"The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann", "Hippies Must Die", and the 2025 album.

"The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann" (October 19 2024).

10 years after the cult album "Stoned Gypsy Wanderer", the Polish poet and musician A.J. Kaufmann is back with a new album, "The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann". The album was recorded at the legendary Via Kosmische home studio. Its 10 tracks show all sides of A.J. Kaufmann's work - from freak folk, through noise rock, to kraut, psych, and space rock. The album is released on The Swamp Records, which brought us the "Bard's Woman in the Cool of the Summer Breeze" CD back in 2023. Digital premiere on TIBProd. Italy label on October 19 2024. Artwork by the talented young artist TheoEust.

Like any true artist, A.J. Kaufmann has a restless creative spirit. In a recent interview with The Third Eye, A.J. downplayed this, saying he’s just an “average guy” who has simply been making music for a long time. After covering his work for a few years, I’m not sure I believe that. Over the past two decades, A.J. has honed his craft, leaving us with a vast output of poetry and genre-bending musical oddities. The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann is a thesis statement for his work up to this point, offering an exceptional sampling of the noise, psych, kraut, and space rock he’s known for. “I Only See My House In The Morning” shows the psych-folk side of A.J.’s work. Notes waver and bend unexpectedly, giving a sense of freedom, like the song is growing organically, untamed. The blending of warm acoustic tones with cold, experimental edges invites the listener into a strange but inviting soundscape where nature and the surreal merge. The next hallucinogenic trip comes with “Madman in Atlantis,” where A.J.’s distorted vocals create a disjointed, dreamlike quality. Though it feels transcendent, it’s not trying to be overtly spiritual. It feels more like a spontaneous connection to something ancient. A.J. rocks harder on “Kosmische Kauflàuf,” and the chaotic experimental elements remain. The instrumental track is an astral fracture that plunges us into a swirling vortex of sound. “Ramzes Metamorfozis” features a wave of dense, distorted sonic elements that grind and howl like a cosmic storm. “Oczy na Przesterze” isn't the clean, polished psychedelia of the past—it's raw, primal, and unhinged, pushing toward the edge of noise rock without fully crossing over. “The Courier” offers beautifully psychedelic guitar playing, but the track is anchored by a relentless, hypnotic bassline that throbs like the universe's pulse. Like always, A.J. has tapped into some mysterious energies. “Dirty Mack” has a bluesy guitar, but the vocals stuck with me the most. Lost in a haze of reverb and fuzz, A.J.’s voice wavers between a distant chant and a half-sung, half-whispered incantation, as though he’s conjuring the spirits of both nature and the cosmos. “Electrifying Enemies” floats somewhere deep in A.J.’s mythic cosmology, perhaps the record’s purest psychedelic song because of the wah-wah guitar dripping with celestial energy. In “Germaniya,” we return to the deep, dark underground of A.J.’s freaky acid folk. Acoustic strumming emerges like a ghostly echo in the background, warped and fractured as if played through a broken tape machine, bringing a strange, earthy contrast to the cacophony. “Jungfrau” melds classic psych-rock guitar with noise rock’s experimental ethos. The tension between order and chaos, melody and noise, makes the track mesmerizing like so many on the record. In The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann, we find an artist who refuses to be confined by genre or expectation. Kaufmann’s ability to oscillate between raw, primal energy and cosmic exploration gives the record an otherworldly quality. There’s a deliberate unpredictability at play, as though each song is a doorway into a different dimension of his eccentric musical mind. While Kaufmann might humbly describe himself as "just an average guy," this album proves he’s anything but. He's a sonic alchemist, continually pushing the boundaries of sound and self. Enter The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann, where you may not see or hear the rest of the world in the same way after listening.
-- Liner notes by Nick (The Third Eye)



The songs are displayed like a collection of emotions and feelings that explore the complex map of the modern human psyche, encompassing the wide genre of influences in A.J Kaufmann's strange world. And it is his distinct, echoing voice that ties these songs together, like that inner monologue narrating your mental journey through the tapestry of life's experiences. There are songs that portray joy and sorrow, confusion and awe, paranoia and anticipation and even excitement and fear, all being kept from exploding into contradiction by the calm poetic ramblings of our host! Every disparate thread is held together under a psychedelic umbrella of swirling guitars and incessant drumming, that epitomises the trip that we can beautifully describe as "The Strange World Of A.J Kaufmann."
-- Andy of The Uncarved Block.

New fans to the music of AJ Kaufmann will find this to be the perfect entryway to his emotive and eclectic psychedelic style. And if you're already a fan, you'll dig this collection of new songs.
-- Fuzzy Cracklins of The Swamp Records.

A.J. Kaufmann's world is strange indeed, serving up a set of ten psychedelic oddities. We've got acoustic guitar and vocal driven psychedelic folk songs bathed in atmospherics, wigged out psycho-folk freakouts, acid drenched space-time distortion, grungy garage-blues, and a noisy instrumental that sounds like an unearthed Faust basement tape track. File under totally trippy!
-- Jerry Kranitz of Aural Innovations. 

Releases October 19, 2024!
Words and Music by Adam Majdecki-Janicki.
Artwork by TheoEust.

Adam Majdecki-Janicki - voice, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer, drum machine, percussion, FX, recording.
Recorded by Adam Majdecki-Janicki at Via Kosmische, 2024.
Except "The Courier", 2014.
"Oczy na Przesterze", 2018.
"I Only See My House in the Morning", arranged and produced by Blessed Studio, Indonesia.
"The Courier" first released on "Bavarian Gypsy" (Father and Son Records and Tapes, Poland, 2020).

"Hippies Must Die" Album finished and ready for release after "The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann". Album Cover Reveal! Artwork by Justin Jackley.

First single from "Hippies Must Die" streaming now on SoundCloud!:

The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann · "Oh Ho" (from "Hippies Must Die", Coming Soon!).

And, for 2025 there's a brand new surprise album coming! Listen to "Cabaret Berlin" on SoundCloud and Bandcamp!

More on that in its time. Stay tuna.

10 Favorite Songs as selected by A.J. Kaufmann sometime in 2015, after the release of "Stoned Gypsy Wanderer".

Bulat Okudzhava - Pesenka Ob Arbate

I could swear I still got flashes from a period I was too young to remember, when I was about 2-3y/o and my mother was spinning her Bulat Okudzhava LPs on an old Polish turntable. Maybe I remember this right, as I still got those records. „Pesenka Ob Arbate” tells the tale of Arbat, which is a street in Moscow, where artists and academics used to live. Perhaps this song's subconscious influence on a Polish child shaped my entire viewpoint on life and music, the melancholy and simplicity, the truth and the humility I pursue. In the songs I write and record I go for a raw, primitive feeling, close to art brut and poetry, which is exactly what you can hear in Bulat's recordings, and this one, his most famous song perhaps, is also one of the most haunting. The human story, human voice, reality and the instrument is what really matters here, the small orchestra of hope.

Woody Guthrie – Struggle Blues

When I got interested in American folk music, I discovered Bob Dylan first. And Woody Guthrie thanks to Dylan's debut album. The first Woody Guthrie LP I bought was „Struggle”. When I dropped the needle on the record and heard this tune first I was immediately transported to America in the 1940s, the beautiful harmonica, the rhythm, and freedom of country roads and endless skies, small train stations, but also the struggle of working men, blood and the history – including the story I've read in the booklet, and everything about America then was captured forever on a piece of vinyl without singing a single word. And this was merely an introduction to the album. Imagine my amazement and growing respect for Mr. Guthrie when I got to know more of his music. No wonder not only Dylan, but also Donovan tried their best to copy him when they were starting their careers.

Hank Williams – Alone and Forsaken

Another true, honest song, with no gimmicks. I've got a sentiment for it mostly because, for me, it is the sonic equivalent of life in a Polish high-rise block, where I was raised, and a window into harsh reality I later learned from my own life, mistakes and relationships. Hank Williams doesn't have to do anything here, he simply has to be himself in front of a microphone with his guitar, and that's it. Despair, desperation, disappointment – it's all here. Nothing distracting the mood, the story Hank tells us, no other instruments, no orchestras, yet the tune tells more with one word than another orchestrated song about breaking up. If anybody would ask me to distill country music, it would all come down to this name: Hank Williams. The songs, the lifestyle, the story, it's all magical, but if you look closer, it's simply life, and nothing more. And life can indeed be magical in the right hands. Hank made his life a journey worth living for, and in that he taught me a lesson.

The Velvet Underground – European Son

I'm pretty sure this track is legendary to many sound artists/musicians, as is the album from which it's taken. For me, it's the first rock'n'roll I've consciously heard, and a perfect combination of cheeky, punk lyrics, art gallery sound, and maltreated decadent lead guitar that wouldn't sound out of place on a forward-thinking jazz album, or a no-wave album from the 80s. And to think the Velvets cut the Norman Dolph version of this back in 1966, makes me wonder about endless possibilities of sung or written words and electric guitars we have now, in the 21st century, thanks to people like Lou Reed. I was listening to this song and album while studying Polish philology, and writing my first lyrics which weren't love songs. „European Son” changed my life and approach to art, for better or worse, but I'm thankful it did. I dropped out of one university and went to another.

David Bowie – Moonage Daydream

Another classic. I first came upon Mr. Bowie's music when I started studying English philology, and realized I missed something big when I've heard „Space Oddity” on the radio. Reading the Rolling Stone interview with Burroughs and Bowie, knowing Burroughs' prose before, made me think very highly of Mr. Bowie. The instrumental section always reminds me of „Cabaret”, and the whole movie passes by before my eyes like an abstract painting, along with every note. The chorus has an enormously beautiful melody, and the lyrics are killer. Mr. Ronson's solo is particularly emotional and very strong, not to mention perfectly executed. Perfect arrangement too. Personally, I can't think of a bad Bowie song, but „Moonage Daydream” is the only one I can loop on my CD player and listen to it all day. And night. And another day. I was humming „Moonage Daydream” during my first professional photo shoot and I am a huge David Bowie fan.

Gil Scott-Heron – Lady Day and John Coltrane

I love both Lady Day and John Coltrane. And I love Gil Scott-Heron. His lyrics are genuine poetry, and this particular song is very soothing, makes you feel you're enjoying a warm sunny day, even in the middle of the coldest winter. It has a great flow, lyrics, emotional vocals delivering a delicate melody of hope and joy, and a bassline I'd love to hear on a „krautrock” record, in a different context, maybe I'm thinking Frankie Dymon Jr.? Gil indeed „washes your troubles away” with his melody, and comforts the ones living, or rather existing, beyond the „plastic people”s rat race. I first came upon his work thanks to a friend, a Protestant pastor, who recommended his debut album, and a book of his, „The Vulture”. His imagery, subject matter and delivery transcend obsolete concepts like race, nationality, or social status and reach deep into the most important subject we have – our humanity.

Hawkwind – Master of the Universe

The first track that got me hooked on space rock, and, for me, the definition of space music up to this day. My favorite version is one found on the „Space Ritual” double LP, although the studio creation from „In Search of Space” has the perfect sound and is the first one I've heard. Amazing Dave Brock riff, perfect Dave Anderson bassline, the phasing, and Nik Turner's vox - the main reason why I sometimes FX the vocals so much, and occasionally phase whole tracks. I also started playing bass inspired by this track. First listened to „Master” in Berlin, back in the winter of 2004. I was living in Zehlendorf at the time, reading lots of Joyce and modern Canadian poetry, found in my landlord's library, smoking and writing future songs and lyrics for Sauer Adler. My landlord was Mr. Johann Gottlob von Wrochem, so I had free piano concerts every morning. Of course, Hawkwind used to work with two of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy writers, Michael Moorcock and Robert Calvert.

Zager & Evans – In the Year 2525

Since I first watched Planet of the Apes in 1998 or 1999, I fell in love with early 60s/70s dystopian/sci-fi cinema, my favorite movies being Time Machine, Logan's Run, Fahrenheit 451, Soylent Green, The Omega Man... which are classics really, and lots of more obscure sci-fi flicks. And then this song comes creeping into my life. I've heard it first thanks to my then-girlfriend who used to come up with bizarre songs for me to include in live repertoire. It might be a funny folksy ditty from the perspective of 2014, but the message is powerful, if a bit naive, and the melancholy present in this recording often makes me think, seriously or lightly, of the direction and fate we are headed for as mankind. Hippie fables, really, but I always liked them too. Sonically this makes me think of a band of psychedelic mariachis conquering the limits of outer space on a flying saucer hanging from a, not really invisible, string.

Sonic Youth – She is Not Alone

With this song, I realized I don't have to make music like everybody else. I understood that your sound expresses your soul, and that you can make your own music completely on your own, and create your own scene outside of the „business”. There are many DIY home-recording artists out there, with whom you can feel, or not, a connection, or work with. After all, we are all really traveling waves on one endless tape called Earth, and we continuously record/erase our improvised parts, songs, loops, layers, add or remove tracks and cut-up the surface of our existence in a burroughsian fashion. The guitars on this track had a similar effect on me as the lead on VU's „European Son”. I am thankful for this alteration of perception, and even if I never really became a fan of Sonic Youth, this song, and the „NYC Ghosts & Flowers” album will always be close to my heart.

MC5 – Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)

Rob Tyner's opening line alone is worth putting in a museum of modern art, were it not for the fact that MC5 music is way too good to end up in any museum. I remember this one from crazy, and dangerous, parties in Neukölln,Berlin, where it was often played from the original LP along the likes of Magma, Hawkwind, Bang, Blue Cheer and many other classic bands from the psychedelic era. It's funny how close a poet and folk musician can get to good rock'n'roll when it comes to his lifestyle. So yes, „Rocket Reducer” is party music for me, but the raw aesthetic and power that MC5 present here and on their LP full blast is much more than just rock'n'roll entertainment. This here is the thinking woman's/man's entertainment, a bold artistic statement and kick ass music in one mighty package, that fuels both intellectual and sexual needs of any wild rock'n'roller.

"Biblia Ludzkości" | Nowy wiersz, 22.09.2024.

Biblia ludzkości:
odpływamy parostatkiem
karmimy feniksa
futurystyczne parki eksplodują
kto czyta te bzdury
zawieszone w kisielu

Kto sprowadził deszcz
na ogród wschodu

Droga na zachód zdaje się niedostępna
płynie tam statek
bieży tam pociąg i koń

W zachodzące słońce, gdzie nie ma szansy
na ego
przemawiam do siebie
czyimś głosem, kontrola urodzeń
sięga nadiru

Kto poprowadzi ekspedycję do nowej Europy
Afrykańskie mosty
dawno powinny zwodować
świt

Były takie plany, epoki lat temu
aby zrobić coś z podziałem
jednak wciąż wolimy odwieczne walki kontrastów
które zlewają się w poranne wino
pite z ust Agaty

A, w sumie, jak ty masz na imię
może po prostu biblia ludzkości
gdzie znów pomyliłem
kobietę
z bogiem

"Terrapark London" | New Poem, 4.09.2024.

I feel utopia in my pupils
stretching the word
up my neck
sweat from yesterday's parties
down my throat
this whole thing is floating
on immense skies
anchors of the cloud
alcohol from the Queen

drink up the cup
cup up the
void
tie the lace of your chin
wreck
lips
on TV channels
rendered obsolete

endless carlights, smashing like synthesized birds
the forest
of forget
dive
gladly into the bottom line
of every British
joke

I am boat
uprising the Brixton sunset
dividing the oar

she is life
terrapark London

"Caravana" | New Poem, 25.08.2024.

Thought like pale ice
sun
flower
cracking through the rainbow sky
arch of joy
modern classical music
om straws of light
on grass blades of country homes
caravana
to expert

Thrust of life
exhales the gutter shadows
people crawl through peanut sidewalks
raise psychedelic eyes
pyramid in forehead
straws of light
in hand

Caravana
to death
but in it, rebirth
of something stronger
than mere existence
eating ice cream and fucking around
the fridge
morning pale
arch of rememberance
modern classical music

"Mosaic of Music" (New poem, 16.08.2024).

Mosaic of music in debt to the moon
thin thick tick
dinner
goddesses of the cemetery
where we drink cheap wine
waiting for the daybreak
still
I play guitar

my partner reads a Bukowski book
were it not for his life it'd be boring
writers vs. consumers
I stop playing guitar
draw mandalas in snow
listen to the machinery of sky
this is a perfect morning
with some American friends and children
who play smiling
teach me how not to become
but be
free in the mosaic of music.

Three new poems, 29.07.2024.

Earrings

Childlike rainbows
rise from the polaris sky
crowding brains
with surprise and exhibition
charming people with illusions of birth
ill fusions
death rainbows
rising from the polaris city
they seem occupied with essence
but fate is not bothered
it swings by the swings
on which childlike rainbows hang
like a fool to his tarot cards
like a Gypsy woman
to her earrings

Persepolis

I climb the column
spy from the sand storm
I cry for life
beyond the desert eternal sunset
I crave for seas
but they haven't been here in ages
before the flood
this wasn't a tomb
this wasn't a city
this wasn't a temple
rather
some sort of a power plant to enlighten
the third eyed wanderers
on their quest for water
before the flood
before us
there was this holy
Persepolis

Therapy

Sand on sand
virtue on virtue
fast on fast
we terrorize our spirit with knowledge
where wisdom once carried
the joints of Rome
golden spliffs and stolen riffs
carried troubadours beyond the city walls
and into Bombay
this is for you, Brian Jones
lost child of a million white butterflies
legends of death cycle
this was for you always
who never wrote a song
hard to complete the circle
with no dots given
just paint it, like modern elders
some sort of
therapy

"Crystal Child" (New poem, 16.07.2024).

There's a snail trail in my head
highways for god
he sometimes takes the wrong turn
and then my thoughts explode

when he's on his course
my thoughts do nothing and wait
close to depression
close to desperation

vacation was good when I was younger
helped to clear out the brain
but I can't afford vacation anymore
it's just like wasting time

I regret having these connections
is it truly best to regret something you have done than something you haven't?
I'm not sure
but my connections were pain

escape from pain was more connections
impossible
vacant trails of god again, who is he in the first place
to take place in my spirit

my spirit should be crystal
thoughts reflected and calm
just like at birth or shortly after
just watching the trees from a crystal child's ride.

"Persepolis" b​/​w "Wizzard" - the new single by The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann.

The ultimate Obscure Music single from the Polish Underground, "Persepolis" and "Wizzard" are brand new manifestations of the Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann interplanetary sound.

Both tracks were fully improvised in the studio. The voice here is just another instrument. The drum machine is very primitive, to recover that lost tape underground feeling.

Inspired by atonal music, accidental music, noise rock, and psych from the 60s, both tracks will probably be on the new A.J. Kaufmann album.

But for now, they're only a single.

Buy it to support me and help me record more music.

Thank you.

released July 10, 2024

"Persepolis" (A-Side) recorded Live @ the Via Kosmische home studio, July 10 2024.

"Wizzard" (B-Side) recorded Live @ the Via Kosmische home studio, July 8 2024.

Adam Majdecki-Janicki - voice, acoustic guitar, organ, drum machine, preparations, recording.

Words and Music by Adam Majdecki-Janicki, 2024.

Cover artwork by Adam Majdecki-Janicki, 2024.

Plans for the second half of 2024 and first half of 2025.

Hello there from the Via Kosmische home studio,

I have finally finished some main parts of the brand new album. It turns out there will be three brand new albums - that's right, no more archive material, no more reworkings, just fresh new rough unfiltered music and poetry and improv and art! And it's all tripled!

One of the albums will be titled "Byt/Sein/Being". For this one I plan to include the more experimental tracks, some ambient work, some Kosmische instrumentals, krautfolk, and obscure psychouts/noise from the heart of Poland.

Another album, will be titled "Hippies Must Die". Justin Jackley will design the cover for this one. More on it in the next post when I have more details. I have started a separate Hippies Must Die bandcamp page where most probably this album will be released.
https://hippiesmustdie.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-from-the-future-a-collection-of-works

Finally, the new untitled (as of yet) third album will be probably out on Ramble Records later this year. Mike Sill of Ramble stated that he's interested in a digital release, so get ready for it!

In between those 3 new projects there will be lots of releases on The Swamp Records! I plan to finish the "Pink Elephant Music" saga this year with the release of 4 final volumes of this multi-album experience. I will also finally release all the albums I promised, like "Folly", or "Selections from the Astral Nomad" (an unfinished demo album from 2018). I hope you look forward to my releases on The Swamp and decide to join The Swamp Krewe at Subscribe to The Swamp Records | The Swamp Records (bandcamp.com)

2024 turned out to be one gigantic jam session again, just like 2019 (5 years ago!). For a bit chaotic eruptions (meaning not assigned to any album, and not with the final artwork) and recent selections of sound, see my soundcloud profiles at Stream Adam Majdecki-Janicki music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud
and
Stream The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud

I have also started working at Kołorking Muzyczny, where Bezkwit, my new band, has its jams and rehearsals. Stay tuned for new Bezkwit music as well! Music | Bezkwit (bandcamp.com)

So, check out the Soundcloud profiles for "leaks", the Bandcamp (The Strange World of A.J. Kaufmann) for new singles, and keep supporting the real Polish Psychedelic Underground.

Cheers,
Adam.