komeda for the movie from Janusz Nasfeter bearing the same name, all the themes from this disc are penned by Obara. Themes that the saxophonist describes as being only outlines from which the sound of the quartet expresses itself in complete freedom. “My friends are incredible improvisers. I love their ability to evolve in complete freedom in open spaces and the way in which they sculpt them while giving them the colors I have in mind. It’s a bit like composing in real time.”
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Maciej Obara Quartet – Three Crowns (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:02:26 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
The half-Polish, half-Norwegian quartet led by fiery alto saxophonist Maciej Obara is gaining ground as one of the most exciting groups on the contemporary jazz scene.
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