#kwartet jogi

[mywifeleftme]

71: Kwartet Jorgi // Kwartet Jorgi

Kwartet Jorgi Kwartet Jorgi 1987, Pronit

Music for morel foraging in the year 1249 A.D., or combing long blonde hair in a ruined tower, played on violin, guitar, cello, and shepherd’s pipes. Absolute hidden gem of progressive folk here, blending Slavonic early music-sounding melodies with the wandering improvisational qualities of jazz. They at times anticipate the lurching, gnawing cello-heavy scores of the recent bumper crop of folk horror films (especially on album highlight “Olmorts Olof Svensson”), but there’s no sinister intent to Kwartet Jorgi’s music. Rather, they’re seeking to capture the clamour of bogs, bird cries in the higher canopy, airy sounds in the broader ‘soughing’ adjectival universe. I’m usually no great lover of the flute or pipes as a lead instrument, but shepherd’s pipes player and primary composer Maciej Rychly exploits the full possibilities of his instrument, giving these lengthy instrumental settings a vocal protagonist.

Though the emphasis on flute and the proggy grooves of the “Muzyka jaskini łotrów” (“Rogues’ Cave Music”) suite bring to mind early New Agers like Mike Oldfield, Kwartet Jorgi largely succeed in the liner notes’ stated goal of “reaching for the sounds and obvious things that each of us passes by without hearing.” It’s a beautiful recording, and one worth rediscovering by today’s woodland cultists.

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