“It’s one of the biggest clichés of every bass player,” says Mateus Wojda with a big laugh, talking about how he arrived to bassdom as, originally, a guitar player. “We needed a bass player for the band.”
But the 28-year-old Luxembourger is happy with the switch, which by now is ancient history. The more he talks about it, the more it becomes clear that the bass, in the geography of the band--any band--occupies a particular location. “You’re aware of the rhythmical parts, you’re aware of the harmony. You can really hear what the other people are doing in relation to you.” It has changed his understanding of music, he says, by helping him internalise root notes--purview of the bassist--to the extent that it opens up his ears to everything happening around him.
Geography remains a good way to think the sound of LINQ, the quintet Wojda formed in 2022 and whose debut EP Between Worlds is out on 8 June 2024 (coincident with ). Take the single “Views From the Moon,” which is built less on one striking motif and more on a landscape of rhythm section: Pierre Cocq-Amann’s saxophone solo in the latter part of the song exists within, rather than soars above, a beautiful mire of keys and bass, before fading (at around the 8’ mark) into a tonal badlands that leaves listeners feeling that we have arrived… somewhere.
Somewhere new, somewhere weird.
As a geography, LINQ’s sound is characterised not only by the five instruments that generate its basic features, but also by other sounds that warp the temporal nature of the place. To wit, in that place, there is a paradoxical kind of futuristic nostalgia: “The idea is to blend two different worlds,” says Wojda, the worlds being (1) the acoustic realm of the five instruments and (2) a digital overlay of synthesisers. These latter effects, done by Wojda during his post-recording production phase, are what destabilise the sense of time on the tracks: “I wanted to keep that live organic sound… but then, to add a nostalgia factor, I added all the synth elements.” The synth sound goes directly to Wojda’s youth and the video games he played as a kid; it also stays in modern jazz, where synthesisers are currently in revival; and finally it connotes futuristic scenes via its long-established use in science fiction media.
The name of the band evokes the nexus of worlds too: it is both a homonym for “link” (i.e., between times, between genres, between sounds) and a nod to Link, the protagonist of Nintendo’s video game franchise The Legend of Zelda, for which a lot of iconic chiptune music from the late twentieth century was composed.
Origin story
The compositions for LINQ began as early as 2017, Wojda says, but the band only formed properly in 2022 after his return from studies in jazz bass guitar at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. “I was going to jam sessions a lot and I met some incredible musicians and great people,” he says. “And I found my band. And, yeah… now we’re rolling.”
Those musicians are John Wolter on drums; Pit Dahm on keyboard; Pierre Cocq-Amann on saxophone; and .
In short order, LINQ has hit the major stops on the local jazz circuit. They had their coming out party at the Gudde Wëllen in 2022, then played at this past April and Like A Jazz Machine in May. And they are already booked for the 2024 Blues’n Jazz Rallye in July.
Busy days
Wojda is very much a bassist-around-town, currently playing in about 15 different projects. His collaborators range from electropop artist CHAiLD to Luxembourg’s recent Eurovision contestant Tali to singer/songwriter Josh Island. This comes on top of his day job teaching at the music schools of Differdange and Wiltz.
Wojda indicates that a pop project of his own--where he is guitarist, singer and composer--is on the horizon too, with some songs already written and ready to be dusted off.
This versatility is corroborated by Marc Scheer, organiser of Jazzorwhatever!?, who worked with Wojda as well as LINQ drummer John Wolter on the curation of the festival. On the two Wiltz natives, Scheer said: “Both are among the most talented Luxembourgish jazz musicians, but they still play in punk bands, they still do hip-hop projects.”
“I think they could play in all of the bands playing at Jazzorwhatever!? this year… and still have a punk rock show after it.”
Catch the on 8 June at the Rotondes.