The 30 most interesting albums of 2024, some small joys, and reflections on the state of the music market.

Do I find the summary of 2024, or does it see me? Here is why waiting a few days is worth it as the year draws closer.

It’s 4 January, and we’re sitting in the Sejny Jazz Cooperative near the local synagogue. It’s usually sweltering in the summer, as it is all over Sejny. The Klezmer Orchestra of the Sejny Theatre – which was needed to stage the Hasidic drama ‘Dybbuk’ by Szymon Anski with a scene of a Jewish wedding in the early 1990s and then just stayed and plays to this day – performs in July and August three times a week with musicians from Poland and the world, audiences flock here in crowds, local and visiting. I wrote about the place a few years ago in Polityka Weekly.

Now, In January, the city is almost empty; it’s been snowing for the last few days. The place where we sit is reminiscent of the pubs of Krakow’s Kazimierz district. There was a yeshiva from the 19th century, a cheder at the beginning of the 20th century, and a shoe factory after World War II. With two orchestra members, we talk about what is happening in the world: the situation in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Lebanon, Israel, and the United States. Then we go down to the micro-scale: how does the music scene function today? Organizing tours in Poland is becoming increasingly complex, and you often have to pay extra for them; playing music and making a living from music is becoming increasingly complex. Connecting the dots on the constellation between clubs and cultural institutions is difficult. Universal experience, unfortunately.

Finally, we talk about mass events and the bane of grassroots culture. 2025 will bring even more festivals, stadium events, and new commercial concepts that will put even more strain on wallets. We talk about the time it takes to nurture culture, about the fact that the Orchestra will this year, as it has done for a quarter of a century, play a concert in Kłączno in Kashubia, which is always held on the first weekend of July. I cannot wait for this, as I’ve never attended it.

Although the mood is rather pessimistic, these activities are having an effect. Mass weekend events differ from regularly built activities for the community in many European cities. ’ve seen it this year in Bergen at Borealis, at the Sanatorium of Sound in Sokołowsko, Roadburn in Tilburg, Odysseus in Helsinki, and the wonderful Supersonic in Birmingham (I’ll write more about these two). These are festivals, too, but the concept is different; they are gathered by the local community, sometimes for decades. I also found this during W Samo Południe (in the noon) concerts at the Palma Foundation.

Enjoying things small and big simultaneously: Norther Ex-Easter Island Head is number one on The Quietus EOTY list. Spotting the debut of Tristwch Y Fenywod or reissues from outside the Anglo-Saxon circle: Rəhman Məmmədli, Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, reissues of Ukrainian music with Cukor Bila Smert or Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996 in the lead. The fact that for the third year in a row, I write about Central and Eastern European scenes in The Quietus, the Outlines label in Resident Advisor, or local cultural scenes out of the metropolis as Końskie and Bytów, which I wrote about in Dwutygodnik, Żenia Dawideńko (Wysokie Obcasy), who is planning to make theatre plays and finally, after two years got temporary stay documents in Gdańsk.

And while events like stadium concerts by Metallica, Taylor Swift, the Oasis reunion, or an Adele residency in the 73,000-capacity pop-up stadium in Munich – the largest temporary arena ever built – dominate the discussion, the mainstream is not the only one who leads. Even looking at the most talked-about album of the year – Charlie XCX’s Brat – it’s pleasing that it was produced by AG Cook, an indie creator who founded PC Music. I’d love to see something like this in Poland one day, when a pop star’s album would be produced by, for example, Julek Polski. Perhaps the change is coming as Coals album dominates many Polish EOTY charts, which are much more indie than pop. Because, after all, what happens on the peripheries lasts much longer than a season or two. Like The Klezmer Orchestra of the Sejny Theatre, which has been playing since the 1990s.

In Bergen in March, I met Patrick Wurzwallner from Austria, a guy who never stops talking, and who co-organizes the Elevate Festival in Graz. We’ve been hanging out for three days as if we know each other much longer. We spoke about the festivals too, our attitudes, how we find ourselves in cultural activities, laughing out loud at the disadvantages of the cultural sector, and being one hundred serious at the same time. He told me, “We can laugh ourselves to tears at what we do because we take it very seriously,” and that’s my motto of the year.

It’s not always the quantity that counts. It’s not the event but the experience that’s important.

Here are my best 30 albums of 2024.

AROOJ AFTAB – Night Reign, Verve
Arooj Aftab deftly lavers between jazz, chamber music, and folk, seducing with his lyrical melodies and poetic lyrics, which are full of lightness of sound but heaviness of content.

CHARLI XCX – Brat, Atlantic
The most talked-about album of the year is a party banger and a contemporary reflection on romance, jealousy, fun, maturity, and one’s place in the social spectacle.

ERIC CHENAUX TRIO – Delights Of My Life, Constellation
Eric Chenaux once again develops his ideas for songs that, at the same time, go beyond their format, this time accompanied by an extended line-up. It is lyrical, unconventional, and seductive.

MARION COUSIN & ÉLOÏSE DECAZES – Com a lanceta na mão, Pagans / review
Traditional songs from the north-east of Portugal get a new lease of life when they are taken by two French singers, combining polyphonic chants with abstract electronics, giving them a universality and a unique language.

CUKOR BILA SMERT – Recordings 1990-1994, Shukai / review
A stylistic richness hangs over the release, highlighted by dissonance and contrasting sounds. Affordable electronica abstracts music from its historical and political context. That may be why they sound fresh and appealing today.

PIOTR DAMASIEWICZ INTO THE ROOTS – Świtanie, L.A.S. / review
Piotr Damasiewicz, with his band Into the Roots, rises above the patterns of cultures and musical bubbles to create a new quality, a celebration of diversity without complexes lavished on equals.

DIALECT – Atlas of Green, RVNG Ltd
Andrew PM Hunt juxtaposes acoustic and synthetic sounds, dehumanized sounds, with the most lyrical ones. The result is an emotive-sounding album in an inbred, sensual-sounding microcosm.

E/I – Explicit Isolation, mappa / review
Ensemble led by Szymon Gąsiorek, is a striking exploration of minimalist, orchestral sound with microtonal influences. It presents a stately, single-minded sound with a dramatic shift in the finale, introducing light glitches, noise, and electronic beats.

EX-EASTER ISLAND HEAD – Norther, Rocket / review
Liverpool’s Four shows how simple patterns repeated ad infinitum offer the potential for highly developed suites. They concentrate on individual phrases, which gradually develop, demonstrating the incredible beauty and possibilities of the electric guitar sound stripped of its rock ethos.

GARY GWADERA – Far, far in Chicago. Footberk Suite, Pointless Geometry / review
Piotr Gwadera finds out what Oberek, a traditional Polish dancer, has in common with the Chicago footworker by combining his experience of Jaz sound with archival traditional recordings and electronic pads.

HINODE TAPES – Kiki Mori, Instant Classic
More static than the debut, full of space and reverb, Hinode Tapes’ second album shows that less is more beautiful, more subtle. A compelling distribution of accents between patches of guitars, saxophones, and drums.

IRENA A VOJTĚCH HAVLOVI – Four Hands, Animal Music / review
When using piano and organ in the most minimalist way, Havlovi can offer poignant, meditative compositions that can sometimes move you to tears and stop time through their simplicity.

LANDLESS – Lúireach, Glitterbeat / review
The vocal quartet Landless brings together female perspectives from across the ages, singing poignant, suave songs that are surprisingly up-to-date. It shows how a capella refreshes traditional songs.

KALI MALONE – All Life Long, Ideologic Organ / concert review
A study in attentiveness, patience, and perseverance. The new album is a continuation of Kali Malone’s explorations, now scored for choir, string ensemble, and organ that explores resonance and infinity.

RƏHMAN MƏMMƏDLI – Azerbaijani Guitar volume 2, Bongo Joe / review
Məmmədli puts his spin on the sound by combining it with Azerbaijani folk music. He experiments with modifications to the instrument, adding frets to facilitate playing in traditional modes. His music combines his local heritage with echoes of surf guitar.

THE NECKS – Bleed, Northern Spy
It is a meticulously developed piece that abstractly weaves the sound of piano, double bass, and highly sparing percussion, supported by post-production. It is the most interesting album from the Australians since ‘Mindset’.

NIDIA & VALENTINA – Estradas, Latency / review
The British-Portuguese duo’s collaboration combines traditional percussion techniques with modern, avant-garde club sounds, constantly pulsating and surprising with many samples and beats.

ANTONINA NOWACKA – Sylphine Soporifera, Mondoj / review
Nowacka employs the voice to craft meditative, chant-like melodies rather than conventional singing. She provides an emotionally powerful auditory experience, combining simplicity and profound resonance.

BILL ORCUTT GUITAR QUARTET – Four Guitars Live, Palialia
Documentation of an exceptional tour from last November. The raw sound of electric guitars leads through improvisations, polyphonies, and walls of distortion to lead to a peculiar catharsis.

RAPHAEL ROGIŃSKI – Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes, Unsound / interview
2024 sees the reissue of Rogiński’s most beautiful albums, recorded with singer Natalia Przybysz. His dry-sounding, delicate guitar serves as a vehicle for Coltrane’s spirituality.

RÓIS – Mo Léan, self-released
It is a unique lament on the border of folk and electronica that focuses on the issue of death in a uniquely non-obvious, lyrical, but also poignant way, experimenting with sound and lyrics.

SUPERPOSITION – II, We Jazz
The concert on Odysseus has made me listen to this album countless times. The bravura acoustic compositions show the quartet’s compositional flair and great chemistry, which are unique on the scale of the continental jazz scene.

Synthesizing the Silk Roads: Uzbek Disco, Tajik Folktronica, Uyghur Rock & Tatar Jazz from 1980s Soviet Central Asia, Ostinato / review
The compilation features ultra-rare disco tracks from Uzbekistan’s Tashkent Gramplastinok plant (1945-USSR’s fall), blending jazz, electronic, rock, and local influences, distinct from other global and Soviet Central Asian sounds.

TARTA RELENA – És pregunta, Latency / review
The Catalan duo sounds like soothsayers from the past, but how they dress up their traditionally inspired lyrics makes them sound thoroughly contemporary. Juggling with words and manipulating the voice, they create a speculative.

TRISTWCH Y FENYWOD – Tristwch Y Fenywod, Night School / review
It’s mysterious and intriguing, with gothic atmospherics intersecting rumbling repetition, sometimes kept in a steady, obscure, slightly disco mood. They weave a magical tale set in a fantasy land in which language makes this musical story unique.

EMAHOY TSEGE MARIAM GEBRU – Souvenirs, Mississippi / review
Beautifully intimate home recordings made by an Ethiopian nun reflecting on the idea of exile in the 1970s and 1980s, probably never intended to be heard by anyone but herself, have taken on an astounding universality in 2024.

MICHAELA TURCEROVÁ – Alene et, mappa / review
Taking inspiration from percussive traditions, Turcerová electrifies and amplifies its sound, creates abstract forms, wheezes, and rustles, and applies various modifications, showing the saxophone as full of unexpected textures.

Ulyap Songs: Beyond Circassian Tradition, Flee / review
A unique insight into the traditional songs of the singers of Cherkivsk, but also a field for the reinterpretation of this music by contemporary artists, which shows how fascinating the musical tradition is on the periphery of the music world.

WSPÓŁGŁOSY – Współgłosy, wyd. własne
It is an album that moves, makes you laugh, and bursts with diversity from poetic song, choral singing, improvisation, playfulness, sincerity, musical erudition, and uninhibitedness, but also exceptional lyrics, sung or recited.

YANA – Daydreamer, Opia Community
Yana shows that something must be said for a post-ambient aesthetic combining piano and synth sounds. It is light and seductive, uplifting, with emotion but without pathos.