Kurws

Founded in 2008, this is a Wrocław-based band attempting to forge an artistic consensus between breakneck rhythms, dissonant sounds and torn guitar motifs.

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Kurws, photo: Maciek Bielawski / the band's promotional materials

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The band Kurws consists of Hubert Kostkiewicz (guitar), Jakub Majchrzak (bass guitar) and Dawid Bargenda (drums). Although their music is constantly evolving, the group’s roots are in the punk-rock scene. Each of the three artists is self-taught, gathering their first musical experience in teenage high school bands. Founded in the second half of the 1990s, the noise-rock band Kill Your Television, with Bargenda as guitarist, even gained notoriety in the community and had their cassette released by the Zielona Góra-based Gusstaff label. It all turned out to be such a family affair that Janusz Mucha [the head of the Gusstaff label – JB] had a programme with Hubert on Radio Zachód at the time. We talked over the phone during a radio interview and a few years later we met in Wrocław. That’s where I met Kuba in the spring of 1999 at a KYTV concert at the Katakumby club. Anyway, what brought us together was punk.

Majchrzak, who at the time was playing in the bands Kromka (guitar), mikroflota (bass) and Dysydent (accordion), was trying to get into a second-grade music school for double bass. However, when he was asked if he had ever heard the instrument live, he had to reply ‘no’. So, in the end, he was left to explore music theory on his own. After hours, he learned notes, staves and the basics of harmony from school textbooks. For many years, I didn’t even have a way to confront the methodology of my home-grown education with reality.

When the musicians founded Kurws in 2008, it was not so much a step as a leap in their artistic development. ‘I learnt how to listen and work with the instrument, and along with the intensive practice came a great sensitivity to detail,’ recalls Kostkiewicz. ‘From the clash of personalities our own style emerged, and embarking on this path broadened my imagination. For me it was a quantum leap.’

Outside the loop

Even before the recording of their debut album, Dziura w Getcie [Hole in the Ghetto], the Kurws’ line-up had grown into a quartet. Saxophonist Krzysztof Tokarski joined the band. ‘During this formative period, the three of us lived together, and Dawid lived next door,’ recalls Majchrzak. ‘We were friends and only then musicians. At the time, having a saxophone in the band was my ticket to playing differently, which was important to me because I was protesting against all the typical rock stuff.’

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KURWS - Zła bajka / Evil fairy tale (Official Video)

Kurws’ status as an instrumental band also distanced them from such associations. The band admits that their attempts to find a vocalist were unsuccessful, so they had to fill this space by themselves or by inviting other instrumentalists. There was no shortage of such guests. Saxophonists Piotr Łyszkiewicz and Oskar Carls, clarinetist Wojciech Bajda and multi-instrumentalist Piotr Zabrodzki have also played or recorded with the band. ‘These meetings were always an adventure and a coincidence,’ explains Bargenda. ‘None of us had a plan for it. It was all spontaneity that “surprised” us with the mutual agreement and a desire to be together.’

As a result, since the release of their debut album in 2011, reviewers named multiple genres, scenes and associations to reflect the nature of the Wrocław band’s work. Thus, for a decade the musicians have already played post-punk, krautrock, funk, no wave, rock in opposition and even jazz. ‘Kurws is not fusion cuisine,’ protests Kostkiewicz. ‘In rehearsals we don’t think in terms of: “and now we're going to combine punk with jazz”. There is no such kind of conniving in our music. When we play, we rather think about sounds, consonance, dynamics, drama. We strive for consensus. We all have to accept the structures that emerge from our playing together. So that every instrument resounds in them, so that everyone has a place for themselves.’

The musicians emphasise that they are not interested in making references to any scene, winking at erudite listeners or dusting off forgotten drawers in the history of the independent scene. As Majchrzak summarises, they are primarily interested in authorial reasoning and collective discussion.

Not surprisingly, improvisation plays an important role in the group’s creative process. According to Kostkiewicz, it is what keeps providing the band with new and interesting solutions. ‘Improvisation is not a trick or a patent for me, but a foundation,’ the guitarist explains. ‘It gives the imagination a chance to go beyond the loops of things we already know.’

Majchrzak adds:

composition is a point of reference, a kind of raft or a piece of deck, and improvisation is what it all floats on. Sometimes you stand on a piece of board so confidently that you forget there’s deep water underneath. Other times you’re freezing under the surface and struggling to survive, dangling your limbs in all directions.

Digressions and synchronicities

Although the Wrocław-based musicians record all the instruments in the studio live, they release albums very rarely. 2014 saw the release of Wszystko co Stałe Rozpływa się w Powietrzu [Everything Solid Melts into Air] – a punk album with a rough sound and thrilling dynamics, while also experimenting with more elaborate arrangements. The participation of the brass section led to associations with jazz or the New York no wave scene among reviewers. At this stage, the spiritus movens of Warsaw’s independent scene (and several others), producer and multi-instrumentalist Piotr Zabrodzki, played an important role in the band. The musicians admit that without his support they would be in a completely different place today. Zabrodzki constantly mobilised the members of Kurws to explore and himself threw up ideas that broadened their imagination. Majchrzak recalls that it was during Zabrodzki’s time that the band began to twist from the established structure of the songs, improvise, and fall into musical digressions.

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Kurws - Leo Taxil (official video)

2017 saw the release of Alarm, an album recorded by Kurws in a quartet with Swedish saxophonist Oskar Carls. On the pages of Czas Kultury, Bartosz Nowicki wrote about this album:

Kurws take on a seriousness and rawness, and the sound becomes noisy and dirty. However, this does not put strain on the motility. The dynamic, jittery compositions carry the instrumental momentum and charisma, giving the effect of incredible chemistry.

On their fourth album, entitled Powięź, Kurws return to their roots, recording as a trio. Released in 2022, the album received rave reviews in the popular press, jazz portals and from critics who usually keep an eye on the contemporary avant-garde. It is an album full of radical changes of pace, short motifs turned inside out, at times brutal and yet almost danceable. ‘While every album is really about us, Powięź is the most personal,’ believes Kostkiewicz.

The synchronicities and desynchronizations we use in the compositions are a metaphor for our long-standing relationship. Sometimes our paths diverge more and more. Each has its own ambitions, plans and crises. At the same time, they still come together enough for Powięź to work. A completely non-accidental meditation on our interdependence.

When asked about the challenges of returning to playing as a ‘bare’ trio, the musicians reveal that the difficulties lay elsewhere. All the more so because on Powięź you can also hear tracks supplemented in the studio later. The challenge was to record and mix this material. ‘So everything took place in real time, with our mistakes, muscle fatigue, raptures and the need to make intuitive, definitive decisions,’ explains Majchrzak.

Tape has its absolute limitations in terms of time, physical limitations, and our pieces are usually not the shortest. And this was difficult. The fifteen-minute title track broadcasts on a pulse coming directly from our veins. These are our biological limitations.