The festival’s “Deep Listening” series explores both the act of listening and a specific performance practice; solo or small-ensemble concerts offer a perfect opportunity to experience music in a new way. This time, we will discover this through the work of Raphael RogińskI, a guitarist, composer, improviser, and researcher of traditional music.

An artist trained in classical music and jazz, Rogiński also studied musicology and ethnomusicology. Throughout his career, he has navigated the realms of improvisation, blues, rock, early music, and the distinctive sounds of various cultures. Rather than treating these genres as a mere catalogue of quotations, he discovers hidden similarities in melodic phrasing, rhythm, modes of expression, and spiritual dimensions. On this foundation, he has crafted a distinctive musical language, establishing himself as one of the world’s most recognizable guitarists.

In this concert, Raphael Rogiński aims to transport the audience to the shores of the Black Sea. He plans to perform material from his latest project, Qırım, a work that serves as a meditative treatise on Crimean Tatar culture and, more broadly, on the lost world of Crimea. The album was recorded on analogue tape by anthropologist István Sántha, who has spent decades documenting and recording the traditional music of Central Asia; the recording process thus plays a vital role in the album’s connection to memory, preservation, and the transmission of heritage. The mysticism of the Crimean Tatar tradition, echoes of ancient Sufism, the sound of mournful melodies, and the meditative pulse of the steppe intertwine with improvisation to create an emotional landscape of spiritual depth. Drawing on songs discovered in archives, Rogiński breathes new life into them through his arrangements.