‘Kopinski has a sensitivity to visuals as reflected in other scores he’s performed for silent movies. … using his own family in the band Kopinski evokes the intimate, inexplicable binds/bonds of family life …..he evokes Slav folk music, melancholic and lost to an irrecoverable past, but Iliffe’s broken chords also reflect the equally lost world of discordant modernism’ – Jazzwise.
Jan Kopinski was commissioned by Opera North Projects to develop Mirrors, a mixed-media project combining music and visual imagery, with his collective outfit Reflektor (who specialise in works linked to projected visuals). Collaborating with video artist Jim Boxall (Joy of Box) in live performances of the work, using visual footage that Kopinski has collected over 20 yrs of visiting Poland, Mirrors uses jazz and improvisation to create a highly personal reflection on themes of displacement, loss, identity, belonging and diffused memory. The darkly atmospheric suite-like piece is inspired by folk, religious, jazz and contemporary Polish music.
Mirrors is a passionate and exhilarating cross-genre musical journey, a dreamscape bound up with personal history and intimate present connections on which he is joined by family members viola-playing daughter Janina Kopinska and bassist son Stefan Kopinski, long-time collaborators and Pinski Zoo members, Steve Iliffe on piano and Patrick Illingworth on drums. The album MIRRORS also includes the vocals of Melanie Pappenheim whilst live concerts features Hungarian singer Aniko Toth.
For MIRRORS live concerts he collaborated with video artist Jim Boxall who works with REFLEKTOR to manipulate and weave an intriguing and original experience. Prompted by ideas of identity and loss, MIRRORS is Jan’s musical reflections upon themes of displacement, belonging and diffused memory. The images are collected from his visits to Poland over 20 years and the music is developed from stories, folk music, jazz and 20th century Polish composers. Whilst MIRRORS is determinately based on Polish impressions, it’s not a travelogue and transcends the particular to explore those moments of hovering reality, in and out of sleep, when emotions, fears, nostalgia and sentiment speak very clearly.
JAN KOPINSKI saxophones
STEVE ILIFFE piano
JANINA KOPINSKA viola
ANIKO TOTH voice
STEFAN KOPINSKI bass
PATRICK ILLINGWORTH drums
JOY OF BOX video