Because the world of nature has long interested me more than the world of humans, the impulse behind the album Regina Silva was the desire to build a musical narrative based on animal communication signals. I began collecting them through field recordings and by processing samples found in the digital realm. From this material emerged a lyrical - rhythmic structure in which biological, micro-formal irregularity merges with hypnotic repetition.
All the compositions were created in early 2024 in Kenya, which proved to be an exceptionally powerful creative catalyst for me - above all due to the intensity and autonomy of its natural environment. The richness and variability of the soundscape, audible at different times of day, led me to perceive the natural environment as a single organism, constantly communicating.
Regina Silva, meaning “Queen of the Forest,” does not refer to a specific figure, but rather to a state of being that exists beyond human intervention. Many of the motifs - especially rhythmic ones - were created by directly translating animal communication signals into compositional material, which became a key form-shaping element of the entire album. The record affirms a vision of the world devoid of human centrality, in which music functions as an equal mode of existence and communication.
The album Mouvements was recorded in a very spontaneous way. I was invited to collaborate by Patryk Zakrocki, the creator of the sublabel Monaural Poetry. When he described to me the fully analogue method he uses to produce records, it occurred to me that this was an opportunity to record something truly authentic and different from the albums I had made so far. And that’s how the idea was born: I wanted the music to sound like something that happens without an audience – like a moment that no one was ever meant to hear, remaining in its raw, genuine form. Each piece was played without repeats, as a one-time, fleeting thought. The roughness and imperfections were left intentionally, to preserve authenticity.
I recalled an emotional memory of a situation I had experienced many times – when, through the doors of a rehearsal room or the backstage of a concert hall at my school, I would hear someone playing – not for anyone, but purely for themselves, unaware of any listener’s presence. A meeting between unintended presence and unconscious performance.
The album can be bought directly from Joanna Duda - contact on the last page.
I worked on the album KEEN for over two years with the attitude of “let’s see what comes out of it.” The first recording session for this album took place at the beginning of December 2016. I was alone in a studio in Wrocław, recording a Fazioli piano (personally, I’m not a big fan of that brand). I remember being terribly bored there and not really having an idea of what I would do with it later. When I started working on the production and the electronic part of the album, it turned out that some fragments fit perfectly into the outlines of compositions I had started earlier. But the most inspiring part was preparing the spinet at home and my own Francke piano in my friend’s studio.
The first album I released under my own name was ironically titled The Best Of. It marked the end of a period full of various projects from 2010–2013, which came about spontaneously but also faded quickly: Hotgod, J=J, JAA, 3D, as well as fragments of improvisations from rehearsals, music composed for the theatre play Balladyna, improv sessions, and excerpts from a piano concert I played in Paris. Most of the material was recorded on a Zoom H4 digital recorder. The album has the character of a compilation, presenting a wide spectrum of my interests at the time and the various directions I was only beginning to explore. I released this album independently, outside of any label, and I see it more as an archive of recordings from that period rather than an album representing my solo work.
