Dominik Wania I Lonely Shadows

Dominik Wania joined the elite group of artists recording for ECM Records, and his ‘Lonely Shadows’ is the first solo album of Polish music in history released by this most prestigious jazz label in the world.

Last fall, during a two-day recording session in Lugano, the pianist opted for full improvisation. He came to the concert hall of the Swiss radio without previously prepared pieces or even sketches of composition. Thanks to this, while listening to the album ‘Lonely Shadows’, we are witnessing a completely unique creation process. It will be no different during the concert.

Dominik Wania began to gain recognition on the music market by playing with Tomasz Stańko, shortly after graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Shortly afterwards, Wania met his next music partner – the saxophonist Maciej Obara, whose quartet he co-creates to this day. With this ensemble, he has visited the best jazz halls and festivals in the world, and also recorded six albums, of which the last two were also included in the ECM Records catalogue. Wania also devotes herself to didactic work within the walls of the Academies in Krakow and Katowice and also records film music in cooperation with Zbigniew Preisner.

The fans had to wait seven years for the pianist's second album. So much time had passed since the loud debut – the album "Ravel" recorded in a trio, showered with awards, including two Fryderyk statuettes (in the categories Jazz Album of the Year and Jazz Debut of the Year) and the TVP Kultura award ‘Guarantees of Culture’. And this time Dominik Wania does not resign from the clear influence of classical composers such as Ravel, Prokofiev, Skriabin and Satie.

Wania's music is a bridge between the sheer freedom of improvisation derived from jazz music and pianism imbued with European classical music. Like the new album, the artist's solo concerts are an invitation to discover the world of sounds, built following the ‘here and now’ principle.