When I first listened to trumpeter/composer Wojciech Jachna‘s latest album, I was thinking: this is a brand new ‘Squad’. It is not the first album in the group’s discography, but they have undergone many significant changes since their previous releases.

In the first place, there have been changes in personnel. For ‘Ad Astra’, Squad is reduced to a bass-less quartet. There has been a switch of drummers: – Rafał Gorzycki is now behind the kit.

Of the album’s six tracks, three are by Jachna, two by Rafał Gorzycki, plus there is a variation on Karol Szymanowski’s second Violin Concerto. The whole is kept in a rather homogeneous atmosphere. It is subdued, sublime music, only slightly more intense in the last two movements, both by Gorzycki.

The individual layers of the songs blend perfectly into captivating musical stories. Each of the musicians gets the chance to shine in the leading roles, but also to present themselves as the creators of a kind of foundation for their colleagues’ solo performances. Rafał Gorzycki [his composition, the title track ‘Ad Astra’ in particular] is brilliant here, and Jacek Cichocki, who plays the piano, Moog and organ, also provides bold support.

And the main narratives are equally intriguing. Sometimes through one instrument, sometimes in complementary or contrasting duets. Here, in turn, the trumpet of Wojciech Jachna and the guitar of Marek Malinowski attract the most attention.

There are many moments that make the listener linger with ‘Ad Astra’: the recurring trumpet motif in the title track, the delicate beginning of ‘Song’, the successive solos of the instruments in ‘Crazy People’, the subtle electronics in ‘Bleak Sun’. Three quarters of an hour of magic and mystery. A musical journey into the vastness of space, to the stars.

from https://ukjazznews.com