PRES Sampling #6 – Jacek Sienkiwicz | Article

PRES Sampling #6 – Jacek Sienkiwicz

jacek_sienkiewicz_fot_promo.jpg, default, Jacek Sienkiewicz, photo: promotional materials, PRES Sampling #6 – Jacek Sienkiwicz

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Dated or modern? Jacek Sienkiewicz, Polish techno pioneer, talks about the sounds of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio.

In 2018, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and Ableton created a library of samples based on the archive of recordings made at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio (PRES). So far, the sounds created by Elżbieta Sikora, Krzysztof Knittel and Ryszard Szeremeta have been used by more than 20,000 music producers from around the globe. In May 2019, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, together with the British music magazine The Quietus, announced a competition for compositions using these PRES samples. The contest also commissioned Polish and foreign producers to create works from the Studio’s sample library. Producers including Jacek Sienkiewicz, Mouse on Mars, We Will Fail, Skalpel and Jlin have created their own interpretations.

Jacek Sienkiewicz was born in 1976, in Warsaw, and works as an electronic music producer. He freely moves between experimental and club music. He heads the music label Recognition Records and is a pioneer of techno music in Poland. Toward the end of 2018 he released his second album Drogi (Paths) – an homage to sound engineer and composer Bohdan Mazure k, one of the most important members of PRES. Few people remember his compositions, but everyone knows them – at least the ones from the soundtrack of Pan Kleks (Mr. Inkblot), a favourite film of Polish children. In Drogi, Sienkiewicz reaches for his own compositions from youth, and samples and uses a digital synthesis of sounds.

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Filip Lech: What was your first encounter with the music of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio?

Jacek Sienkiewicz: It was unconscious – since childhood. I think that it must have been the strange sounds from The Saragossa Manuscript. Even though I didn’t fully understand the film, and it might have even bored me, I watched it as if hypnotised. In large part that was thanks to the soundtrack. I consciously listened to Eugeniusz Rudnik’s works in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

FL: Is the ethos of experiment dear to you? How is electronic music experimental in 2019?

JS: Almost all of my work in my recording studio is an experiment. I have wildly diverse equipment and I constantly change its configuration. I create my compositions without looking at the styles and trends, but I can’t speak for others – I’m not sure what experimentation looks like in today’s electronic music.

FL: Is the music of PRES outdated or does it sound modern?

JS: It’s dated, but it sounds modern. Or maybe the opposite? It’s hard to explain, but that’s how it is.

FL: What meaning does the history and tradition of electronic music have for you? Do you refer to the past in your music?

JS: It doesn’t have meaning to me, but I might unconsciously refer to it.

FL: Which creator from the Experimental Studio do you feel closest to?

JS: This year I released my album Drogi – it’s a collection of personal tracks inspired by the works of my favourite creator from the Studio – Bohdan Mazurek. It’s another album in the multi-year series PRES Revisited, released by Bôłt Records, meant to bring listeners closer to the works created by PRES artists and interpretations of their works.

FL: What is your favourite song from the Warsaw studio?

JS: Canti or Daisy Story. Both by Bohdan Mazurek.

FL: Which sound from the PRES sample library was the most to your taste?

JS: I used a lot of the sounds. I even loaded some of the percussion sounds into my sampler. I tried to create a pulsing and hypnotic background from the sounds I liked the most.

It’s a charming sample library, albeit with a very classic sound.

Originally written in Polish Nov 2019, translated by AZ Nov 2019

Language English

Bohdan Mazurek

electronic music

contemporary music

Polish Radio Experimental Studio

PRES

polish electronic music

polish contemporary music

jacek sienkiewicz