Zawadzinski, Tomasz

Artist: Tomasz Zawadzinski
P: 2008
“Follow me” – certainly towards magical electronic lands, spooky tonal jungles, which remind us so much of those painted by the masters of Berlin School or their talented descendants.
Already the very first track on the album signifies a very nice surprise for devoted fans of Early-Virgin-Years Tangerine Dream: The awakening of a yellowish exotic forest at dawn has exactly that murky vibe we remember from TD’s “Zeit” and “Atem”! This mélange of fascinating abstract soundscapes then makes room for a soothing electronic impression, perhaps a bit melancholic, but still underlined with optimistic notes.
The second piece emerges from an interesting passage of some mysterious crisps and chirps, and leads to places which have very much in common with those so ingeniously “described” by Wolfram Spyra especially on his Fax-Recordings: there it is, a soft “rainy” tune, jazzy swinging between tonal systems, and “vibraphone” dreamy sounds as if taken from a film soundtrack. Track three, probably the best one on the record, consists mostly of numb and milky synthesizer lights, reflecting and sliding on some deep black electronic pond, dreamt about in a minor scale – one could compare the atmosphere of this piece with moods conjured up by Klaus Schulze on the “Body Love” and “Mirage” albums!
Track four gives the listener a handful of sounds and arrangements both rooted in the Berlin Scene sound and eclectic, future-oriented, as if taken from a random Paul Nagle album. The final track is probably the most “traditional” one here – I mean obviously the Berlin School tradition – but still all the recognizable influences were filtered through the innovative imagination of the artist.
Let us give this record a careful listen and we will really appreciate the already well-formed style of Tomasz Zawadzinski, who is able to paint musical scenes – “sounds like pictures” – both nostalgic and optimistic, both snowy and warm. The listener will discover, that She is asked to follow Zawadzinski not only in one particular direction, but rather in many different ones, towards a great many different worlds…

Artist: Tomasz Zawadzinski
P: 2009
"Saved As" is a great and complex work - it's impossible not to hear that Zawadzinski not only loves, but simply feels the groove and the atmosphere of electronic music. He has plenty to say here on the electronic field, and he creates his sequential moods in a slyly fresh way. The album has exactly the Virgin-Years-of-Tangerine-Dream atmosphere, but still it wouldn't be fair to talk about copying TD's arrangements and feels - although once upon a time one obviously had to invent the sequential formula and the descendants' task is every now and then not that difficult. Zawadzinski does not imitate Edgar Froese & Co., he is simply able to take the listener on a journey to some other possible world, where there reigns an atmosphere as impressive as the very one known from the classical Berlin School works.

Artist: Tomasz Zawadzinski
P: 2008
Already by the first listen given to Tomasz Zawadzinski's album, the title suggestion will not disappoint us - indeed, the artist's pieces are very suggestive as far as visual associations are concerned. Zawadzinski's work is deep-rooted in the Berlin sequencing tradition, whereas he represents this party of the Berlin School, which is by no means afraid to explore new musical teritories and experiment on them.
Already the title track is a good taster: the first half of the composition explores spooky deserts a la "Ultima Thule Part 2" by Tangerine Dream, while the second one injects the Listener out of the dark and into some rhythmic lands of pulsating sequencers, dreamy arpeggio-clouds and wonderful intuitive improvisations.
"Impulses of Abyss" conjures up a metallic flanger mood, in which mysterious sequences now dissolve, then freeze. Pay attention to the vast background soundscapes, as if coming from some obscure Salvador Dalí dream or the long bygone "Pink Years" of Tangerine Dream.
A slight decrease of speed, whereas the sounds get more metallic, distorted, and grungy - here comes the next piece, "Walk towards Sequencer". This 19-minute-piece brings quietness and some elements of tightness simultaneously.
"Swamps of Reverb", a very short one, is surely one of the most appealing episodes of the CD. Rather ambient as Berlin-like structures are here wrought in fantastic electronic fabric a bit like in Paul Nagle's "Lore".
The coda, "Running thru the Rhythm", is a good piece of music in which sequential electronica, Pink-Years-TD-moods, IDM and very sophisticated trance join forces. In such a way, tradition and a close look into the future get unified.