The idea

The name and form of the Swedish dance polska has its background in the Renaissance Poland. Now, a few hundred years later, we are rediscovering the common roots our Polish and Swedish folk melodies and dances have grown from through the centuries. How can polish dances from historical notebooks be related to the ones from living tradition, transferred to our time in the memory of village musicians – chodzony, wiwat, kujawiak, mazurek, oberek and – on the other hand – various types of polska? What are the similarities and differences in the rhythms, melodies and dance steps? Is it also possible to explore a common background when it comes to the vocal repertoire?

Such questions – alongside the wonderful experience of playing music together – guided us in the preparation of our concert which aims at presenting the deep link between the music of Poland and Sweden. We have gathered a bunch of musican and dancing friends, experts in their fields, in order to co-create this project. As a result of the meetings, mutual listening and searching for associations we have created music and dance dialogues, chains of corresponding melodies and rhythms.

We feel our meeting is as if of two related musical families that have not heard from one another for a long time. Eager to listen and to play to the other. We hope this is just the first step of this reunion and an opening for new discoveries.

Janusz Prusinowski, Magnus Gustafsson, Jonas Hjalmarsson

musicians:

– Witold Broda – violin
– Ulrika Gunnarson – violin, vocals
– Magnus Gustafsson – violin
– Jonas Hjalmarsson – violin
– Paweł Iwaszkiewicz – bagpipes, goat great, flute
– Olof Misgeld – violin
– Justyna Piernik – singing
– Piotr Piszczatowski – baraban, Drum
– Janusz Prusinowski – violin, accordion, dulcimer
– Justyna Rekść-Raubo – cello
– Vilja-Louise Skough-Aborn – vocals