Laboratorium - "Quasimodo" {Poland} [1979] (Polish Jazz) (@192)

"A few years ago there appeared, in the series “Polish Jazz”, a record of the Laboratory band. On that occasion, while introducing the group and discussion their music, I ventured the opinion that the young Cracow musicians were the future of Polish jazz. Since the release of their “modern Pentathlon” this prediction has proved right. Today the Laboratory are not longer future but present time of jazz in Poland.The Laboratory are in many respects and unusual group indeed. Having for many years worked in the quietness of Cracow, while retaining the same line-up and without the temptation or treat of immediate success – they managed to overcome the threshold of art and that of popularity. As for art – they worked out their own, original jazz-rock idiom, adding to their tonal imagination, a liking for complicated rhythmic figurations, a tendency to extend and diversify the form, etc. As for their standing in society – they have become probably the most popular Polish jazz group.The Laboratory has been playing very much indeed, taking part in major festivals, making world concert tours, making recordings. And increasingly now – be it at the international Jazz Yatra Festival in Bombay, or in Quasimodo club in West Berlin, or in small hall at the student club somewhere in Poland – the jazz-lovers do recognize the very special sound of that Cracow group. The music which is so concentrated, carefully thought out, full of nuances and with all this very much alive, filled with individualities of five musicians who concealed their solo ambitions, as well their names, under the name of the Laboratory." (All text by Jan Poprawa from original line notes from the album's back cover, translation by L. Wewiorkowski)