BREAK DANCING AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Jakub Jozef ORLINSKI — Aleksander DEBICZ — LetsBaRock — 2024

Orlinski is playing the trans-baroque countertenor, and he emerges from this metamorphosis as an unclassifiable not pre-historic but post-historic sacred star that we have to follow to the end of the world somewhere in Poland. And I guarantee you the trip is so tricky you will lose your composure in no time and call for help in front of this “violation” of the Baroque normalcy, replaced here by this bar-oriented delirium. But, Gosh, it is so beautifully hypnotizing that you will desire to be the music so that you could, dreamfully would be violated like it in your turn. But let’s get into this CD with no biased view. And no artificial intelligence, just our sensuous and sensitive experiential intelligence.

Baroque-minded people will be frustrated by the percussions behind the supposedly baroque arias that are sung correctly, for sure, but with a wrapping up that has little to do with the original composers. The back-wear of the arias is then quite enticing as if we were in a nightclub, a spiritual nightclub with some rhythmic drums and a piano that plays on our eardrums as if they were timpani or kettle drums. It is so provocative that we remain hypnotized, and when the singer comes back on top of the backwear of the music, we end up mesmerized and stonified. This backwear is like the underwear of a lady or a gentleman, something supposed to capture the attention of the beholders. I am not sure it will bring this music to younger people; I mean that a younger audience will capture the beauty of the baroque singing, of the baroque lyrics, especially since they are in various languages and are not translated at all in the booklet. But in this CD, I would like to insist on some tracks.

First of all, track 8, Toccata 1. No baroque author this time, no baroque music at all. The text is long and deep, and it was written by Jakub Josef Orlinski himself. It is a sad and yet optimistic approach to his life and career as a singer that is going against the current. Though being a countertenor is quite a trend in today’s world, he is at times so oxymoronic for the audience of this music or even the places where he performs, that we can understand he is suffering from some kind of frustration and even alienation. He is a…