Label: Brooklyn Jazz Underground, 2023

Personnel - Kuba Cichocki: piano; Lucas Pino: tenor saxophone; Brandon Seabrook: guitar; Bogna Cicinska: vocals; Edward Perez: bass; Colin Stranahan: drums; Rogerio Boccatto: percussion (#8); Patric Breiner: saxophone (#8); Rose Ellis: vocals (#8); Leonor Falcon: violin (#1,6,8); Sana Nagano: violin (#1,6,8); Benjamin von Gutzeit: viola (#1,6,8); Brian Sanders: cello (#1,6,8).

Following a splendid duo album - Brisk Distortions - recorded with guitarist Brandon Seabrook, Polish-born, New York-based pianist Kuba Cichocki expands views in Flowing Circles, a set of 10 new compositions. Their acutely structured forms lend the music its loose elasticity. Among the relentless creative minds joining Cichocki in this sonic journey are the aforementioned guitarist, a stalwart in New York’s improvised music, and saxophonist Lucas Pino, who, in addition to his solo efforts, has been featured in trombonist Nick Finzer’s albums. Special guests (including a string quartet) grace specific tracks, while the core sextet is complemented with Polish vocalist Bogna Cicinska, bassist Edward Perez, and drummer Colin Stranahan.

“Quirks” opens the record as a joyous flight of fancy, unleashing speedy angular unisons with a fanfare-like vibe. Bouncy passages with staccato emphasis and counterpoint are reinforced by strings (violinist Sana Nagano and violist Benjamin von Gutzeit are featured), topped by solos from Cichocki, who gets melodically rich without overplaying, and Pino, who displays his classy post-bop phraseology with precision. Before concluding, there’s a change of pace in a section that feels playful and stout-hearted.

The instrumental layers illuminate “Where the Selves Meet”, which acquires a powerful contemporary feel with the aid of a ruminative guitar that keeps scratching the surface with distorted eccentricity. Pino, brightening and tightening the frontline, blows the tenor with eloquence and a lovely tone, and then is Seabrook who invents a quirky accompaniment to support Cicchocki in the final chamber section.

Soulfully psychedelic and rhythmically pumped up, “Blob Jump” sees the group playing with the flow through multiple sections of escalating energy. The so-called ‘Slavic melodicism’ is brought into mutable folk-influenced cadences, but for the finale, they allocate a rock impulsivity with salient guitar. Contrasting with this exuberance, “Birthday” is a soberly intense piece with Cicinska’s confident voice on the edge, embarking on intervalic complexity with the piano.

“First Smile” concludes the album with European classical elements crossing with impressionistic modern creative chops in a solo piano playing. But before that, there are still time for a couple of fully improvised numbers - the more abstract “Nooks and Crannies” and the funk-meets-post-bop experiment, “Keep Moving”.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Where the Selves Meet ► 04 - Blob Jump ► 06 - Birthday

Label: Self released, 2021

Personnel - Kuba Cichocki: piano; Brandon Seabrook: electric guitar.

The Polish pianist Kuba Cichocki joins forces with the American guitarist Brandon Seabrook in this ferocious, highly improvisatory collection of duets enveloped in a bubble of kinetic energy.

Three of the 21 tracks tracks have the signature of Cichocki, and the opener, “Scribbles” is one of them. Melodically strenuous, expressive and hectic, the music speeds up with an impressive left-hand piano continuum and steep accents. This sort of angular vitality is briefly put on halt for atmospherics but it’s transported to the following number, “Push”, where the stabbing guitar of Seabrook plays with timbre and effects. This is also clear on “Solid”, where torrents of cascading piano notes collide with frantic guitar pointillism and chordal fluxes.

While “Bounce” is driven by contrapuntal rhythmic figures, “Field Trip” clearly leans on warped folk before presenting some ambient washes and playful interplay. Cichocki’s “Rays” seems to have been drawn from danceable electronic music with quiet pauses in-between frictions and a nod to traditional jazz. The responsiveness of the duo here can be compared to “Chitchat (aka The Gloves)”, an ad lib that gets denser in the final section via the eruptive and disruptive distortion of the guitar.

Jagged but interesting, “Spikes” feels like we’re hearing toy music made with percussive prepared piano - sometimes emulating miniature artificial fireworks - and guitar dissonance. In turn, “Vabling” is a bustling, pressurized chamber of timbral and pitch combinations where you can expect murmuring and mantra-like activity.

The briskness is put to rest on the short-lived “Bubbles” and also on the concluding piece, “Breathe Out”, whose gentler temperament comes shrouded in nearly cherubic beauty.

Cichocki and Seabrook are admirably daring in their condensed, hard-nosed duo playing.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Scribbles ► 05 - Field Trip ► 21 - Breathe Out