Bastarda

Founded in 2017 by clarinettist, improviser and composer Paweł Szamburski in conjunction with two other unconventional musicians: Tomasz Pokrzywiński (cello) and Michał Górczyński (contrabass clarinet). This unusual combination of instruments creates a unique, completely new timbre, which has become the characteristic feature of Bastarda’s style.

The Trio has been praised for inventing their own musical language, which has become the tool for creating new music – taking inspiration from a wide array of sources – from the so-called ‘early music’, through eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Hasidic sacred songs, to traditional music of Portugal, Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. For Bastarda, all these musical genres become merely starting points for improvisation and new compositions – the early Baroque method of ‘alla bastarda’ finds its way in a new context. Thus, musical traditions of the past morph into a modern, original and personal artistic voice.

Building upon the success of their first three CD albums, which established Bastarda as one of the most interesting ensembles on the Polish scene, they continued with a series of fruitful collaborations with both Polish and international artists (such as the Dutch orchestra Holland Baroque or the Sutari ensemble), which led to further four highly acclaimed CDs. In recent years, the ensemble has also developed new programmes, composed on commission for festivals (such as the Warsaw Autumn and the Unsound Festival) and cultural institutions (the Polish Film Music Composers programme prepared for the eighty-fifth anniversary of Polish Radio 2 or Faraon [Pharaoh] implemented for the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute). A release of an album by the renowned Pentatone label and the related concert tours in the Netherlands also must be considered a success.