Shofar | POL
ABOUT
Members:
Raphael Rogiński – electric guitar
Mikołaj Trzaska – alto saxophone, clarinets
Macio Moretti – percussion
The repertoire of the group Shofar consists of traditional Jewish religious music. Much like the tradition of Torah commentary, the trio uses music to recreate various currents of spirituality. Thus, alongside Hasidic nigunim, one finds music from the oldest synagogue rites, and alongside the songs of interwar cantors, music from the liberal rite. The pieces they perform originate from pre-war musicological research conducted in Ukraine, Poland, and Moldova. Most often, these are so-called “nigunim”—mystical religious songs intended, in some cases, to induce a state of trance and ecstasy. The band also plays “freylachs” (more dance-oriented pieces) and compositions derived from Jewish liturgy.
Currently, their concert program consists primarily of works from the Hasidic tradition. The main impulse for exploring this heritage was Raphael Rogiński’s discovery of a collection of Hasidic songs by Moshe Beregovsky (1892–1961). A musicologist who began researching Jewish music in the 1920s, Beregovsky produced a volume specifically dedicated to the Hasidic tradition as one of the results of his work. By preserving the original melodic material in an unaltered form, the band allows us to experience the full spectrum of Hasidic music and its associated culture—all of which is blended with a contemporary approach to creative jazz.
Shofar debuted in 2007 with the album Shofar. Their second album, Ha-Huncvot, premiered this year during a concert at Lincoln Center in New York, which was part of the band’s concert tour across the United States and Canada.
December 2013 saw the release of a DVD featuring a recording of Shofar’s concert at the Warsaw club Powiększenie.
All of the group’s releases have been published by the independent label Kilogram Records.
KILOGRAM RECORDS
This concert is presented as part of a showcase of the Kilogram Records catalogue.
Starting with this year’s edition, a permanent fixture of the Different Sounds festival will be the presentation of domestic independent record labels. First up is Kilogram Records—one of the most interesting Polish labels of the new century, whose impact extends far beyond the sphere of music.
An uncompromising, original vision, a wealth of cultural contexts, and a consistent, attractive graphic design make the label a unique and significant phenomenon.
Kilogram Records was founded in 2000 in Gdańsk by Ola and Mikołaj Trzaska. They were inspired by an initiative developed by another creative couple—the literary publishing house Czarne, run by Monika Sznajderman and Andrzej Stasiuk.
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