Joëlle Léandre is a complete and uncompromising bass player. Her playing is characterized by outstanding instrumental technique, unlimited imagination and great charisma. She studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and later at the Center for the Arts in Buffalo. Giacinto Scelsi and John Cage composed music for her. Léandre was fully involved in the early stages of the free improv scene, collaborating with the most important representatives of the genre. She has recorded with Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Peter Kowald, Fred Frith and many others. In her work, she doesn’t shy away from social, political or feminist themes. She is the founder of The European Women’s Improvising Group and the Les Diaboliques trio (with Irene Schweizer and Maggie Nicols). The trio performed in Krakow at Krakow Jazz Autumn in 2016.
Since her solo concert at the festival in 2014, Joëlle Léandre has become a much more frequent guest in Poland, thanks to Krakow Jazz Autumn and Warsaw’s Ad Libitum festival. It was during Krakow Jazz Autumn that Leandre celebrated the 40th anniversary of her artistic work. In Poland, extensive releases were published: in 2016, 8 CD box A Woman’s Work by Not Two Records, and the 3 CD String Garden (Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2018).
Zlatko Kaučič for many years developed his career far from his native Slovenia – in Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. He cooperated with the most important representatives of the European avant-garde scene, including Evan Parker, Peter Brotzmann, Misha Mengelberg and Irene Schweizer. This versatile drummer also composes music for theatre and dance, is involved in musical education, and conducts workshops. In 2018, on the occasion of 40 years of his artistic activity, Not Two Records released a 5 CD box entitled Diversity with recordings from 2012-2017 with artists such as Lotte Anker, Evan Parker, Agusti Fernandez, Phil Minton and Rafał Mazur.
On the first day of their residency, Léandre and Kaučič will be accompanied by two incredible Polish artists: Mateusz Rybicki and Zbigniew Kozera. They have been cooperating with each other for years and are active on the Wrocław experimental music scene. They have collaborated with Piotr Damasiewicz, Wacław Zimpel and Mikołaj Trzaska. Their jointly recorded the album Xu (Multikulti, 2017) perfectly reflects how well these two musicians understand each other. Rybicki and Kozera will undoubtedly be worthy – though not obvious – companions of musical exploration for Léandre and Kaučič. After all, isn’t the obvious boring?
Joëlle Léandre (France) – bass
Zlatko Kaučič (Slovenia) – drums, percussion
Mateusz Rybicki (Poland) – clarinets
Zbigniew Kozera (Poland) – bass
WHEN: Nov, 6th
WHERE: ALCHEMIA, Estery 5
START: 8 pm