The Art of Marta Warelis

 By Stef Gijssels

Over the past years, Polish pianist Marta Warelis has really made a name for herself, and not surprisingly, she is in high demand for collaborations with forward-thinking musicians. Het style is gentle, lyrical, elliptical. She does not need many notes to tell a story. She is also a wonderful sound colorist, adding another dimension when accompanying others. We select two albums on which she plays a key role this year. Other albums that she participates in this year are "Hammer, Roll and Leaf" with Sakina Abdou and Toma Gouband, "Spontaneous Live Series 014" with Florian Stoffner & Rudi Fischerlehner, "Koniec" with Sebastiaan Janssen, Hubert Kostkiewicz, Ken Vandermark, "Escape" with Andy Moor. Too much to review in one article. So more reviews to come ...

Marta Warelis, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - Sun Lit Starlings (Weird Cry Records, 2023)

Warelis' style and inherent quality is easiest to assess on this duo album with Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, because it pushes her to the lead voice, and it suits her perfectly. 

Her piano sounds flow like a fresh mountain river, gurgling, dancing and leaping, changing course every so often without changing direction, surprising and coherent. Ingebrigt Håker Flaten is the perfect companion for this journey. He's an incredibly good listener and he follows the piano keys as he's playing the instrument himself. 

Warelis is lyrical, a pleasure to hear, and indeed, she does not need many notes to tell an intimate story, it all comes so naturally and organically that it's almost uncanny. The long last piece on this album is exceptional, with a beautiful theme that she builds the whole improvisation on, expanding, changing the intensity, the power and the pitch, playing with it, and taking it for long breakneck speed runs on her keyboard. 

The album is not long, around thirty minutes or so, yet it's excellent. It was recorded at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam on two separate occasions: August 2021 and June 2022. I wish they had recorded more because this really deserves some further exploration. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Klein, Rosaly, Warelis - Tendresse (Relative Pitch Records, 2024)

On this trio album she performs with Tobias Klein on bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet, and Frank Rosaly on drums and percussion, and she demonstrates her art in spades. The three musicians have been playing together for a few years, because they all reside in Amsterdam at the moment, as expats from Poland, Germany and the USA.

The album's title "Tendresse" ("tenderness" in English), is an appropriate description of the music. They explore their music with gentle diligence, giving space to the others, communicating with soft gestures, unobtrusive and subdued, yet with a lot of character and style. 

All three musicians are in excellent shape. Klein often takes the lead voice; Rosaly is a master of precision, creating both tension and relief through his thoughtful playing, and Warelis is happy in all roles, in her wonderful chime-like piano sound or resorting to more percussive work or stretched tones inside her instrument. The musicians give each other a lot of space. There are moments when the percussion is the only instrument for a while, or there are interactions between Klein and Rosaly and it's even hard to assess whether Warelis is still part of the process, yet surprisingly, their open improvisations always come back together fluently and smoothly. 

Tender and creative music.

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Watch a short video of one of her recent performances: