Today Gumowa Róża club invites you for a folk / alternative rock concert of Paula and Karol.

As we read on on the band’s last.fm profile: “Paula and Karol are a young band based in Warsaw, Poland. Their creativity draws from Paula’s home town in north Ontario, and Karol’s Warsaw street cred. They are perhaps the only Polish representatives of folk/alt rock.. The duo now play with a magical crew of musicians including Staszek Wróbel on stand up bass and drums, Zofia Morus on bass, violin, and keyboards, and Krzysiek “Pozar” on bass and keyboards.”

Paula i Karol are currently touring promoting their debut album “Overshare”

They played during most Polish festivals like Open’er Festival, OFF Festival, Jarocin Festival, czy Smooth Festival and were also very well received outside Poland during The European Music Conference and Showcase Festiwal in Netherlands.

Paula i Karol’s gig will take place in Gumowa Róża club located on 32 Wita Stwosza Street today at 8 pm. The tickets go for 10 Zloty.

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Żywiołak, a Polish neofolk / folk metal band will be hosted in music club Łykend on the 19th of March.

Żywiołak is result of a meeting of two musically skilled friends. Robert Jaworski – the founder of Turek-Łódź based band ich troLe that has shaken the Polish folk scene within just a year since it’s foundation. He is fascinated with medieval music, old instruments, good rock’n'roll and folk art. Robert Wasilewski is regular guitar-player of the legendary folk band Open Folk.

In April 2006 the band was awarded with the Grand Prix at the Folk Music Festival „Nowa Tradycja”. Żywiołak released their first LP “Nowa Ex-Tradycja” in 2008.

If all that sounds interesting to you, on the 19th of March at 8pm go to Łykend club and see Żywiołak performing live. The tickets go for 20 Zloty.

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As we read on their official website, “Indigo Tree is a primitive pop band from poland”. Indigo Tree is a cooperative of two skilled musicians- Filip Zawada (ex-member of Pustki) and guitarist and vocalist Peve Lety, who decided to join their talents in 2009. Soon after that, the relatively young band released their first album titled “lullabies of love and death” which is now receiving very positive feedback from both fans and critics.

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Another band inspired by Buddy Holly’s evergreen classic.

There are countless artists that have paid tribute to or other of Buddy Holly songs. “Peggy Sue” is no exception: the list is impressive and it includes The Beatles as well as Family Guy and now there is a British indie folk band named after this marvellous song. Although Peggy Sue has been around for five years, they released their debut album just a few weeks ago. Entitled “Fossils And Other Phantoms”, it was preceded by the single “Yo Mama”.

“Yo Mama” is a perky song based on the acoustic guitar and marching drums. The band’s singer sounds a bit like PJ Harvey or Joanna Newsom – if only she decided to smile more often! A joyful song indeed..or even indied!

“Hustle” is a far calmer alternative to the hustle and bustle of city life.

Is there anything ambiguous about the title of this song? The question is not that stupid, considering the fact that Sam Genders and Mike Lindsay, the founder-members of Tunng, began their musical partnership composing scores for soft porn. They don’t do that anymore, though, and, fortunately, they found some good vocal support in the form of Becky Jacobs, who is also Max Tundra’s younger sister. Although this English band used to mix electronic music with almost pure folk, making use of strange instruments such as sea shells, its new song will live up to the expectations of people who like twee and gentle indie pop, in the style of, say, Kings of Convenience.

Atman imitates the nature, but not in the classical, Vivaldi-like style. In fact, it would be hard to find any common denominator for the artists’ compositions. Has nature changed that much or is it just a New Age?

Actually Atman might be considered not only as a band but even as a scene or movement that was comprising open-minded and extraordinarily skilful musicians interested in ethnic, psychedelic and avant-garde music. From 1975 to 1998 the band, consisting of Marek Styczyński (multi-instrumentalist), Piotr Kolecki (multi-instrumentalist) and Marek Leszczyński (dulcimer, percussions), was cooperating with numerous outstanding artists, who were enriching their recordings. None of them was even close to the mainstream; what is more, most of them played unusual instruments: either imported from the Far East countries or reconstructed in the image of traditional Polish ones. The outcome of using all these oriental instruments is a thick layer of both absorbing and astounding sound. It’s unbelievable that such density was reached with the exclusive use of acoustically generated sound.

The album that presents best Atman’s both intellectual and ritual approach to the folk music is “Tradition“. Sadly, I must admit that, symptomatically, the album met with a very positive reception abroad, whereas in Poland is mainly unknown. Basically tracks contained on “Tradition” might be divided into focused, guitar-driven impulsive songs (“Tensegretty” – which is an exception from the acoustic principle) and highly-psychedelic, oriental jams (16-minutes long “The Talking Meadow (Story)“). Some of the tracks feature a vocalist Anna Nacher, whose vocal interpretations fluctuate from melodeclamation to manic scream.

The evidence of Styczyński’s compositional gift is the cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Stone From The Sun“, which is transformed into a solemn Tibetan-like anthem with a marvelous guitar solo. Fortunately though, his music career didn’t stop with Atman’s disbanding. From that time on he has been pursuing his career (along with Anna Nacher) in Magic Carpathians band, which is already a widely-acclaimed project.

Atman’s proposition is a stimulating blend of bacchanal wilderness, Slavic mystery and wisdom that lays in the, nearly forgotten, traditional ceremonies. It’s not your grandparents’ tales and it disturbs.

Recommended if you like: Can, Hash Jar Tempo, Magic Carpathians, avant-garde ethnic music

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