Scandinavian Art Ensemble

For years, stories circulated throughout both the Danish and Polish jazz scenes about a lost recording session featuring the legendary Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stańko alongside a group of Scandinavian and Polish musicians. Now, nearly a decade after the recordings were made and seven years after Stańko's passing, these long-awaited sessions have finally seen the light of day.

The project began at Vallekilde Højskole in Denmark, where Tomasz Stańko was invited to lead the annual JazzDanmark Summer Session. This prestigious workshop programme for professional musicians has previously welcomed such renowned artists as Lionel Loueke, Danilo Pérez and Kenny Garrett. It was here, working with an international ensemble of young musicians, that Stańko found a fresh source of artistic inspiration. This marked a rare moment in his career, as he was best known for leading his own ensembles.

The collaboration resulted in the formation of the Scandinavian Art Ensemble featuring Tomasz Stańko and the recording of two albums that combine the melancholic depth of Polish jazz with the spacious, atmospheric sound characteristic of the Scandinavian tradition. Rich in emotion, subtlety and artistic freedom, these recordings stand as a remarkable document of one of the final international projects in Tomasz Stańko's extraordinary career.

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photo: Kristoffer Juel Poulsen