Vistula Jungle by The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann

"Vistula Jungle" is a concept album centered around Warsaw, the capital of Poland. It tells a tale of a young unknown artist living in the city in the early 80s, making documents of his stay and displaying his work in local art galleries, dreaming to meet J-M Basquiat. His favorite painter even gets his own track on the album, "SAMO (Art on Fire)". Our young artist goes through various phases and moods and his day is like a month of a regular person. He is obsessed not only with Basquiat, but also with the Vistula river and brutalist architecture, painting all the time and also doing various drugs.

The centerpiece of the album is the title track, and also tracks inspired by pop-art like "Jewelry" and "Psychedelic Love Hymn", or the Eliza Dycha sung "Diamonds in the Sun". But warholian pop art and J-M Basquiat are not the only art-references on the LP.

"Night Works" and "Raise Your Heart", the most rocking numbers in the set, are dedicated to my friend Mateusz Nowicki, with whom we started the first art/psychedelic band in Poznań back in the summer of 2002.

"Autobana" is dedicated to Kraftwerk, the German guys who brought avant-garde electronic music into pop culture, and especially to the memory of Florian Schneider. "Girl with Boots" was inspired by the Monks, the first post-modern pop band, also German by chance.

The acoustic version of "Stoned Gypsy Wanderer" appears here as a memoir of my 2014-recorded and 2021-vinyl released album of the same title. http://aj-kaufmann-ramble-record.bandcamp.com/album/stoned-gypsy-wanderer

The concept here is pop-art and post-modernism, and the Residents were also a major conceptual influence while recording the tracks. I hope you enjoy the album!

Tracklist

1.	Vistula Jungle	2:39

2.	Jewelry	3:11

3.	Night Works	2:58

4.	Autobana	4:03

5.	Stoned Gypsy Wanderer (Acoustic)	3:13

6.	Girl with Boots	2:40

7.	Psychedelic Love Hymn	3:43

8.	Raise Your Heart	3:14

9.	SAMO (Art on Fire)	3:15

10.	Diamonds in the Sun (feat. Eliza Dycha)	2:58

Credits

released May 8, 2022

A.J. Kaufmann - lyrics, music, all instruments, voice.
+
Eliza Dycha - vocals on "Diamonds in the Sun".

License