Articles by Maciej Stasiowski
Rahul Mukerji: Mridhangit
by Maciej Stasiowski
Mridhangit is a portmanteau of the instrument mridangam, employed extensively on the new record by Rahul Mukerji, and the Hindi word for song or music (git/geet). First ignited on the artist's 2017 release Ma De Re Sha (Self Produced, 2017), the project has solidified into a recognisable signature: guitar-led instrumentals anchored in Indian percussive rhythms, shaped through tablas (both programmed and live) and the mridangam, with occasional accents of clarinet and duduk. The compositions are concise, introducing their ...
Continue ReadingDavid Torn: Now I Imagine A Place Not The Same
by Maciej Stasiowski
Lacking recognizable features, yet constituting a genre of their own, John Constable's 1821-1822 cloud studies come up as an evocative metaphor for David Torn's Only Sky (ECM Records, 2015). What Constable referred to as “skying," almost two centuries later, made a comeback as an arrangement of distortions, loops, and cascaded signal processing, which Torn jokingly nicknamed “guitaring." That album collected improvised compositions for a solo guitarist and a halo of effect pedals and--with a little help from the cover photograph--connoted ...
Continue ReadingKöln 75
by Maciej Stasiowski
Köln 75One Two Films / Extreme Emotions / Gretchenfilm / MMC Studios Köln GmbHDIrector: Ido Fluk2025 There is a scene mid-way through Ido Fluk's whimsical dramedy that plays like an European art-house tune. Three figures are traveling at night in a tiny Renault 4. Keith Jarrett (musician, played by John Magaro) is in the front seat, Manfred Eicher (label owner/producer--Alexander Scheer) at the wheel, and Michael Watts (with Michael Chernus embodying the universe's idea of ...
Continue Reading
