James Holden & Waclaw Zimpel^UK/PL

Image Credit: Justyna Traczyk

James Holden is a British musician and producer whose career spans trance, techno, modular synthesis, and spiritual jazz. Known for his insatiable curiosity and technical inventiveness, he first gained recognition in the early 2000s as a remixer and DJ, before moving away from the club circuit to explore live performance and improvisation. His albums The Inheritors and The Animal Spirits mark a shift toward more expansive compositions, blending analog synthesizers, percussion, brass, and collective energy.

In 2023, Holden returned with Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities, a luminous album shaped by years of experimentation, where the spirit of rave meets a deepened sonic philosophy. His performances, crafted with custom-built instruments and homemade software, blur the lines between electronic and organic, between dancefloor and ritual.

Wacław Zimpel is a Polish multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer whose work blurs the lines between jazz, minimalism, traditional music, and experimental electronics. Trained as a classical clarinetist, he has since devoted himself to improvisation and musical hybridity, drawing on diverse traditions from Carnatic music to American minimalism. His breakthrough solo album Lines (2016) marked a turning point: a departure from his jazz roots toward meditative, borderless forms.

Zimpel has collaborated with artists such as James Holden, Shackleton, and members of the Saagara ensemble in Bangalore, where he has studied South Indian classical music for over a decade. Together, they’ve released multiple albums that bridge heritage and innovation. His projects span studio recordings, live electronics, and theatre scores, with performances at international festivals including Berlin Atonal, WOS Festival, and Unsound.

James Holden & Waclaw Zimpel
Live | World Premiere

Following their recent collaborative album The Universe Will Take Care of You, James Holden and Wacław Zimpel bring their trance-rooted, genre-fluid dialogue to the stage. Modular synths meet alto clarinet in a live, improvisational set where minimalism, folk traditions, and raw electronic textures collide.