ATMA

Finding out about the music of Michal Urbaniak was such a huge discovery for me. Jazz/Fusion is my favourite of the sub-genres and he does it just the way I like for the most part. A child prodigy with the violin he also commanded the sax and pretty much anything he wants to play. This is a six piece and his wife adds some gorgeous vocal melodies while we get a drummer, bassist and keyboardist who plays clavinet, Fender Rhodes, farfisa and moog. Oh there's a second drummer mainly adding percussion and congas. Just a great sound to this one with my only complaint being with the opener which I'll get to.

"Mazurka" as I mentioned doesn't suit my tastes too well mainly for the traditional Polish music he adds with the violin. I'm so not into traditional music from any country really with that folkish vibe. Here it is with the violin melodies that come and go but at least they are contrasted with spacey sounds. Clavinet arrives before 2 1/2 minutes with those spacey sounds along with drums and bass. Violin takes over a minute later then more clavinet until that traditional sound returns late.

"Butterfly" is such an amazing tune with the Fender Rhodes, unique sounding violin and cymbals to start. Drums, violin and vocal melodies do take over. Such a feel good, summertime vibe here. Back to that opening theme after 1 1/2 minutes as contrasts continue. So good! The violin starts to solo before 3 minutes then back to the contrasts a minute later.

"Largo" opens with atmosphere as bass comes out of this then mournful violin. The sound here is kind of drifting until drums arrive after 2 minutes. Still laid back though. I like this.The violin rips it up late to end it. "Iilex" has a drum intro as bass joins in then violin. It settles back before 1 1/2 minutes then kicks in again as contrasts continue. Some vocal expressions around 3 1/2 minutes. Some fantastic drumming and violin later on.

"New York Batsa" opens with violin as clavinet, drums, bass and more kick in. A calm around a minute but it kicks back in quickly. These contrasts continue. There's some fast paced vocal melodies after 3 minutes sounding pretty cool. "Kama(Part I)" has these haunting vocal melodies that echo and then they get quite experimental. Man she's amazing! "Kama(Part II)" has her doing scats as bass and percussion join in. Vocal melodies follow then more scats as it builds. So good. Violin at 1 1/2 minutes.

"Atma:Yesterday" opens with bass and drums as Fender Rhodes joins in. Nice. Violin before a minute. This is fairly laid back and it sounds great. It does come to life before 3 minutes just before it ends. "Atma:Today" is uptempo with percussion, congas and electric piano once again as the bass and violin join in. "Atma:Tomorrow" has this relaxed start with bass, drums and electric piano. Some clavinet too then violin and farfisa later as it picks up some.

Looking forward to a few more of his releases in the coming months. My kind of music.