The latest album by Krzysztof Komendarek-Tymendorf, professor at the Academy of Music, Altotronica (CRC 4173), is not merely a collection of pieces—it is an artistic manifesto, a sound laboratory, and a bold attempt to redefine the relationship between the acoustic and the electronic. The album, featuring works by Polish composers for viola and electronics, will be released on 21 November 2025 by Centaur Records, a U.S. label.
“The alchemy of four strings and El-phonia—I invite you on a journey to a place where past and future intertwine in sound, and where the soul of an instrument with centuries of history is transformed through contact with the digital system of the present day. This confirms that in an era of omnipresent technology, the most intriguing phenomena arise at the intersection of worlds that seem distant from one another. The heart of this project is the viola—an instrument with a unique, still underappreciated potential. Its timbre, situated between the virtuosity of the violin and the depth of the cello, has for centuries been associated with melancholy, warmth, and the human voice. Yet the creators of this album approach it not as a relic, but as an inexhaustible source of sonic material,” emphasizes the renowned violist.
The album is dedicated to Władysław “Gudonis” Komendarek.
By performing works by Piotr Grella-Możejko, Jacaszek, Piotr Jędrzejczyk, Damian Marhulets, Dariusz Mazurowski, Zuzanna Ossowska, Przemysław Rudz, Rafał Ryterski, Krzysztof Wołek, Aleksandra Zemla, Szymon Wieczorek, and Igor Torbicki, he presents the full spectrum of the viola’s possibilities: from lyrical, vibrating cantabile to rough, percussive con legno strikes on strings in scordatura and on the resonating body.
He also employs performance techniques such as tapping, Bartók pizzicato, string snapping, pressing the bow hair into the string, dirty glissando, slow motion bow, crazy sul ponticello scratchiness, shutter, noisy shift, electric slide, scratch tone, preparation, arpeggios, tremolos, and ethereal, barely audible harmonics. Algorithms process the viola’s sound in real time—looping it, multiplying it, stretching it in space, creating spectral doubles and digital shadows.
Altotronica is dominated by avant-garde sonoristic landscapes. Cantilena-like writing appears essentially only in Przemysław Rudz’s Evening Misty Meadow and Damian Marhulets’s Chromodynamics and Stochastic 303 Acid. Krzysztof Komendarek-Tymendorf’s goal was to seek a new sonic quality: a fusion of acoustic and electronic layers.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
Additional information: https://www.tymendorf.com/#cds
