Beam-Light (Poland): Crossover Prog

 

Beam-Light was a Polish duo consisting of the talented and highly versatile artist Aleksandra Dudziak and drummer Wojciech Sochaczewski. The line-up was completed by the highly regarded session musicians Gerard Niemczyk (a drummer who here also plays guitar), bassist Mateusz Cudzich, and saxophonist Marek Batorski.

As a young artist Aleksandra started her career atypically, graduating in architecture and interior design at the Academy of Fine Arts specializing in artistic blacksmithing techniques. Her interests ranged far beyond the creation of steel sculptures though, and she became a member of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers, with skills not only as a visual artist, but also as a singer and multi-instrumentalist. Playing keyboards and flute, and with a voice often compared to the likes of Kate Bush and Sinead 'O Connor, she received a diploma of the Summer Jazz Academy, and was the founder of a band called Alchemists before moving on to Beam-Light.

The band existed for around five years, and its music was played extensively on Kraków Radio and other Polish radio stations. Aleksandra Dudziak wrote both the music and lyrics of all songs - she even created the album artwork - and won awards at many music festivals as a solo artist, as well as touring extensively with Beam-Light. Their sole self-titled album was released in 2008 by Lynx Music, a Polish label owned by Millenium's keyboard player Ryszard Kramarski.

Aleksandra has performed alongside such stars as Michael Bajor, Elizabeth Towarnicka, Andrew Sikorowski, Wojciech Groborz, Anthony Krupa and the band Old Metropolitan Band - and the poular Polish band Hipgnosis (http://www.hipgnosis.pl/, who themselves have been struggling for some years now to find a place in the archives) invited her to perform at the fourth ProgGnozy concert (held on Saturday 12th May 2012 at Club Zaścianek in Kraków, Poland).

 

Quite a bit can be pieced together from the sites of the two main protagonists Javi and Ander - not specifically relating to the band Seed itself, but certainly cataloging what happened to these two fellows after the project folded. They were actually very young when they created Seed, and changed musical direction considerably as they matured (Ander García in particular was involved in quite a few projects over the years). I'm working nights for a few days and need to get some shut-eye during daylight hours, but later on in the week I'll throw something together which might well suffice for you.