Hinode Tapes (PL)

Hinode Tapes – Improvisation, Ambient and Freedom

Few artists can claim that their debut album premiered on the airwaves of the legendary American radio station KEXP. Then again, Hinode Tapes are far from an ordinary band. The Gdańsk-based trio is one of the most compelling acts on Poland’s contemporary improvised music scene, bringing together influences from Japanese ambient, free jazz and post-rock into a distinctive sonic language.

At Fonomo Music & Film Festival, they will present music that defies easy categorisation, turning the traditional hierarchy of jazz and rock ensembles on its head – as aptly observed by the Polish cultural magazine Dwutygodnik.

Music as a Process

The band’s name carries symbolic meaning. Hinode, the Japanese word for “sunrise,” represents a new artistic beginning. Tapes, meanwhile, reflects the musicians’ fondness for recording long-form improvisations.

Their music draws on ambient, free jazz, post-rock, shoegaze and experimental music, yet none of these labels fully captures the essence of Hinode Tapes. Rather than adhering to a genre, their work unfolds as a process — sound evolving over time through the dialogue between instruments and subtle shifts in texture.

The trio’s self-titled debut, released by Instant Classic, was warmly received by audiences and critics in Poland and abroad. Their follow-up album, Ita, recorded with Japanese double bassist Hiroki Chiba, expanded their musical language by introducing new cultural perspectives and improvisational approaches.

Experience You Can Hear

The members of Hinode Tapes are well-established figures on Poland’s alternative and jazz scenes. They have performed with acclaimed projects including Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet, Nanook of the North, Kamil Piotrowicz Sextet, Nene Heroine and Hatti Vatti. This breadth of musical experience shapes the trio’s approach to composition and performance: open, non-hierarchical, hypnotic and strikingly restrained.

Between Structure and Dissolution

Hinode Tapes consistently resist stylistic conventions. Their music exists in the space between structure and improvisation, silence and dense sonic textures, control and chance. It is precisely within these tensions that their sound finds its strength—slow-building, immersive and quietly unpredictable.

Their performance at Fonomo Music & Film Festival will be an encounter with music that does not impose interpretation but instead invites attentive listening. It is a concert where sound becomes part of an unfolding process—and it is within that process that its greatest intensity emerges.