COSMIC SILENCE - mit Saxophon-Ikone Leszek Żądło

In the organizer's words:

COSMIC SILENCE is a musical journey into the vastness of outer space, on which two jazz musicians will take you. The magical sounds of Leszek Żądło's saxophone and the extraordinary sounds of Joachim Mencel's hurdy-gurdy will accompany us on our journey. Stars and planets have their own specific frequency, their own rhythm and their own pitch. Space sounds! The artists focus on the sounds they create, follow them and tell us in a picturesque way about their experience of space, about their fascination for the world around us... they try to interpret and reflect its majestic vastness.

Yes, it's just a duo of two friends who understand each other without words. They listen to each other and give free rein to their inner experiences. COSMIC SILENCE is the name of the concert project, but also the title of the vinyl album.

Leszek Żądło is an outstanding Polish saxophonist and one of the most important musicians on the Austrian and German jazz scene. Active for over 50 years and involved in numerous music projects, he has received several awards, including the Gloria Artis Medal and a medal of thanks for his support of the Solidarność movement.

Joachim Mencel is a music producer, composer, pianist, pioneer of contemporary jazz on the hurdy-gurdy, Ph.D. professor of AM Krzysztof Penderecki in Krakow. He has been awarded the Silver Cross of Merit and the Bronze Medal for Services to Culture for his musical works.

"Beautiful melodies from Leszek, great sound from Joachim, wonderful music."
- Tomasz Tłuczkiewicz

"Mencel, an exceptional technician, used every trick in the book to involve us on almost every possible level. Not without the involvement of the hurdy-gurdy, full of dualistic meanings. Sometimes majestic, sometimes plaintive or nostalgic, sometimes hauntingly discordant. Continuously embellished and developed from the electronic and reverberant side. It was one of the more haunting and lyrical musical experiences I've had the pleasure of experiencing recently. Leszek Żądło, in turn, ensured the stability of the songs enchanted by Mencel's hurdy-gurdy by wrapping them in the gentle sound of saxophones (mainly soprano) or effectively accelerating the groove. He not only ticked off compositions efficiently, but above all improvised eloquently and powerfully. He built his voices with simple means but in interesting ways, varying the tempo and intensity of his playing and often playing with a single sound, a phrase or the repetition of short forms."
- Bartosz Szarek

"... we received extraordinary music. Exceptional in its uniqueness, but also in its understanding of exceptional beauty. I must admit that I haven't heard such a captivating album for a long time."
- Cezary Ścibiorsk