Regular readers of these pages will know that we here at tQ are big fans of Polish label Instant Classic. Their next release comes in the form of a debut album by Alameda 4, entitled Czarna woda, and you can stream the title track exclusively above ahead of the album’s release next month.
Alameda 4 is the latest incarnation of Alameda Organisation who’ve been responsible for a number of past releases on Instant Classic. The group, which consists of Krzysztof Kaliski, Tomasz Popowski, Mikołaj Zieliński and Jakub Ziołek, have been working away together since 2014.
"This band’s history is longer that you might have expected," says Ziołek. "It all started around 2014 with Raphael Rogiński who unfortunately had to resign due to his other projects. Then we decided to replace him with Krzysztof Kaliski and began work on rearranging each and every track. This, as well as the fact that we’re divided between Bydgoszcz and Warsaw, took a lot of effort and resulted in a release that’s coming out this year."
Ziołek also explains that as a quartet, the group refrain from using guitar pedals such as delay or reverb, and also keep distortion effects to a bare minimum. "Thanks to this our sound is more direct," says Ziołek. "That’s not necessarily the case with our melodic approach that seems to be deeply rooted in Far and Middle Eastern musical traditions.
"We’re living in dark times and this fact took its toll on the lyrics. But I need to stress that there’s a positive message at the end: you can always start from scratch, fix your mistakes and look hopefully to what future brings."
Czarna woda will be released via Instant Classic this spring.
