Warszawa Wschodnia / Poland/Ukraine/Russia

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A beautiful return to original singing traditions is on offer from the members of the band Warszawa Wschodnia.

The group has existed since 1999. They previously played under the name Muzyka z Drogi. Warszawa Wschodnia document, reconstruct and perform Russian, Ukrainian and Polish traditional songs, as well as organising cultural events. Their repertoire includes works collected by band members during numerous ethnographic trips, mainly in Ukrainian Polesie and southwestern Russia, and in Poland – in Kurpie, Kujawy and Mazowsze. Another important sources are Polish, Ukrainian and Russian musical archives.

The group’s main objective is recreating old and disappearing styles of singing and documenting the most valuable parts of Eastern Slavic musical culture. The musicians find their most important inspirations in contact with rural maestros – the older generation of singers – who they have been visiting for many years. From them, they learn from both songs and the original way of singing.

Last year, the band released the double album “Ławeczka”. As the Warszawa Wschodnia artists say, it is “a story about the village of Podserednieje, to which we travelled in 2002-2013, to listen, to document and to learn traditional music from singers of the old generation. It is the story of a unique music and the people who graced it with their personalities, the old way of listening to and experiencing the world”. The first disc of the album includes singers from the village of Podserednieje, while the second – the members of the Warszawa Wschodnia.
 

Members:
Ewa Grochowska - vocals
Joanna Górska - vocals
Anna Jakowska - vocals
Jagna Knittel - vocals
Justyna Piernik - vocals
Taras Shumeyko - vocals
Cezary Szymański - vocals
Monika Walenko - vocals
 

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The concerts took place in 2015.