ŃOKO (pol)

Sounds without borders - between dark jazz, electronics and psychedelia

ŃOKO is one of the most compelling discoveries on the current Polish music scene, and this Gdańsk quartet will open our autumn season and the POLISH WEEKENDER. The band blends dark jazz, electronics and psychedelic rock into a sound that works just as well at a jazz festival as in a techno club. Improvisation is their starting point - but instead of classic jazz solos, the focus is on hypnotic grooves, driving rhythms and dense sonic landscapes.

The band features trumpeter Dawid Lipka, saxophonist and synthesizer player Michał Jan Ciesielski, double bassist and Moog specialist Maciej Sadowski, and drummer Tomasz Koper. Together they craft a sound that is as physical as it is atmospheric: acoustic instruments fuse with electronics, layered textures and pulsing beats to create music that draws in both the attentive listener and anyone who simply wants to surrender to the rhythm. Crucially, ŃOKO don't hide the jazz behind effects - they give it a contemporary shape that is entirely their own.

On their current album KO, the band builds purposefully on the direction set by their debut Aurora: hypnotic arcs of tension, pulsing patterns and a dense, dramatically charged atmosphere move even further to the fore. The material feels made for the stage, and live, ŃOKO's qualities come through in full force - with gripping dynamics and a set that builds steadily, thickens and releases in a way you feel as much as hear. Critics have called it an "explosion of energy" and one of the most exciting new sounds in contemporary Polish jazz.

For anyone with open ears for music that crosses jazz, electronics and club culture, this is not an evening to miss.