INTERVIEW | Polish Jazz Band Light Star Guiding Follows Jazz Where Curiosity Leads

Some bands sound young even when they’re not. Others sound wise too early. Light Star Guiding sound like people who have taken detours, changed countries, played small gigs, great gigs, and a few unforgettable ones in between.

Formed in 2018, Light Star Guiding emerged from Poland’s jazz and alternative scenes not as a neat category fit, but as a collision. Jazz, yes but also post-rock, electro textures, folk instincts, and the sheer physical force of amplified instruments. Their live shows are frequently described as “atomic,” which feels less like hype and more like a warning label. Ahead of their Hyderabad show at Ashiana Banquet in Banjara Hills on December 13, as part of their India tour with the JAZZ PO POLSKU “Around the World” project, the band speaks to us with the kind of candour that suggests they’re more interested in connection than branding.

From Britain to Poland

Saxophonist Ray Dickaty, the band’s founder, was born in Britain and moved to Poland in 2012. This is not a detail, it’s the origin story. Before Light Star Guiding, Ray’s musical life existed in parallel lanes. On one side, rock bands like Spiritualised, where psychedelic gospel rock blurred the line between transcendence and distortion. On the other, a growing fascination with improvisation, structure-less sound, and the emotional logic of jazz.

“One of the reasons Light Star Guiding was formalised,” Ray says, “was this desire to improvise into song-like structures.” The band’s music doesn’t wander aimlessly; it searches. It builds, collapses, rebuilds. Electric guitars punch through delicate passages. Drums can be both thunderous and conversational. The music feels written but only after the fact.

When Ray arrived in Poland, he found a jazz scene that wasn’t polite or academic. It was bold, melancholic, and experimental. Clubs were full of musicians who weren’t interested in repeating the past. “I started visiting clubs, meeting musicians, playing,” he says. “The nature of Polish jazz really impressed me.” He formed Light Star Guiding later, not as a plan but as a response.

Polish jazz has always stood apart from its European cousins. Guitarist Mikołaj Poncyljusz tells ETV Bharat over the phone, “Polish jazz is more experimental and more melancholic.” Their self-titled debut album, released between 2018 and 2019, resonated precisely because it didn’t sound like it was trying to. It was received warmly by both jazz audiences and listeners who usually stay far away from the word “improvised.” But the band isn’t interested in staying still.

“Our next album will be different,” Mikołaj says, with a smile you can almost hear. “More rock. More melodic. A surprise for our fans.” Which, coming from a band like Light Star Guiding, probably means it will still surprise everyone else too.

Why India, Why Now?

This India tour is the band’s first, but it comes with a longer backstory. It’s part of the JAZZ PO POLSKU “Around the World” project, founded by Jakub Krzeszowski, who admits his own journey into jazz promotion began far away from any saxophone. “I had a corporate day job,” Jakub says. “I was a metalhead. I didn’t want to continue in corporate or advertising.”

Fifteen years later, JAZZ PO POLSKU has worked with over 200 artists, organised hundreds of concerts across 20 countries, and become a crucial platform for younger Polish jazz musicians to travel—literally and musically. Asia, Jakub explains, has always been receptive. “People in India understand jazz music,” he says. The project has already taken artists to Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal. Europe comes next. The road keeps extending. For Light Star Guiding, the reality of India has already exceeded expectations. “It was the first time for all of us,” Ray says. “The venues are great. Beautiful people.” They’ve played Delhi, Mumbai, Pune already.

Indian Audience’s Emotional Ear

Indian audiences have a strong relationship with rhythm not just as tempo, but as narrative. Songs here are expected to mean something, even when the meaning isn’t obvious. The members of Light Star Guiding told us they feel that difference immediately.

There’s a heightened attentiveness in Indian rooms, a willingness to stay with a piece as it unfolds. The crowd listens not for genre cues but for feeling. Jazz, freed from labels, becomes story again. The band doesn’t need translation. Emotion does the work. On December 11, 2025, the Polish jazz band will conduct a workshop at Imli Sarai in Banjara Hills, a space known for its openness to the experimental.

Keyboardist and bassist Michał Załęski explains that the workshop isn’t about technique in the traditional sense. “We want to show how Light Star Guiding makes music,” he says. “We also work in an improvised orchestra in Warsaw... without any notes.” The emphasis is on listening. On reacting honestly in real time.

The jazz quartet is on an India tour with the JAZZ PO POLSKU “Around the World” project (Image courtesy I. Kedzierska)

Jakub frames improvisation as a language. “It doesn’t belong to anyone,” he says. “You don’t need to speak the language to understand it.” For Hyderabad’s growing alternative and jazz-curious community, the workshop promises conversation rather than instruction.

Ask them whether Light Star Guiding is a composer-led project, a collective experiment, or a live-performance band, and Ray pauses. “I’ve always loved songs,” he says. “Instrumental or lyrical.” The band works with compositions, but they’re not fixed points. They’re starting lines. Every performance bends them slightly, depending on the room, the mood, the night, the people. “All good improvisers are sensitive,” Ray adds. And that sensitivity (the willingness to listen as much as play) is what holds the band together.

Travel changes music, even when musicians don’t mean it to. “We’ve been talking about this,” Mikołaj admits. “There have been so many new experiences.” Film songs blaring on the streets. Rhythms overheard, not studied. Conversations that linger. The band has already started changing small things in their performances and their new music, responding to what they’re absorbing.

India, it seems, is already finding its way into their music.

Dream Collaborations And Mutual Respect

Jakub speaks warmly about Indian musicians. “We invited (tabla exponent) Pranshu Chatur Lal to Poland,” he says. “I hope we can come back.” Sarathy Korwar is mentioned too; an artist whose work embodies the kind of cultural dialogue Light Star Guiding believes in. These aren’t fantasy collaborations. They’re conversations waiting for the right moment.

Looking ahead, Ray sounds thoughtful rather than triumphant. “In the age of streaming,” he says, “creativity and art are being pushed aside. AI changes things. Streaming changes things.” Still, the band isn’t retreating. New collaborations are coming. A new album is on the way. Touring will continue across Europe, Poland, Hong Kong, and China.

Light Star Guiding seem aware that the world doesn’t make it easy for emotional, improvisational music anymore but they also seem positively stubborn. They don’t promise spectacle. What they offer instead is attention: given fully, returned honestly. So, this Saturday, what you’ll hear when the men from Light Star Guiding take the stage isn’t just a band playing songs. It’s a group of musicians listening: to each other, to the room, to whatever wants to happen next. And that’s exactly the kind of music that stays with you longest, long after the last note fades.

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