Three works for accordion composed in the last decade by artists who actively explore the intersection of instrumental music and sound media.
The concert by Rafał Łuc, organized in collaboration between the WRO Media Art Biennale and the Musica Electronica Nova festival, presents a contemporary approach to the accordion in combination with electronics.
“96bit music” by Matthias Kranebitter, written for accordion and playback, is full of sharp contrasts, rapid shifts, and digital distortions. The piece balances between pastiche and experiment, revealing the accordion in a new, often surprising light.
In “5 Widmungen an die verborgenen Empfänger”, Oxana Omelchuk combines accordion with tape to create a multi-layered sonic narrative. Built on subtle sound juxtapositions and a delicate play with form, the piece’s title – “Five Dedications to Hidden Receivers” – suggests something intimate, though not necessarily transparent.
Pierre Jodlowski’s “Something out of Apocalypse” is a powerful composition for accordion and soundtrack, marked by a dramatic, almost cinematic narrative. The electronic layer amplifies the expression, and the piece unfolds with a tension and rhythm reminiscent of apocalyptic film imagery.
The concert program highlights how contemporary music treats the accordion not as a traditional instrument, but as a fully-fledged medium for working with sound, space, and technology. Rafał Łuc, a performer specializing in new music, brings a precise, curious, and open approach to sonic experimentation.
Rafał Łuc, born in 1987 in Wrocław, is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London (in the class of Prof. Owen Murray), Musikene Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco in San Sebastian (in the class of Iñaki Alberdi), and the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music (in the accordion class of Zbigniew Łuc), where he currently works as an assistant professor. In September 2018, he obtained the title of Doctor habilitatus in musical arts.
He forms Duo van Vliet with Rafał Zalech and is also a co-founder and member of the ensemble Kompopolex, which specializes in performing contemporary music. He also collaborates with ensembles such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Opera House, Aurora Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, London Sinfonietta, Nash Ensemble, Chroma, Rambert Dance Company, Riot Ensemble, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, and Wrocław Opera, as well as with composers on new accordion repertoire. He has performed at major contemporary music festivals including Warsaw Autumn, Musica Polonica Nova, Musica Electronica Nova, Poznań Spring, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and Ostrava New Music Days.
For his outstanding achievements, he has received scholarships from the Wrocław City Council, the Lower Silesian Marshal’s Office, the zDolny Śląsk scholarship, the Crescendum Est–Polonia Foundation, the Solti Foundation, and has been awarded the scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage four times.
In June 2015, his debut album acc++ca, featuring works for accordion and electronics, was released by DUX. Two years later, in June 2017, Duo van Vliet’s album Lachrymae ReVisited was released by Orchid Classics and was nominated for the EMV Award for New Music Recording of the Year by New Music Scotland. In 2022, a live recording of Evil Nigger by Julius Eastman featuring Rafał Łuc was released on vinyl in collaboration with the Arditti Quartet. That same year, he also recorded music at Abbey Road Studios for the soundtrack Vampyr by Joby Talbot and appeared in programs for SkyArts with Paraorchestra, an orchestra of musicians with disabilities.
