Brothers Adam Baldych with Helge Lien Trio & Tore Brunborg

• 1 Prelude 01:22
• 2 Elegy 07:34
• 3 Faith 04:52
• 4 Love 06:20
• 5 One 06:49
• 6 Brothers 06:06
• 7 Hallelujah 06:08
• 8 Shadows 06:31
• 9 Coda 04:21
• Total Runtime 50:03

Info for Brothers

Adam Bałdych’s new album is called “Brothers,” and is dedicated to the memory of his brother who passed away. The violinist is able truly to portray the entire gamut of emotions through music. In the pianissimo moments it is replete with feeling and also clarity, and on the other hand Bałdych can take it to a point where it is so strong and loud it feels almost ready to burst. “I would like my music,” says Bałdych, “to ingrain itself into the present time, and also to reflect it. It should take on board the cares and the yearnings of now.

The title of Adam Bałdych’s previous album from 2015 was “Bridges”. And indeed, the Polish violinist is one of the leading builders of bridges between genres in current European jazz. Only 31 years old, he already has a whole sheaf of distinguished awards to his name, notably an ECHO Jazz Prize. His music combines Polish folk, classical music and many different kinds of jazz. He plays with an astonishing technical range, in which classical finesse is combined with swirling improvisation - and the defiant energy and power of rock music. Since 2015, Bałdych has been building these kinds of bridges in the company of the Norwegian Helge Lien Trio. “With Helge, Frode and Per Oddvar we have clocked up thousands of kilometres together; these musicians are way more than just a backing band,” says the violinist.

Adam Bałdych’s new album is called “Brothers,” and is dedicated to the memory of his brother who passed away. So, for Bałdych and his band colleagues, it is about far more than either mere virtuosity or entertainment. “I would like my music,” says Bałdych, “to ingrain itself into the present time, and also to reflect it. It should take on board the cares and the yearnings of now. What I really wish for my music is that it should convey a message about love and beauty; more than ever we ought to feel that we are brothers and sisters, in order to understand each other better.” This lofty goal is reflected in track titles such as “Faith”, “Love”, “One” and “Shadows”. And through all that shared experience of playing with Helge Lien on piano, Frode Berg on bass and Per Oddvar Johansen on drums, Bałdych has the ideal means to express many different aspects of brotherliness through music. The group is also joined on some tracks by Norwegian saxophonist Tore Brunborg, known for his work with artists such as Tord Gustavsen and Manu Katchè.

That deep sense of brotherliness between musicians is the starting-point for this band: “Only with complete trust and understanding can we achieve the objective of musical unity,” says Bałdych. “What we want is to embark on musical journeys without compromises, and to have the courage to discover the unknown.” This unity in their way of making music shines through in all nine tracks on this CD, of which eight are original compositions by Bałdych. The album also hangs together convincingly as a whole – to some extent it has become a concept album. Bałdych draws an extended arc which runs from the heavy and rocky anthem “Elegy”, through the ballad “Faith” which carefully draws the listener into its confidence and modulates from major to minor. It then takes in a lyrical pledge of unity (”One”) and the title track “Brothers” which agitatedly circles around its theme, and arrives at a point where “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen seems to emerge from nothingness, and quietly to disappear back into it.

“Compared to our last album “Bridges”, says Bałdych, “the music in "Brothers" is ‘dirtier’ and more uninhibited. It is as if we can exist on that knife-edge between what Lacan called “the cry” and silence. And that is how the world is now: joy and tragedy can co-exist right next to each other.”

The violinist is able truly to portray the entire gamut of emotions through music. In the pianissimo moments it is replete with feeling and also clarity, and on the other hand Bałdych can take it to a point where it is so strong and loud it feels almost ready to burst. The interaction of Polish and Scandinavian sounds, of the American and European traditions of improvising, and the ways in which styles and genres unite and complement each other...everything happens a way which carries that spirit of brotherliness. And so listeners are also inevitably drawn in - as spiritual brothers or sisters.

Adam Bałdych, violin, renaissance violin
Helge Lien, piano
Frode Berg, bass
Per Oddvar Johansen, drums
Tore Brunborg, saxophone

Produced by Siggi Loch with the artist

Adam Bałdych
"Without any doubt the greatest living jazz violinist. One can expect everything from him." Ulrich Olshausen from German newspaper „Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung“ about Adam Bałdych’s concert at Jazzfest Berlin 2011. Bałdych was born in Gorzów Wlkp in Poland in 1986.

His outstanding talent was detected early. He was celebrated a prodigy in Poland. “By the age of 9 I decided to visit a school of music” he remembers. He already was well aware of his home country’s music tradition. “Poland has a great music tradition, especially referring to piano music and since Henryk Wieniawski also referring to violin playing.” Only by the age of 11 he decided to start playing the violin with great role models in mind: “I was very much influenced by the famous East-European composers, such as Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Tschaikowski.“ A number of awards for young musicians in classical music proof his talent: In 1999 he became third in Polish national violinist competition in Poznan. The same year he was awarded the first price at regional violinist competition in Szczecin and at Baroque music competition in Gorzow.

By the age of 13 he finally decided to play Jazz. “Jazz offered me the musical freedom, I was searching for.” A noteworthy series of awards followed: In 2002 he won the „Jazz Celebration“ competition in Gorzów. Since 2001 he was annually awarded the „Key for Career Award“ by renowned Polish magazine “Jazz Forum”.

By the age of 16 his international career began. He toured through Europe and Asia. After finishing his jazz degree with merit at Kattowitz conservatory, he got a scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Ever since, New York is the place of departure for his musical journey through the world. In recent years he was touring with Grammy-award-winning pianist Jim Beard, other famous violinists like Didier Lockwood, Pierre Blanchard, Jerry Goodman, Krzesimir Debski or Christian Howes and he participated in Jaroslaw Smietana’s project „Tribute to Seifert“. He himself recorded several noteworthy albums in different collaborations –with Singer Mika Urbaniak or the „Groove Razors“. On his album “Magical Theatre“ he also dealt with author Herman Hesse’s famous novel “Der Steppenwolf”. He first gained international attention with his band “Damage Control”.

Besides his regular work for international theatre- and film productions, and even though he partly lives in the US, Bałdych always stays in touch with Polish musicians. It therefore is no wonder that Polish piano star and ACT-artist Leszek Możdżer got to know Bałdych in 2008. Together they wrote the soundtrack to the movie “Sir Arnes Schatz” by Swedish director Mauritz Stiller. Możdżer hereupon introduced Bałdych to ACT head Siggi Loch. Loch did not hesitate to ask Bałdych to join the ACT family.

Together with Loch and Nils Landgren as the producers and a first-class studio band, Bałdych started to record his ACT debut “Imaginary Room” (ACT 9532-2) in March 2012 at Hansa Studios in Berlin. Lars Danielsson, one of the leading bass players in contemporary jazz, drummer Morten Lund and Swedish pianist Jacob Karlzon form the rhythm section. Two of the greatest talents in Scandinavian jazz –trumpet player Verneri Pohjola and Norwegian saxophonist Marius Neset make up the brass section.

Booklet for Brothers