Hi Zbig. It’s strange to talk to you like this, and words don’t come so easily. There were never many words between us anyway, no need to, meanings were implicit in humor, smiles, in each comment about things happening here and now. Why would I reiterate that we met in Festival Atlantico 1997, where I got so deeply impressed with Sensorband and we had such a great time. Well, I suppose we could recall that while having an absinthe glass to make everything green, or while walking through Lisbon all night, till the morning birds found us laughing about the world in the park. Those are precious moments I remember, they are quite alive right now. We kept crossing all the time here and there, every time accomplices, deeply engaged in the truth of things. I’m not sure I was aware of how special that was, at the time.
Living kills, and I can only hope to end with as much dignity as I heard you did. You always gave me a feeling of major belonging, beyond all pathos, at the foundations of why and how. Only recently I bumped into a text you wrote, The Method Is Science, The Aim Is Religion. Gosh, thank you, it’s phantastic :-) Music can “heighten consciousness” and “increase intensity of the mind” because “art communicates before it is understood” :-) I’m quoting this in some texts, so you’re alive in different ways. I do not retain pain from your passing, and in my little-big ways I make for your being to continue multiplying. But I miss your other modes of living existence. Didn’t assimilate yet that I won’t see you again. Or will I, except there won’t be really a “you” or an “I”.
Andy Bolus (Evil Moisture)
RIP Zbigniew Karkowski. What I never told you, you fucker, is that when I was about 16, my teacher made me cassettes of 'industrial music', and there was that Karkowski/Bilting 'Bad Bye Engine'. Little did I know I'd get wasted on shochu with you in Tokyo, play together super loud (of course) in a French university lobby, missed gigs because it was more rewarding to sit outsde and drink with you than to be inside hating everything...bahhhh, and the time you played in les Voutes "ok come inside I'm gonna just start" (we sit right at the front) -presses spacebar WAAAAAAAAAAA tinnitus for 3 days. YOU LEFT TOO MANY UNDAMAGED EARS MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go tho; last airport = Peruvian jungle. Nice One.
(Source: https://www.facebook.com/andy.bolus, after author's permission.)
my reaction to his death (and to sick shit like cancer) was to say to my partner "well you tell me how i can send a big FUCK YOU to whoever is responsable for this fucking joke we call LIFE?", and she replied, quite rightly of course "Music and Art. And Love."
Anna Zaradny (Musica Genera)
Podczas organizowanego przez Annę Zaradny i Roberta Piotrowicza festiwalu Musica Genera w 2004 roku Karkowski wystąpił solo (miejscem nocnego koncertu była rzeźnia miejska na szczecińskiej Łasztowni), jak również zaprezentował kompozycję dla improwizatorów STANDARD DEVIATION (Sophie Agnel – fortepian, Tomasz Krakowiak – instrumenty perkusyjne, elektronika, Domenico Sciajno – elektronika, Anna Zaradny – saksofon, laptop, Otomo Yoshihide – gitara, Zbigniew Karkowski – dyrygent). Wydawnictwo Musica Genera wydało dwa albumy Karkowskiego: ATTUNING / ATTENDING (http://musicagenera.net/audio/g001_01.mp3) i Connector z czterema innymi muzykami (http://musicagenera.net/record_mg010.html).
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Munich, Aux Polen Tour, 2005 (by Robert Piotrowicz)
Wieloletnia, intensywna, momentami burzliwa relacja ze Zbigniewem Karkowskim obfituje w szereg anegdot i wspomnień, materiałów dokumentacji zawodowych i prywatnych.
Zbigniew był dla mnie bardzo ważną postacią jako kompozytor, artysta, człowiek. Wyjątkowo charyzmatyczny, intensywny. Przyjaciel domu i świetny kompan w podróży…
(Do tej pory mam butelkę Hill’s Absinth, którą się Zbigniew raczył pewnego wieczoru…)
W tych tragicznych okolicznościach wydaje mi się, że najważniejsze jest skupienie się przede wszystkim na jego twórczości i tym, jak ważnym dla historii muzyki był kompozytorem.
Niestety, wiele istotnych faktów jest pomijanych, bądź nieznanych, jak choćby to, że był klasycznie wykształcony, był flecistą, czy że był studentem Xenakisa… i wiele istotnych wątków związanych z jego kolaboracjami z artystami z całego świata, również z polskimi kompozytorami.
Był bardzo płodny, wiecznie w ruchu, koncertował na całym świecie i paradoksalnie, mimo tych wszystkich lat, niewystarczająco doceniono go jako Twórcę.
Rok 2005 to przede wszystkim trasa koncertowa Aux Polen po Niemczech i później kontynuacja podróży, jedno i drugie intensywne i obfitujące w szereg anegdot z momentami stanów szalonej radości wywołanej pewnymi sytuacjami jak koncerty w kościele czy wizyta i japoński obiad u Edwina van der Heide w Rotterdamie.
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November 2009, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw,
'Short Guerilla – Zbigniew Karkowski x 3' – concerts and workshops (by Anna Zaradny)
Anton Lukoszevieze
I worked with Zbigniew on several projects over the years. I commissioned him to compose the work Field for string quartet with live-electronics for my group Apartment House, which was performed at the ICA, London as part of a BBC/Sonic Arts/Cut and Splice Festival. It was unlike anything we had performed before, the music was jagged, dense and obsessive, embodied within a dark sea of seething electronic sounds, lasting some 40 minutes. I remember observing Zbigniew at the helm of the sound desk, his craggy visage illuminated by the lights of the console, like some strange Captain of an ocean liner, hauling his ship through stormy seas. He was an impressive and dynamic figure, he could be brutally, even painfully honest, but this often masked a shyness and gentleness of spirit. He was one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. There was something elemental and essentially pure about him and his artistic vision, he was constantly searching for new ways of redefining what music was and how it could be made. When we worked together on our last project for Subrosa, Nerve Cell-0 for cello and computer, he would struggle with me for days to try to encapsulate in written or notational form exactly what he wanted to make, until I realised that the act of composing for him was more a form of telepathy, almost a shamanistic act. It was only after we had finished the work in the studio and during the act of performing did the actual thing he wanted to make, actually emerge. A terrific raconteur, I remember Zbigniew describing how he had figured out how to make a tour of Africa, starting at the top of the continent and working his way down, through some of the most dangerous and war-torn places on the planet. Thus I will remember him, like a character out of a Joseph Conrad novel, a unique, intrepid and brave sonic explorer.
Anton Lukoszevieze, Vilnius, December 20th, 2013.
Atau Tanaka
Zbigniew, I remember our first encounter 25 years ago, in 1988 at the ICMC in Cologne Germany. Clarence Barlow was organiser so is responsible for our meeting. You performed with your punk band and I had never seen bass guitar interfaces used in such an intense, visceral way. I came up after the gig and introduced myself and we traded phone numbers. The surprise came two years later in 1990 when I ran into you in front of Stanford’s CCRMA with Stephen Travis Pope where you gave a lecture before your gig at the Kennel Club in San Francisco with Phauss, Bilting and The Hafler Trio. Traded phone numbers again. Then the pleasure and third meeting after my arrival in Europe, to see you in the audience at my first gig at STEIM in Amsterdam in 1993. We talked about sensors, you told me about a young guy, Edwin van der Heide at the Institute of Sonology in the Hague, and this time we traded fax numbers. A few months later, you wrote to propose a gig at the Tacheles in Berlin where Karina Mertin and Rolf Biemelt were organising the Sonimage festival. Sensorband was born, and we toured for 10 years, you, Edwin and me. Moving to Tokyo in 1997, the flat we shared on Kanpachi-dori felt like the centre of the world. Farmers Manual crashed all three in the tiny room. We re-soldered Pita’s laptop minijack output. Leif Elggren came back from his gig with a garden rake. In our kitchen we got Merzbow set up with Ionizer on his laptop as he went digital. We shared a classical ear’s perspective on the interest of sine wave and noise musics. After all, you were originally a flute player and composer. But we didn’t need to talk just music. Philosophy, world history, and taking the mickey out of all the countries and cultures, the airports and airlines we encountered on tour. Your favourite French motto, “Il faut avancer quand même!”, had us all rolling on the floor with laughter. After your diagnosis of pancreatic cancer while on tour, you maintained your vision and principle. You played with dignity and strength at your last performance, music for 1984 in London. You accepted a car ride across town and the offer of my flat to rest. But you found the strength to go to Heathrow to collect Atsuko who came to be with you. After that, hospital in Sweden, Berlin, warm days in Greece, then your final journey to Peru, all took place with the rigour, hope and utter humanity that you embodied in your work and life. Salut, mec. Kiyotsukete.
(Reprinted from The Wire, http://thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/zbigniew-karkowski-1958-2013_atau-tanaka, after author's permission.)
Sensorband (Atau Tanaka, Zbigniew Karkowski, Edwin van der Heide)
at ICC in Tokyo, 1997 (thanks to Ulf Langheinrich)
Carl AbrahamssonOn a chilly spring day in 1990, I made a film together with Zbigniew Karkowski in Gothenburg, where he was living at the time. I could only afford one roll of 16 mm film so that’s what I used. Four minutes of fun! I had completely forgotten this film until Zbigniew died late last year. Then it dawned upon me that somewhere in my dusty archive was a silent time capsule. Eventually I found it, had it transferred and then added some of his music. Again, I’m very happy to be a documaniac. Time flies and some people fly away too soon. The documentation lasts slightly longer.
(Source: http://www.carlabrahamsson.com/film/karkowski-caught-film/, after author's permission.)
Gothenburg 1990. A chilly spring day. A walk through Haga with Polish composer-musician Zbigniew Karkowski (1958-2013). One roll of 16 mm film, two people,
three decades, four minutes. (source: https://vimeo.com/91540707)
three decades, four minutes. (source: https://vimeo.com/91540707)
Carl Michael von Hausswolff
I am deeply saddened by the passing of Z …
I met Z in the beginning of the 1980s - it could have been 1981. He showed up one evening with a flute and played improvisations on it, being a part of a theatre group I started in 1979 with Tjell Zachrisson and Malgorzata Kubiak called DS Art Ensemble. He also joined us on some poetry back drop piano playing Erik Satie pieces - or was it Chopin?. An important composer in this group was also Sven-Eric Johanson who was a generation older than us and had, in the 50s, been connected with composers like Sven Erik Bäck and Karl Birger Blomdahl, so Z was apparently happy for the opportunity to be a part of a larger group of artists, composers and poets.
Z was handsome and humorous but also a somewhat shy person and I thought he was a pretty cool guy as I also learned that he came from Krakow and its music conservatory. Evidently he wanted to get out from Poland and its Soviet style society and resided in Göteborg as an asylum seeking individual (later, in 1990, he got his Swedish citizenship) and with composers like Penderecki and Gorecki in his Polish luggage he also became a fan of Neubauten, Laibach and all those other radical 1980s musicians of the time.
As the 80s moved on so did Z. In 1983 I and Ulrich Hillebrand started an organization called Radium 226.05 and started to organize exhibitions and festivals, publish a magazine and release records. Z played bass and synthesizer on our first release; a daft 7" single by singer Raoul Luft and in 1984 we commissioned Z to compose a solo piece for a compilation LP named Gothenburg 84 - he delivered Theta, a very dense piece of electronic music.
At the same time he had formed an art/music group called DNA/the Yeomen, together with visual artist Stefan Karlsson and logosopher Johann Nordqvist, and they combined performance art projects with machine instruments and recorded sounds. One notable piece was when a concert was held in a used cars scrap yard; a car was driven into the place and parked in a metal press with the car stereo on full blast playing some classical music and slowly the metal press brutally made a package out of the car while the stereo still was on … and then died as the metal crackled and squeaked. Another concert by the group was as a support act to Einsturzende Neubauten where DNA/the Yeomen worked their way through a concrete wall with heavy drills and hammers. The group released one booklet/cassette on their own label.
Most of the artists,composers and musicians centered around Radium 226.05 lived in the neighborhood of Haga and we all hang out in cafes, bars and illegal night clubs, so my friendship with Z was natural and day-by-day; we were even neighbors living on Pilgatan for a few years. He formed new bands and constellations with musicians like percussionists Johan Söderberg and Jean-Louis Huhta and established a collaboration with computer scientist Ulf Bilting. So, as a record company, we realized Z's qualities and released most of the music that he came by with; pop- and rock influenced bands like Texas Instruments, Mental Hackers and P.I.T.T. & the Dreamers. We also released one LP with computer music by Z and Ulf Bilting entitled Bad Bye Engine. In 1986 we organized the 2nd International Festival for Computer Music and commissioned Z to write a piece. He did so and it was sided by works from Ricardo Mandolini, Clarence Barlow, James Harley and other well know academic computer music composers. Around this time Z also enlisted at the Göteborg music academy and studied composition and in 1990 his final exam piece was played by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra - Z was enthusiastic but complained that the musicians were lazy and slow. The piece was a heavy and frantic execution of hyper-intense orchestral brutism - excellent to my taste. We played joint concerts at Fylkingen in Stockholm and Z started to get invited to more international places like Generator in New York as well as continuing his compositional studies with maestros like Messiaen and Xenakis. Mine and Z's music also began to be released on compilation records by other labels like Silent Records in San Francisco, TOPY Scan in Stockholm, Apo Mihkanis in Thessaloniki and RRR in Lowell and in 1987 we did our only compositional collaboration: Royal Music #3 (Beyond The Veil Of Death At The Right-Time Hotel) For Richard Wagner And The Yanomamo Sniffers, a piece focused on the Yanomamo tribe in the Amazons that was released on Dry Lungs III (Placebo Records) curated by Paul Lemos of Controlled Bleeding.
I gave Z the contact to Andrew McKenzie of The Hafler Trio so he went to see him in Amsterdam. He joined McKenzie's band and shortly after moved to Holland. Later, in 1990, we toured the USA - me (as PHAUSS with Erik Pauser and Annika von Hausswolff), The Hafler Trio (with McKenzie) and Z with Ulf Bilting and Johan Söderberg - and spent three months driving all over the North American continent in Bruce, a 1980s Dodge van. At the same time I started the label Anckarström with Erik Pauser and released Z's powerful drone piece Uexkull. Z also toured Scandinavia and played a concert at Zaal 100 in Amsterdam (the recording released as Anckarström Live by Staalplaat) with us (PHAUSS), The Hafler Trio, John Duncan and The Sons of God (Leif Elggren and Kent Tankred).
The fabulous humor and the dedicated energy of Z followed me physically during more than ten years and when he moved to Berlin in 1994 and then almost directly to Tokyo, I had continuos contact with Z via email. I saw him a couple of times in Tokyo where he was a great guide to bars and records stores and I met him and his big smile at festivals where we both played - places like Valencia, Rome and London.
Apart from his last email in November, where he explained his illness and his intensions, he sent me an email about a year ago, when I was hunted by religious fundamentalists, asking me to be careful and strategic. Again, Z showed compassion and friendship when his friends needed it.
Z was a direct person. Hard in his judgements about art and music, about a corrupted art world and its mega-dollar conspiracies, he could, cholerically … frantically .. and highly frustrated send out signals of disgust to fellow composers - in my case he only dismissed mine and Leif Elggren's project Elgaland-Vargaland as a ridiculous work - but he was a humorous and loving person … and above all: he was a very Serious Artist with a Zero Compromise attitude. I will miss his laughter and his care and I will miss a brother-in-arms. When Z came up to me after a concert, with a positive review I knew that my work had been good - it meant a lot to me. I never saw his flute ever again but his Pan-type of person never ceased to be a part of my life. The description of Pan in Wikipedia finds a good counterpart in Z's persona : "Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, and companion of the nymphs. [ … ] The ancient Greeks also considered Pan to be the god of theatrical criticism." It will probably never cease ...
Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Stockholm in January 2014.
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with Erik Pauser, Andrew McKenzie, CM von Hausswolff
and Johan Söderberg, San Francisco 1990, during Phauss U.S. tour,
by Annika von Hausswolff (thanks to CM von Hausswolff)
and Johan Söderberg, San Francisco 1990, during Phauss U.S. tour,
by Annika von Hausswolff (thanks to CM von Hausswolff)
Zbig, I did not and I still don't know a lot about you.
I know our roads crossed from 1993 (‘Voyages Virtuels 1’) to... 1999 or maybe 2000, don't remember precisely.
I know last time we met was in Yasha's yard for a sort of japonese dinner.
I know your name, that you were pronouncing with rolling Rs and a strand of pride,
your so Polish ability to drink and stay standing, your strong character which was visible in the battling way you were playing music...
Fighting an invisible enemy with your gloves (or maybe you never had gloves) or using your own body to choreograph the wrestling with space and sound.
I also know you were not interested in vain appearances and little glories: from the Sensor Band Trio, you are the less visible on the wide web.
I know there was something in you I liked.
I did not know you were sick, and that you, like my life-long companion Pascal [Schmitt], had a several years' fight against that invisible plague, the one we call «le crabe».
I did not know you left for Peru in search of another life.
Your motto was “Il faut avancer quand même!”, Pascal's one was “Je vous rappelle qu'il existe d'autres possibilités”. Two ways to keep on rolling, though both of you did not like the bullshit of this world. You both succeeded relatively well in doing so and in escaping the rest of the coming shit one after the other. Hope you know both enjoy the good shit up there.
X-tine
Dan Moyenin
I met Zbig in Tokyo through some mutual friends, Kelly Churko and Kohei Gomi. I had heard about his “disposition” and saw first hand how he could be with some people, especially after a few drinks, but with me he was always patient, friendly and a real gentleman. There was one incident that really stands out, it was at a club in Tokyo called Soup. Kelly had started putting on noise shows there, and Zbigniew had played there a few times, solo sets, sets with Government Alpha and Painjerk, and also collaborated with Kelly there, recordings of which ended up on the Infallibilism CD. I can’t remember who had played that night, but it was towards the end of the evening, I don’t think there were many people left in the place. But Zbigniew, Kelly, Gomi and I were sat there drinking and talking. A drunken American wandered in, looking really out of place and the worse for wear. He stumbled down the stairs, over towards the table we were sat at, and sat next to Gomi. Me and Kelly were talking about something, probably girls, beer or music, and weren’t really paying attention to what was happening or what was being said, but our attention immediately snapped towards Zbigniew, the American and Gomi when Zbig leant across and brushed the American across the nose, like a bear might swipe at an annoying insect or a big cat might swipe at something bothering it. Zbig wasn’t shouting, he wasn’t showing any extreme displeasure or anger on his face, he leant across and swiped so casually and easily that I thought I had imagined it. A moment later the Americans nose gushed with blood, all down the front of his shirt, on the floor, and Zbig sat back in his place, as though nothing had happened. The staff at Soup ushered the American out onto the street. We asked Zbigniew what had happened and he told us that the American didn’t deserve to sit in the company of people like Gomi. To this day, and especially after Zbigniew passed away, I often contemplate whether that random American had ever realised the truth about his brush with greatness, sat in the company of three of the finest modern musicians. I will remember all my times with Zbigniew and Kelly with the utmost fondness, they were both fantastic musicians and intellects, but more than that, they were my friends and I loved them both.
Eric Blevins (Suitcase Recordings)
“It was a good arrangement.”
I met Zbyszek in December of 1990 in Knoxville TN.The occasion of this meeting was the first Suitcase Recordings event – The Hafler Trio, Phauss & Karkowski at Planet Earth in Knoxville TN [on the 4th of December]. I recall that it was in the middle of the night when the entire entourage showed up at my doorstep. Having no idea what to expect, …in walked McKenzie, Miki, Erik, Annika, Johan and ZK. After sorting out sleeping arrangements, we made plans for the next day…
The next morning, my girlfriend took the Phauss crew, Annika & ZK to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, while I shuttled Andrew around town picking up materials for the Hafler piece that night. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend much time with Zbyszek.
However, during the time that I did spend with him, he was quite friendly and talkative – specifically about how he became involved with Radium and McKenzie, the piece he was performing at the show and he also asked about my label and recording projects. He was quite funny and had a very loud and infectious laugh. ZK and the rest of the crew were on a country music kick at that time and they were stoked to be playing in Tennessee. It was peculiar because they had all warned me repeatedly about ZK’s temper, which I never encountered once. He was appreciative and polite during the entire visit.
It may have been a unique situation in my case, as I didn’t drink back in those days and no one else in the entourage drank during the entire stay. I never saw this famous temper and drunkenness that is so frequently referenced.
I will say that there are few people in life that you meet and feel an immediate kinship with. We managed to stay in touch very sporadically over the years via email (and tentatively made plans to bring him to Atlanta at some point). News of Z’s passing felt like the loss of close friend, even though we really didn’t know each other very well at all…
Two things that I remember distinctly about that encounter with Zbigniew… He’d asked to hear some of my own music so I obliged and played the most abrasive piece I’d ever recorded at top volume. He covered his ears and screamed at the top of his lungs “It sounds like fucking Whitehouse!!” and then belted out one of his famous laugh. Secondly, the last thing Zbyszek said to me as they packed up the van and were moving on to Texas was – “Thanks Eric. It was a good arrangement.”
It was indeed…
with Andrew McKenzie, E. Blevins, Johan Söderberg, CM von Hausswolff
and Erik Pauser, Knoxville TN, December 1990, during Phauss U.S. tour
(by Annika von Hausswolff)
and Erik Pauser, Knoxville TN, December 1990, during Phauss U.S. tour
(by Annika von Hausswolff)
with Annika von Hausswolff, CM von Hausswolff and Erik Pauser, Concord,
Knox County TN, December 1990, during Phauss U.S. tour (by E. Blevins)
with Annika Von Hausswolff, Erik Pauser, Andrew McKenzie and E. Blevins,
Knoxville TN, the 5th of December 1990, during Phauss U.S. tour
(by CM von Hausswolff)
Francisco Ali-BrouchoudKnoxville TN, the 5th of December 1990, during Phauss U.S. tour
(by CM von Hausswolff)
Sound Kifu is a work in progress of sound artist Francisco Ali-Brouchoud that merge the ancient Eastern game of go with experimental music. Two players engage in a live go game over a board with contact microphones. Tetsuki, the traditional way of handle and beat the stones against the board is transformed in sound signals processed live by one or several musicians. So, there is two simultaneous universes superimposed: that of the game and that of the sound.
Zbigniew Karkowski along with Pablo Reche and go players Andrés Comito 3d and David Pollitzer 3d participated in this project, one of the last Zbig did in Argentina as part of a gig that had him playing several concerts in the cities of Buenos Aires, Rosario and Córdoba.Iwona Lindstedt (redaktor naczelna dedykowanej W. Lutosławskiemu, H.M. Góreckiemu i K. Pendereckiemu kolekcji http://threecomposers.pl/, jedna z twórczyń projektu http://www.serocki.polmic.pl/index.php/en/ – poświęconego K. Serockiemu, autorka książki Sonoristics in the Work of Twentieth-Century Polish Composers, Wyd. UW, 2010)
To, co wydaje mi się najbardziej fascynujące w związku z postacią i dorobkiem Karkowskiego, to jego wybitna bezkompromisowość i indywidualizm, nie pozwalający zakwalifikować tworzonej przez niego muzyki w zasadzie w żadnym z „czystych” gatunków muzycznych, choćbyśmy bardzo chcieli… Konsekwentnie nie dawał się zaszufladkować, i – jak pamiętam – przeciwny był wszelakim „etykietkom” i w ogóle mówieniu zbyt wiele… Ewentualne związki z (polskim) sonoryzmem widzę więc nie tylko w kręgu poszukiwań materiałowych, sposobu kształtowania materiału, ale też w generalnej strategii przełamywania barier, ciągłego dążenia „do przodu”, niechęci wobec wszelkiego „skostnienia” i „akademickości” – tacy byli przecież młodzi Penderecki, Górecki, a także Kilar, o czym dziś zwykło się zapominać… Najbliższa estetyce Karkowskiego wydaje mi się jednak postawa Kazimierza Serockiego, który z równym zapałem i maestrią nie ustawał w awangardowych poszukiwaniach, łączył je z ekspresją emocji, a nie „formalizmem”, i równie chętnie odwoływał się do powiedzenia „muzyka zaczyna się tam, gdzie kończą się słowa”… Chciał, by jej po prostu słuchano.
Jacek Staniszewski (Facial Index, Neurobot)
Kiedy próbowałem zacząć pisać coś, co przypominałoby epitafium (jakkolwiek górnolotnie i idiotycznie to może zabrzmieć), wydarzyły się rzeczy co najmniej osobliwe. Po napisaniu pierwszego zdania – o tym, że trudno mi sobie uświadomić, że Zbigniewa od dziesięciu dni z nami nie ma – przyszło mi do głowy, że nie jest wykluczone, że po jego kwietniowym koncercie w Powiększeniu zrobiłem aparatem w telefonie zdjęcie w Amatorskiej, do której udaliśmy się na serię wódek i piw. Chciałem zweryfikować, czy w telefonie zachował się jakikolwiek kawałek „dokumentacji” (nie twierdzę, że tam kiedykolwiek był), w związku z czym kolejnych 30 minut spędziłem na poszukiwaniu przeklętego kabelka łączącego telefon z portem USB. Kiedy udało mi się znaleźć kabelek i wpiąć aparat, w jednej chwili padł Winamp odtwarzający Choice Of Points For The Application Of Force i na ekraniku telefonu pojawił się nieznany mi komunikat o ewentualności sformatowania karty. Jeszcze bardziej niepokojące i, w gruncie rzeczy, kuriozalne było to, że w miejsce kilkuset obrazków z ostatnich paru lat pojawiła się pustka. Urządzenie poinformowało mnie o „braku zdjęć do wyświetlenia”, o zresetowaniu daty i godziny nie wspomnę.
Technologia często zawodzi, najdroższe nawet i napompowane najwydajniejszymi podzespołami laptopy potrafią być bezbronne wobec parunastu kropel płynu, przedmioty przemijają i w najbardziej optymistycznym scenariuszu są wymieniane na lepsze.
Zupełnie inaczej jest z ludźmi. Taką swoistą i całkowicie odrębną wolną molekułą był Zbigniew, który myślał, działał i tworzył tak, jak chciał. Tak, jak podpowiadała mu wewnętrzna potrzeba, rodzaj indywidualnego motoru działania, nad którym jednak Zbigniew – przy całej swojej skłonności do konkretu i redukcji, oraz pewnej szorstkiej prostolinijności – nie lubił i nie chciał się rozwodzić. Być może dlatego konsekwentnie ignorował dziennikarzy z wielkich mediów typu „The Wire” (były propozycje z ich strony, które odrzucał), i nie znosił kuratorskich celebrytów w rodzaju Hansa Ulricha Obrista. Pewne sprawy, być może najistotniejsze, miały pozostać w sferze nieznanego, ale nie było w tym nic z kokieterii i mizdrzenia się, którymi wykazuje się tak wiele znanych osobistości świata sztuki. Zbigniew w zeszłorocznym wywiadzie dla Resonance FM [http://podcasts.resonancefm.com/archives/9517] wyznawał, że proces, który kształtuje, jest dla niego niewiadomą, że w istocie „nie wie, co robi”, i że interesuje go somatyczny (czy fizyczny) poziom oddziaływania na publiczność koncertową.
Ten wątek, wątek odrzucenia intelektu i zanurzenia się w wymiar magii realizowanej za pomocą woli (nie bez znaczenia jest tu fakt, że trzy płyty Zbigniewa – dwie z Tetsuo Furudate, jedna z Tetsuo Furudate i Zeitkratzerem – zostały opatrzone tytułem „World As Will”), pojawiał się już na wczesnym etapie twórczości Zbigniewa. Na przykład w opublikowanym z okazji Ars Electronica ‘91 tekście Intellect is a Disease / Intellekt ist eine Krankheit, który w swoim czasie wywarł na mnie piorunujące wrażenie. A koniec końców, w trudny do opowiedzenia sposób jego lektura była dla mnie doświadczeniem zmieniającym świadomość, i życie.
Trudno pozbierać teraz wszystkie okruchy w jedną całość, sensownie to zintegrować, w jakiś sposób opowiedzieć samemu sobie historie z ostatnich kilkunastu lat, coś z tego zrozumieć. A może właśnie nie trzeba, czy wręcz nie ma sensu, nie wolno próbować. W każdym razie nie wpadać w nastrój bezsilności i żałobnictwa, który Zbigniew zapewne zbyłby swoim niepowtarzalnym sarkazmem i łobuzerskim poczuciem humoru.
Po zrestartowaniu telefonu okazało się, że zdjęcia są, ale nie ma tam nic z owego kwietniowego wieczoru w Amatorskiej, że zapewne ich nigdy nie było, że ta ewentualność była tylko iluzją i mgiełką. Jest za to trochę płyt, które Zbigniew nam tak chętnie rozdawał, cała masa wspomnień i poczucie ogromnej, niemożliwej jeszcze do ocenienia, straty. I maile. W ostatnim z nich Zbigniew pisze, że wrócił z małej trasy, że „grał w Kuala Lumpur i Singapurze, i było bardzo fajnie”.
ZK interviewed by J. Staniszewski and Kamil Antosiewicz (printed version:
http://neurobot.art.pl/03/wywiady/karkowski/karkowski.html)
http://neurobot.art.pl/03/wywiady/karkowski/karkowski.html)
Jae Ho Youn
Small thoughts on big man: Zbigniew Karkowski
Zbigniew Karkowski died last week, at the age of 55. He has been one of the rare inspirations for me, not only for his heavenly resonating internal giant machine work but also, or even more, for his don’t-give-a-fuck attitude which assured me about the fact that one can still live in this world and make music or whatever, without being a hypocritical cunt. One can be entirely behaving in harmony with what one truly believes, but not with one merely desires. His music was simply ‘resulted’ by his attitude: the pure physicalization of his great visions.
When I’ve met him for the first time in person, I was in search for a new studio in Warsaw. We were in one of my favorite bar, where all those fancy and well-known ‘musicians’ or ‘artists’ would never go, because they shouldn’t be cheap but they must be special, they must hang out with perfect people in the perfectly designed places…etc. Well, despite, one of the greatest musician alive (at that time…) was there, drinking his vodka with this always impressive Polish efficiency. He went ahead and commented on my desire to find a decent studio to work on my music: “Studio? What for? I never had studio in my life. All is here (pointing his head), all is from imaginations. I don’t work on music, I imagine it.”
He was his vision, he was his sounds, he was his music and he was his attitude. All was inside him already and he simply output them, almost effortless, as easy as facing a sonic mirror and reflect himself then get the extended image of his being…
These days, majority of people listen to music and consume arts that are made by businessmen. More the ‘musician’ and ‘artist’ is business-minded, the better chance they’re considered as a good artist and great musicians. Karkowski was a musician. He made music. And he was not afraid of having a true attitude to be a musician, but not pretend to be a musician while actually being a businessman and/or a designer.
I don’t want to go ahead and get bored by myself trying to aligning those typical ‘R.I.P.’ phrases: how great man he was, how he still had a lot more to give, how it’s a big lose for all of us, how we all loved him so much…etc etc. Certainly all that is true but I believe that the most sincere respect I can express to his death is to try my best to follow what he taught me: you don’t make music, art or whatever if you have nothing to say, if you have no true visions. And the true vision comes from awakeness to life. The true power of art, and the life, is generated by the realization of the self. Once you have it, you must believe, no matter what, and never lie. Your music must reflect directly what you are. You don’t make music for this and that in life, but your life becomes your music…
Finally, I want to share this video which my ex-professor Joachim Montessuis uploaded a few years ago, as an apologize for my poor writing skill desperately trying to describe the big man. Maybe you should simply ignore all I’ve written above, but just watch this video. Listen to the sound, look at him. You’ll see a face of a musician and you’ll listen to his music. And I’m sure, that you will be surprised by the fact that you haven’t seen that for a long, long time…After all those concerts you’ve been, after all those fucking Internet pollutions of sub-culture fuck you’ve consumed…no, you haven’t seen a musician playing his music. You haven’t seen a true fucking musician who plays true fucking music, for a long, long fucking time…now you’ll see it and you’ll probably realize just how much it is sad, to lose one…
“All good art has only one purpose – to show man his own true face, and its only prerogative must be the necessity to find out the truth at all costs.” -Zbigniew Karkowski
(Reprinted after author's permission.)
Joachim Montessuis
I met ZK in 1999 during a Sensorband gig at Music Action festival in France. Then we stayed in contact and I invited him several times to compose tracks for the CD series of my label Erratum. We had regularly discussions in Paris on the notion of "objective music" that we were interested in, and at that time (2001) I wanted to publish an entire book on the subject with texts from different people and also with his contribution. But then after our discussions, and I was often confrontational with him on those subjects because of his resistance, we agreed both that such a conception of music was simply not relevant enough, like an old skin of thoughts that we should really let go, so the project evolved in other forms. I guess we agreed that no music can bring us to ecstasy, or a depressive state, or joy, or else, until we believe in ourselves that it is possible. It can destroy walls and our ears, but that's only on a classical physics level. The choice, the beliefs, the fears, the culture, the psychology, the psychic part are all part of the process of what is "affecting" us. Music only have the power that we project on it, because music - and therefore all reality - is not separated in any way from our consciousness.
In a way we found similarities of thoughts on the idea that all music and perception of music is part of us, in a subjective way, in an intersubjective process, that brings us to rethink completely our model of reality. That about sums my daily approach in life, and I was happy to have Z as regular guest to discuss those things.
The interesting part of all this for me appeared with the last choice of ZK to meet an Amazonian Peruvian shaman that would help him to cure his disease on his final journey. I heard many different negative commentaries on this - like this was stupid, or that a shaman can't cure cancer etc. - my point of view is that he gave us as a strong sign of the potential switch we can achieve in ourselves to heal ourselves. A Shaman only helps you to heal your consciousness, then the body heals. The manifestation of cancer itself is the expression of this dualistic approach to reality, and in some ways Zbigniew was into a perpetual fight with himself.
What does that mean? That means that approach is the opposite way of a materialistic dualistic allopathic medicine culture.
That means NO BULLSHIT, and that we have to think about it. That’s what I want to remember from him, that last move.
And I still laugh of his last joke, every time I think about him going there. He was just a bit late, but that was part of the joke.
I also remember a last gig (dis)organised by Philippe Simon in 2012, we played two sets a bit outside Paris. Only one person came, so it was just us, this guy and a cat. We decided to play a one minute gig. I started a very loud blast and the cat disappeared in an instant flash along with the only guy who came. So we played two minutes for the ghosts, and he said it was his best gig ever!! So I keep this moment with him as a special one.
Joachim Montessuis 17/08/2014
John Duncan
Many say they are sorry to hear of Zbigniew Karkowski's death. I, for one, am not.
I still hear Zbigniew's infectious laugh, hear his voice, see the sparkle of mischief in his eyes. Ripping a poster of an exhibition that my piece BLIND DATE was in off the window of a packed Yamanote-sen in Tokyo, then showing it to a suited salaryman and encouraging him to take his children to look for it in the show. Both of us laughing hysterically when the train was gone.
Zbigniew always seemed utterly without fear. His final gesture, traveling for hours in a canoe into the Amazon jungle directly after flights from Europe lasting nearly 24 hours, to be treated by a Shipbo shaman is perfectly in keeping with everything else he did. All the way, no compromise. His final wish, if the treatment failed, was to be left in the jungle to be eaten. No ceremony, no grave. If it succeeded as he hoped, he said he would bring back stories of the adventure. Somehow, I still expect to hear them.
A Karkowski concert often meant that we would see smoke rising from the burning speakers of the overdriven PA, fumes clearing the room. As much as he seemed to enjoy it when that happened, frankly I doubt that this was ever done for effect: he simply demanded that his music be heard with the power that he intended, that he himself heard. During a residency, one of several, at The Compound in San Francisco, director Naut Humon proudly remembered that Zbigniew played lower frequencies at volumes so high that they shattered the toilet bowl. Musicians who worked with him often spoke of him with unabashed admiration, said they looked forward to a chance to do it again.
Yes, Zbigniew was often cruel when drunk, plenty of those stories to go around. So far, I have yet to meet anyone who isn't. Alcohol is a seductive, motherless bitch to anyone who lets her have her way. She slams doors of friendship shut and, under her influence, Zbigniew slammed a few more than his share.
When Zbigniew moved to Tokyo, he was fortunate enough to meet Atsuko Nojiri, who stayed together with him for fifteen years, travelled to Greece to spend a last several days together, saw him off in Paris for the flight to Peru. If she and I never meet, here I send her a huge, heartfelt Thank You.
So today, and many more days like it, will be spent thinking of that laugh, that love of entertaining friends, that cavalier and uncompromising sense of daring. One of the first phrases in Japanese that Zbigniew said he learned was 'Omanko wa oishii' -- 'Cunt is delicious'. Here, too, he was absolutely right.
(Originally posted at http://peterwullen.blogspot.com/2013/12/zbigniew-karkowski-1958-2013.html, reblogged after author's permission.)
.jpg)
Amsterdam 1990, by Annika von Hausswolff (thanks to CM von Hausswolff)
Karina Mertin
W latach 90. Karina Mertin produkowała dwudniowy performans Karkowskiego i Blixy Bargelda The Execution of Precious Memories w berlińskim Kunsthaus Tacheles (później zaś mający kilka swoich odsłon tokijskich i osakijskich, o czym opowiada Tetsuo Furudate). Obydwu dni sprzedały się wówczas wszystkie bilety, a widzowie mieli ów show zapamiętać na długo. Trwają obecnie starania, by projekt wznowić w Berlinie, w Szwecji, Polsce i Japonii, jako pewnego rodzaju requiem.
'The Execution of Precious Memories' by Zbigniew Karkowski & Blixa Bargeld
at Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin in the 90's (thanks to Karina Mertin)
Zbig and me have spend some time here in Berlin immediately after he had this deadly pancreatic cancer diagnoses to talk about life and death, and our faith. We have been dear friends since 20 years, and even though i´m christian and he´s a buddhist, even though we´re living in different, hughe cities we knew and agreed this citiy-thing is not our spirituaI home.
I´ve promised Zbigniew to help him to get out of hospital and western civilization after it was clear they cannot help him anymore, and to go to the Amazon with the help of a good friend there, and he made it!
Zbig was a zen-buddhist and spent his last days in being happy and blessed by the beauty and power of nature and the softness of spiritual people. He choosed a path something very similar to the movie „dead man“, a beautiful, beautiful passing on the other side, very well guided. He died on Thursday morning Dec 12 at a holy place in Peruvian Amazon, and after his passing he had indeed been moved by all the singing of blessings to his spirit by the Maestroes there.
Zbigniew was a good warrior, and he was a great composer, musician, friend and human being. He felt an incredible joy for life, and he was powerful enough to express those both sides of it - pain and beauty - with his music and words.
The clear message was that he wanted everybody to be at peace with his passing away.
- Karina Mertin, a loving and eternal friend of Zbigniew
***
"I believe that love is the most divine and highest form of energy that exists and i know that is very pure energy and that it is all about giving and i want to give...everything that i can..."Zbigniew Karkowski, 1993 in a letter from Goeteborg
***
I´m absolutely sure that Zbig was really believing that he can be healed - even though we ALL never know of course when death is gonna happen to us. He knew that because doctors have told him that he really has a malicious tumor in his pancreas. Actually he wrote me in a mail Nov 20th 2013 from hospital in Upsala saying the following:"my tumor seems to be aggressive (all readings from my tests now are already quite worse then readings from test done in poland only 4 weeks ago) and spreading fast. i have for sure meta in my liver already and they even noticed some spots in my lungs which means that it is spreading to there too. well, yesterday i spoke to cancer doctor here who looked at all my data and told me that they cannot make surgery on me anymore - the only thing they can offer is chemotheraphy which will maybe prolong my life by few months but will of course make me feel very shitty. i of course said no to chemo and so now i am leaving hospital in few hours. they give me up to 6 months but this is kind of optimistic i have a feeling.“
He preferred not to stay at a hospital but to be in the nature at a spiritual place. All the way, no compromise, that was him. His final wish, if the treatment failed, was to be left in the jungle. No ceremony, no grave. If it succeeded as he hoped, he said that he will bring back great stories of adventure. He expressed this in the same email:
„ … i of course believe in magic and i believe that i can be healed in peru. it's great to have contact with m... and i truly belive that in the end i can be healed and ok. and if not i prefer to die somewhere there in jungle and have my body dumped in river or wherever... because i do not want to have funeral and i do not want to have grave.“
Zbig loved coming to the Peruvian forrest and village, and really felt good with the Maestro and his family, which he recognized as very loving and caring people, and he said quite clear the first night that he completely trusted his life in the hands of the Maestro. More than 200 people came around the house to pay their respect after he died, and he was having the medicin buddha mantra chanted to sooth his journey home.
Zbig cared a lot of the dear people in his life, even if he was sometimes a bit cruel when drunk. He was entertaining his friends, always. I still hear his infectious laugh, his special kind of sharp humor, I see the energy and unabashed admiration in his eyes, and let me say he it with William Burroughs: „Everybody let´s sometimes cockroaches ind his own shadow.“
He had no fear, he had an uncompromising sense of daring. He was a warrior!
Kasper T. Toeplitz
Toeplitz współpracował z Karkowskim tworząc – przez półtorej dekady – Le Dépeupleur, i w ramach innych projektów. Na zamówienie paryskiego GRM Karkowski napisał dla Toeplitza Fluster na bas elektryczny.
Kasper T. Toeplitz, 'O Karkowskim, o naszym spotkaniu'
Kohei Gomi (PAINJERK)
Zbigniew の訃報、とても残念です。そしてまだ深い悲しみの中にいます。我々は良い友達でした。
現在、僕のブログにZbigniewの事を書こうとしていますが、まだ文章がまとまっていません。つまりまだ、心の整理がついていません。いずれ文章を完成させて、日本語ではありますが、ブログにアップロードします。
Zbigとは沢山の思い出があります。ここで全てを書く事は不可能です。初めて彼に出会ったのは1994年でした。残念ながら、この最後の1年近くは会っていませんでした。多分、彼はあまり体調（健康状態）が優れなかったのだと思います。想像するには、彼は自らの身体が弱った事を悟られたくなかったのかも知れません。最後にPeruのジャングルへSharmanに会いに行ったなんて彼らしくないと思ったけれど 、ある意味、最後まで旅を続けたという点は彼らしい。。。彼が小さな墓に収まるなんて似合わない。
Zbigとは何度も一緒に演奏しました。我々はお互いを尊敬（Respect）し合っていました。Zbigは、とても正直で恐れを知らない行動哲学を持っていて、いくらかの人々は彼を恐れていました、しかし僕にはまるで弟の様に接してくれました。でも我々は対等でした。彼と一緒に行った2008年のPoland Tourはとても良い思い出であり、良い経験でした。我々はBerlinで合流してから、Poznan, Bialystok, Wroclawで演奏しました。全てが素晴らしい経験でした。Zbigと僕が、日本やPolandで共演した録音は全てZbigが持っていて、それはもう2度と発表される事はない。しかし、それでよい、僕の記憶の中に鮮烈に焼き付いているから。
Zbigや僕の様なアーティストは、他の多くのアーティストやバンドがする様な、メディアなどへのプロモーション商法に便乗する事が無かったので、ここ日本では我々の活動は決して楽ではありませんでした。そして我々がCreateする音楽は過激すぎた。実際にZbigは、極端な高周波や極端な低周波を多用して、PAの人々を恐れさせた。そして我々は、まったく意味がないまでに極端にLoudであった。又、Zbigは世界中で知り合った多くのアーティスト達が来日した際に沢山のサポートもしました。 彼の功績はとても大きかったと思います。Zbigは、彼が学生だった頃に学んだ知識や見解を基盤にして、更に先鋭化させ、現在のElectro Acoustic Soundの在り方をとてもPowerfulに探求し提示した最も重要な人物の1人です。そして彼はその真価／威力を充分に理解していました。（彼はComputerによるSensor Deviceを使用した後、Apple社のPowerbook G3とG4を晩年までずっと愛用していました）そして、彼はAgentも持たずに、"Electro AcousticというLanguage"で、政治や国境というつまらないSystemを打破し、彼自身のSkillのみで実践し、世界中（The Earth）で働いた偉大な人物でした。又、それを態度で示した。彼の功績は計り知れない程とても大きい。有り難うZbigniew Karkowski、さらば兄弟、安らかに眠って下さい。
Malga Kubiak
10/28/13
malgorzata
do you maybe know anybody at whose place one could sleep for 1 night in copenhagen. i will be there tomorrow.
best
zbigniew
TEJ WIADOMOŚCI NIE PRZECZYTAŁAM NA CZAS, DOPIERO DZIŚ…
… jak mam napisać o Zbyszku po polsku, kiedy on zawsze upierał się, abyśmy rozmawiali po angielsku. Ale też upierał się, aby mnie nazywać Małgorzatą, a nie Małgą. Ja jednak wolałam „Małga”. Nie chciałam również już z nim od kilku lat sypiać i pić wódki, wino ewentualnie z chęcią. DŻISAS, JAK JA TERAZ ŻAŁUJĘ!!! Jego żoną, partnerką, też mogłam być, ale jakoś nie chciałam, chociaż moja córka też mogła być, bardzo ją kochał. Totalne zawirowanie. Zawsze uprawialiśmy sex na podłodze, w krzakach, pod stołem w studio…
Kiedy czekał na mnie ze świeżo zaścielonym łóżkiem z różową pościelą, ja nie przyszłam.
Ta wiadomość z e-maila jest wysłana pod koniec października, czyli kiedy już dostał diagnozę, dżisas, ja tę wiadomość przeoczyłam…
Był intensywny w każdym milimetrze swojego jestestwa, swojej duszy, energii, myśli, swojego intelektu, życia, bardzo lubił siedzieć bez ruchu na kanapie, nie lubił w domu słuchać muzy, męczyła go, kochał ciszę.
Nasza wielka współpraca, przyjaźń, zażyłość trwała ponad 30 lat, to jest szmat czasu, szmat, szmaty, ściery, huki, trzaski, myśli, wibracje, radość, zabawa, pokonywanie, zrzucanie barier, tarmoszenie drobnego burżuja i burżujki, eh, mogliśmy zawirować świat, cieszę się, że był kochany, ceniony, doceniony, i doceniany, brak mi go i już zawsze tak ma być, na wieki wieków…
Kocham dżunglę, rozumiem go, że tam zmierzał, nie wiem, czy go zjedli, jak napisał to tamten kolo [John Duncan, http://peterwullen.blogspot.com/2013/12/zbigniew-karkowski-1958-2013.html], czy go spalili, czy pogrzebali. Nie wiem i nie będę tego wiedzieć. Gdybym wiedziała, pewnie bym z nim do Peru poleciała. Przed pierwszym moim własnym zanurzeniem się w dżunglę bałam się, że będę odczuwać klaustrofobię, gęstość, ale tak się nie stało, to było najlepsze miejsce, aby być. Nie odczuwałam żadnej nerwowości, ani braku równowagi, osamotnienia, depresji, strachu, dżungla okrywała mnie, moją duszę, jak rękawiczka. Tlen, odgłosy zwierząt, robaków, ptaków, były kojącym balsamem, były ruchem, światem. Im ciemniej się robiło, tym większy był ten gwar.
helo Amigo, żegnaj, tak bym chciała cofnąć czas, chociaż o kilka dni.
***
Przesiedzieliśmy w Embargo kilka godzin pijąc, było lato, Sztokholm, Zbig spędził cały dzień w szpitalu, miał jakąś niesamowitą egzemę, wysypkę, alergię, cały pokryty był krostami, robili mu jakieś testy, i naszprycowali histaminą, mama została na siedząco na wózku inwalidzkim. Zbig mnie eufeminizował: „Małgorzata, podziwiam cię, że tak ofiarnie zajmujesz się chorą matką”. On ją znał, kilkanaście lat wcześniej wyciągnął nas z restauracji na Belleville, traciła kontrolę nad sytuacją. Wzięliśmy taxi mimo że było bardzo blisko do niego i Yashy, i do mnie z drugiej strony rue de Belleville. Taxi jechała koszmarnie długo w górę i w dół, moja mama wyła: „Chcą mnie zamordować! Wypuśćcie mnie!”. Następnie ciągnęliśmy ją po krętych schodach na drugie piętro, Zbig w końcu ją niósł.W końcu Danka oprzytomniała, dostrzegając Yashę z przyjemnością stwierdziła: „Ach, to jest ta piękna Japonka”. Ona bardzo go kochała, była chyba jedyną osobą, która broniła go, gdy miał krótki romans z młodziutką laską podczas gdy jego partnerka urodziła i śmiertelnie zachorowała. Danka powtarzała: „Dajcie mu spokój, on jest taki młody i chce żyć”. Zwracając się do Zbyszka: „Zabieraj Dorotę i idźcie stąd”.
Niewielu mam przyjaciół aż tak mi bliskich, z tak olbrzymim bagażem czasu, historii i emocji, i porozumienia. To była ścisła męska grupa, cały ten noise, Zbigniew był jedynym, który zawsze mnie zapraszał, otwierał wszelkie drzwi. Niezależnie od tego, czy to był koncert, bar, czy jakaś willa pod Sztokholmem, czy ślub Sienkiewicza w cytadeli. Był między nami pakt, i przyzwolenie. Jego koncerty były powalające, nigdy nie korzystałam ze stoperów. Jak waliło, pochylałam się do przodu i z przyjemnością otwierałam usta.
Tej nocy po spiciu się w Embargo szukaliśmy jego hotelu, zgubiliśmy się na jakiejś szalonej wyspie, sikaliśmy w krzakach, weszliśmy do niewłaściwego hotelu, który był dawnym więzieniem, próbowaliśmy jego kluczem otworzyć jakieś drzwi. Wreszcie znaleźliśmy jego hotel, z trudem trzymał się na nogach, ja zresztą też, ale musiałam go tam zostawić, i wrócić do mamy, pokonując całe miasto metrem, ściągnąć ją z wózka, przebrać i wywindować do łóżka. To była jedna z tych niezapomnianych białych skandynawskich nocy… Dwa i pół roku temu.
… dostałam SMS-y od moich dzieci w odpowiedzi na moją wiadomość, że Zbyszek zmarł. Agata napisała: „Jestem w szoku i jestem poruszona tym, co napisałaś, jak strasznie to smutne. Normalnie koszmarne. Jak i dlaczego? Czy był chory? Wypadek? Problemy? Dlaczego Peru? Muszę wiedzieć więcej, aby to zrozumieć. Kocham, A.”.
Spotkałam Zbyszka u mnie w domu na początku lat 80., tego dnia, kiedy przyjechał do Szwecji. Pomagaliśmy mu wyjechać z Polski, jakoś poznałam jego dziewczynę Barbarę, która mieszkała w Oslo, zorganizowała inną Sofi z Göteborga, którą znałam bardzo blisko, i Sofie zdecydowała się wziąć ze Zbyszkiem ślub, aby mógł wyjechać z Krakowa, to się wydarzyło. Zbig był bardzo młody i miły, ubrany cały w jeansowe ubranko, ciemny granat, upiliśmy się chyba już przy pierwszej okazji. Częstym był u nas gościem, przeszliśmy z nim wszystkie jego sukcesy, studia, różne damsko-męskie koligacje. Bywał w sumie codziennie, opowiadał. Mogę się orientować po wieku moich dzieci, mój syn urodził się w 1981, córka Zbyszka rok później, mieszkaliśmy rzut beretem od siebie, często tym beretem rzucaliśmy. Jego romans z Anniką, która była moją przyjaciółką, był specyficzny, Annika była z innym moim przyjacielem, też u mnie się poznali, i teraz po poznaniu Zbyszka przypuścili atak, zakochali się w nim obydwoje, pamiętam to dość wyraźnie, bo tam byłam, siedziało się, blisko w malutkich starych mieszkaniach, było tłoczno, mnóstwo dymu i alkoholu, po kilkunastu dniach Zbig wybrał ją z nich dwojga, później, choć już trochę później, zaczęły się schody.
Nie pamiętam, jak zaczęła się moja intymność czy choćby współpraca z nim, ale robił muzykę do wszystkich moich filmów w Ego Trip Collection, to było 50:50, powalające dźwiękowo i wizualnie; Ego, Super Ego, IDN1, IDN2, IDN3.
Flasher też, ale muza była Hafler Trio czyli Karkowski i McKenzie. Do Baby Trouble Hole był wykorzystany longplay, który zrobił z Ulfem Biltingiem, i wtedy Zbyszek już nie mieszkał w Szwecji, Ulf zgrywał mi to i robił soundtrack, genialnie i szybko!
Pozostałe wcześniejsze tracki robiliśmy ze Zbyszkiem w Chalmers, gdzie studiował, wgrywaliśmy mój wokal, tekst, jaki napisałam i czytałam po angielsku, a on dorzucał swoje tracki, manipulował i podkręcał. Tam właśnie lądowaliśmy pod stołem. Lub startowaliśmy pod stołem. Angel to też muza Karkowskiego, ale wgrał ja Fritte Fox Andersson pod nieobecność Zbyszka.
Nie wiem, jak zaczął romans z moją córką, ale zaczął, zrobili nawet braterstwo krwi, przeciął jej przedramię nożem, i sobie też, i wymieszali krew…
Kiedy zaczął się mój romans z moim trzecim mężem, Zbig był zafascynowany, i też chciał nam pomóc zorganizować się, zabrał nas do swojego busa, przeprowadzał się do Amsterdamu, całą drogę leżeliśmy z tyłu na materacu, a on prowadził, niewiele się zatrzymywaliśmy, ja kręciłam film i seks. Zamieszkaliśmy u Zbyszka, to był odjazd i lot i Amsterdam!
Kiedyś o świcie zobaczyliśmy go u nas pod domem w Göteborgu, z Kariną, byli parą, zatrzymali się u nas jakiś czas.
To właśnie Karina dała mi znać, że coś się dzieje ze Zbigniewem, poczułam, że odszedł, sprawdziłam na Wikipedii, ale nic tam nie było, trochę mi ulżyło, ale tylko odrobinę, po 20 minutach wylądowała wiadomość, Zbigniew zmarł dziś w Peru.
Dżisas, ja go chyba zawsze kochałam i to jest to, co czuję.
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Michał Woliński (Piktogram/BLA)
Znaliśmy się prawie 10 lat. Zawsze do mnie dzwonił lub pisał, kiedy przyjeżdżał do Warszawy. Zapraszał na koncert. Jego muzyki najlepiej słuchało się wtedy, gdy odgrywał/tworzył ją na żywo. Miałem wrażenie, że przekazywał w ten skrajnie skondensowany sposób doświadczenie paru miesięcy swego burzliwego życia, przez które się nie widzieliśmy, i które pędził gdzieś w południowoamerykańskich fawelach, chińskim interiorze, w nigdy nieśpiących miastach-molochach. Żył bardzo intensywnie, chwytał życie haustami, łapczywie. Goniła go niespożyta ciekawość i chciwość doświadczania, poszukiwania tego, co ważne. Po koncertach szliśmy w wąskim gronie pogadać. Zawsze po tym, jak walnął jakiś bezwzględnie zabójczy osąd, wybuchał charkotliwym śmiechem. Lubiłem ten śmiech. Był bezkompromisowym, substancjalnym nonkonformistą. Pogardzał grantożebrami, autopromocją, celebryctwem. Podróżował do miejsc trudnodostępnych i omijanych, szukał prawdziwego kontaktu z ludźmi. Życie i twórczość odzierał do tego, co istotne. Był moim mistrzem i przyjacielem. Będzie mi go brakowało.
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by Michał Woliński for Piktogram magazine, 2005
ZK interviewed by Jacek Staniszewski
and M. Woliński for Piktogram Issue 1, Summer 2005
Nina Zee/Nina Živančević
We then became a unit pushing PA’s to limit in all sorts of places around the world, although nothing ever caught fire again. These were real fun times and I especially have fond memories of our tour of Zbigniew’s native Poland. Returning from the restaurant car on a rattling old polish train from Wrocław to Warszawa, one of the doors fell off. Zbigniew quickly grabbed my arm to stop me from falling out and with his famous laugh pronounced ‘Hey man, welcome to Poland!’
Нина Живанчевић, from Слово π.
1996:
He was turning around and around –
His life was a round table full of dots
And each and every spot of human misery
And correct enterprise
Sharpened his teeth ready to bite
At the rose.
He was angry – he wished she
showed up on time and departed.
On time. Everything would be so predictable
And on time. And it was. As soon as Rose
Arrived she took off her coat
and she said „Hello”;
She was exactly 20 minutes late. As she predicted she would be.
She always wanted to be the one who predicts things. And she did. But she could not predict that he would open the door in such a predictable way – he did not bother to open it at first, then
he slid down the corridor and said: can you come in, please?
As soon as she entered the room he said: Oh, your face is so pale, you are so predictable!
I am not hungry, thank you, she said.
She did not feel well. One of her selves said: I'm feeling fine tonight. The other one wanted to
scream I really love this
Painting! The third one was thinking about the noise outside.
The fourth one was watching a video. They were all at ease and in peace with each other. If he bothered to look around at one of her selves, there would be an approved picture of a clinic madness. She witnessed these conversations before. People used to tell her: „He is mad. And you are so strange.”
Sometimes they would fall asleep together, sometimes they would just slide into silence and close the door. When they parted, it felt like the sky was crying and getting evermore blue and…clear. Quite clear and unobfuscated by clouds that could be seen in the distance.
„This room is so full of clouds!”, she would say then…
(Reprinted after author's permission.)
Peter Rehberg (Editions Mego)
1996:
He was turning around and around –
His life was a round table full of dots
And each and every spot of human misery
And correct enterprise
Sharpened his teeth ready to bite
At the rose.
He was angry – he wished she
showed up on time and departed.
On time. Everything would be so predictable
And on time. And it was. As soon as Rose
Arrived she took off her coat
and she said „Hello”;
She was exactly 20 minutes late. As she predicted she would be.
She always wanted to be the one who predicts things. And she did. But she could not predict that he would open the door in such a predictable way – he did not bother to open it at first, then
he slid down the corridor and said: can you come in, please?
As soon as she entered the room he said: Oh, your face is so pale, you are so predictable!
I am not hungry, thank you, she said.
She did not feel well. One of her selves said: I'm feeling fine tonight. The other one wanted to
scream I really love this
Painting! The third one was thinking about the noise outside.
The fourth one was watching a video. They were all at ease and in peace with each other. If he bothered to look around at one of her selves, there would be an approved picture of a clinic madness. She witnessed these conversations before. People used to tell her: „He is mad. And you are so strange.”
Sometimes they would fall asleep together, sometimes they would just slide into silence and close the door. When they parted, it felt like the sky was crying and getting evermore blue and…clear. Quite clear and unobfuscated by clouds that could be seen in the distance.
„This room is so full of clouds!”, she would say then…
(Reprinted after author's permission.)
Peter Rehberg (Editions Mego)
I first met Zbigniew in September 1997, when we were booked to play a concert together at the Chelsea bar in Vienna. The name Zbigniew gave to the project was Product Of Power, which was very quickly shortened to POP. A legendary show to say the least, after about 15 minutes the small stage starting filling up with the smoke. Only there was no smoke machine in Chelsea, the monitors were on fire!
And we would laugh many times on these trips with his wicked sense of humour. A wild cackle of a laugh laced with a husky tobacco cough when things got real funny.
Of course there was a dark side to Zbigniew and he had no fear to tell people to their faces what they did was ‘bullshit, man’.
In fact, we have not spoken since 2009 when he suddenly exclaimed that Editions Mego was a bullshit label and that I was weak. Of course this was no doubt the late night drink talking and I shrugged it off as a whatever. Sadly we never had any communication again and I never will found out his real reason for suddenly turning his back on me, something which I do regret.
His decision to disappear into the jungle after being diagnosed was a noble one. I can hear his laugh now echoing around the jungle.
ZK and P. Rehberg interviewed by Jacek Staniszewski and Kamil
Antosiewicz for Fluid magazine # 07 (43) 2004 (thanks to Michał Woliński)
Antosiewicz for Fluid magazine # 07 (43) 2004 (thanks to Michał Woliński)
Reiko Azuma
カルコフスキー英版
Reiko.A/AZUMA Reiko
I don't remember when our first meeting was at all.
It was of course when I was a member of MERZBOW but whether it was at somewhere in Tokyo or in any city of Europe.
In fact, he was a little bit hard for me to deal with.
Because he seemed to be angry any time, critical and argumentative.
And he almost always said to me unpleasant things for me, so that I was getting to be more and more reluctant to talk with him.
For example, once he asked me, "what city do you like?"
and when I answered, "It's Brussels." as I feel,
he began, "Brussels! Such ostentatious city! You know nothing! and blah-blah-blah!"
(Of course this is not exact English he used. just in my memory)
And once when I went to the venue with a shopping bag after I bought new clothes,
he began, "Reiko, what did you buy?" as he really liked to criticize me.
At the time, I had already known what he would say
(like "You need new cloths?" or "You're an idiot fooled by commercialism."),
I answered, "Nothing." though I had a big shopping bag.
Then, one day, I counterattacked as saying,
"You seem to have frustration any time (That's why you're always irritated)."
He looked like annoyed and we became more distant (Well, I know it's a little exaggerated).
So, our relationship was only like saying hello when we see anywhere.
But in my impression, he became mild later and his harsh part had been diminished to some degree.
However, in February last year,
when there was an event which he, Tetsuo Furudate and Hiroshi Hasegawa played solo for some animation works of Manuel Knapp, a visual and sound artist, at FACTORY in Tokyo, I was seeing the movie while listening the sound playing in rear without knowing which was whose.
And I got astonished that I heard the last furious sound.
It was so fierce and extreme, so I wondered what has happened with this player and at last, it brought me to feel that I have to die with this guy who makes such harsh sound.
The sound was so rushed and compelling.
After the event,
I was surprised that the last player was Karkowski by asking to someone,
I just said, "Oh, was he?" (Because I had felt that his sound had more wider range.), and nothing said to him.
But I suppose that so called soul of him knew what was occurring in him then.
Even he didn't know, something in him knew, and he had been urged by the shortness of time which had remained.
I can't resist thinking like that.
In next month, I happened to see him in my dream, but he paled like a ghost and said nothing when I called his name.
After about 10 days later, I saw him again with people at the Yoyogi park, he greeted me as usual when I greeted.
At the time, I got a hint of something.
But of course I said nothing again.
That's why I got so shocked with the news of his death.
I didn't ask him what's wrong though I knew something was wrong with him.
However, even if I asked, it might not have any meaning.
I knew his death by someone's twitter as if it's a common chat, so I couldn't have anyone who talk with about the shock.
Then, although it's not shijukunichi (the 49th day after his death: the day the dead say good-bye to this life by Buddhist's thought), he appeared in my dream again and said to me, "Got married? so nothing you can do."
What he meant was that you could do nothing after you chose a man.
Because I had some complaints about my husband in that dream.
What the hell does the man talk as coming into my dream! I thought, but that was the way of talk we were used to and we seemed to have returned to former relationship.
Unlike others, I wasn't affected by him musically, but I might have wanted him to talk to me more.
I somewhat think that I failed to communicate with him in this life.
But if we meet again at anywhere in other life, I hope to talk each other more sincerely.
Reiko.A/AZUMA Reiko
I don't remember when our first meeting was at all.
It was of course when I was a member of MERZBOW but whether it was at somewhere in Tokyo or in any city of Europe.
In fact, he was a little bit hard for me to deal with.
Because he seemed to be angry any time, critical and argumentative.
And he almost always said to me unpleasant things for me, so that I was getting to be more and more reluctant to talk with him.
For example, once he asked me, "what city do you like?"
and when I answered, "It's Brussels." as I feel,
he began, "Brussels! Such ostentatious city! You know nothing! and blah-blah-blah!"
(Of course this is not exact English he used. just in my memory)
And once when I went to the venue with a shopping bag after I bought new clothes,
he began, "Reiko, what did you buy?" as he really liked to criticize me.
At the time, I had already known what he would say
(like "You need new cloths?" or "You're an idiot fooled by commercialism."),
I answered, "Nothing." though I had a big shopping bag.
Then, one day, I counterattacked as saying,
"You seem to have frustration any time (That's why you're always irritated)."
He looked like annoyed and we became more distant (Well, I know it's a little exaggerated).
So, our relationship was only like saying hello when we see anywhere.
But in my impression, he became mild later and his harsh part had been diminished to some degree.
However, in February last year,
when there was an event which he, Tetsuo Furudate and Hiroshi Hasegawa played solo for some animation works of Manuel Knapp, a visual and sound artist, at FACTORY in Tokyo, I was seeing the movie while listening the sound playing in rear without knowing which was whose.
And I got astonished that I heard the last furious sound.
It was so fierce and extreme, so I wondered what has happened with this player and at last, it brought me to feel that I have to die with this guy who makes such harsh sound.
The sound was so rushed and compelling.
After the event,
I was surprised that the last player was Karkowski by asking to someone,
I just said, "Oh, was he?" (Because I had felt that his sound had more wider range.), and nothing said to him.
But I suppose that so called soul of him knew what was occurring in him then.
Even he didn't know, something in him knew, and he had been urged by the shortness of time which had remained.
I can't resist thinking like that.
In next month, I happened to see him in my dream, but he paled like a ghost and said nothing when I called his name.
After about 10 days later, I saw him again with people at the Yoyogi park, he greeted me as usual when I greeted.
At the time, I got a hint of something.
But of course I said nothing again.
That's why I got so shocked with the news of his death.
I didn't ask him what's wrong though I knew something was wrong with him.
However, even if I asked, it might not have any meaning.
I knew his death by someone's twitter as if it's a common chat, so I couldn't have anyone who talk with about the shock.
Then, although it's not shijukunichi (the 49th day after his death: the day the dead say good-bye to this life by Buddhist's thought), he appeared in my dream again and said to me, "Got married? so nothing you can do."
What he meant was that you could do nothing after you chose a man.
Because I had some complaints about my husband in that dream.
What the hell does the man talk as coming into my dream! I thought, but that was the way of talk we were used to and we seemed to have returned to former relationship.
Unlike others, I wasn't affected by him musically, but I might have wanted him to talk to me more.
I somewhat think that I failed to communicate with him in this life.
But if we meet again at anywhere in other life, I hope to talk each other more sincerely.
Reiko.A/東 玲子
(Translated by the author from Japanese.)
with Masami Akita aka Merzbow and R. Azuma (thanks to Yasha Belleville)
I met Zbigniew Karkowski in 2006, there are many who have known him longer. He was my friend.
Zbigniew was capable of creating amazingly powerful music live, but also willing to dive bomb his own shows if the mood didn’t take him. This could be down to the “fucking boolshit” PA, sound engineer, venue or just the moment not being right. With good live sound though he responded to the moment and his performances were intense physical experiences that could provoke altered states of consciousness. He could work powerful magic in the studio and there is impressive consistency across his solo and collaborative releases. Much like that other recently departed electroacoustic master Bernard Parmegiani, his studio music feels spontaneous and improvisatory. Zbigniew had a natural feel for textural change, drama and form. He was capable of working at the highest level with crack new music ensembles, virtuoso soloists and noise musicians, and he was one of the most significant and credible settlers in the sparsely inhabited space between modern composition and underground noise music. He had an amazing ear, listening intently to his own performances, and he was vocally critical of many noise musicians, whom he considered to have little grasp of, or interest in, live sound. Zbigniew was as adept at exploring gradual change as Eliane Radigue, as skilled in exploring extreme registers as Ligeti, and could ride crumbling noise textures to totally thrilling effect. His music can suck the soul out of your body. It can be terrifying, bewildering and violent, yet at times beautiful and meditative. It is never dull.
Zbigniew had an insatiable desire to travel and was always on the road. He was, in his own way, a paragon of a very active type of audience development, often presenting his music in places that had little or no local context for it. He was more interested in touring in China and the Far East, playing for paltry door money to (probably very confused) punters than to play cosy gigs on the European festival circuit. He once asked me if I knew anyone in at the British Council who could procure him the contacts necessary to organise a self-funded tour of the Congo.
He was an absolutely unique individual. Some have accused him of arrogance but I never saw this in him. He presented himself in exactly the same way when talking to a fellow artist, an audience member or the director of a major arts centre. If he didn’t like someone he’d tell them, or, on occasion, offer them a fight. This sometimes didn’t help him professionally. He didn’t give a shit. He seemed to know an impossible number of people. Some of these he had pissed off but most others were devoted friends. He had the contacts. As we have seen, if you wanted to go up river in Peru in search of powerful hallucinogens, he knew someone. He was very good at introducing people and I knew I’d probably get along with anyone who was his friend. He was good like that. I’m still making new friends through him, and I imagine I will continue to do so. He was totally devoted to his partner Atsuko Nojiri. He loved her totally and this relationship was clearly central to his life. If one can speak of such a nomadic figure as Zbigniew as having any kind of home, it was with her.
Everyone has their stories. Someone should probably collect them. Late one evening I had to physically prevent him from breaking into a child’s Wendy house in a rural Swedish garden. This small building seemed to him the perfect place to sleep it off. Somehow we got back to the hotel. I think I must have carried him. He woke up in a blood-stained shirt and banged on my door to ask me if we had had a fight. He seemed glad of the reassurance that I didn’t recall one and we went for breakfast. Spending time with Zbigniew reminded me of an earlier, more carefree time in my life when I could go out with friends, have a ruck, fists could fly, but the next morning it’s done with.
As his old friend John Duncan has pointed out, Zbigniew seemed totally without fear. Even, finally, in the face of death he seemed calm, determined and confident. In the last few days that I saw him in London he made me laugh just as hard as ever. I can still hear his voice, hear his laugh and see the fire of life in his eyes: “You know this guy that believes that we are all ruled by lizards, that the Royal Family are fucking lizards man, well, I tell you, I think this is all fucking true.”
(Reprinted from The Wire, http://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/zbigniew-karkowski-1958-2013_richard-whitelaw, after author's permission.)
Robert Piotrowicz (Musica Genera)
Piotrowicz współpracował z Karkowskim przy różnych okazjach, niewydany pozostaje materiał, który muzycy zarejestrowali w studiu.
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at Centrum Reanimacji Kultury, Wrocław, January 2009 (by Wojtek Mszyca)
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November 2009, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw,
'Short Guerilla – Zbigniew Karkowski x 3' – concerts and workshops (by Anna Zaradny)
'Short Guerilla – Zbigniew Karkowski x 3' – concerts and workshops (by Anna Zaradny)
To, co z mojego punktu widzenia było w Karkowskim najbardziej wyraziste (odnoszę się do swoich kontaktów z nim), to jego zaangażowanie, to, w jaki sposób traktował twórczość, sztuka była dla niego obiektywną wartością. Tym samym bardzo mocno kwestionował rzeczywistość, ścierał się z nią. Mimo że taka postawa jest w pełni naturalna dla artysty, bywał wykluczany przez środowisko i media.
Admiruję jego proces twórczy, zawsze spójny, nastawiony na postęp, na zrobienie kolejnego kroku. Od ponad 20 lat regularnie występował, gdy wydawało się, że to kolejny, podobny koncert, potrafił zaskoczyć i zachwycić. Był w stanie przekroczyć swoją normę, czy nawet kliszę, przeżywając to bardzo ekstatycznie.
To samo dotyczy jego twórczości kompozycyjnej, mimo dziesiątek nagrań i kolaboracji, regularnie wracał ze wspaniałymi albumami solowymi.
Łączył bombastyczną emocjonalność z kunsztem kompozytorskim, dyscypliną estetyczną, był antyeklektyczny. Często mówi się o bezkompromisowości Karkowskiego, konsekwencję i samodzielność opisuje jako radykalizm. Niechęć do instytucji, mediów, artystów, którzy głównie adaptują się do sytuacji, nie jest skrajnością, a raczej próbą uchronienia uprawianej przez siebie twórczości przed zewnętrzną presją. Zbigniew Karkowski reagował na tę agresję bardzo intensywnie, w przepełnionym konwenansami świecie bardzo się pod tym względem wyróżniał.
Jest teraz dużo „wspominek” o nim, bardzo jestem ciekaw, jak by na to zareagował. To, jak i gdzie postanowił spędzić ostatnie chwile swojego życia – zamknąć wszystko, zneutralizować swoją materialną obecność, zanegować pożegnanie, miejsce pamięci i zostać wchłoniętym przez naturę (do Peru pojechał do konkretnego miejsca w dżungli) – pozostaje w całkowitej zgodności tak z jego postawą egzystencjalną, jak i artystyczną.
Tetsuo Furudate
Zbigniewとは20年近い付き合いになるので、完璧とは言えませんが日本のノイズ・ミュージックと彼の関係について若干の理解をお伝えできると思います。
1993
彼がはじめてに日本に来たのは、1993年に大阪芸術大学の上原和男教授の招聘によるものでした。
上原和男氏は日本では早くからエレクトロニク・ミュージックに取り組んでいた方で今でも現役です。
僕とは教授就任以前からの付き合いがありました。
京都で行われたその公演ではカール・ストーン氏らと共にまだ日本では一般的ではなかったMIDIを使った音楽を紹介したようです。
https://soundcloud.com/experimedia/kazuo-uehara-obscure-tape
その時点では、まだ僕は彼と会っていません。
後年に不思議に思ったのは、アカデミックを目指したいた上原さんがなぜZbigniewを招聘したのかです。
1995
その次に、彼が来日したのはEinstürzende NeubautenのBlixa Bargeldとのプロジェクトによって彼が選択した日本の前衛ミュージシャン、灰野敬二（Keiji Haino)、巻上 公一(Makigami Kouiti) ,向井千恵(Mukai thie) 等とのアンサンブルを東京と大阪パフォーマンスした際のアレンジメントの中心にとなったことによります。!995年です。
ぼくはチケットさえ入手できずに外から漏れてくる音を聴いていました。
恐らく、この来日時に小さなロック・ハウスでのぼくの公演に来てくれて、お前はすぐに”シャランQ＝当時、日本で売れていたポップ・グループです。”と言われたのが最初の出会いでした。
（もちろん、ぼくはポップ・ミュージックではなく実験音楽を演奏していました。）
1997
彼は、ICC（NTT ＝日本の電話会社です。InterCommunication Center) フェスティバルでSensor band (Zbigniew, Atau Tanaka & Edwin van der Heide) with Granular Synthesisとの大音量のコンサートを実現します。（多分150db以上は出ていたと思います。）
その後、僕とは親しくなって、ICCのスタジオを使用して一枚目のWorld as willを作りました。
1998
彼と僕は "MELTDOWN OF CONTROL"という大きなノイズ・コンサートを東京のJapan Foundation Hall で一夜だけ開きました。
出演者は「Merzbow, K.K. Null. Kasper T Toeplitz, Dror Feiler, Akohiro Miwa, Sumihisa Arima, Akihiro Miwa , Sensor band (Zbigniew, Atau Tanaka & Edwin van der Heide) and others."
その後、彼はこのプロジェクトをベルリンとロンドンで再現するという大仕事を成し遂げ、日本のノイズ・ミュージックのヨーロッパへの紹介に大きな貢献をなし得ました。
（当時、パリに住んでいた彼は、プロジェクト終了後三日に間眠り続けたそうです。）
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彼と最後のころに話したのですが、90年代の東京は面白かったと言っていました。
多分、その後の東京は面白くなくなったのでしょう。
彼は、その後も彼は東京の小さなアンダーグランド・クラブでのコンサートは続けていましたが、むしろ東京を休息と次の欧米でのプロジェクトのパフォーマンス準備の場所だと捉えていたように思えます。
ただし、彼は東京にいても制作の手は止めていなく、僕も含めて多くのCD作品を日本のミュージシャンと一緒に作っていますし、たまに彼に家に尋ねると、いつも次の作品に挑んでいました。
ーーーー
では、なぜ彼は作業場／休憩所として東京を選択したのか？
彼は、日本のノイズ・ミュージシャンから欧米のミュージシャンよりも自由な感覚を得たのだと思います。
彼は、解放以前のクラクフに生まれ選択することもできずにフルートを教師から押し付けれたらと言いもらしたことがありました。
同時に、彼の幼児記憶はカフカの「城」に近いとも言っていました。
当時のポーランドには音楽と解放という概念は結びつかなかったのではないですか？
ーーーー
日本の音楽感はまったく異なっていて、ポピュラー・ミュージック（ほとんどアメリカ音楽のコピーとして産業を成りたたせています。）とヨーロピアン・クラシカル・ミュージック（これは社会的なマナーを保証します。）それに、日本の古典音があります。（彼は日本の古典音楽にはあまり興味を示していなかったような気がします。演歌は好きでしたが。）、そして、日本のノイズ・ミュージックは基本的にアメリカのロック・ミュージックから影響を受けています。
ただ、彼には日本の曖昧な音楽環境が、ヨーロッパ音楽の規則から離反したいという彼の心情にはちょうど良かったのではないかと推察しています。
Wilder Gonzales Agreda
R.I.P.
ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI ELECTRONIC NOISE MAGICIAN (1958-2013)
Yesterday,
December the 12th, has passed out victim of a pancreatic cancer
diagnosed a few weeks ago the pioneer of electronic noise and contemporary
computer music, ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI.
The acid
Polish musician, who were alumni of Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Boulez and Olivier
Messiaen, was in our country even twice fascinating us in different locations
-provinces inclusive- with his hallucinating art. I had the opportunity of
making him a memorable interview for the alternative local magazine Freak
Out! the first time he came, back in 2004.
In spite
of having a tremendous importance on the global avantgarde scene and to have
played with people like Masami Akita (Merzbow) or Pita Rehberg in several
opportunities, the European composer wore an uncommon simplicity and
naturality, something that went in accordance with his Polish punk spirit.
His
concerts were magnificent, a real shiny waterfall of sounds. I had the pleasure
to organize personally an event for him the year 2007 when they cancelled his
presentation due to the earthquake in Pisco. I remember that when he saw the
fashion girls of the band Sonoradio that came to play accompanied by their
parents, Karkowski said annoyed: "This is shit!". In the end I
convinced him of playing at least to disagree with that people.
Karkowski,
55 years old, takes the avantgarde once again in this cosmic road of the
emptiness and no reason: Cosmos is waiting for us. Goodbye Capo!
(Originally posted in Spanish at http://peruavantgarde.blogspot.com/2013/12/qepd-mago-del-ruido-electronico.html, here translated by the author.)
Yasha Belleville
Magic Numbers and Magic Thoughts around Life...
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Other testimonials/personal recollections on the late Zbigniew Karkowski
Magic Numbers and Magic Thoughts around Life...
How can I describe ZK and what can I write more for you? 'First of all, hyper lucid, a free man with a rare talent, almost noble...' The sound of 'clapping hands' getting louder and louder until some people put their hands on ears... 'A dearest man of life for certain...' 'Clapping sounds' even louder and louder until audience put small balls of cottons deep into the ear...
I met ZK in the virtual reality show, 'Voyages Virtuels,' one late afternoon between 8th and 11 Dec, 1993 in Paris. On 12 Dec 2013 in Peru, he disappeared on the land and in the hands of Indian tribe Chiquitos, just twenty years afterwards. So did his friend, Pascal Schmitt in this virtual reality show, on the 13 Dec in Paris... Is the destiny written? Perhaps.
Thus for ZK, his research of the purpose of music, philosophically, has been related to the belief and the death, more dark side of Dionysus than the god of wine. ZK, when he doesn't work, emptied four bottles of wine... He was a Dionysus, in a way.
As for the sounds of music of noise-orchestra in Japan with Blixa Bargeld, 'The Execution of Precious Memories' sounded exactly like the imaginary noises you might hear, when the soul leaves from the body in Tibetan Buddhism, mentioned in the 'Tibetan Book of the Dead' (Bardo Thodol).
Though in my mind ZK already disappeared several times, we split our personal life together already in the summer of 2000, the last time I saw him in Paris about two years ago, we tried to escape from cafe La Cale sèche in Ménilmontant, had to go back to cash distributer to take out 30 euros! ZK disappeared in the darkness of the night like in a song, his silhouette from the back turning the Carrefour of Ménilmontant in the darkness of the night, heading for Peru, was quite definite for me.
The most impressive moments with ZK, aside from that long settings of this complicated infrared system and the first 'WWW-on,' which rang the loud bell of many audiences hearts, is about this unrealised project, 'The Spiricom' in Tokyo. When he had this project, a bit dangerous to set up the machine, to get down the dead spirits from the sky, this time was that of Yukio Mishima. They hesitated to realise. We went to see the group of Japanese (far) rightists from Issui-kai for help. Issui-kai gave an appointment in traditional Japanese restaurant with drinks, izakaya. ZK, with his nearly trademark, shaved head, they step back a bit, addressing the first words from their mouth 'Are you from a foreign rightist group?' ZK smiled charmingly and said, 'No, I am not. But my music is sometimes loved by Swedish right wings!' I ask now, you guys, 'is it true?' After izakaya, they took us to the cash distributer and took out a bunch of thick bills, to show off. Next day they had this spectacular demonstration on camions with flags and speakers, that you might know well from clichés of the media. Especially this story make me laugh, when I read recently on asahi.com about the bribe scandal that wife of journalist/ex-mayor of Tokyo, Naoki Inose, handed 5 million to Issui-kai. The representative said 'Mme I will borrow from you for a while.'
I finish this short homage with another news from Japan. 11 March 2014 makes Three Years from Fukushima. To my surprise, ZK went also for volunteer to Fukushima! After he told me that he was 'O-jyama shimasu' meaning disturbing the local people or standing on their way, maybe he wanted to mean volunteers don't help anything when we don't know exactly what people want... Ah, with each Fukushima Memorial, next day I'll think about ZK! In Japanese, we say 'mei-nichi,' literally the day of life, meaning the date of death without month.
'Don’t be mystic, be rational' say many Cartesians. Perhaps from the logic of Tao, you can be mystic and rational at the same. ZK was one of a kind, and still is the greatest one of a kind. Let's make ZK's spirit come down from heaven!
Paris, 01/ April/ 2014
Kobe 1994, by Yasha Belleville (thanks to Karina Mertin)
ZK performing 'For Me and For My Gods,' Osaka (by Yasha Belleville)
ZK conducting 'The Execution of Precious Memories,'
Tokyo or Osaka, August 1995 (by Yasha Belleville)
Other testimonials/personal recollections on the late Zbigniew Karkowski
Andrew McKenzie
http://simply-superior.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-ending-is-not-same-as-beginning.html
Bartek Chaciński
Grzegorz Tyszkiewicz
Jacek Hawryluk
Jacek Staniszewski
http://www.polskieradio.pl/8/740/Artykul/1008053,Zegnamy-Zbigniewa-Karkowskiego-Kto-bal-sie-krakusa-z-Tokio
Jacek Skolimowski
http://www.dwutygodnik.com/artykul/4995-czlowiek-ktorego-nie-bylo.html
Jerk Kerouac
http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=150&t=38359
Kasper T. Toeplitz
http://www.polskieradio.pl/8/740/Artykul/1243692,Kasper-T-Toeplitz-w-Nokturnie (28:20-34:16)
Mattin
https://www.mail-archive.com/igua_list@ixi-audio.net/msg00120.html
Rafał Kochan
http://polifonia.blog.polityka.pl/2013/12/12/sonda-z-przeszlosci/#comment-256916
Sin:Ned aka Wong Chung-fai/Dennis Wong
http://www.re-records.com/news/remembering-zk/
Stephan Mathieu
http://www.bitsteam.de/wp/?p=456
http://www.re-records.com/news/remembering-zk/
Stephan Mathieu
http://www.bitsteam.de/wp/?p=456
Thomas Bey William Bailey
http://tbwbworks.typepad.com/journal/2013/12/he-learned-not-to-cope-with-cowardice-rip-zbigniew-karkowski.html
& http://www.sonm.es/documentos/ZK-Sound-is-a-Weapon.pdf
Wojtek Zrałek-Kossakowski
http://www.krytykapolityczna.pl/artykuly/muzyka/20131222/zbigniew-karkowski-wspomnienie-koncertu
xdefenestratorx
http://www.discogs.com/groups/topic/377931#3503789
Some more photos
contact sheet by Annika von Hausswolff
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with Ulf Bilting (by Annika von Hausswolff)
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with Ulf Bilting, Göteborg 1990, by Annika von Hausswolff
(thanks to CM von Hausswolff)
Mental Hackers: Johan Söderberg, Christian Falk (R.I.P 24.07.2014) and ZK,
by Annika von Hausswolff (thanks to CM von Hausswolff)
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with Richard Kern, New York City 1990, by CM von Hausswolff
Gothenburg Concert Hall: Taube, Lloyd-Webber, ABBA
and Karkowski ("Brass-konsert" – "Heavy Metal" for the brass section
of Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra), by CM von Hausswolff
and Karkowski ("Brass-konsert" – "Heavy Metal" for the brass section
of Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra), by CM von Hausswolff
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1984, by Patrik Andersson (thanks to CM von Hausswolff)
DNA, Industrifestivalen (The Industrial Festival), Masthamnsgatan venue,
Gothenburg, the 18th of March 1984 (by Henrik Rylander)
DNA, Industrifestivalen (The Industrial Festival), Masthamnsgatan venue,
Gothenburg, the 18th of March 1984 (by Henrik Rylander)
with Mariusz Pędziałek, mid 70s
with Andrzej Kapusta and Mariusz Pędziałek, mid 70s
with Francisco López, Los Angeles, ca. 2000, by Fredrik Nilsen (thanks to F. López)
with Francisco López, Los Angeles, ca. 2000 (thanks to F. López)
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with Christian Galarreta and Daniel Caballero, the Andes (thanks to Ch. Galarreta)
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with Christian Galarreta and Daniel Caballero, Arequipa (thanks to Ch. Galarreta)
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with Christian Galarreta and Daniel Caballero, Cusco (thanks to Ch. Galarreta)
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with Daniel Caballero, Cusco (thanks to Ch. Galarreta)
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with Christian Galarreta, Cusco (thanks to Ch. Galarreta)
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with Christian Galarreta and Fabiola Vasquez, the vocalist of the band Tica,
Lima (thanks to Ch. Galarreta)
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with Walter Peña and Christian Galarreta, Lima (thanks to Ch. Galarreta)
with Mika Vainio, Valencia 2003 (thanks to CM von Hausswolff)
with Maryanne Amacher, Rome 2006 (thanks to CM von Hausswolff)
Konrad Jeliński
In cooperation with:
Dorota Krzywicka-Kaindel
Jacek Plewicki
Jacek Staniszewski
Katarzyna Karpowicz
Yasha Belleville
Thanks to Piotr Kowalczyk of Biweekly & Muzykoteka Szkolna for the inspiration.
In cooperation with:
Dorota Krzywicka-Kaindel
Jacek Plewicki
Jacek Staniszewski
Katarzyna Karpowicz
Yasha Belleville
Thanks to Piotr Kowalczyk of Biweekly & Muzykoteka Szkolna for the inspiration.
