T’ien Lai

T’ien Lai are a group of “rhythm shamans” drawing inspiration from the club sounds of Uganda, Portugal, Brazil, Angola, and South Africa to create a hypnotic sonic world. The band consists of Łukasz Jędrzejczak, Jakub Ziołek, and Qba Janicki — key figures of the Polish underground music scene. This experimental trio creates what they call “konk” — a Slavic take on gqom, batida, and funk carioca. Known for their hypnotic and intense live performances, they have appeared at festivals including Unsound Festival, CTM Festival, Open’er Festival, and Tauron Nowa Muzyka. In 2023, they contributed a track to the 107.5 Darkstar Radio compilation created for the video game Cyberpunk 2077.

Łukasz Jędrzejczak (Javva)

Jakub Ziołek (||ALA|MEDA||)

Qba Janicki (Malediwy)

The band was founded as a duo by Łukasz Jędrzejczak and Jakub Ziołek. Initially, they created drone and noise music collages using old Polish Śnieżka radio receivers. This phase was documented on the album Da’at (Monotype, 2013).

Over time, the duo began incorporating African and South American rhythms into their music, and their sound became more energetic and pulsating, largely built around samples. This creative direction resulted in their next album, RHTHM (Monotype, 2015).

In 2016, the band shifted its focus toward live performances and joined SHAPE — a platform dedicated to innovative music and audiovisual arts. Since then, they have performed at festivals such as CTM Festival (Berlin), Unsound Festival (Kraków), Luminato Festival (Toronto), Rocolectiv (Bucharest), Hradby Samoty (Jablonica), Open’er Festival (Gdynia), Tauron Nowa Muzyka (Katowice), Avant Art (Wrocław, Berlin), Phono Festival (Odense), among others.

One of their recent achievements came in 2023, when they created a track for the 107.5 Darkstar Radio compilation, featured as part of the video game Cyberpunk 2077. The compilation also included artists such as Idris Elba, Slickback, Ecko Bazz, Chrisman, Lord Spikeheart, and julek ploski.

fot. Emilia Biernacka