Adam Strug - Kurpie songs / Poland
“Kurpie forest songs were used as calls during berry picking, and many other things. They consist of elements that seem distant: romances, bloody ballads, and pieces both educational and lewd. The collection is as extensive as it is not obvious. Musicologists emphasise the uniqueness of the musical scales in this material. I was delighted with the lyricism and inexorable realism,” says Adam Strug. During this year’s festival, the artist will perform this a cappella repertoire.
Adam Strug is the laureate of many important musical events. He won awards, among others at the Student Song Festival in Krakow in 1991 and at the Nationwide Festival of Folk Bands and Singers in Kazimierz nad Wisłą in 1993. In 2008, during the New Tradition Polish Radio Folk Music Festival, he won the Czesław Niemen First Prize and the TV Polonia Award. He has also had success performing at the Polish Song Festival in Opole and the OPPA National Review of Authors’ Songs.
He took part in recordings by Antonina Krzysztoń and Krzysztof Napiórkowski, and collaborated with Stanisław Soyka and Wojciech Waglewski. He sang in Kapela Brodów, with whom he recorded several albums, where he sang, played the organ and pump organ. His voice can be heard on two albums in the famous Muzyka Źródeł series: Kurpie. Puszcza Zielona [Kurpie: The Green Forest] and Polskie pieśni religijne [Polish Religious Songs].
For years, he has been the head of the Monodia Polska ensemble, with whom he has played many concerts and recordedo the Requiem polskie [Polish Requiem] album. Another outstanding album, Requiem ludowe [Folk Requiem], recorded together with Kwadrofonik, was named Folk Phonogram of the Year. In 2015, during the EBU / EthnoKrakow Crossroads festival, the artists presented their second joint project, based on Kurpie songs.
Adam Strug has been described as “representing the conservation trend in traditional music. He is a depositary and populariser of Polish songs passed from generation to generation only in the oral tradition and performed in scales earlier than the commonly used major-minor scale.”
During this year’s festival, he will also perform with his own band, playing an original repertoire.
The concert took place in 2018.