One of those educative points was a musicloving uncle who handed me a much-played record by “Orchestra of the Eighth Day”, a recording by the ominous-sounding title, “At The Last Gate”. That record, more than any other I recall from my youth shaped my idea of what interesting music could sound like. Orchestra of The Eighth day, in a few words; was an ad-hoc Polish experimental band spearheaded by Jan Kaczmarek. They played a form of crossbreed between avantgarde Polis folk, jazz, ambient and minimal chamber music. It was one of exceedingly (to my knowledge at least) few bands to have made it past the border in communist Poland. The year was 1984. The orchestra seems to have dissolved shortly afterwards. A few scattered records remain here and there. Kaczmarek himself seems to have moved on to the more lucrative field of scoring (american) film music. A shame, perhaps. But we all need to make a living I suppose. It worked for Glass, after all.

To my surprise (I lost the record in a rather dumb incident a few years back), I found this hidden gem of Polish experimental music (ever heard of Fischers Fidola?) on this, rather excellent, jazz-enthusiast blog. It also features a download link that I in no way will tell you what to do or not do with. The author writes in Polish, but there are English summaries below each post. Highly recommended.

Re-listening to the opening tones of “Rondo Con Fuoco” brought back memories, even if I remembered it as a far more powerful composition (I must have been thriteen or fourteen when I first heard it, so I’m guessing I was much easier to impress back then). The years have however treated it kindly, and it still holds up well today. Well worth a listen.