Jakub Zytecki proves why his ambient-meets-shred style is the future of guitar playing with genre-smashing new single Heart

Polish guitar virtuoso Jakub Zytecki has unveiled new single Heart, the latest distillation of his boundary-pushing approach to guitar music.

Heart has something for contemporary players of all stripes, replete with eight-string savagery, Whammy lead flourishes and the guitarist’s trademark clean tapping, which sounds closer to a Japanese koto than an electric guitar. 

Like his previous material, the track features a blockbuster production that sets Zytecki’s output apart from his shred contemporaries, sounding closer to ambient and synthwave than traditional guitar music – and what’s more remarkable is that he produces and mixes it all himself.

Then again, it makes perfect sense for a guitarist who once told us, “I don’t really listen to guitar music – I’m not even sure if I like it!”

“I want to present to you the new song Heart, taken from the upcoming album that has been in the making for a year now,” Zytecki says in a statement.

“The piece represents a slightly darker and heavier side that somehow felt captivating to me again. I hope it makes you feel something too.

“All I can say for now is that the process of making this record, especially the very beginning, was one of the most blissful moments of writing music I had in years, and for that I'm incredibly grateful. I hope that the enthusiasm will be felt. Please enjoy the song while I get back to my studio and finish the rest of the record.”

On the track, Zytecki turns to a dual-humbucker Mayones eight-string to deliver that bombastic low-end, while Michal Sarapata handles bass duties, and Jozef Rusinowski is behind the kit.

Heart is the first new music from Zytecki since 2019’s astonishing Nothing Lasts, Nothing’s Lost. Here’s hoping that new LP will be dropping our jaws before long.

Heart is out now. And if you reckon you’re cut out for it, tabs are available from Zytecki’s Big Cartel.