Even though Poland is now a member of the EU, Europeans still regard it as the unknown neighbor to the east, especially with regard to the music scene. We’ve heard of Klezmer and that’s about it… until now! The Warsaw Village Band has unveiled a fusion based on traditional Polish musical elements with modern sounds of turntable specialists.

The band formed in 1997 in Warsaw as a collective of students interested in Polish music, under the name of Village Band.  They were lovingly accepted by the Warsaw underground scene but soon began to branch out, exploring their regional folklore as well as world music. The addition of ‘Warsaw’ to their name came at the insistence of the well-known radio journalist Wlodzimierz Kleszcz., who provided a new direction for the band. Starting in 1998 the band began to sharpen its image, playing to adoring crowds in festivals and concerts all over Europe. The Warsaw Village band was the winner of the Polish radio competition “New Traditions” in 1998; which fueled their start towards international recognition.

Their new CD Uprooting is the Warsaw Village Band’s boldest venture yet. The ensemble invited representatives of traditional Polish folklore to join them in the recording studio, also forging contacts with two dub-sound and scratch specialists. In view of this unusual blend of elements and epochs, the Warsaw Village Band’s motto for Uprooting , comes from Reggae hero Burning Spear, “Remember the past, but keep it livin’ in the future.”

Warsaw Village Band is known for their trance-like rhythms of two drums and the so-called “white voices” – near-screams, primeval, clear and wild, combined with the szuka (knee-violin), cello, dulcimer, violin and hurdy-gurdy. The Warsaw Village Band experiments with its roots, creating an entirely new, suspense-charged relationship between the traditional and the modern. Their great love for their national musical heritage and the will to preserve the old musical traditions are the chief ingredients for their success. For the Warsaw Village Band preservation does not mean restoration but – as in the case of “The Pogues” and “Les Negresses Vertes” – reanimation and the conveyance of the songs’ spirit into the present. So Polka gets a shot of Techno! The result is a sound young people identify with, a sound that has mesmerized audiences all the way from America to Japan.

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Official Site:
www.warsawvillageband.net