was founded by clarinettist, improviser and composer Paweł Szamburski with two other unconventional musicians: Tomasz Pokrzywiński (cello) and Michał Górczyński (contrabass clarinet). This unusual combination of instruments creates a unique new timbre, which has become the characteristic feature of Bastarda’s style. 

For the first two CD albums, Promitat eterno with music by Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz, and Ars moriendi with Renaissance funeral music, the trio has been praised for creating their own musical language, which has become the tool for reinterpreting early music. Chorales, motets and litanies are merely starting points for improvisation and new compositions; rich counterpoint of early polyphony implodes into minimalism; the “alla bastarda” method finds its way in a new context. at way musical traditions of the past morph into a modern, original and personal artistic voice. With the third album, Nigunim, Bastarda takes us on another musical journey, this time delving into Hasidic Nigunim, drawing mainly from the legacy of the Modzitz dynasty, as well as from the collection of Hasidic songs discovered by the musicologist Moshe Bieregowski. The fourth album, Fado, recorded with João de Sousa, is an intimate interpretation of traditional Portuguese music, while the fifth, The Spinning Wheel, features the trio’s own compositions recorded with the 40-strong SWPS Choir, in cooperation with the Radio Centre for Popular Culture. It is a celebration of four seasons in rural music and rituals: a tale of change and cycles, both in nature and culture. 

Bastarda’s latest recording, Minne, created with the Dutch ensemble Holland Baroque, is inspired by the poetry of Medieval female mystics, especially 13th-century Brabantian beguine Hadewijch, who discussed various facets of love in a subtle and suggestive way. 

2022 saw the publication of Tamoj, a collaborative album of Bastarda and Sutari, dedicated to borderland music, drawing on popular sources notably from Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Poland.