EABS | Piotr Orzechowski “Pianohooligan”

EABS – Looking at the discography of EABS, one can see that a common motif running through the albums is the motif of light. Even in the darkest moments, when the world seems to be shaking, their music reminds us of the Sun. It is it, our star, unwavering, that still brings us energy and hope. The first single promoting the album is “Purple Sun” by Tomasz Stańko, which the EABS band turned into electrifying, futuristic funk.

Piotr Orzechowski ‘Pianohooligan’ – Since his much-acclaimed triumph in Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition (Switzerland, 2011), this pianist, improviser, and composer has remained one of Poland’s most exciting music artists. His projects provoke questions and redefining the stereotypes of the creative act and stage performance. Each new album becomes a major event that carries a non-obvious message across genre boundaries and reaches all the continents in its concert version.

Pianohooligan’s individual musical language spans across stylistic boundaries, from his home base in improvised and classical music to avant-garde and electronics. An uncompromising deconstructor of Krzysztof Penderecki’s works, he has also been an artistic partner of NOSPR (Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra) and the Sinfonia Varsovia, stars of the world’s jazz scene such as Randy Brecker, Avishai Cohen, Carlos Zíngaro, as well as such great classical contemporary and electronic music personalities as Philip Glass, Adrian Utley of Portishead, and William Basinski, to name but a few. Most of all, however, Orzechowski focuses on his original solo works, which defy simple genre classifications.

Pianohooligan’s fourth, most recent solo album, Critique of Swing in Two Parts, is a simultaneously warm-hearted and analytic look at the phenomenon of swing, which questions its earlier, common interpretations.