Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet - Pure Form Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet

Following the expansive, spiritual energy of Beautiful People, Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet returns with a more intimate and atmospheric record, shaped by autumnal colours, cinematic lyricism and a sensibility deeply rooted in Polish culture.

Pure Form finds WMQ moving between melancholy, lyrical beauty and the unpredictable spirit of jazz. The title refers to the idea of Pure Form developed by Polish artist, writer and provocateur Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Witkacy, one of the most original artists of the 20th century. It is a concept of art that does not have to reproduce reality, but can be something entirely of its own through form, tension, rhythm and emotion.

For Mazolewski, however, this becomes less a theory than a kind of musical instinct. "Pure Form" is primarily an instrumental album, allowing the dynamic interplay between the musicians to take centre stage.

One of the exceptions and the album’s most captivating moments is “Polish Jazz”, featuring guest vocalist Plumm, a South London vocalist championed by BBC Introducing London and Gilles Peterson; her distinctive voice meets piano and an almost chamber-like brass section, creating one of the album’s most cinematic moments - lyrical, refined and steeped in the jazz tradition, yet unmistakably contemporary.

The voice of acclaimed Polish actor Marcin Dorociński also appears on one of the tracks, like an echo of another world finding its way into the music.

“Cordoba October”, meanwhile, occupies the opposite end of the spectrum. Energetic, rhythmically restless and melodically unruly, it connects „Pure Form” with the vitality of spiritual jazz - an equally important reference point for Wojtek Mazolewski. Here, the album’s autumnal melancholy gives way to the band’s impatient, sparkling energy.

Because beneath the surface of "Pure Form" there is something else - Witkacy’s irreverent spirit and the trickster nature of jazz. The music may be lyrical and cinematic, but it is never one-dimensional "Pure Form" is at times meditative, at others exuberant - a record about atmosphere, freedom and the space between composition and improvisation.