2007-10-25 17:22:34

Kopinski & Harris duet

Jan Kopinski & Steve harris give a sparky concert of improvisation and experiment at the UNSAFE 3 festival at Lighthouse Poole, Fri Nov 9th. Jan reunites with Steve (ex Pinski Zoo drummer and leader of ZA-UM). Drawing on their work together in Zone K , PINSKI ZOO, and Jan's solo composing style upon the sax including electro-acoustics and feedback.

 2007-08-20 17:26:15

JAN tickles the ribs with REFLEKTOR

JAN & STEVE perform as REFLEKTOR to 2 silent film comedy classics at the Comedy film festival at Sheffield's fine independent cinema - The Showcase (www.showcase.org.uk) . The full length features star Harold LLoyd in his dangerous and fearless chases, climbs and escapdes. Jackie Chan eat your heart out.

 2007-03-16 11:42:02

NOSFERATU and REFLEKTOR duo

Jan Kopinski - saxes and Steve Iliffe-piano, perform their score live to the classic original Dracula horror movie - Nosferatu (dir Murnau 1922 Germany 88 mins). They perform as REFLEKTOR in duo form.
This is one of several silent films that Jan and Steve regularly perform to around cinemas and arts centres in the UK. Watch out for screenings

 2007-03-16 11:38:01

CD recording of MIRRORS by Jan Kopinski with Reflektor

Jan's new work MIRRORS, featuring his compositions commissioned by Opera North, in performance, set to live video mixes of footage recorded in Poland over 20 years, will be recorded later this year on the new Jazz Sevices label.
It will feature REFLEKTOR in sextet form: Jan Kopinski -saxes, Steve Iliffe - piano, Melanie Papenheim - voice, Janina Kopinska - viola, Stefan Kopinski - bass, Pat Illingworth - drums.

 2007-03-16 11:30:26

PINSKI ZOO UK Tour april/may 2007

PINSKI ZOO - Jan Kopinski saxes, Steve Iliffe -keys, Stefan Kopinski - bass, Karl Bingham - bass, Pat Illingworth - drums
JAN's seminal power fusion band PINSKI ZOO celebrate 25 years and their new double cd " after image' with a Jazz Services UK tour in April and May. (see artists gigs). They will be playing tracks from the album (in fact the Shed is also featured as one of the venues on the cd )and new material with their new drummer, PATRICK ILLINGWORTH, replacing Steve Harris who now concentrates on his own band ZA-UM.
PZ will also be announcing further gigs and plans for recording.

 2007-01-09 12:53:25

MIRRORS by Jan Kopinski with Reflektor

7/02/2007 wed. 9pm Opening night of The National Review of Live Art at The TRAMWAY Glasgow 0141 357 5538
Jan Kopinski will open the National Review of Live Art, with his detailed and movingly intense MIRRORS
MIRRORS is Jan Kopinski's newest music to film work MIRRORS, with his closely knit group REFLEKTOR, specialising in music to visuals with a distinct central/eastern European feel.
MIRRORS is Jan Kopinski's latest commissioned work combining music and visual imagery in an exciting performance with his new collective outfit, REFLEKTOR.
Jan has been commissioned by Opera North Projects to develop MIRRORS, with the shimmering voice of Melanie Pappenheim (heard with DV8,on Kubrick's film Eyes Wide Shut, Gangs of New York and vocal group The Shout), Steve Iliffe's glowering piano and Kopinski's characteristic volatile saxophone. REFLEKTOR are intensely intuitive and personal - his daughter Janina's viola playing has depth and experience, (from Boulez to pop multi media sensation Gorrilaz}. His son, Stefan, is a long time member of Pinski Zoo and recorded on 2 of his last cd's. Patrick Illingworth is an exciting drummer working not only in the jazz scene but also with varied bands (808 state, Cinematic Orchestra)

His composing style is shaped by visual elements, using jazz and improvisation to create a highly personal reflection upon a world of dislocation, memory and transition. The music also explores impressions of folk, religious and contemporary music that so beguiled modern Polish composers such as Szymanowski.
The halting images of Poland that Kopinski has collected over many years reveal landscapes and frozen edifices of a disturbing past, and cultural collisions that have shaped the land and its history. For MIRRORS he has collaborated with video artist Jim Boxall who works with REFLEKTOR to manipulate and weave an intriguing and original experience - MIRRORS. The mixture of scored and improvised music set to video projections is a performance of eloquence and intensity.

'Kopinski has a sensitivity to visuals as reflected in other scores he's performed for silent movies. … using his own family in the band Kopinski evokes the intimate, inexplicable binds/bonds of family life …..he evokes Slav folk music, melancholic and lost to an irrecoverable past, but Iliffe's broken chords also reflect the equally lost world of discordant modernism'…….Jazzwise