Body Up

The Dobie/Madry Project

138 | 2017

Uninhibited jazz meets ambient and drones, improvised solos collide with industrial coldness, and all this is shrouded in an unsettling atmosphere straight from David Lynch's films.

Body Up is the debut album of the Jonathan Dobie / Tomasz Mądry duo, and at the same time a summary of their ten-year relationship. Despite the fact that both come from separate musical worlds, they naturally found a common note of understanding and materialized it in the form of an album where jazz meets ambient and drones in an unhindered way, improvised solos collide with industrial coldness, and all this is wrapped in is a disturbing climate straight from Twin Peaks.

Body Up is an extensive project in which a group of eminent artists took part: Łukasz Józef Myszkowski (co-producer, Antigama), Amy Knoles (cooperating with Kronos Quartet, Steve Reich and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers), Dan Maurer (David Cross Band), Alex Maguire (recorded with, among others, Peter Brotzmann, Steve Noble, Evan Parker), Adrian Northover (Sonicphonics, B Shops For The Poor), Mauro Sambo (collaborator of, among others, Paulo Chagas, Chris Silver T) , Brad Smarjesse (Alchimia), Robert Iwanik (Krzycz, Alchimia).

Body Up means a state of rising above one's own corporeality, and we used to call The Dobie / Mądry Project the Orchestra of Solo Improvisers, a concept which, although at first glance may seem contradictory, perfectly reflects the unlimited nature of the recordings.

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Jonathan Dobie's acquaintance with Tomasz Mądry dates back to 2007, when the latter was involved in the promotion of the Sonicphonics Six album, in which the former participated in the recording. From then on, they established a thread of understanding that was supposed to lead to something that was then one big unknown for them. The meeting in the artistic field finally took place four years later, when Jon recorded the guitars for the USU album by A Sea Ov Smoke, for which Tomek was responsible. It was clear to both that it was not the end but the beginning of joint actions. Jon occasionally sent traces of guitars, and Tom tried to integrate them into the created structures, or build new ones in their image. Something bigger and more significant began to emerge from this avalanche of sounds.

The colossus took the name Body Up and began to form at the turn of 2014/15. It was obvious to both that the moment had come to meet and present a different musical sensitivity. Deep, dark and disturbing structures of Tomasz were clashed with improvised as well as vibrating Jonathan guitars. Along with the exchange of ideas and e-mails, more musicians were invited to the project, who added new, often surprising sounds, stretching the Body Up in different directions. Ultimately, it was decided to create two separate compositions using the same sound base and to mix the composition, which allowed them to flourish and avoid the overwhelming effect. Such a sound form would not be possible without the participation of Łukasz Myszkowski, Tomasz's longtime companion in his sonic journeys, who turned the received sessions upside down in his home studio, giving them a new dimension, and supplementing them with original instrumental and arrangement ideas. The end result remained unknown until the last day of the mix sessions, which Łukasz and Tomek watched over.

While listening to the finished versions, they were often surprised to what their intuition led to and how much sense it made, despite the multi-layered nature of the compositions themselves and the need to focus when listening to both parts of Body Up: the first, more classical in structure, and the second, which was simultaneously its development and its opposite.

Body Up means a state of rising above one's own corporeality, and we used to call The Dobie / Mądry Project the Orchestra of Solo Improvisers, a concept which, although at first glance may seem contradictory, perfectly reflects the unlimited nature of the recordings.