Belarusian musician and composer Viktar Siamaška formed Fantastyčnyja Płyŭcy (Fantastic Swimmers) in the mid-2000s. “Initially, their idea was to anchor the music around the piano,” writes Ilia Rogatchevski in The Wire 488. “As members joined and fell away, the project pitched horns against reeds (Chronograph, 2010), reshaped the blues (Duplet, 2011) and deconstructed Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” (2015).”

In their recent Wire interview, Siamaška explains the initial motivations behind the project: “It was important to have different musicians for different sessions,” they say. “This expanded our network of like-minded people, formulating a separate section of pianists, the Kum-Kuma choir, as well as musicians based in Minsk and Warsaw, who have now consolidated after the mass emigration from Belarus.”

Piano Concert #4, now exclusively available to stream here, is the result of the ensemble's latest coming together, where five pianists play spontaneous improvisation in sequence. Siamaška divulges more over email: “The tradition of such piano summits started back in Minsk in 2018. Maryja Kaleśnikava, a current Belarusian political prisoner, took part in the organisation of one of them. Participants play spontaneous solo improvisations one after the other in a circle, trying to continue the idea of the previous participant. In this way three to five circles are played. In the final circle, a variety of collaborations begin: playing four hands or more simultaneously, incorporating voices or dancing.

Piano Concert #4 was recorded at Quality Studio in Warsaw last summer with the
participation of Belarusian and Polish composers and pianists of different
generations: Alaksiej Varsoba, Julija Šaviel, Viktar Siamaška, Edward Sielicki,
Andrzej Rejman.”

Read Ilia Rogatchevski's interview with Viktar Siamaška in full in The Wire 488. Wire subscribers can also read the article online via the digital magazine library.