Tatvamasi, Parts of the Entirety

Guitarist and composer Grzegorz Lesiak forms the main catalyst behind the Polish jazz-rock outfit Tatvamasi. They enjoy their debut album on Parts of the Entirety (Cuneiform). It is a quartet that thrives on combining a Slavik sensibility with an avant-garde insistency.

The band excels through the tension ratcheted up between an in-your-face avant tenorman with plenty of ideas and heft (Tomasz Piatek), guitarist Grzegorz and his neo-psychedelic coloring, his out guitar-chord comping, east-meets-out solo style, and a very loose yet full-speed-ahead rhythm section of electric bass and drums, Lukasz Downar and Krzysztof Redas, respectively.

The compositions are generally built on riffs that have an interesting spin to them. Melodies float atop at times and the improvisations are wide-ranging and driving.

This is solid, absorbing progressive music that gets your attention and holds it. Listen to it and I think you'll dig it like I did.