Mikołaj Trzaska

Saxophonist, clarinetist, composer. He studied painting and multimedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. Musically, he grew up in the yass scene, an artistic and social movement that rebelled against the ossification of the Polish jazz scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was co-founder of the most important yass formation, the legendary Miłość, and leader of Łoskot. Although the momentum of yass faded many years ago, the musician became a leading figure in the domestic improwised scene. After the yass period, he recorded several albums of a rather ‘focused’ and muted atmosphere, with the Olesian brothers’ section. He has also accompanied Świetlicki and Andruchowycz, and creates music and literary projects with Andrzej Stasiuk. Today, he is the leader of the international quartet Inner Ear, the clarinet quartet IRCHA, the Danish-Polish trio Volumen, a member of, among others: Resonance (by Ken Vandermark), Magic (by Joe McPhee) or the Shofar trio (with Raphael Rogiński and Mac Moretti)–it is Jewish music that has become a permanent element in his work for several years. Above all, however, he realises himself in the field of radical contemporary free jazz. He travels the world, collaborating with the greats of world improvisation, including Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermak and Mark Sanders. Trzaska has also become known to a wider audience as a composer of film music, writing pieces for Wojtek Smarzowski’s films: Dom zły, Róża, Drogówka, Pod Mocnym Aniołem, Wołyń, Kler, Wesele II.