Marcin Oleś, a double bass player and composer; and Bartłomiej ‘Brat’ Oleś, a drummer, composer and music producer, are twin brothers, born on 4th January 1973.
Oleś Brothers
Their music cannot be classified with any of the genres names known to contemporary musicology. There are some elements of jazz, classical chamber music and contemporary classical music but there are almost always a lot of improvised parts (the only exceptions are theatrical play music and film soundtracks). Stylistically-speaking, the Oleś Duo's music is a continuation of the idea of expanding the language of jazz by exploring sonorism and elements of contemporary classical music. The Oleś brothers were raised in a musical family - their father was a classically educated double bass player and conductor.
Joint Ventures
In the 1990s, the Oleś brothers started to distinguish their own style, which emerged from a fusion of jazz-rock, electronic music and acoustic jazz. They founded Custom Quartet – a jazz combo playing a standard jazz repertoire, which soon turned into Custom Trio (with Krzysztof Kapel on the saxophones), mostly performing Bartłomiej’s compositions.
The band debuted in 1999 with the album Mr. Nobody. One year later the trio expanded by inviting celebrated avant-garde trumpeter Andrzej Przybielski. As a quartet, they released their second album CT & Andrzej Przybielski Free Bop. In 2002 the band summarized its history with the comprehensive Back Point album.
In 2002, the Oleś Brothers signed for an international project going far beyond the boundaries of jazz, based on the music of Polish classical contemporary music composers: Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutosławski, Grażyna Bacewicz and Stefan Kisielewski. They invited Rudi Mahall – a German bass clarinet player, Mircea Tiberian – a Romanian pianist and American French horn player Mark Taylor. The resulting album, Contemporary Quartet plays… was released and soon earned the ‘Album Of The Year’ award from Audio-Video monthly.
Between 2001 and 2003, the Oleś brothers were a part of the Oleś | Trzaska | Oleś group, which recorded albums Mikro Muzik, la SKETCH up and Suite for trio +. The latter was recorded with a guest appearance from Jean Luc Cappozzo – a French trumpeter. Another of their ventures as a trio is Oleś | Jörgensmann | Oleś with Theo Jörgensmann, a German clarinet virtuoso. With this line-up they recorded Miniatures (2003), Directions (the best album of 2005 according to Diapazon.pl), Live in Poznań 2006 and Alchemia (2008), which was to first ever Polish CD to be published under the prestigious Swiss HAT HUT Records label.
In 2004 they cooperated with a true jazz giant, Ken Vandermark, and recorded an album entitled Abstract with their old friend Andrzej Przybielski.
In 2005 they founded their own recording label – Fenommedia Records, which also works as a graphic design studio Fenommedia. The label published Marcin Oleś’ solo album Walk Songs and an album by the Oleś brothers recorded with famous American pianist Kenny Werner – Shadows.
Marcin & Bartłomiej Brat Oleś DUO
In 2007 they launched Marcin & Bartłomiej Brat Oleś DUO – one of the most original and spectacular projects of their careers. Unusually, it consists of drums and double bass only. This project managed to abolish the jazz stereotype of the rhythm section serving only as a background for soloists. It proved that a set of drums and a double bass is enough to create comprehensive music, full of energy and surprising sounds.
Their latest releases are: Andrzej Przybielski / Oleś Brothers De Profundis (Fenommedia, 2011), Other voices, other scenes Theatre & film music (Fenommedia, 2010) and Sefardix, recorded with celebrated Greek musician and vocalist Jorgos Skolias.