I've only been to Poland once in the early 1990's for a wedding in a small village in the west of the country and my memories are hazy as there were copious amounts of vodka being served. I've gone off vodka ever since. Anyway, we backtrack our journey through the Czech Republic a bit and start our virtual road trip of Poland in the village of Istebna in the Silesian Beskids mountains, where string folk band Vołosi hail from. The band started in 2004 by Krysztof Lason to play traditional Highland music at his wedding. They were later joined by some classically trained musicians and have gone from strength to strength, touring both nationally and internationally. Here's quite a rocky tune called Crawler from their 2015 album Nomadism:
Celtic folk band Beltaine were founded in Kattowice in 2002. Whilst their initial repertoire consisted mostly of Scottish and Irish tunes on traditional instruments, they later included other influences and instruments to develop their own unique style. Here is a tune from their 2015 album Miusjik called Pol(s)ka:
Also from Katowice is folk band WoWaKin Trio, founded in 2016 and named after the surnames of the band members: singer and violinist Paula Kinaszewska, accordionist Mateusz Wachowiak and and guitarist Bartolomiej Wozniak. Both the men double up on a variety of other instruments. They play traditional Polish village folk from the Radom, Kielce and Sanniki regions of Poland. Here is the title track from their 2020 album Wiązanka:
The city of Kraków has a long and distinguished history and is Poland's second largest city, having even functioned as its capital at times. However the saddest part of its history is the one many people still associate with the city, the establishment of the infamous Kraków Ghetto, where the Jewish population were forced to live under the Nazi occupation. It is therefore good to still see Jewish culture being celebrated in modern times with a number of Klezmer bands being active in the city.
One of those bands is Kroke, named after the Yiddish name for Kraków. They were established in 1992 and have since their inception branched out into fusing klezmer with influences from all over the world including collaborations with English violinist Nigel Kennedy, Mongolian singer and yangqin player Urna and Norwegian folk band Tindra. Here is a tune from their 2011 album Ten Pieces to Save the World called Light in the Darkness (T4 2):
Another klezmer band from Kraków is the Bester Quartet. They formed in 1997 as the Cracow Klezmer band and changed their name in 2007. They seem to have seized activities since, as their web-site is longer live and their last recording, the album Krakoff, was released in 2013, and is now hard to get hold of. This is the opening track of the album called Hope:
Also based in Kraków is the Motion Trio, who are according to their own claims 'the most famous accordion ensemble in the world'. They describe their style as 'crossover' containing elements of jazz, world music, rock and classical. Here's a lively tune from their 2018 album Accordion Stories called Happy Band:
Self-described 'regressive dark folk band' Daj Ognia are also from Kraków and list their influences as roaming somewhere between Poland and Scandinavia. This song called KIR is from their 2020 album Wykrot:
Finally we head into the Tatra mountains to the town Zakopane for something altogether more traditional. The area is home to an ethnic group known as Goral. The folk group Zakopower introduces us to the culture and music of the region in a whole series of mini-documentaries. Here is one of them:
Another proponent of Goral folk music is the Trebunia Family Band (Trebunie-Tutki in Polish) from the nearby village of Biały Dunajec. Here is a Goralski dance sequence from their 1995 album Music of the Tatra Mountains.
And that's it from the south of Poland for today, next we're exploring the east. As usual, you can follow my virtual rambling on my tripline map. Apologies for the long gap in posts, I have been away on some real travels.
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