Paweł Mańka Semiotic Quintet – Kubizm
The quintet’s music is engaging and diverse. The musicians are subordinated to the narrative of the piece, but a refined sensibility and awareness of sound resound in their playing. (…) A very coherent and exceptionally successful debut.
-Jędrzej Janicki (JazzPress)
Paweł Mańka’s Semiotic Quintet conjures a splintered Harlem ballroom daubed with Polish Expressionism.
-Nick Hasted (Jazzwise)
Creative freedom framed by technical mastery and
remarkable precision in performance are
unquestionable assets of the debut of Paweł Mańka’s
quintet.-Rafał Zbrzeski (Jazz Forum)
composer & guitarist
Paweł Mańka is undoubtedly one of the outstanding jazz guitarists and composers of the young generation in our country. (…) His compositions, which are highly advanced in terms of form and harmony, deserve special attention.
-Dominik Wania
He’s currently one of the most interesting composers on the young jazz scene in Poland. Surprising ideas and solutions concerning form, harmony, and the function of individual instruments within the ensemble can be found in his compositions.
-Rafał Sarnecki
Inspired by perceiving the surrounding reality as a complex coexistence of order and chaos, Paweł Mańka, an award-winning Polish composer and guitarist, combines avant-garde harmonic and aleatoric concepts with the freedom of modern improvised music. A debut album of his Semiotic Quintet, Kubizm (2021), earned a Fryderyk Award nomination after its premiere during Warsaw Summer Jazz Days and subsequent performances at many other festivals, including Jazz nad Odrą, Jazz Juniors, Jazz w Ruinach, and Polska Jazz Festival.
In his compositions, the boundaries between structured ideas and freedom often blur, creating dynamically evolving musical scenarios. A recipient of scholarships from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Młoda Polska) and National Institute of Music and Dance (Jazzowy Debiut Fonograficzny), Paweł holds a Master’s degree in Composition from Syddansk Musikkonservatorium and currently resides in Copenhagen. His sophomore album, recorder with his nonet Akimbo, is for release in late 2026.