Marek Pospieszalski Quartet – Dürer’s Mother (Clean Feed, 2022)

By Irena Stevanovska

From the flourishing Polish Jazz Scene, Marek Pospielszalski strikes again - this time with an admirable quartet that can hardly ever escape the ear accustomed to feeding itself with jazz.

With a concept inspired by some of the most prominent classical musicians, as well as a reference to the great Renaissance painter Albrecht Dürer, Pospielszalski drives us through a wonderful and buoyant journey with this magical piece of work.

Starting with a 7-minute composition dedicated to the great Schubert, he guides us into a meditative state which serves as an opening into the following travels. The album progresses with a spiraling sound of the saxophone, followed by oblique drums (Max Andrzejewski) and bass (Max Mucha). It makes our minds flow a contemplating stream of enjoyment where, later, the saxophone is replaced by equally twirling piano sounds (Elias Stemeseder).

As the album progresses, we are taken into deeper and darker voids made out of more aggressive sounds coming from the piano, but, at the same time, more sensual ones arising from the saxophone. 

Encompassing the true image of what jazz is - an improvisation of sounds, the album continues with a groovier movement so it can take us back to compositions that are heavily influenced by classical pieces, which are used for slamming us back into an otherworldly state of consciousness. It's a pure feeling of musical frequencies, which we succumb to, being driven by the caressing virtuous sounds of Pospielszalski’s tenor saxophone.

He closes it off with a pretty intense composition named "I am all that remains." The rigidity of the track and the name itself explain the states and moods that we got in by following through to the end of the album. It can be described as if we are parting from our physical existence, being left alone in a form made out of sounds, floating as free as a feather in the mellifluous wind of melodies. The up-and-down mood of the whole album suggests a perspective of how life should simply be. Its range varies from chaotic and improvised to discernible as something composed by the best music laureates that have ever existed.

In 40 minutes, Pospielszalski manages to take us through different stairways across the universe, where at moments we think that we hear the harmonies of the spheres, and in others, we just hear the earthly nature communicating its magic to our ears through four distinct instruments.