"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.