The trio of Polish guitarist and composer Przemysław Strączek joins forces with European jazz legend Andy Sheppard. This is an event not to be missed by jazz lovers. The "Endless Mystery" concert will take place on 10 May at 7 p.m. at Białołęka Culture Centre at van Gogha1! You are warmly invited!

The musicians met in 2019 and have since formed a close artistic partnership that has resulted in a number of tours. In 2024, the artists decided to record a joint album. The album features unique compositions by the authors, referring in their style to the European notion of jazz, in which melody, space, the relationship of the musicians, motorics, sound and colour play an important role. This is music full of expression and twists. It draws the listener in from the very beginning and reveals undiscovered corners of European jazz music.

The previous album by Przemyslaw Strączek's quartet Fig Tree was named one of the best European albums of 2020 by the British-French portal Jazz Fuel, and the vinyl version of the album received bestseller status in Poland in the first week of its release according to the Association of Audio Video Producers (Olis), overtaking pop and rock stars in this ranking.

Andy Sheppard - tenor saxophone, compositions
Przemysław Strączek - guitar, compositions
Jakub Cywiński - double bass
Patryk Dobosz - drums

Andy Sheppard - one of the UK's most prominent jazz saxophonists and composers, and a multiple British Phonographic Academy Award-winning jazz musician. He has toured and recorded with Paul Bley's trio, with the bands of Jimmy Giuffre, Art Farmer, George Russell, Gary Burton, Mike Gibbs, Gil Evans, among others. In the early 1990s he collaborated with Carla Bley and Steve Swallow to form, among others, The Lost Chords quartet - one of the most famous groups in contemporary jazz. Sheppard's own quartet came to prominence with the bravura 2015 album Surrounded By Sea, produced by Manfred Eicher at his Munich-based heart of modern jazz, ECM Records.

The recording received positive reviews. It was emphasised that it fits perfectly with the mood and ECM's motto of 'sound above silence'. Critics also coined a new term for the music and the saxophonist's compositions: "a maturing gentleness". The Bley/Sheppard/Swallow signature album "Life Goes On" was selected as the 2020 album of the year by New York's opinion magazine DownBeat

Przemysław Strączek - jazz guitarist, composer, producer, graduate of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, a two-time winner of the Marek Bliziński Master Competition for Jazz Guitarists in Warsaw, one of the seven finalists of the Thailand International Jazz Conference Solo Competition in Bangkok. For many years, he has been present in the ranking of the best Polish guitarists according to the readers of Jazz Forum - Jazz Top. In 2013 he received the Special Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for his artistic achievements. Since 2011, he has been co-creating international projects as a leader, and together with musicians from different continents, he presents contemporary jazz and ethno-jazz music. Strączek cooperates and gives concerts with eminent artists such as Janusz Muniak, Xu Fengxia and Andy Sheppard. The artist received the Silesian Voivodeship Marshal's Award in Music for 2015. He has toured with his own music in countries in both Europe and Asia.

Jakub Cywiński - double bassist, scholarship holder at the Royal College of Music in London, has recorded with Adam Bałdych, among others, and collaborated with the London jazz elite including the Philharmonic Orchestra of London, Ola Onabule, Nicolas Meier, Julian Nicholas, Tony Kofi.

Patryk Dobosz - a percussionist who has worked with some of the most important Polish musicians: Zbigniew Namysłowski, Aga Zaryan, Włodek Pawlik.