Stefan Węgłowski is a contemporary Polish composer based at Warsaw, where he teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts; he proclaims himself a minimalist and a spectral composer, arriving at his results by using samples, field recordings, and software. There have been a handful of releases under his name since 2017, and Smooth Inertia (GLACIAL MOVEMENTS GM050) is his latest – produced and composed by himself, with performances from Adam Kosmieja on piano, and Anna Figurska on voice. Węgłowski supplies guitar – and it might be that much of the processed ambient drone we hear was derived from layered and treated guitar samples.
Despite all the processing and the sometimes over-familiar swaddling sensations of all this ambient-ness that billows from Węgłowski’s lungs, there’s still something non-synthetic, very genuine, and even quite moving about Smooth Inertia. The sparing use of piano and voice elements in particular lends it a very welcome romantic vibe, and gives the listener a useful point of contact with the real world as we try to negotiate the swirling purple fog. This may also have something to do with the vision of the label curator, Alessandro Tedeschi, who not only adheres rigourously to his “snow and ice” themes with the cover art for all his label’s releases, but hopefully works to a selection policy and guiding aesthetic that is equally consistent. This one happens to be the 50th release for Glacial Movements. (19/04/2023)