The organisers of the Sanatorium of Sound in Sokołowsko, the Norwegian PUNKT Festival and curator Piotr Turkiewicz invite you to the second edition of Sokołowsko Jazz. This year’s edition will take place on 16-17 March at the Zdrowie Cinema in Sokołowsko and on 17 March at the Sudecka Philharmonic Hall in Wałbrzych. The accompanying event taking place at the Philharmonic Hall on 15 March is the Symphonic Concert – Spring in Georgia.

The event will bring presentations of four very stylistically diverse projects. The idea to collaborate with artists from Norway and Poland was born out of the need to show, on the one hand, what is cutting-edge and far beyond the narrow perception of jazz and improvised music, and, at the same time, to refer to projects and synergies between artists_women that we have been recognising on the market for a long time. Avant-garde, contemporary jazz, pop, improvisation… just such a mixture of styles will take over the concert halls in Sokołowsko and Wałbrzych for two days in March.

Perhaps, for many years, the most spectacular example of this synergy has been the international quartet of saxophonist Maciej Obara (ECM). As part of our festival, we have invited him for a special project. Alongside, we have invited his friend from the quartet, Ole Morten Vagen – one of Europe’s most respected and sought-after bassists, Kit Downes – a phenomenal pianist and improviser, and Veslemøy Narvesen – a leading percussionist of the young generation in Norway.

In turn, one of the most interesting Polish artists of recent years, Amalia Umeda, will premiere her latest album in a quartet (together with Franciszek Raczkowski, Michał Aftyka and Michał Szeligowski), which has been bringing a breath of fresh air to the Polish improvised music scene for several years. Vocalist Benedikte Askedalen is beginning to play a similar role on the Norwegian scene, performing at the Festival in the project How to Sallie co-created with Ole Petter Ålgård, Eirik Lindtner and guest Olav Hanem. The protégé of one of PUNKT’s curators, Jan Bang, digs ever deeper into the contemporary Norwegian pop scene. Does it still have anything to do with jazz? Does it need to have?

We will reach out to artists who for many years have been the undisputed leaders of an exquisitely open attitude towards music and can safely be called citizens of the world of improvisation – as they have been performing almost non-stop for decades. However, they still maintain a very fresh approach to each of their projects. The Trzaska/Håker Flaten/Nilssen-Love trio will probably be one of the most organic projects of this installment of the Sokołowsko festival.