Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
General Theory of Relativity, for clarinets, piano, percussion and violin (2021)
Klangforum Wien
Johannes Kalitzke
I suppose that the main problem facing those composers who choose to engage directly with the attitudes, behaviours, politics and mores of the present is the possibility that their music might date all too quickly, yet it’s a risk the best composers are prepared to take if for no other reason than to acknowledge and document for the benefit of future generations the anxieties, preoccupations and contradictions of a given period. The best creators will always find some kind of curious audience in the days to come.
I wonder then how listeners say, fifty years hence, will respond to the daring music of the Polish composer Wojciech Błażejczyk who has a pronounced interest in the social media, political double-speak and technology that dominates the current zeitgeist. Błażejczyk apparently cut his musical teeth as a guitarist in a prog rock group – given his age this itself might strike one as a gloriously unfashionable milieu for someone who would have reached adulthood at the turn of the millennium – before he eventually graduated in composition as a pupil of his eminent compatriot Zygmunt Krauze. Unusually, he also studied journalism and political science, both fields which seem to inform his musical philosophy on the evidence of the works included on this new issue. It is also relevant to refer to Błażejczyk’s far from casual interest in technology; he has invented a number of acoustic and electronic instruments and is a renowned sound engineer and soundtrack designer.
General Theory of Relativity is scored for clarinets, piano, percussion and violin but you’d never guess as much if you just listened to the opening three minutes which are dominated by electronic loops and recorded fragments of so-called politicians’ and officials’ post-truth speeches (all of which allude to the non-existence of ‘facts’ and the pre-eminence of ‘interpretation’). The piece marries free-jazz chaos, taped speech (whose inflections are cleverly mirrored by instrumental rhythm and pitch in the manner of Steve Reich or Peter Ablinger), blocks of instrumental and synthetic din and at one point wild applause. It’s a brilliantly realised conception, powerful and imaginative and terrifying in the manner of an Adam Curtis film. In this case the life-or-death importance of the themes Błażejczyk is tackling render it likely that this bold and thorny piece will indeed transcend its era.
I take my hat off to Wojciech Błażejczyk, a rare example of a composer who seems more than prepared to make the kind of music that’s likely to ruffle those feathers that need ruffling. Looking in from the outside, I only wish that there were more like him elsewhere. Despite its darkness and irony, much of his music seems compelling and important. It’s performed with Klangforum’s customary levels of commitment and vim. The vivid recordings will leave no listener wondering. Rather than speculate about its continued relevance over future decades, perhaps it’s sufficient for now to be glad that individuals like Błażejczyk continue to shake the tree at the same time as documenting a world where the pace and quality of change becomes ever more bewildering for a hefty percentage of the rest of us. --Richard Hanlon
Art by George Grosz
General Theory of Relativity, for clarinets, piano, percussion and violin (2021)
Klangforum Wien
Johannes Kalitzke
I suppose that the main problem facing those composers who choose to engage directly with the attitudes, behaviours, politics and mores of the present is the possibility that their music might date all too quickly, yet it’s a risk the best composers are prepared to take if for no other reason than to acknowledge and document for the benefit of future generations the anxieties, preoccupations and contradictions of a given period. The best creators will always find some kind of curious audience in the days to come.
I wonder then how listeners say, fifty years hence, will respond to the daring music of the Polish composer Wojciech Błażejczyk who has a pronounced interest in the social media, political double-speak and technology that dominates the current zeitgeist. Błażejczyk apparently cut his musical teeth as a guitarist in a prog rock group – given his age this itself might strike one as a gloriously unfashionable milieu for someone who would have reached adulthood at the turn of the millennium – before he eventually graduated in composition as a pupil of his eminent compatriot Zygmunt Krauze. Unusually, he also studied journalism and political science, both fields which seem to inform his musical philosophy on the evidence of the works included on this new issue. It is also relevant to refer to Błażejczyk’s far from casual interest in technology; he has invented a number of acoustic and electronic instruments and is a renowned sound engineer and soundtrack designer.
General Theory of Relativity is scored for clarinets, piano, percussion and violin but you’d never guess as much if you just listened to the opening three minutes which are dominated by electronic loops and recorded fragments of so-called politicians’ and officials’ post-truth speeches (all of which allude to the non-existence of ‘facts’ and the pre-eminence of ‘interpretation’). The piece marries free-jazz chaos, taped speech (whose inflections are cleverly mirrored by instrumental rhythm and pitch in the manner of Steve Reich or Peter Ablinger), blocks of instrumental and synthetic din and at one point wild applause. It’s a brilliantly realised conception, powerful and imaginative and terrifying in the manner of an Adam Curtis film. In this case the life-or-death importance of the themes Błażejczyk is tackling render it likely that this bold and thorny piece will indeed transcend its era.
I take my hat off to Wojciech Błażejczyk, a rare example of a composer who seems more than prepared to make the kind of music that’s likely to ruffle those feathers that need ruffling. Looking in from the outside, I only wish that there were more like him elsewhere. Despite its darkness and irony, much of his music seems compelling and important. It’s performed with Klangforum’s customary levels of commitment and vim. The vivid recordings will leave no listener wondering. Rather than speculate about its continued relevance over future decades, perhaps it’s sufficient for now to be glad that individuals like Błażejczyk continue to shake the tree at the same time as documenting a world where the pace and quality of change becomes ever more bewildering for a hefty percentage of the rest of us. --Richard Hanlon
Art by George Grosz
