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Nomination
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BBC Radio 3 Awards, Nomination >>
So far, Poland hasn't made much of an impact on world music audiences, though that may be about to change, with two Polish bands nominated for awards this year. The Warsaw Village Band are six young musicians who first came together in 1997 and have since dedicated themselves to conserving and experimentally enhancing the traditional folk music of the Warsowia region in the heart of the country. They refer to their take on it as 'hardcore folk' or 'bio-techno' and have been compared to Swedish group Hedningarna for their uncompromising acoustic approach.
By studying old manuscripts and travelling round the Polish countryside learning traditional music from old-timers, they have rediscovered a lot about their own folklore and rescued much that was in danger of dying out: "50 years of communism have cut off the oral tradition, only very old people still have the knowledge of folk songs," the band's producer Wlodek Kleszcz told journalist Stefan Franzen recently.
The group made their first album Hop SaSa in 1998, but only two of the original members contributed to their second and most recent CD People's Spring (2001). The present line-up features cello and various pounding drums as well as three violins, including the suka, an ancient Polish fiddle, which is played using the fingernails to stop the strings.
Lead singer Katarzyna Szurman revels in the severe and rather alarming 'white voice' style of singing formerly used by shepherds, which she accurately describes as "close to screaming". It's not easy listening, but nor is it folk revival as museum piece, as the addition of trumpet, Jew's harp, hurdy-gurdy, dhol and hammered dulcimer attest. And just to make it a little more accessible to some of their contemporaries, the new album closes with a couple of remixes that take in Alice Coltrane styled Indo-jazz, trip-hop, dub and techno elements, underlining the trance-like qualities of the original music.
Jon Lusk, 2003 12/01/03 >> go there
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