Skalpel: Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudło combine nu jazz with Polish electronic music

When Skalpel released their first Ninja Tune album in 2004, NME described them as an exotic curiosity from a distant country. Ten years later, with two classic nu-jazz albums, Skalpel and Konfusion, which put Poland on the world map of electronic music, Skalpel return with a new record as an established, respected band.

On their first two albums, Skalpel translated the sound and atmosphere of 1960s and 1970s Polish jazz into contemporary electronics, creating sophisticated, emotionally charged music. With Transit, they move far beyond Polish inspiration. Igor and Marcin travelled musically across Europe and both Americas in search of ideas. The result is a universal, international album where Eastern European melancholy meets Mediterranean warmth and Latin rhythms coexist with electronics.

Transit means change, passage, transformation: from sample-based music to programming and electronic production; from lo-fi to hi-fi; from black and white to the full colour spectrum. It is like emerging from darkness towards the sun, or finally moving from Ninja Tune to their own label, PlugAudio.

Transit also means communication: literally crossing borders between countries, and figuratively between the musical styles on this album. Above all, however, it is about communicating with listeners through sounds and the emotions they carry.

Many words could describe the music on this album: ambient, swing, Latin, trip-hop, broken beat. Yet the most important, defining word is “vibration”. This applies both instrumentally, because the vibraphone is the key instrument here, and in terms of energy and emotion, because Transit delivers a generous helping of good, electrifying vibrations.

Let’s Play is Centennial Hall’s latest project: a series of exciting concerts featuring alternative music, electronic dance music, nu jazz and related genres. Let’s Play invites talented artists from Wrocław, Lower Silesia and beyond, performers who have earned widespread popularity and built international careers. It promises carefully selected music of the highest quality and excellent entertainment with substance.

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