Kasia Osterczy - Travel Elegy (2020)

Kasia Osterczy is a singer and composer - a graduate of the Jazz Department of ZPSM. F. Chopin in Warsaw, scholarship holder and winner of many competitions, currently a student of jazz vocal studies at the Academy of Music. K. Szymanowski in Katowice. Her first original project (a quartet with Emilia Gołos, Michał Aftyka and Kacper Majewski) was inspired by Szymanowski's songs. As a result of the search for a new sound, a trio was formed with guitarist Piotr Scholz and saxophonist Kuba Marciniak, who are known even from Weezdob Collective.

At Travel Elegy, Kasia Osterczy not only measures the demanding poetry of Wisława Szymborska, but is also responsible for all compositions. Poetry has a special place for me, because it often combines all the elements that inspire me the most, namely art, nature and man. At the time when I was absorbing the volumes of Poświatowska, Staffa or Tuwim, I dreamed of creating my own music for these poems and through it convey the emotions that accompanied me while reading them. When I got a gift of Szymborska's volume with translations into English by Stanisław Barańczak and my beloved Clare Cavanagh, I decided to follow this idea - he explains.

A clear vision of the whole, attention to detail and the impressive artistic awareness of Kasia Osterczy allowed us to create a very mature and coherent album. It was true that I did not have the key by which I chose the lyrics, but naturally it fell on the poems that most stimulate my imagination and move me emotionally. Usually, ideas for melodies, tempo or the general form and character of the song followed immediately - he continues.

Travel Elegy is an album with a delicate and intimate character, but Ostercza's compositions do not lack an appropriate dose of drama and tension, thanks to which music is definitely not just a background to the poems of Wisława Szymborska. The lyrics provoked me to reach for specific chords and harmony. Each song is divided into at least two parts. When I felt that a stanza has a different character, rhythm or is particularly important - I tried to follow these subjective feelings and create music accordingly. It is very possible that the emotions that I wanted to reflect in my compositions do not coincide with those that accompanied the poet while writing, but it is these differences that are most interesting to me - summarizes the artist.