poland

Marek Grechuta: Śpiewające Obrazy (1981)

2021/10/26

Certain music and musicians feel like they were born in the wrong era. Usually, for many that time is delineated in years or decades. However, for those that grace us with glimpses of the “Philosopher’s Stone”, like Léo Ferré, Franco Battiato, or Dylan, to name a few, one feels that centuries of time have to…
Urszula Dudziak: Ulla (1982)

2018/06/12

Someone, somewhere, (maybe a massive Polish Jazz aficionado), is absolutely, positively going to hate me for doing this: but I have to profess/confess my absolute love for Urszula Dudziak’s Ulla. Riding that same copacetic wavelength as Maki Asakawa’s Nothing At All To Lose, Urszula Dudziak’s Ulla transformed someone known as the Yoko Ono, Linda Sharrock,…
Ossian: Księga Chmur – Tom 1 (1979)

2018/03/13

Disclaimer: If I’m wrong on Ossian, please let me be wrong spectacularly. Usually, I do my due diligence and keep some note or bookmark some site when I discover a particular history that could help me write about an artist in the future, whenever I get back to covering them for FOND/SOUND. In this case,…
Sławomir Kulpowicz ft. Czesław Niemen: Samarpan (1987)

2017/03/10

A true giant of Polish Pop music comes out of the wilderness to join up with a Polish Jazz giant who purposely went into its wilderness to create a masterpiece of Coltrane-influenced Spiritual Jazz…one influenced by the Coltrane we tend to forget. You see, Samarpan has all the touchstones of one Turiyasangitananda Alice Coltrane.
Krzysztof Ścierański: Krzysztof Ścierański (1984)

2016/12/07

I‘m dipping into that huge well that is Polish Jazz. After listening to “Bialy Garbus” it’s not hard to understand why. Bass-player and hard rock session man extraordinaire, Krzysztof Ścierański takes machines that can bend sonic time and space — the Ibanez HD1000 Delay/Harmonizer and Roland Echo/Chorus— and discovers that there are ways out of Jaco Pastorius-doldrums, into…
Orchestra of the Eighth Day: Music for the End (1982)

2016/11/11

In these dark and foreboding times, it’s important to latch on to things that provide hope. Maybe that’s why the music of Poland has seemed so striking to me lately. The vast majority — at least the majority which remains unheard and “out-there” — of this music was the product of unimaginable restraints. Before the rise of Glasnost and Perestroika,…
Anawa: Abyś Czuł (1973)

2014/09/11

Anawa – 1973 Today, I’m just digging a bit deeper in Polish music. After Marek Grechuta and Anawa went their separate ways, Anawa decided to collobrate with infamous Polish jazz rock vocalist Andrzej Zauche, a gruff voiced chameleon of vast musical styles, to fashion some kind of concept album. This concept album based on the poetic…
Marek Grechuta and Anawa: Korowód (1971)

2014/09/10

Marek Grechuta (tallest dude) and Anawa There are times when I wish I knew a bit more of a language to completely comprehend the importance of a certain artist or musician. For sure, I can sense and feel the importance of an artist like Marek Grechuta (and Anawa) was to the Polish people. Creating his…