Cosmic Liberty by Casimir Liberski

“'Cosmic Liberty' is an odyssey through myriad musical landscapes; the listener is taken on a journey through every layer of imagination, battling and jumping from one plateau to the next as in the linear motion of archaic video games. The songs were constructed by an intense accumulation of constantly multiplying sections that complicate the listener’s adventure.”


Unlike Casimir Liberski's previous albums, "Cosmic Liberty" involves very little improvisation. For this project, Casimir spent two years challenging himself to compose, arrange, play and lead a band through constantly shifting material that pushed his and their technical and artistic boundaries.


Biography:


Casimir Liberski was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1988. He distinguished himself as leader of his own trio at the age of 13 and gained significant recognition and acclaim in the European and international jazz scene since then.

From his first live appearances, Casimir's music has been described as moving, exhilarating and atypical. He possesses a daring and very strong personal style topped with an astonishing virtuosity as a pianist. Growing up, Casimir always drew inspiration from all area and eras of jazz, blues & funk and later on deepened his knowledge in classical and electronic music. Brought up in the 90’s, like other musically inclined kids of his generation, Casimir was exposed and certainly influenced by melodies from Nintendo games, grunge and alternative rock, hip hop and cartoons on TV. His heart however was always leaning towards Jazz and the tremendous joy he'd get from improvising and composing incorporating this variety of musical elements surrounding him.

Casimir has earned various accolades in major jazz festivals and competitions since a young age. He also composed music for films and TV, notably “Bunker Paradise” and “Tokyo Fiancée” directed by his father Stefan Liberski for which he was nominated for best screen composer of 2005 at the Ghent’s film festival.

In 2006, Berklee College of Music generously welcomed Casimir with the exclusive Presidential Scholarship. He was the first European to receive this award. In America Casimir sought guidance from great jazz artists (Brad Mehldau, Danilo Perez, Craig Taborn, Jason Moran, Greg Osby, Steve Hunt, Vijay Iyer, Sal Mosca, Masabumi Kikuchi, Fred Hersch...) to name a few. But certainly one of the most important levers for Casimir's musical development was from the privilege mentorship of Ornette Coleman who bequeathed him the keys to the art of improvisation or Ornette's "Harmoloic" concept which gave Casimir the freedom to human expression through sound.

In 2008 Casimir recorded an album of improvised pieces with renown drummer Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Thomas Morgan, then moved to New York in 2010 prior to his graduation and started working with various professionals such as Charnett Moffett, Stanley Jordan, Jeff Tain Watts, Denardo Coleman, Rodney Holmes, Nasheet Waits, Matthew Shipp, Mark Shim, Tony Moreno, Evan Marien, Godwin Louis, Peter Evans, and more...

In 2012, Casimir released two progressive jazz-rock albums under his name: “Atomic Rabbit" and "The Caveless Wolf" starring all original music and released them on his own label Dalang! Records.

Liberski also collaborated on French bassist-composer Louis de Mieulles’ albums "Defense Mechanisms" and “Stars, Plants and Bugs” featuring drummer Matt Gartska from the band Animals As Leaders.

In 2016 Casimir Liberski was invited to perform along with visual artist Jean-Luc Moerman at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth's Music Chapel in Belgium for their first non-classical performance ever. That same year Casimir was the 3rd prizewinner at the Parmigiani Montreux Solo Piano Competition and was mentored by Marcus Miller, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Trilok Gurtu and Yaron Herman at the Montreux Jazz Academy in Lausanne.

Casimir Liberski (born 28 January 1988) is a Belgian jazz musician who plays piano and electric keyboard.

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