Kasia Pietrzko Trio | Nothing Personal
Kasia Pietrzko
Pianist, composer, arranger, and graduate of the Academy of Music in Kraków.
Following a striking debut with her trio, she quickly became not only one of the leading young artists on the Polish recording scene but also attracted significant attention across Europe. In 2018, she performed with Tomasz Stańko’s quartet at Alchemia in Kraków. The event was intended to launch the European tour of Stańko’s new quartet, which was unfortunately cut short by the artist’s unexpected death.
After the success of the Kasia Pietrzko Trio’s debut album Forthright Stories (2017)—which earned the “Mateusz” award from Polish Radio Trójka, the Jazz Melomani Grand Prix, and a nomination for a Fryderyk Award—Kasia began performing at prestigious venues, festivals, and showcases around the world. She has played, among others, at NDR Studio in Hamburg, the 12 Points Jazz Festival, Jazz Forum Showcase, Jazz au Chellah in Morocco, and the Brno Jazz Festival.
In the pandemic year of 2020, Kasia’s trio released their second original album, Ephemeral Pleasures. The record is a testament to the trio’s stylistic consistency and the development of their unique musical language. It showcases the spirit of collaboration and powerful energy, combined with a refined blend of harmonic imagination, lyricism, and boundless creativity. In May 2021, the Kasia Pietrzko Trio was the sole Polish ensemble to represent the country at the international Jazzahead fair in Bremen.
At the invitation of the “Chopin and His Europe” festival, Kasia Pietrzko, together with saxophonist Maciej Kądziela, composed jazz interpretations of poems by Cyprian Kamil Norwid, recited by Andrzej Chyra. The project premiered in August 2021 at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw and was later released as a studio album titled Norwid, which debuted in September 2022. In November 2021, during the Jazz Autumn Festival in Bielsko-Biała, Kasia fulfilled a long-held dream by presenting her original concert project Anxious Beauty, performed by her trio along with a jazz quintet and a mixed choir.
On April 28, 2023, Warner Music (as part of the Polish Jazz series) released the newest album by the Kasia Pietrzko Trio, titled Fragile Ego. This is a particularly noteworthy project as Kasia Pietrzko is the first woman pianist, composer, and bandleader in the 58-year history of this iconic jazz album series.
Band members:
Kasia Pietrzko – piano
Andrzej Święs – double bass
Piotr Budniak – drums
The trio’s third album, Fragile Ego, presents an increasingly strong and individual voice from its leader. Inspired by observations on human nature, relationships, differences in values and beliefs, Kasia wrote music filled with hope—for mutual human sensitivity, truth, freedom from societal pressures, and the courage to embrace solitude. A world without hate, envy, and imposed categorization. On this new album, Kasia is once again joined by Andrzej Święs and Piotr Budniak—artists who play a crucial role in shaping the trio’s sound and serve as equal partners. They each bring distinct musical voices from different backgrounds and inspirations. Their unique musical narratives are clearly heard, as Kasia gave them the space to express their individuality in the creation of this material.
Stylistically, the album blends two seemingly incompatible traits—impressionism and strong expression. On one hand, it’s defined by sensitivity to color and a desire to capture fleeting sonic images; on the other, by a bold, decisive character in its compositions and main themes, enhanced by an intriguing sonic nervousness. Femininity and its emotional nuances—an aspect Kasia initially tried to suppress in her artistic work due to the prevailing stereotype that jazz is a male domain—ultimately became a source of strength in her music. After several years, she embraced this feminine energy, which had a profound and fascinating impact on the power, complexity, and stylistic richness of her compositions. Her improvisation has become bold, provocative, and communicative—yet remains deeply melodic.
Listen here:
https://youtu.be/tHlRvhABU9w?si=gET3Cvt_4mxVmJNW
Nothing Personal
Nothing Personal is an Oslo-based band stitched together by Solveig Wang, Dorothea Økland and Thea Emilie Wang. The band embraces experimental pop tunes, free improvisation and field recordings, and their music can be described as experimental r&b with elements from jazz, collage and electroacoustic music.Evolving from bands like Fieh, AURORA, thea wang, Klossmajor and Soft Punch, the three musicians look at Nothing Personal as a free and experimental project where they can explore their musicality through electronics and synths, vocals, clarinets through effects.
Nothing Personal serves the listener with live sound collages created in the present moment, utilizing their overflowing table of electronics, synths and pedals. Like the musical version of a science lab, the three alchemists explore sounds, tunes and effects, and includes the listener in this exploration, especially asking the question of what makes music personal. The visual part of the performance is just as important as the music, and together with the visual artist Tobias Guldbrandsen, Nothing Personal creates a playful and interesting symbiosis between the music and the visual elements, leaving the audience in awe.
Their second album «The Diary of Nothing Personal» (Bravheart Records) was released in May 2024 and got overwhelmingly praise from norwegian press, and got amazing reviews from national papers like Aftenposten, VG, Dagens Næringsliv and Bergens Tidene, who said: «Nothing Personals second record «The Diary of Nothing Personal» represents a new way of making norwegian pop music».
Their debut EP “The Alchemy of Nothing Personal” arrived in June 2022 with great reviews in the Norwegian press. The journal Subjekt said: “Here is a future-oriented EP that really sets the musical landscape on fire», and gave the EP a 5 out of 6.Stuart Maconie in BBC Radio 6 called the music “a brilliant mix of jazz, avant garde, electronica, pop and electro acoustic music” after their performance at the ByLarm-festival in Oslo. The band have played festivals such as ByLarm, Vill Vill Vest, Ultima, Festspillene in Nord-Norge, and they ended the opening night of the prestigious experimental festival Borealis in Bergen, as well as their own shows at Parkteateret and The Munch Museum in Oslo.