Krzysztof Trzciński (27 April 1931 – 23 April 1969), known professionally as Krzysztof Komeda, was a Polish film music composer and jazz pianist. Perhaps best known for his work in film scores, Komeda wrote the scores for Roman Polanski’s films Knife in the Water (1962), Cul-de-sac (1966), The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), and Rosemary’s Baby (1968). Komeda's album Astigmatic (1965) is often considered one of the most important European jazz albums. British critic Stuart Nicholson describes the album as "marking a shift away from the dominant American approach with the emergence of a specific European aesthetic."


The years 1956–1962 saw Komeda with his group taking part in domestic festivals and preparing ambitious programs. These were also the years of his first foreign successes in Moscow, Grenoble and Paris. A "Jazz and Poetry" programme was prepared for Jazz Jamboree '60, and later in Warsaw Philharmonic. Komeda's adventure with film music also began by this time. Scores for the films of Roman Polanski such as Knife in the Water (1962), of Andrzej Wajda such as Innocent Sorcerers (1960), and of Janusz Morgenstern Good Bye, Till Tomorrow (also 1960) were created. This period, which in Komeda's artistic biography can be called the period of growing up and improving his own music language, was crowned with "Ballet Etudes" performed on Jazz Jamboree ’62. Although the reaction of domestic critics for the Etudes was rather cold, it opened the doors to Europe for Krzysztof Komeda Trzciński.

Komeda visited Scandinavia for the first time in spring 1960, and he went back there every year thereafter. All of his performances at the 'Gyllene Cirkeln' (Golden Circle) in Stockholm and at the Montmartre Jazz Club in Copenhagen were a success. The Danish director Hennig Carlsen ordered music for his movies Hvad Med Os, and Sult (the movie based on Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger). Komeda also wrote the music for Henning Carlsen's film The Cats (Kattorna, 1965). Overall Komeda wrote more than 70 soundtracks. After successes in Scandinavia, came further successes: jazz festivals in Prague, Blend, Koenigsberg; toure of Bulgaria and both West and East Germany. Komeda stayed in Los Angeles in 1968 where he composed film music for Roman Polanski's Rosemary’s Baby (with one of his most recognizable compositions, "Rosemary's Lullaby" sung by Mia Farrow) and Buzz Kulik's Riot.




Astigmatic is a studio album. It is often considered to be Komeda's masterpiece as well as one of the greatest albums of both Polish and European jazz.

Astigmatic consists of three long tracks, all written by Komeda. "Kattorna" (meaning "female cats" in Swedish) is based on a motif from Komeda's soundtrack for a movie of the same name directed by Henning Carlsen. "Svantetic" is dedicated to Svante Foerster, a Swedish poet who was a friend of Komeda.

The music combines many disparate elements, including modal playing, free jazz-inspired improvisation, precise forms, tone clusters, aleatoric structures and avant-garde use of timbre and articulation, while imbuing them with individual expression and a sense of dramatic lyricism that's been compared to late Romantic music.

Authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz, Richard Cook and Brian Morton, named it as "one of the finest jazz albums ever made in Europe" and included it among their 1001 best jazz records. Critic Stuart Nicholson wrote that it "has become a bellwether for European jazz, with critics pointing to how this album marked a shift away from the dominant American approach with the emergence of a specific European aesthetic". Similarly, Jazzwise magazine stated that it "is one of the most important contributions to the shaping of a European aesthetic in jazz composition", placing it at number 85 in the list The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World. Manfred Eicher, the founder of ECM Records, described Astigmatic as a milestone in the history of jazz. It was voted the best album of all time by readers of the Polish Jazz Forum magazine.

Writing about the 2016 reissue, FACT Magazine author Mikey IQ Jones stated: "Komeda's compositions and arrangements are beautiful and complex, and it's the rare epochal album whose power is still potent from the first listen through to its thousandth".

The compositions from Astigmatic have been repeatedly reinterpreted by Polish jazz musicians, including Urszula Dudziak, Michał Urbaniak and Tomasz Stańko. The title of the album Asthmatic by Polish free jazz band Miłość is an ironic reference to Astigmatic