Paweł Szamburski (b. 1980) is a musician with close ties to the Warsaw record label Lado ABC. He studied cultural anthropology and musicology at the Warsaw University, and created, or co-created, such bands as SzaZa, Horny Trees, Meritum, Cukunft or the clarinet quartet Ircha. He composes and performs music for film, theatre, silent pictures, contemporary dance and radio plays. He mostly employs the clarinet, his voice and electronic devices. Using loops and slight processing, he is able to compose rich, polyphonic structures live.

 

Ceratitis Capitata is a species of fruit fly capable of causing extensive damage to a widerange of fruit crops. It is native to the Mediterranean area. Perhaps it was her distant cousin that flew in one sunny day into a church in Błonie, near Tarnów, where Paweł Szamburski was recording his first solo album. In it, he took on liturgical motifs of the great religions of the Mediterranean Basin, and fed his clarinet the fruits of those sacred musical traditions. His playing, and his work with the instrument, employed references, melodies and expressive traits of Orthodox choirs, Sufi and Jewish music, as well as Bahá'í Faith and Gregorian chant.

Photo: M. Starowieyska