Friday, October 16 at 9:00 PM
The Pony
314 E. Hickory St., Suite 121, Denton, TX 76201
Event Details
Tuesday, October 20 at 8:00 PM
Giorno Poetry Systems / Unsound New York
Raphael Roginski Plays The Velvet Underground on Solo Guitar
222 Bowery, New York, NY 10012
Event Details
Wednesday, October 21 at 7:00 PM
Rhizome DC
6950 Maple St. NW, Washington, DC 20012
Event Details
Thursday, October 23 at 7:00 PM
Manny’s Live Performance Space
101 Hiester St., State College, PA 16801
Eveny Details
Saturday, October 24 at 7:30 PM
Bantha Tea Bar
5002 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15224
Event Details
Sunday, October 25 at 7:00 PM
Hungry Brain
2319 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, IL 60618
Event Details
Wednesday, October 28 at 7:00 PM
Berlin
204 N. First St., Minneapolis, MN 55401
Event Listing
Friday, October 30 at 7:00 PM
Woodland Theater
608 NW 65th St., Seattle, WA 98117
Sunday, November 1
Dandelion Records & Emporium
1701 Powell Street, Unit 506, Vancouver, BC V5L 5C9
“Raphael Rogiński was supposed to be a sculptor, but his guitar got in the way.”
—Pitchfork“Sublime.” —The Quietus
Polish guitarist, composer, and improviser Raphael Rogiński returns to North America in fall 2026 for an extensive tour across the United States and Canada, presenting two distinct solo projects
The tour introduces Qırım, his new project devoted to the music, memory, and cultural heritage of Crimea and the Crimean Tatars, alongside performances of Raphael Rogiński Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes, the landmark solo project that brought his singular guitar language to international attention. Presented in the year of John Coltrane’s centennial, the Coltrane-focused performances form part of the Polish Cultural Institute New York’s contribution to commemorating the legacy of one of the most influential figures in modern jazz.
Rogiński’s music draws on blues, jazz, Eastern European traditions, archival research, and improvisation, creating a sound that is at once raw, meditative, and deeply rooted in cultural memory.
Qırım is Raphael Rogiński’s newest musical project – a personal journey into sound, memory, spirituality, and Crimean Tatar cultural heritage.
Drawing on Rogiński’s long-standing engagement with the musical traditions of Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region, the project explores Crimea as a living cultural landscape shaped by memory, displacement, survival, and loss.
The album was recorded on analogue tape by anthropologist István Sántha, whose decades of fieldwork documenting traditional music across Central Asia resonate with the project’s themes of preservation and transmission. Rather than reconstructing folklore, Rogiński transforms archival material and Crimean Tatar musical sources through improvisation and his distinctive electric-guitar language.
Echoes of Sufi spirituality, mourning songs, and the meditative pulse of the steppe emerge within a sound world that is intimate, spacious, and unmistakably his own. Qırım is a reflection on longing, cultural memory, and hope — and an invitation to encounter Crimean Tatar culture through sound.
Raphael Rogiński Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes is one of the defining projects of Rogiński’s career – a deeply personal reimagining of the music of John Coltrane, intertwined with musical reflections on the poetry of Langston Hughes.
Originally released by Bôłt Records in 2015, the album was reissued by Unsound in 2024 in an expanded edition featuring four additional pieces. Performed entirely solo on electric guitar, without overdubs or effects, the music strips Coltrane’s compositions of familiar jazz conventions. Rogiński slows them down, opens their structures, and allows silence, resonance, and repetition to become part of the music.
The result is an intimate and hypnotic performance in which blues, jazz, folk traditions, and improvisation meet in Rogiński’s singular musical language.
Raphael Rogiński is a Polish guitarist, composer, improviser, cultural animator, and researcher of musical folklore. Educated in jazz and classical music, he expanded his studies to include musicology and ethnomusicology — a combination that fundamentally shapes both his compositional language and performance practice.
Closely associated with Eastern European Jewish culture and other minority traditions, Rogiński researches forgotten musical forms and translates their meanings into contemporary artistic expression. As leader of pioneering ensembles such as Cukunft and Shofar, he has recontextualized traditional music within modern experimental frameworks.
His artistic practice extends across Turkish, Bedouin, African, Georgian, Persian, Armenian, and Crimean Tatar musical traditions, often performed in collaboration with musicians from those regions. A deep engagement with classic blues guitar techniques and vintage instruments from the 1950s and 1960s informs projects such as Wovoka and Shy Albatross.
Rogiński’s fascination with Kurpie folklore led him to collaborate with Genowefa Lenarcik, an outstanding singer of the region and daughter of the renowned folk musician Stanisław Brzozowy. He also worked with the last musicians of the Polska Roma community, founding the ensemble Drom.
His exploration of early music resulted in projects such as Bach Bleach, in which Johann Sebastian Bach’s works are performed on prepared guitars, and Plays Henry Purcell, reinterpreting Purcell through the aesthetic lens of 1980s Polish cold wave.
At the same time, Rogiński remains active in the international new jazz and experimental scene. His music has accompanied documentaries, animated films, theater productions, multimedia performances, and literary works. He has collaborated with directors and artists including Małga Kubiak, Jerzy Kalina, Paweł Miśkiewicz, Piotr Cieplak, and Maja Korczakowska, and has created music inspired by writers such as Tadeusz Różewicz, Mieczysław Myśliwski, Mieczysław Abramowicz, and Andrzej Stasiuk.
He performs primarily as a solo artist and bandleader. His ongoing projects include Shofar, Hizbut Jamm, Żywizna, Elik (a duo with Svitlana Nianio), and solo guitar programs.
Rogiński has collaborated with numerous internationally recognized musicians, including Jim White, Joe McPhee, Marylin Mazur, Michael Zerang, Frank London, Tim Sparks, Dave Rempis, Mark Sanders, Hania Rani, Mikołaj Trzaska, Natalia Przybysz, Wacław Zimpel, and many others. He regularly appears at festivals and concert venues in Poland and worldwide.
In 2015, Bôłt Records released Raphael Rogiński Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes African Mystic Music, which received widespread international acclaim. The album was included in The Wire magazine’s annual summary (ranked 16th), marking Rogiński as the first Polish artist to appear in its year-end list. In 2024, the album was remastered and reissued by Unsound with additional material. He was nominated for the prestigious Polityka Passport Award in 2015, and again in 2016 for projects including Żywizna and Shy Albatross.
Between 2018 and 2020, Rogiński collaborated with the Slovenian band Širom. His fascination with 1970s Senegalese culture led to the formation of Hizbut Jamm, whose debut album was released in 2024. Together with Ukrainian alternative music legend Svitlana Nianio, he founded Elik, a project dedicated to Ukrainian mythology.
During the pandemic, Rogiński developed the solo guitar program Dobroczynne Niguny, reinterpreting mystical Jewish nigunim. In collaboration with Natalia Przybysz, he reimagines music of the 1960s and 1970s.
His solo album Talán (Instant Classic, 2023) received highly positive reviews both in Poland and internationally. In 2024, the project expanded with the album Žaltys, focusing on original sources of Eastern European heritage. These recordings involve collaborations with musicians from Georgia, Serbia, Armenia, Ukraine, and other countries, presenting the region’s traditions through a contemporary lens.
In May 2025, Rogiński premiered Ružičniak Tajni (with Svetlana Spajić, Marina Džukljev, and Tijana Golubović), a project reinterpreting ancient Serbian musical traditions and those of neighboring cultures.
Raphael Rogiński’s Fall 2026 North American tour is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute New York.
