"Nobody knows it but A.J. Kaufmann is a national treasure of Poland." - David Bixby.
A.J. Kaufmann is a Polish poet, composer, and underground musician whose work has spanned nearly three decades of DIY experimentation. He began writing music in 1998, releasing his first solo cassette Adam Sandosa the same year. After moving to Berlin in 2000 to study music and poetry under Johann Gottlob von Wrochem, he expanded his interests to improvisation and contemporary sound art.
In 2002 he co‑founded the duo Strange World in Poznań, recording a series of longform tapes blending original material with reinterpretations of underground classics. Two years later he launched Die Rote Erde, a project that remains active intermittently to this day.
Between 2005 and 2008 Kaufmann focused on home‑recorded demos and experiments, while his literary debut, Siva in Rags, appeared in 2008 via Kendra Steiner Editions. From 2008 to 2010 he prioritized poetry, but returned to studio work in 2010, recording his first full‑length album Second Hand Man with Andrzej Mikołajczak. It was released on vinyl and CD in 2011.
From 2011 to 2014 he continued publishing poetry (including Hosannah Honeypots) and recording demos, culminating in the American release of Stoned Gypsy Wanderer (Kendra Steiner Editions, 2014). The album marked the end of his early U.S. period.
Between 2014 and 2021 Kaufmann remained active across poetry, composition, improvisation, and collaborative recording. In 2021 his project Fairyport Convent was signed by The Swamp Records (USA), resulting in two CD releases and his 2023 solo album Bard’s Woman in the Cool of the Summer Breeze. He worked with the label until late 2025.
Parallel to his solo work, Kaufmann co‑founded several notable projects:
• Sauer Adler / Säure Adler (2012–2025), whose debut Revelation (2013) and later vinyl releases on Ramble Records (Australia) earned international attention.
• Psychedelic Mayhem (from 2022), including the 2023 session Supershroom.
• Bezkwit (2024–2025), an improvising trio praised for its raw, avant‑rock energy and comparisons ranging from Captain Beefheart and Can to King Crimson.
His catalogue also includes numerous short‑lived experimental aliases, as well as a significant body of electroacoustic work released under the name Adam Majdecki‑Janicki on the French label Snow in Water Records, beginning with Eimi (2020). The album helped define his contemporary sound and received praise from figures such as Maurizio Bianchi.
Kaufmann has also collaborated extensively with the Texas label Herby Records, which issued multiple vinyl releases starting with Stoned Gypsy Wanderer 2 (2020). Artist Justin Jackley has designed many of his covers, and in 2018 Kaufmann organized Jackley’s first Polish exhibition in Poznań.
His latest album, released on January 1st, 2026, marks a return to “folk in a crooked mirror”: Kontynent Mu — the only one that doesn’t exist, yet still has its own post office, its own storms, and its own anthem, sung by fish that have never seen the sea.
Since 1998, A.J. Kaufmann has continued to explore the intersections of word, sound, image, and noise — always evolving, always restless.