Strycharski plays Dolphy – new album

„Recital for flutes, rare circumstance. Eric Dolphy’s live music – another rarity, especially since it’s 2015. Dominik Strycharski’s performance was already promising, but it still surprised us. We had a great pleasure of communing with the imagination and artistry of this artist last Tuesday in the Warsaw club Pardon, To Tu.

Bass, tenor, alto, soprano in B. Whoever does not know the sound of a simple flute on Tuesday got to know a wide range of its sounds. In a sophisticated version. The Strycharski-Dolphy discussion will continue to develop in detail: the concert was recorded with the participation of Rafał Drewniany and, according to my secret source, will soon be released on the album „with probability bordering on certainty”.

This is what Anna Początek wrote about Dominik Strycharski’s concert in Pardon To Tu. Its secret source informed the truth, although it was necessary to wait a moment for the album releases of this excellent concert. We are proud that we can show the world for the first time how the music of the great Eric Dolphy sounds through the brain and sensitivity of Dominik Strycharski and at the end we give him the voice in sounds and words.

I really wanted to record a solo album. First of all, to make the simple flute sound unrestricted, open, full and complete with all its richness. I am a fan of the fullest possible contact with the raw, uncensored world of one instrument, a situation in which the musician and the instrument are magnified as if by a magnifying glass.

The situation I put myself in is fascinating. Because solo flute is no exception in the world of classical music. There is a mass of records for simple solo flute with baroque and contemporary music. All the masters I know of have such a record in their output, some have a few such records. My action is therefore inscribed in the wide world of block flutes. At the same time, however, there is no jazz or improvised solo record with simple flutes. And here’s the thing – the pioneering spirit was very attractive to me.

The first idea was, of course, a record with my music alone. However, I quickly rejected this idea, saying that a broader context, a clash, would work much better. And most of all, it should be shown that the place of this instrument is here, among others. Solo and at the same time in a full orchestra of references and contexts.

So I wanted to refer to an artist who combines two fascinations – different types of jazz and contemporary music. Why Dolphy? Through its most twisted themes. Through spontaneity and closeness to tradition. Swing and atonality. His flute. Great intervals. Intervals not jazz, structural. Discussion intervals, very intelligently used. Experiment. Karkołomna expression. Madness and tenderness. Controversy. Worshipped and rejected at the same time. The simple flute needs new blood and I try to deliver it….