In September, with the album 波動 (HADOW), the guides label launched a series of three releases in which the producers duo IFS (Krzysztof Ostrowski and Mateusz Wysocki) sum up the results of two years of curatorial and production collaborations with the vocalists invited to participate in the project. The first release in the IFS meets… series was an album recorded together with Japanese artist MA. The next was East-West Logistics, created with activist, sound artist, and vocalist Antye Greie-Ripatti, aka AGF. The latest album in the series, currently being released, is Łąka, featuring Wojciech Kosma, known as spalarnia.
Wojciech Kosma is a singer, poet, and performer. He is one of the most important Polish voices addressing the issues of difference and diversity. In his lyrics, he touches upon the problems of exclusion, intolerance, and violence. In the Spalarnia project, Kosma often uses the work of icons of 20th-century Polish popular music, juxtaposing its traditional meanings with an unobvious sensitivity (Ciało świeci niezgodą na przemoc, 2021, Dym Recordings; Wolne Tańce, 2024, Alicja).
‘Łąka’ consists of seven tracks recorded in 2023 at the Madzonga studio in Bydgoszcz. The very first notes of the opening track, Bujność, evoke associations with Tricky’s Pre-Millenium Tension or Nearly God. The subsequent recordings maintain a raw, dense atmosphere in which slowed-down ambient loops become fragments of an unstable rhythm, and angelic post-burial vocals intertwine with Kosma’s voice, filled with emotion.
All the songs on Łąka are a poetic showcase for the vocalist. We find ourselves in a world of tenderness, intimacy, eroticism, rejection, hurt, and suffering. Kosma’s language is simple and universal, yet at the same time, one can sense a deep reflection in it. He does not try to name hermetic or difficult-to-describe truths, but rather attempts to describe the world using words that are accessible to everyone. Kosma’s voice and lyrics form an inseparable whole, which sometimes takes the form of an impassioned prayer or epiphany. Despite the difficult topics addressed in his songs (Jebać biedę, Gratis), Kosma does not leave the listener with a sense of hopelessness. His lyrics are rather an invitation to empathy and collective empowerment.
The album recorded with Spalarnia, which concludes the IFS meets… series, appears as an intense and vibrant finale. It is possible that Łąka is Kosma’s most emotionally profound attempt among all his albums to date, revealing the delicate and rapid tissue of the singer’s sensitivity – spoken, sung, and played. Out now on Outlines.
PUrchase Cassette: IFS meets spalarnia – Łąka
Joyful Union Cassette Resource 