Trebunie Tutki & Quintet Urmuli / Poland/Georgia

​

An absolute Polish folk classic, highly acclaimed on the international stage, Trebunie-Tutki band meets another outstanding highlander group – Georgian Urmuli. They jointly created an astonishingly cohesive and ravishing whole, as we can hear on their fine record Duch gór (The Spirit of the Mountains) which was released last year.

Its presentation in concert promises to be a great event. The record made jointly by both ensembles is an artistic cross-cultural dialogue; it is their joint story, moving, emotional. Trebunie-Tutki is among the top representatives of Polish folk. The group’s repertoire and discography abounds with hits deeply rooted in the great Polish tradition of Podhale music. The ability to interweave tradition with the modern sound in the dialogue with other artists, even if they represent distant cultures, is the band’s power and brandmark. Among other projects, the group has to its credit a legendary joint recording with the reggae group Twinkle Brothers (which brought it international acclaim), and joint projects with African Head Charge, Włodzimierz Kiniorski, Krzysztof Ścierański, Daab and Voo Voo. Podhale bagpipes used by Trebunie-Tutki entered the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Their skills in manufacturing the Podhale bagpipe (koza) and playing the instrument were equally stressed.

Georgian polyphonic singing – practiced by Urmuli quintet under the Spirit of the Mountains project – was entered on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2008. Urmuli – a Georgian quintet of singers and multi-instrumentalists – has cultivated national musical traditions for over 20 years. The ensemble has on its repertoire polyphonic songs and instrumental music chractersistic of different regions of Georgia. The earliest polyphonic songs sung by Urmuli date back to the Middle Ages. Their structures depend on the region. During its concerts, the group uses traditional Georgian instruments, including. panduri and chonguri lutes, double-reed wooden wind instrument duduk (also on UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List), chuniri string instrument, salamuri flute and chiboni bagpipe.

​

​

The concert took place in 2017.