The Line-up Skalpel are Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudlo, from Wroclaw, Poland. The pair are talented DJs, who have had four mixes aired on Ninja Tune’s Solid Steel radio show over the last two years but they have come via the music they create out of samples taken from old Polish jazz records.

The History In Poland Cichy and Pudlo are among the best known and most respected DJ’s and producers. Their journey to the rest of the world started when they interviewed fellow Ninja Tune artist DJ Vadim for a Polish hip hop magazine. After the interview the duo began discussing samples, obscure breaks and the Polish music scene with him. All of which led to a combined tour with Vadim’s Russian Percussion, at which they presented an amazing 4-deck show all over the country. Later that year Skalpel released a demo CD titled Polish Jazz, which not only received a lot of critical acclaim, but also led to the duo signing a contract with Ninja Tune.

Fast forward two years, a time largely spent building up a large collection of samples from Polish jazz records, and we reach the release of their debut album.

The Sound Well, it’s jazz and it’s Polish. You may not realise the rich jazz history there is in Poland though. The Communist government feared that jazz would bring down the state at one point, which lead to the semi-illegal samizdat recordings and among Skalpel influences are Michael Urbaniak, the only violinist to ever work with Miles Davis, and Krysztof Komeda, who composed the music for the Roman Polanski film, Rosemary’s Baby. Other influences include Tomasz Stanko, Czeslaw Bartkowski, Urszula Dudziak and Laboratorium.

Skalpel’s aim, they say, is to resurrect the dusty & smoky spirit of 60s and 70s Polish jazz and then “reimagine it for 21st century audiophiles.”

Other Items Of Interest Despite the fantastic live feel to the album, the only pieces of equipment used to make it were turntables, computer and sampler. They are named Skalpel because they “cut the music with so much class”.

IF Recommends Skalpel (Buy it from Amazon)

Websites www.skalpelsound.com | www.ninjatune.net