“Our new CD Play-Station is the result of our fascination with video games,” says Janusz Wojtarowicz, founder of the Polish accordion powerhouse known as Motion Trio. The CD is the group’s second recording released by Asphalt-Tango Records, following their debut Pictures from the Street.

“For this one we went back to the time of our childhood. As teenagers each of us spent hours and hours in a ‘game salon’ here in Poland. It was a great way for youngsters to explore a new world even if the world was only in cyberspace. We were totally consumed by this unreal, virtual world. It was so colorful and interesting, and so different from the reality of Poland in the 1980s. In one moment so many things could happen: you were a great winner only to become a loser a minute after. Anger and happiness, pride and shame. Just you and a little screen.”

This innovative Polish accordion trio founded in 1996 has already changed the face of their instrument. Six hands create surprising timbres. The vanguard sound collages of this ‘Trio Infernal’ range somewhere from minimal music and jazz to rock. Their mission is to redefine the accordion and explore soundscapes far beyond what one associates with this instrument. The three energetic musicians do this on a strictly acoustic basis. Neither samplers nor additional effects are used in their approach.

“Other instruments like the violin, guitar and piano have already been exhausted in their own ways, and at this point not much new can really be done with them,” says Wojtarowicz. “It’s entirely different with the accordion, which is only now being gradually discovered and played experimentally. Accordion traditionalists have run out of ideas, and it is our goal to extract notes from the accordion which have never been heard before, to develop completely new sounds and forms, and transfer them onto CD as well as, of course, to present them live.”

While their earlier CD, Pictures from the Street, literally emerged from years of honing their vanguard street performance repertoire, Play-Station replaces the joystick with the accordion. The new disc is full of unexpected and humorous moments.

“Using our imagination and sense of humor we work to create a new sound,” says Wojtarowicz. “We don’t use any electronic effects; just the pure acoustic accordion's sound. On Play-Station we find ourselves in outer space; we observe UFOs; we swirl in space like a carousel. There is magic, speed, and millions of stars around us and finally we come back to Earth. The game is over! The dream is over. We look at our squeeze box and everything hides inside: computers, flippers from our childhood. Within our accordions live guitars, rock drums, a church organ, even gambling machines. Once again for us, the accordion appeared to be a magical instrument.”