The Polish indie rock band KRISTEN was formed in the late 1990s and since then has released six albums. Initially inspired by Chicago’s post-rock and math-rock scenes, Kristen gradually embraced avant-rock and free-jazz flexibility with delicate brushes of electronics. They expanded their basic trio formation on some recordings, but have continued to play live in their core format of guitar, bass guitar, drums, sampler and vocals. Thanks to their remarkable live performances they found themselves touring with groups such as Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Joe Lally, Talibam ! and Karate. Kristen’s most recent release, “An Accident” (Lado ABC, 2011) demonstrates their amazing ability to stretch the rock template without breaking it. In Kristen’s adventurous but still accessible music there are echoes of Low’s melancholy, dissonant guitar work of Sonic Youth and The Dead C and sublime song writing of The Sea and Cake. They are a fully developed band which seamlessly blends song-writing, improvisation, emotions and abstract soundscapes into absolutely unique music.
THE LAST DAY OF SUMMER
by Tadeusz Konwicki, Poland 1958, 62’, Grand Prix at Venice IFF 1958
The Last Day of Summer (Ostatni dzień lata) is the first film of the renowned Polish director and writer Tadeusz Konwicki. The story takes place in the middle of the deserted dunes and screaming gulls of a chilly Baltic shore. Two lonely, damaged people, played by Irena Laskowska and Jan Machulski, whose characters remain nameless throughout the film, happen to meet on a deserted beach. Both are haunted by vivid memories of World War II and make silent, imperfect attempts to reach out to each other, but they cannot find a means to communicate. Tadeusz Konwicki is a novelist, screenwriter and film director. He is a founder of the ‘cinema des auteurs’ in Poland. He has written over twenty books. His literary and cinematic legacy serves as both the conscience of Polish society and the skewed mirror in which it is reflected. He is among those writers who have left the most lasting impression on post-war Polish literature and culture, regarded as a spokesman for the dreams, hopes and frustrations of several generations of Poles.
KRISTEN have long been fans of Konwicki’s work ; one of their side-projects was named after another film of Konwicki, Salto. But the band chose the film not only to honour the great artist, but also in an effort to avoid the obvious — playing live music to silent movies or abstract avant-garde short films. Kristen hope that their music, where silence and understatement have always played an important role, will complement the imperfect attempts of the film’s protagonists to reach out to each other. As usual, they hope to find a means of communicating something that is beyond words.