Szczesny, Dawid
Luxated Symmetry
Rare & Collectible Vinyl Records

Sealed, Limited Edition 2008 Original. “Dawid Szczesny Is A Pole Whose Principal Methodology Is To Cut Up And Rearrange Acoustic Instruments – Chiefly Percussion And Double Bass – In Jittery Constructions That Sound Like They’re Hovering Between Bricolage And Modern Composition. However Much Material Szczesny Works With, And It Sounds Like He’s Got A Surfeit Of Samples He’s Just Itching To Squeeze Into These Arrangements, The End Results Often Sound Uncannily Like Group Improvisations.This Is An Unexpectedly Potent Kind Of Structured Spontaneity, Largely Dominated By Percussion, Which Loosely Tumbles And Clatters In Shambling, Seesawing Patterns, Bolstered By Meandering, Cut-Up Acoustic Bass Rhythms. The Fetishising Of The Ambient Crackle And Hiss Of Vinyl Based Source Material Is Virtually The Only Predictable Sampling Characteristic On Display. Instead, Szczesny Follows A Willful, Crazy-Paving Path Of Skewed Internal Logic, His Assembled Pieces Sounding Loose But Probing: His Angular Musical Excursions Filled In With Endlessly Shifting Details Which Fit Into His Overall Sound. Sampling And Reshaping Acoustic Material Isn’t In Itself Anything New, But Szczesny Doesn’t Fit Too Neatly Into Any Kind Of Lineage: There Is Little Evidence Of An Arch Sensibility In His Work, Even When It Comes To Represent A Synthesized Conflation Of Improv-Style Tics And Experimental Jazz-Styled Structures. With Such A Strong Emphasis On Constant Movement And Atonal Percussion Patterns, There’s Thankfully Little Room For Pastiche, Or Overt Referencing Of Past Styles, And If The Focus Gets A Bit Blurred Sometimes, It’s Simply Down To The Sheer Mass Of Detail That Has Been Channeled Into His Work.” Tom Ridge – WIRE Magazine