Roots Unearthed-Warsaw Village Band

WARSAW VILLAGE BAND

Formed in 1998 the Warsaw Village Band made their first major performance in 1999 at the Sopot Festival in Poland where producer Ulrich Balss of JARO Records spotted them. It was not until the spring of 2003 when he released their second album "People's Spring" that the band began to conquer the world with concerts in places as far-flung as Alaska, Japan, Taiwan, Portugal, Moscow and Paris all earning them exuberant reviews. In 2004, they were presented with the BBC WORLD MUSIC AWARD for ‘Best Newcomer' and in 2006 they won the Polish Grammy "Frederik Award".
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the expansion of the European Union to most of the former Warsaw Pact countries, Poland's economy has grown dramatically, while at the same time ushering in investment by a number of multi-national companies, leading to concerns of globalism and the loss of Poland's cultural identity.
The Warsaw Village Band was intended to be a response to this trend by exploring Poland's musical traditions and making them relevant to its new capitalist economy. According to their creative manifesto the Warsaw Village Band was formed as a response to mass culture and narrow-mindedness, "which in fact leads to [the] destruction of human dignity." Band member Wojciech Krzak has stated that "after the nightmare of Communism, we still have to fight for our identity, and we know that beauty and identity are still in our roots." He also stated that the band is "trying to create a new cultural proposition for the youth in an alternative way to contemporary show-biz." The band's very name appears to evoke what troubles Krzak about Poland's new capitalism: many large Polish cities do not have suburbs in the traditional sense, leading to unsettling transitions directly from city to field.
Those concerns were addressed on their album ‘Uprooting', which involved the band travelling throughout Poland to find and record older musicians who still played almost-forgotten styles of music, and incorporating those melodies into new songs.
Meanwhile they're a symbol of young, intelligent Eastern European music that combines traditions with modern elements and is capable of eliciting enthusiastic responses from rock audiences and traditionalists alike.
Warsaw Village Band has revived several musical traditions that were all but lost in Poland. The band use instruments rarely heard in modern music: frame drums, hurdy gurdy and the suka, a Polish folk fiddle stopped with the fingernails rather than the fingers, that was practically unknown to the Polish people until the band began to use it in concerts, and, later, on their albums. Additionally, many of the band's vocals are sung in a loud and powerful style remarkably like the "open-throated" singing styles in Bulgarian music, called biały głos (white voice). This style of singing was used by shepherds in the Polish mountains to be heard for long distances. They've also incorporated modern elements into their music including sound effects and scratching, leading to a peculiar juxtaposition of new sounds upon old melodies.
www.warsawvillageband.net

"The Warsaw Village Band have already run off with a Best Newcomer trophy from the BBC's Awards for World Music 2004. The rebellious Polish six-piece describe their house style as ‘hardcore folk', and the signature sound is indeed formed by uncompromising traditionalism, updated with a guttural punk rock aesthetic." - BBC Radio 3

£12.00 in advance

£13.00 on the day of the performance

discounts available