MARCIN PAJAK

Marcin is back with a brilliant diverse album.

"The Maze" was released in October 2022 as Marcin's fifth studio-based album. The sleeve pic, where a lonely guy standing on a maze complication is drawn, is pretty mysterious and enchanting. The content veiled in the sleeve is also well-balanced and well-matured. There are some moments poppy / catchy (e.g. the titled song) or authentic hard-rock- ish (e.g. "This Bird", "Dead Silence"), but Marcin makes incredible efforts to launch colourful melodic / instrumental variations. It makes sense that almost all of the instruments should be played by Marcin himself and his great ability, activity, and especially creativity works broadly in this opus.

The first strike "Sunrise" consists of mellow, gorgeous, auroral keyboard works. The track filled with calmness and fantasy should stabilize you as a decent opening. The following titled track is slightly too catchy and ordinary for Neo Symphonic but it's not bad fully due to Marcin's aromatic soulful elements. "Light Beam" is one of my favourite tracks. Such an innovative song is full of ethnic, oriental atmosphere and mystic, magical texture. You can mention that Marcin's fantastic fundamental musical essence is stuffed into the stuff. In "Dean Silence", as mentioned above, very good are strict, sincere hardrock-y guitar performances and uptempo variable saxophone appearances. Through "Islands" you can enjoy beautiful melody lines, vivacious percussive vibes, and excellent combinations of passionate guitar shouts and elegant keyboard fantasies. Guess "Getting Out Of The Maze" would express something like eternal loneliness and sorrowfulness around the guy who strayed into the maze. Some tragic air can be felt via this opus ... at least for me. The last "Sunset" is fruity and flavourful, featuring phantasmagoric jazzy saxophone plays and bright cozy percussion sounds. Such a relaxing movement launched via his instruments is charming really.

This is kinda enjoyable creation in any case.

Good atmosphere. I love such a vivacious performance. "Last Day In Poland" featuring the stage performances in Poland was released as Marcin's first "live" album in July 2021. Basically I'm pretty fond of gigs, and sadly I cannot attend any gig because I work as a practitioner for some Covid19-related patients under such a tough situation, but this album gives me full of pleasure to attend a 'virtual' gig. As if I were in front of the stage as one of the audience, Marcin's cool and vivid play encourages and stimulates my inner mind. His songs are quite pop and acceptable (so, not so eccentric nor specialized) but colourful sound approaches and energetic instrumental plays are fascinating enough for me to enjoy on the audio equipment at home. In addition, this album should arouse my interest in 'real' gigs in the near future.

We cannot mention that all of his songs are varied nor innovative indeed, but musical performances on every track by Marcin and his artist mates are incredibly excellent and delightful. For me the latter part of "Last Day" sounds pretty impressive, filled with smooth grooves and heartwarming melody lines, consisting of Neo-Symphonic texture and slightly heavy, metallic sound endorsement. "Lost In Time" has crazy ethnic theatrical power (maybe by Marcin's guitar shouts) and mysterious tropical humid flavour here and there, and sometimes dry-fruity drumming and technically swift guitar solo performances catch our ears. Who cares about progressiveness or unexpectedness into the live performance on the stage? Yes as he says, "Talking With Spirits" is very important and of course my love due to its oriental vibes with repetitive tribal voices like ritualism.

Such a flavourful, wonderful live album worth carefully listening to is much appreciated especially under the pandemic situation. Yes!