Szymon

Szymon Borzestowski possessed prodigious skill across numerous instruments as well as songwriting talent, yet his smooth high-register vocals and instinctive command of melodic pop structures remained unheard by audiences for three years after he died. His atmospheric fusion of folk, pop, and electronica inhabited an elusive middle ground that felt both warmly accessible and strangely distant. The third of four siblings, he entered the world in Newcastle, Australia, during 1989 to parents who had emigrated from Poland. Music filled the family home from the start, and an early passion for jazz, bebop, and swing prompted him to master the clarinet and saxophone. Over time he expanded his command to guitar, flute, bass, drums, and piano, eventually becoming adept at recording and producing music at home once he finished secondary school. In 2008 he circulated a four-track demo that attracted scant attention from labels. That same year he departed on an extended journey through Europe and Africa, during which his father, Andrzej, forwarded the recordings to EMI. The material reached talent scout Mark Holland, who responded with immediate enthusiasm. The label extended a development contract, and within weeks of Szymon’s return he began composing and tracking the material destined for his first album. A string of severe depressive episodes then triggered repeated hospital admissions. He also grew uncertain about the quality of his work, erasing digital files and parting with several instruments. In December 2012, shortly after his twenty-third birthday, Szymon ended his life. With his family’s consent, Mark Holland and Craig Hawker, then Vice President of A&R, enlisted producers and engineers Rusty Santos and Ian Pritchett to finalize the tracks Szymon had originally sent EMI in 2009. The resulting posthumous album, Tigersapp, appeared in 2015.