Warsaw Village Band
| Warsaw Village Band | |
|---|---|
-01-2.jpg) Warsaw Village Band or Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa at a concert on the Bremen market square on October 2, 2010 (at a community festival before the Day of German Unity 2010) |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Polish folk with modern elements |
| founding | 1997 |
| Website | www.warsawvillageband.net |
| Current occupation | |
Singing, dulcimer |
Magdalena Sobczak Kotnarowska |
Vocals , violin, plock fiddle |
Sylwia Świątkowska |
Singing , violin |
Ewa Wałecka |
| Piotr Gliński | |
| Paweł Mazurczak | |
| Maciej Szajkowski | |
Sound master |
Mariusz Dziurawiec |
| Miłosz Gawryłkiewicz | |
| former members | |
| Maja Kleszcz | |
| Sylwia Światkowska | |
| Wojtek Krzak | |
Warsaw Village Band (known in Poland under the name Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa ) is a Polish folk group founded in 1997 , which continues to this day under changing formations. The band, singing in Polish, is considered to be one of the most successful ensembles in Eastern Europe apart from the mainstream. They themselves describe their music as "bio- techno " or "hardcore folk", as they combine traditional Polish folklore with modern elements such as the avant-garde .
Meaning of the band names
The English name Warsaw Village Band ( German : Warschauer Dorfband) and the Polish expression Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa ("The band from the village of Warsaw") mean the same thing. The two parallel band names, through their contradictions (Dorf and Warsaw), are intended to draw attention to the uprooting of rural culture and folklore in the age of globalization, which is taking place in rapidly developing Poland. The band wants to counteract this uprooting by preserving old musical traditions, but at the same time experimenting with them.
history
Start of career in Poland (1997-2000)
The band was founded in 1997 under the Polish name Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa in Warsaw, the capital of Poland . The young band of six music students celebrated their first success when they won their first prize at the Folk May Day Festival in the city of Radom . The Polish radio broadcast this “concert”, which at that time consisted of only three trance-like pieces, and made the newly formed band so well known. At the 1st Folk Music Competition Nowa Tradycja (German: New Tradition) of the state-run Polskie Radio , she received second prize in March 1998 . Then she recorded her first record Hopsasa (Polish: Hop sa sa ) with the Warsaw record label Kamahuk with the support of the Polish Ministry of Culture . The label owner and producer is Włodzimierz Kleszcz, father of the young singer Maja Kleszcz and a well-known music journalist in Poland.
Inspiration in the early years
"Fifty years of communism cut off the oral tradition completely, only the very old still know the folk songs," said the producer of the band Włodzimierz Kleszcz in an interview. In their early years, the band went on musical voyages of discovery in their own country to learn more about almost forgotten Polish folklore from older musicians. H. to learn their melodies, vocal techniques and instrumentation . From the experiences of these trips she created her own style.
International career (2000–2006)
The German-English online music magazine Folk World named the band the second best live act in 2000 after their appearance at the Tanz & Folk Fest Rudolstadt , the largest German folk festival. The band, hitherto completely unknown in Germany, performed there under its Polish name Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa . Her international career began in 2001 when the Bremen record label Jaro Medien released her second album, People's Spring (German: Spring of the People). She had discovered its managing director two years earlier at the Sopot Festival in the Polish Baltic Sea resort of Sopot . In order to gain a foothold on the western music market, it was decided to use the more memorable name Warsaw Village Band . The album People's Spring and the ensuing first world tour brought the band very good reviews. Also in her third studio album Uprooting (German: uprooting) from 2004 she interpreted traditional Polish melodies and songs in a contemporary form. The work was awarded the Fryderyk , the most important Polish music prize, as "best folk album 2004". Their notoriety rose even more after they were named Best Newcomer at the 2004 BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music . In addition to other worldwide concerts and theater productions, the band also composed for video games and film music at this time. In 2006 , the Warsaw Village Band was portrayed in the four-part BBC documentary European Roots in the one-hour episode Journey .
New sounds (2006 to today)
In 2006 three musicians from the band released the album Motion Rootz Experimental 2006 under the name Village Kollektiv . The work is a fusion of electronic music with traditional instruments and vocal techniques. The Warsaw Village Band continued this mixture of Polish tradition and modernity with their fourth album Upmixing in 2008 . It is a pure reggae - remix album based on the CD Uprooting participated from 2004 to the known producers and DJs from all over Europe. This work was also awarded a Fryderyk , the Polish Grammy equivalent, for “Best Folk Album 2008”. In 2008 their fifth album, Infinity (German: Infinity), was released , this time influenced by the blues , which for the first time does not fall back on traditional music, but was composed exclusively by the band's former creative minds, Wojtek Krzak and Maja Kleszcz, front woman of the sextet . The two band members were inspired by the birth of their daughter. Infinity was voted “Best World Music Album of 2009” by the major US online magazine Popmatters and also took 39th place among “Best Albums (of All Genres ) 2009”. With the album, the band received their third Fryderyk in 2010 in the category "Best Folk Album 2009".
In spring 2012 the CD Nord (Music from the top of the world) was released, a work with Nordic sounds, in which the Swedish band Hedningarna are guests.
Some of the band members have been taking part in the RUTA project since 2011 , which was initiated by Maciej Szajkowski and combines historical songs of rural displeasure with punk elements.
Instrumentation
The Warsaw Village Band has revived various musical traditions that were all thought to have disappeared in Poland. The band uses instruments that are rarely heard in modern music. In addition to frame drums and the hurdy-gurdy , the suka , an old Polish fiddle , similar to the Bulgarian string instrument gadulka , the north Indian-Pakistani string instrument sarangi or the rebec , a forerunner of the violin, stands out. The suka, which is played with the fingernails, was almost forgotten by the Poles. Former band member Anna Jakubowska first came into contact with the Suka while studying ethnomusicology, had the instrument reconstructed from an old template and took lessons for a year. Few Polish bands have played the instrument since the 1990s.
Furthermore, the band uses a specific style of singing called Biały głos (German: white voice) or Biały śpiew ( white singing ). This is a melody-producing screaming song that is typical of Eastern European folk music. The singing style was previously used by the shepherds in the Polish mountains to be heard over long distances. The integration of modern elements such as scratching and electronic sirens lead to a peculiar sound product of new sounds with old melodies.
Discography
Studio albums
The band released most of their albums in their home country Poland only a year later than in the West and there almost every time under a different label.
- 1998: Hop sa sa (published in Poland by the Kamahuk label) or Hopsasa (published in 2005 in Germany (D) by Jaro Medien under the Polish band name Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa )
- 2001: People's Spring (D: Jaro Medien) or Wiosna Ludu (2002 in Poland at Orange World)
- 2004: Uprooting (D: Jaro Medien) or Wykorzenienie (2005 in Poland with Metal Mind Productions including DVD)
- 2008: Upmixing (D: Jaro Medien) or Wymixowanie (2008 in Poland at Kayax)
- 2008: Infinity (D: Jaro Medien; 2009 in Poland with Kayax)
- 2012: NORD (D: Jaro Medien; in Poland with Karrot Kommando)
- 2015: Święto Słońca (in Poland with Karrot Kommando); Sun Celebration (2016 in Germany at Jaro Medien)
- 2017: Re: akcja Mazowiecka (in Poland at Karrot Kommando) or Mazovian Roots Re: action (2018 in Germany at Jaro Medien)
Movie
- 2006: Portrait hour tape within the BBC documentary European Roots (German: European roots) in the wake Journey (Travel)
Awards
- 1998: 2nd prize at the 1st folk music competition Nowa Tradycja by Polskie Radio
- 2000: Online music magazine Folk World : second best live act 2000
- 2004: BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music as best newcomer
- 2005: Fryderyk for the "best folk album 2004" ( Wykorzenienie or Uprooting )
- 2009: Fryderyk for the "best folk album 2008" ( Wymixowanie or Upmixing )
- 2009: US online magazine Popmatters : "best world music album 2009" ( Infinity )
- 2010: Fryderyk for the "best folk album 2009" ( Infinity )
Web links
- Official website (English and Polish)
- The Jaro Medien label on the Warsaw Village Band (German)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Musikadventskalender.realmind.org/?p=270 (Link not available)
- ↑ Polskie Radio : Archiwum Nowej Tradycji ROK 1998 , accessed on June 28, 2010 (Polish)
- ^ A b Claudia Frenzel: New Folksounds from the village of Warsaw - The Warsaw Village Band in Folker , issue 4/2003, accessed on June 28, 2010
- ↑ Jazzthing: Warsaw Village Band - White Voices against Plastic Pop ( Memento from August 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 28, 2010
- ↑ Jon Lusk: Newcomer - Warsaw Village Band (Poland) in BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music 2004 , accessed on June 28, 2010 (English)
- ↑ FolkWorld: The FolkWorld Top Ten 2000 , Issue 17, December 2000, accessed on June 28, 2010
- ↑ Związek Producentów Audio Video, Nagroda muzyczna Fryderyk : Nominowani i laureaci 2005 , accessed on June 28, 2010 (Polish)
- ↑ BBC Radio 3 : Awards for World Music 2004 - Winners & Nominees , accessed June 28, 2010 (English)
- ↑ Związek Producentów Audio Video, Nagroda muzyczna Fryderyk : Nominowani i laureaci 2009 , accessed on June 28, 2010 (Polish)
- ↑ Pop Matters: The Best World Music of 2009 , accessed on June 28, 2010 (English)
- ↑ Pop Matters: The Best 60 Albums of 2009 , accessed June 28, 2010
- ↑ Związek Producentów Audio Video, Nagroda muzyczna Fryderyk : Nominowani i laureaci 2010 , accessed on June 28, 2010 (Polish)
- ↑ Jaro Medien: Warsaw Village Band ( Memento from February 6, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ http://www.maxpeterbaumann.com/Rudolstadt/Kapela (link not available)