After 2000
At the beginning of the new millennium, between 2001 and 2004, Trzaska collaborated with Marcin and Bartłomiej Oleś, brothers who are both musicians and composers. Their album Mikro Muzik is a milestone in contemporary Polish jazz. The trio recorded three other albums: La Sketch Up, Danziger Strassenmusik (the recording sessions of which took place on the streets of Gdańsk), and Suite For Trio + 4 (in cooperation with French trumpeter Jean Luc Capozzo).
The year 2003 was full of musical inspiration and encounters for Mikołaj Trzaska. First, he went to Ukraine, where he recorded the album Andruchoid with Yurii Andrukhovych, a prominent Ukrainian writer and poet. During the Blooms Days Festival in Dublin he performed alongside Austrian cellist and composer Clementine Gasser. Their meeting resulted in long-term cooperation both in a duo and in bigger ensembles. Trzaska also had the opportunity to perform with French guitarist Noël Akchoté, with whom he also visited the recording studio of the Academy of Music in Warsaw. However, it was a journey to Scandinavia that turned out to be the most valuable experience for him. The artist met bassist Peter Friis Nielsen and drummer Peeter Uuskyla, who constitute Peter Brötzmann’s band’s rhythm section. The trio recorded two albums together: Unforgiven North (2004) and Orangeada (2006). In April 2005, Peter Brötzmann joined them, thus establishing the North Quartet, which then recorded Malamute.
2005 brought further unexpected meetings. First, Trzaska toured Germany with drummer Paul Wirkus and double bassist Johannes Firsch. Then he joined Peter Friis Nielsen and Peter Ole Jorgensen to record the album Volumen, released by Danish label Ninth World Music. Recording an album with Paul Wirkus inspired by Andrzej Stasiuk’s Nacht ended that busy year.
The Polish saxophonist got very comfortable with playing in international bands. In 2006, he started collaborating with Joe McPhee and Jay Rosen (Intimate Conversations). A year later Trzaska went on tour with Trio X (Magic). An invitation to Ken Vandermark’s international Resonance project in November 2007 was the culmination of Trzaska’s international activity.