Artur Olender

Twarz [Face]

2010 r.

The conceptual designation of man is a spirit, and it follows not to be drawn into falsehood by the fact that he also is able to walk on two legs (Kirgiegard). A spirit
is neither being nor not being. It appears or rather manifests itself in signs that are neither symbols nor metaphor but are tracks. Ones that lead to the promise of a dawning hope that what is real is perceptively absent. And so emerges the desire opening up man to the endless horizon as protest against the here and now.

But first and foremost in following these tracks we trustingly follow someone who is the source of this promise. Who calls out ‘Where are you?’. And yearns. A revelation requires matter in which it could reside.

Levinas claims that it resides in the face of man. The face means. It is a text without context. Hence people have faces, while things appearances. Discovering in a face another trace towards the promise constitutes an answer to the question ‘Where are you?’ Hence then a meeting with another opens us up to the truth. The truth about us. And who you are for another person is decisive for whom you are for your very self.

However the face is naked, defenceless (Levinas). The proof being the fact that people in order to hide this don masks, Their source being a fear of others. Masks are for others, while at the same time as a result of their fault: ‘You see me as you want to see me, so in reality you haven’t got me – and this is purely your fault.’ A mask is a view of man through the window of a hideaway. (Kępinski).

Here the other represents the evil that wishes to damage us. But the evil is not within us it lies between us. The initiation of opening up onto the truth is understanding, touching the expanse of evil and demasking lies – and as a consequence a discovery in another trace/mark. Of a mark left for us.
But does an opening up to truth always make us happy? Is the truth still the truth if it results in suffering? Merton would say that whenever suffering appears one should give one’s name. Is our name not merely an illusion, a metaphor, a butterfly? Is there waiting for us at the end of the road after the tracks something good or an angel merely weeping? Or maybe simply an endless blue expanse?

Reading Tishner and sipping wine,
2nd April 2009, Cracow

1. Autentycznie żyć [Live Authentically]
2. Ze mną tu [With Me Here]
3. Niebieska krew [Blue Blood]
4. Promyczek [A Little Ray]
5. Walk in rain
6. Dla Heli [For Hela]
7. Rzeka [The River]
8. Cztery pory mroku [Four Seasons of Gloom]
9. To nie sen [It’s not a Dream]
10. Golgota [Golgotha]
11. Który jest [Who is]
12. Okno [The Window]
13. Twarz [Face]
14. Tyle [That Much]
15. Pozostanie tylko but [Only the Shoe Remains]
16. Brzoza [Silver Birch]

Artur Olender – music (except track 7), lyrics and vocals
Krzysztof Cyran – guitars, mandolin, musical management
Piotr Grodecki – electric guitars
Dawid Rudnicki – keyboards
Paweł Solecki – bassoon, folk wind instruments
Witalij Iwanow – saxaphones
Michał Braszak – bass guitar
Wojciech Famielec – bass guitar (8,9,10,14)
Gertruda Szymańska – percussion instruments
Grzegorz Fieber –percussion

Backing vocals
Ada Bujak, Joanna Trafas, Paweł Solecki
Brass section
Władysław Grochot – trumpet, Witalij Iwanow – saxophone, Robert Szczerba – trombone

Guest appearances:
Paweł Orkisz – vocals
Antoni Krupa – harmonica
Wojciech Marcinowski – violin
as well as the Family Choir comprised of: Bartosz and Monika Olender, Zuzia, Gabrysia, Kubuś and Ewa Gaweł, Helenka and Małgorzata Majewska, Mateusz Kwiecień

Track no. 6 contains a quote from a poem by Wisława Szymborska.
Garth Brooks composed track no.7.

Produced by: Aleksander Wilk, STUDIO 2002, January – April 2010