Raczkowski/Kostka Duo - SJRecords028

A minimalistic texture of a duet forms a space for their intimate dialogue. Their musical research is not limited to the contemporary acoustic jazz, it also absorbs the elements of modern music or the manners taken from folklore. The core of this meeting is an absolute opening for improvising here and now alluding somehow to the Cage's idiom "chance in music ". 

Franciszek Raczkowski

A pianist sensitive to every detail. An impressionist. An improvisor who skilfully entwines the classical idiom with his idiosyncratic musical language, with the former being the root of his identity as a pianist.

His music can be discovered in a few stylistically varied albums, i.e. Przemek Kleczkowski’s ‘Time’ and Królestwo Beskidu’s ‘Hala’, as well as in the music of ensemble such as the Vibe Quarter or Follow Dices (an ensemble awarded at the Krokus Jazz Festival, the Hanza Jazz Festival and the Sibiu Jazz).

He is the laureate of the VIII Contest of Jazz Improvisation in Katowice. His debutant album (Franciszek Raczkowski Trio – Apprentice, released by ForTune) earned many enthusiastic reviews.Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski believes that Raczkowski’s music is one with great hopes for the future. The same music can be found in an anthology of Polish pianists published in Japan – together with the music of Sławek Jaskułke, Leszek Możdżer and Michał Tokaj.(Polish Pianism, published by CorePort, 2017).

Mikołaj Kostka

A violin aficionado and an aesthete. An experimenter balancing between virtuoso audacity and ascetic minimalism in music, at times bordering on silence.

Currently a student at Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. A co-founder of Raczkowski/Kostka Duo and the leader of Follow Dices, an ensemble that won an award at the XIII Hanza Jazz Festival and received accolades at the Blue Note Poznań Competition 2017.

Maciej Obara said about him: ‘Without doubt Mikołaj Kostka displays exceptional talent for composition. His strengths are touching musicality and beautiful sound. Enchanting in his music, he does not shy away from the abstract in his renditions. A versatile artist’.

The debut album of the duet "Duo" was released in May 2018 by an independant label SJ Records. The CD was recorded, engineered and mastered by Jan Smoczyński in renowned Tokarnia Studio in Nieporęt (outskirts of Warsaw) during two days of recording session. The album consists of 12 compositions. Into 11 original pieces was included piece IV from "Six Melodies" by a distinguished avant-garde classical music compositor John Cage. The inspirations from Cage appear also in two titles of pieces called with the duration time - they allude to the famous piece-performance "4.33". The artists decided to put on the album two versions of two compositions - Ludowiak by Kostka and Nourvel by Raczkowski, to show how much the here and now of improvisation can model thinking about a composition.

The whole story told by the duet is kept in a melancholic key, referring to postromantic and postfolklore Polish tradition, with one small exception. I mean a piece called "Fancy", which alludes to American blues traditions, contrasting with the rest odd material and giving it another perspective. 

Both musicians display a mature approach to their instruments, with obvious talent and technical proficiency, which is always astonishing with the members of the young Polish generation of musicians. Complimented with the noticeable mutual understanding, respect and common musical goals, the duo is a wonderful example of a whole being much more that the sum of its ingredients. Although still very young, these musicians display a coherence, maturity and skillful appliance of their talents, which is usually only achieved at much later stage of musical careers.

prof. Adam Baruch / The Soundtrack Of My Life

The Duet made in May, June and July polish tour, promoting the new album. They played in Olsztyn, Warsaw, Łódź, Koszuty, Bielsko-Biała and again in Warsaw, during a prestige festival Warsaw Summer Jazz Days, having appeared on the same stage as Brad Mehldau Trio, Vijay Iyer czy Leszek Możdżer. 

„stunning debut, (…) wondrous amalgam of Jazz, contemporary Classical music and Folklore”

prof. Adam Baruch / The Soundtrack Of My Life