IT’S been a year of pleasant and rewarding surprises, with Polish outfit Trupa Trupa’s Of The Sun (Glitterbeats Records) being perhaps the most unexpected revelation.

Frontman and poet Grzegorz Kwiatkowski has described their music as “a meditative, pessimistic thing,” adding that Don Quixote is an inspiration.

Brimming with sophisticated exploratory rock arrangements, delivered with superb musicianship, overlapping voices, beautiful guitar cadences and a spellbinding syncopation of bass guitar and drums, the sense of innovation is captivating, none more so than on the pulsating Long Time Ago.