Raphael Rogiński

Ever since he was a little boy, Polish musician Raphael Rogiński wanted to become a sculptor, until he came across a guitar on his way. He practiced like a man possessed, and once told the Polish weekly Polityka that he played his guitar like “wild flesh, shamelessly and greedily, until his fingers bled.” Now Raphael Rogiński is a guitarist, composer and performer, improviser, agitator and researcher of musical folklore. Trained in jazz and classical music, he has also extended his training to musicology and ethnomusicology.

The guitar playing on his latest albums Talán (an ode to the Black Sea) and Žaltys is graceful and meditative, with a nod to American primitivism. Pitchfork: “Over the past fifteen years, Rogiński has developed a singular and unmistakable style on solo electric guitar. His playing is all restraint, but his fingering can give us the impression of hearing four hands working in tandem; it’s sometimes hard to believe that there are no overdubs (doubling a track).”