21st International Festival of Improvised Music Ad Libitum – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

On Sunday, September 13th, we invite you to the final concerts of the 21st Ad Libitum Festival. Admission is free!

Programme

• 5:00 PM – Courtyard of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

  • Krzysztof Knittel „niskie dźwięki / low sounds” for tape (1978) + artistic interventions by members of The Art Ensemble of Brussels

• Krzysztof Knittel's composition „niskie dźwięki / low sounds” (1978), which was created at the legendary Polish Radio Experimental Studio and provided the title for this year's Ad Libitum festival, will be played on four channels in the Courtyard of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art and enriched with spontaneous, fully improvised musical comments by members of The Art Ensemble of Brussels.
  The idea of ​​recording „niskie dźwięki / low sounds” arose from the need to create sounds that aid meditation and facilitate concentration – commented Krzysztof Knittel.

  • The Art Ensemble of Brussels 

• Audrey Lauro – saksofon altowy, głos / Sofia Kakouri – performance, trąbka kieszonkowa, głos / Pierre Michel Zaleski – głos, performance / Jan Pillaert – tuba, głos, performance / Peter Jacquemyn – kontrabas, głos, performance / Lázara Rosell Albear – perkusja, trąbka kieszonkowa, głos, performance. 
  • The Art Ensemble of Brussels is a collective of improvisers and exceptional individuals who explore the relationships between performing and visual arts, noise, sound art, and contemporary music. They are interested in experimentation, free improvisation, and the spaces of sound art. They undertake multidisciplinary activities, creating happenings and public interventions, such as processional performances.
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• 18:00 – Laboratory, Auditorium Hall

  • Everything Low / Wszystko Nisko

• Paulina Owczarek – baritone saxophone / Tomasz Gadecki – baritone saxophone / Marcin Bożek – acoustic bass / Ernest Ogórek – double bass.
  • The quartet focused on low frequencies, founded in 2025 by Paulina Owczarek, Tomasz Gadecki (baritone saxophones), Marcin Bożek, and Ernest Ogórek (bass guitars). The quartet's musicians are also connected by their other collaborative activities. Paulina Owczarek is the founder of the Krakow Improvisers Orchestra, and with Tomasz Gadecki, she co-creates the duo Sambar. Tomasz Gadecki has gained recognition performing solo and in the duo Olbrzym i Kurdupel (with Marcin Bożek). Ernest Ogórek is a double bassist, bass guitarist, and creator of sound objects and installations.
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  • Majewska + Loska

• world premiere of the song cycle „Outside that Gasthof” by Barbara Kinga Majewska (Commissioned by the Festival in the Programme „Zamówienia kompozytorskie”), Barbara Kinga Majewska – vocals, live electronics / Mateusz Loska – double bass.

  • The song cycle „Outside that Gasthof” composed by Barbara Kinga Majewska, subversively addresses this year's festival theme – „Low sounds”. As an artist who uses the voice as her primary instrument in my compositional practice – comments the author – I wanted to use the festival's theme as a starting point for an exploration of the reverse – what women's voices naturally lack: low sounds, and therefore the fantasy of how low women's voices should sound. In the world premiere of this composition, with elements of improvisation, Barbara Kinga Majewska will be accompanied by double bassist Mateusz Loska, who is active in the fields of contemporary, improvised, and chamber music, exploring new performance techniques and contexts for his instrument. He is a member of the Hashtag Ensemble and the Poznań-based Sepia Ensemble.