Polish alto saxophonist Maciej Obara makes a very striking ECM debut with Unloved, an album whose expressive range embraces tender lyricism and impassioned, fiery, powerful playing. “This is a contemporary-jazz album of character and exhilarating drive,” – The Guardian. With the exception of the title track, a yearning ballad written by Krzysztof Komeda (spiritus rector of modern jazz in Poland) for Janusz Nasfeter’s film of the same name, the featured pieces originate from Obara’s pen. He describes the work as “a very personal statement, about people very dear to me, and places that inspire me.” His themes merely “serve as outlines, from which our sound is set free. “…It’s more like composing in real time,” explains Obara, with highly engaged input from all gifted members of his group. Each of the four players is a bandleader in his own right. For five years they’ve have been pooling their talents in the half-Polish, half-Norwegian Obara Quartet and taking their music around the world.