The Wrocław-based contemporary music freaks from Ensemble Kompopolex are back like the best viral meme. The trio’s only concert at the 34th Musica Polonica Nova, during which they will present works by their favorite composers, will, as usual, be full of references to pop culture, industrial and post-internet reality. The musicians know how exhausting the experience of listening to new music can be, so they will make sure that we end the second festival day being cared for and deeply relaxed.

For the opening, they will return to Body X Ultra – a performance premiered last year during Musica Electronica Nova, which we will experience in a new version. Its author is Marta Śniady – this year’s festival resident, working in Łódź on a daily basis. When composing the piece, she collaborated with artists from the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. This time, Karina Matusińska will join the group involved in its presentation. For Śniady’s work, she prepared an installation titled Air Forms using cardboard boxes, foil, accordion tuners, pumps and a heater. Next will be the premiere of a new piece by the guitarist and award-winning composer (and author of the music for the Hard Reset computer game) Wojciech Błażejczyk – a lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

Angle of Reflection is the title of a piece written by the Kraków-based artist Monika Szpyrka specially for Ensemble Kompopolex. The premiere of the electronically enhanced composition for accordion, bass guitar and drums took place in mid-December 2022 at the WRO Art Center. Another young artist, Mikołaj Laskowski, has worked with Kompopolex musicians for years. Together with Jacek Sotomski, he is a member of the tape recorder duo sultan hagavik, and they sometimes perform together as Atelier Compozytorskie KOMPOPOLEX. Laskowski comes from Gdynia, but currently lives in Berlin. He was educated at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław and at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. His Deep Relaxation vol. 4: Self-Care, which will allow us to relax after an eventful day, was selected for performance at the ISCM World New Music Days in Auckland, New Zealand in 2019.