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The newest album released by the Polish Radio label marks a promising change. The album was released on May 26. It features a capella choir songs performed by the Polish Radio Choir conducted by Włodzimierz Siedlik. The CD seems to be the perfect response to the composer’s words: “I consider music to be a result of religious concentration and meditation. Seeing pure water, green grass, healthy forests, breathing fresh air. To see the maker and write for him”. CD 1 includes 6 folk pieces “Szeroka woda” (“Wide water”) op. 39 written in December 1979 and 5 songs of the Kurpie region “Hej, z góry, z góry! Kóniku bury” op. 75. CD 2 features the great poignant “Totus Tuus” dedicated to John Paul II from 1987 and the “Song of Katyń Families” written in 2004 to honour the victims of the Stalinist war crime committed on thousands of Polish POWs. “Amen” (1975) is the crowning of both albums. This one of best known “minimalistic” pieces by Górecki is dedicated to the 15th Poznań Music Spring. It is a magnificent album – plain, engaging and soothing.

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s outstanding talent was appreciated as early as the “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of Contemporary Music in 1958. Soon after Górecki became known also to the international audience. In 1961 he won the Second Prize at the Youth Biennale in Paris. However it was 1993 that brought a breakthrough for the composer and contemporary music. Unexpectedly, almost after 20 years after its first performance, Symphony No. 3 “Sorrowful Songs” became a smash hit first in the UK and then worldwide.
This masterpiece, called avant-garde and controversial when it was first produced in 1976, was number one on the American and English charts in the early ‘90s thanks to the American label Elektra Nonesuch and recording of the Symphony by the American singer Dawn Upshaw and the London Sinfonietta, conducted by David ZinmanGórecki emphasizes his love for the Tatra Mountains and especially for highlanders music characterized by improvisation. This source of inspiration seems a natural consequence following the preoccupation of Frederic Chopin and Karol Szymanowski with this kind of music. Górecki uses this inspiration in an original way. His avant-garde style was apparent from the beginning. His works are radically different. He simplifies and reduces the technical means but intensifies expression and contrasts. Seemingly nothing happens in his music. The composer often says jocularly that his music is “plain boring”. The recurrence of limited motifs and noticeable changes in pace are incredibly meaningful. Górecki either “whispers or blusters”. That is why his style is described by contradictions: simple and monumental, unreserved and lofty.


Mateusz Pospieszalski – EMPE 3 – Polish Radio S.A.

Mateusz Pospieszalski released a new jazz “family” album EMPE3. Collaborators include his brother Marcin (an excellent bass player, composer, arranger and music producer) and his son Marek (a freshmen at the Kraków Music Academy), Przemek Borowiecki on drums and Liza Szmidt – Romany vocals. The new album is likely to be a surprise to many fans. The authentic freedom of musical choices of this genius artist is what makes his music so startling. His style is never definite as Pospieszalski is always on the lookout for new forms of expression. As his absolutely unique trademark tone of the saxophone (and voice) is bound to remain the same, he can make a 180-degree turn on the kind of music proposed. The EMPE3 album brings forward inspirations with modern jazz classics such as Krzysztof Komeda and Ornette Coleman. This is one of the elements that haven’t appeared with such strength before in Pospieszalski’s composite artistic path. The album brings “100% jazz in jazz” – two saxophones, bass, drums, without any harmonic instruments, additions and embellishments. EMPE3 was released on May 5th in a studio and concert version. The artists, promoting the album, are touring jazz clubs in Poland and abroad.

Mateusz Pospieszalski – a multi-instrumentalist (he plays the sax, flute, bass clarinet, keyboard instruments, percussion instruments, accordion and sings); a composer; arranger and music producer. He has recorded over 100 albums. He is best known for his co-operation with Voo Voo – a Polish rock band blending jazz, new jazz and folk. Pospieszalski is the co-founder of avant-garde jazz groups i.e. Tie Break – one of the most unique, uncompromising groups on the independent Polish jazz stage merging jazz improvisation with rock expression. He has collaborated with Anna Maria Jopek (also as a composer of her songs), Martyna Jakubowicz, Stanisław Sojka and Raz Dwa Trzy. Recently he has been composing and producing, mainly with the Zakopower group – combining traditional mountain instruments with modern club music. Mateusz Pospieszalski has also been involved in diverse projects, often with his brothers Jan and Marcin, varying from producing CDs and concerts, through guest appearances and recordings to writing incidental music for Polish film and theatre.

Trebunie–Tutki & Twinkle Brothers - Songs of Glory – Agora S.A.

Trebunie-Tutki & Twinkle Brothers are recording together again after 16 years. This time the Polish highlanders from the Podhale region and Rastafarians from Jamaica are singing the “Songs of Glory” – praise to joy of life, love, truth, tradition and faith.
The music of Trebunie-Tutki has been present for well over a decade on significant music rankings. They are the only Polish group who has ever made it to the top ten of the World Charts Europe of the European Radio Union. The band, deeply rooted in tradition, characterized by openness to the world, has made great progress, retaining its spirit. They moved from being a regional folk band to a group invited to the most meaningful world music concerts representing Poland at biggest festivals. Trebunie-Tutki are: Władysław (head of the family; lead singer, bagpipes; graduate of painting and fabric design), Krzysztof (leader of the group, composer, lyrics writer, second lead, graduate of architecture), Anna (bass, graduate of graphics and religious studies), Jan (viola, graduate of violin-making at Kenar High School in Zakopane) and Andrzej Wyrostek (double-bass, violin-maker by trade), married to Anna.
Trebunie Tutki use traditional highlander instruments. They use the highlander music scale, composition and spirit of performance but they create “new highlander music” enriching folk music with new melodies, texts and avant-garde arrangements. They experiment with various trends: rock, jazz, even techno. The meeting with Twinkle Brothers – the group from Jamaica playing ”roots reggae” – arranged by Włodzimierz Kleszcz, a music journalist at Polish Radio, turned out to be a breakthrough for both groups. The combination of Jamaican rhythms and Polish highlander folk music brought the performers international fame. "Twinkle Inna Polish Style - Higher Heights" (1992) was the first genuine album recorded with the Twinkle Brothers. The “Vox” Magazine chose it the album of March 1993 in reggae music category and it became the greatest event of the Berlin Music Fair ’94. It topped world music charts, enthusiastically received by audience and critics. “Janosik in Sherwood” recorded in co-operation with a famous megadubmaster Adrian Sherwood, who remixed “Higher Heights”, was a continuation of the Trebunie Tutki/ Twinkle Brothers project. Thus it is not a surprise that the two groups decided to work together again. Their new album was released on May 16, 2008. The reunion confirmed the phenomenal discovery from years ago – that it’s not that far from Polish mountains to Jamaica.

Marcin Wasilewski Trio – January – ECM

“January” – a beautiful impressionistic album from Marcin Wasilewski, enchanting with the timbre and sound of his piano, kept in a poetic atmosphere – is one of the most important jazz releases in Poland (the premiere took place on January 25, but the album is still heading jazz music listings). “January” was recorded by Simple Acoustic Trio - pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Sławomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miśkiewicz who made their way collaborating with legends of jazz music such as Tomasz Stańko, Jan Garbarek or Manu Katché. The album heralds a re-branding of the group, which now goes by the name of Marcin Wasilewski Trio, rather than the Simple Acoustic Trio of before. Wasilewski wrote four of five originals on the album which also features covers: Stańko's gorgeous “Balladyna”, a genuine interpretation of Prince’s “Diamonds And Pearls” from 1991 and Ennio Morricone's “Cinema Paradiso” – the theme song from Giuseppe Tornatore’s 1988 movie. And it is the “Cinema…” that is the highlight of the album.
The trio’s biography begins in 1990s, when Wasilewski, Kurkiewicz and Miśkiewicz as students at the Koszalin High School of Music began playing jazz together. As the Simple Acoustic Trio they won the third award at “Jazz Juniors” in Kraków in 1991, the first award at the International Festival of Jazz Bands “Chorus 93” in Sorgues, France. Around that time they started collaboration with Tomasz Stańko and thanks to their joint first international release, for ECM, entitled simply “Trio” a whole chapter in the history of Polish jazz music started. Since then they have toured widely with Stańko and contributed significantly to his quartet recordings “Suspended Night” and “Lontano”, recorded in 2003 and 2005, receiving sensational reviews, also in Jazz Times and The Washington Post. Simple Acoustic Trio has worked with the legends of Polish jazz such as Tomasz Szukalski, Michał Urbaniak, Janusz Muniak and Henryk Miśkiewicz. They were repeatedly invited to perform the Jazz Jambore and Warsaw Summer Jazz Days along with Bernt Rosengren, Joe Lovano, John Surman and Bobo Stenson.

Seweryn Krajewski: From Polish Radio Archives - Seweryn Krajewski - Polish Radio S.A.
The most recent album of the „Polish Radio Archives” series brings together several recordings by 1960s pop idol Seweryn Krajewski. The CD (released on April 21) features Krajewski singing lyrics written by the prominent Polish poet Agnieszka Osiecka. Most songs are true Polish pop hits based on a simple, catchy melody and neat sharp-witted lyrics. Krajewski’s vocal is sometimes accompanied only by a discreet sound of guitar or keyboard. The singer himself was in charge of instrumentation and production.
Seweryn Krajewski - composer and singer, former leader of Czerwone Gitary, Poland’s answer to the Beatles. He also recorded solo albums, wrote film music and hits for other performers. For many, Seweryn Krajewski is the symbol of Polish pop music.
Maciek Proliński