LUBOŠ FIŠER - "VALERIE A TÝDEN DIVŮ" (original soundtrack recorded in 1970, CD released in 2006)

"Valerie a týden divů" ("Valerie and Her Week of Wonders") is one of the most important movies of the Czechoslovak new wave movement, which interested the nation from the early Sixties to the early Seventies. It was directed by Jaromil Jireš and premiered in September, 1970.

The soundtrack was recorded by Luboš Fišer (1935-1999), which was active as both an academic musician and a film composer. It's an eclectic and unusual soundtrack, in which Fišer mixed Czech folk music, chamber music, church music, avant-garde, and psychedelia.

Even though it was one of the most important elements of the movie, it was released as a Cd only in 2006, by British indie label Finders Keepers.

DOWNLOAD (kbps: 320)

SBB - "MEMENTO Z BANALNYM TRYPTYKIEM" (1981) + EXODUS - "SUPERNOVA" (1982)

SBB - "Memento z banalnym tryptykiem"
Recorded in february 1980, released in february 1981.
136.000 copies sold in 1981 (second best selling album of the year in Poland).
Tenth studio album for the band, which debuted in 1974.

Apostolis Antymos - electric guitar (tracks 1, 3 & 4), acoustic guitar (track 4)
Jerzy Piotrowski - drums (tracks 1, 3 & 4), percussion (tracks 1, 3 & 4)
Sławomir Piwowar - electric guitar (all tracks), acoustic guitar (tracks 2 & 4), keyboards (track 3), bass (track 4)
Józef Skrzek - keyboards (all tracks), bass (tracks 1, 3 & 4), vocals (tracks 1 & 4), harmonica (track 3)

Music composed by Józef Skrzek (tracks 1 & 4), Sławomir Piwowar (track 2), Apostolis Antymos (track 3), Jerzy Piotrowski (track 3)
Lyrics (tracks 1 & 4): Julian Matej
Producer: Edward Spyrka

Exodus - "Supernova"
Recorded in october-november 1981, released at the very end of 1982.
476.000 copies sold in 1983 (best selling album of the year in Poland).
Second studio album for the band, which debuted in 1978.

Paweł Birula - vocals, acoustic guitar
Zbigniew Fyk - drums, percussion
Władysław Komendarek - keyboards
Andrzej Puczyński - acoustic & electric guitar
Wojciech Puczyński - bass

Music composed by Paweł Birula (tracks 1, 3, 5 & 8), Zbigniew Fyk (tracks 1 & 4), Władysław Komendarek (tracks 1, 2 & 6), Andrzej Puczyński (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 & 8), Wojciech Puczyński (tracks 1 & 4)
Lyrics: Andrzej Puczyński (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 & 8), Małgorzata Maliszewska (tracks 3 & 5)
Producer: Witold Trenkler

These two albums are not directly related, but I'm posting them together because they basically ended the glorious Polish progressive rock season. Their atmospheric, tecnological sound somehow predated the British neo-prog movement. 
Both Exodus and SBB disbanded after these albums, only to reunite in the following decades.

DOWNLOAD SBB: "MEMENTO..." (kbps: 320)

DOWNLOAD EXODUS: "SUPERNOVA" (kbps: 320)

 

FONOGRÁF - "ÚTKÖZBEN" (1978) & "JELENKOR" (1984)

János Bródy (guitars), Levente Szörényi (guitars, vocals), and Szabolcs Szörényi (bass), all former members of psychedelic rock band Illés, decided to form a new group at the beginning of 1974.

Fonográf debuted that same year, and despite being a sextet, their line-up would have stayed the same throughout their ten years history. The three other members were Mihály Móricz (guitars), Oszkár Németh (drums, percussion), and László Tolcsvay (keyboards, guitars, vocals).

They released seven studio albums (eight if we count the soundtrack of "István, a király", about which I will write in the near future), with "Útközben" and "Jelenkor" being by far my favourites.

It's hard to decide which one is better, since they are both terrific records. It probably depends on which kind of music you prefer, considering they are radically different from each other.

"Útközben", their fifth album, is a soft rock masterpiece influenced by country music, West Coast harmonies, and funky rhythms. It also makes a heavy use of synthesizers, which is quite unusual for this kind of stuff.

"Jelenkor", their last album, is way darker. You can place somewhere between AOR and neo-prog, with sci-fi atmospheres influenced by both space rock and new wave.

DOWNLOAD "ÚTKÖZBEN" (kbps: 320)

DOWNLOAD "JELENKOR" (kbps: 320)

 

2021, SOME GREAT POLISH ALBUMS: BŁOTO, FISZ EMADE TWORZYWO, MUCHY, SOKÓŁ.

2021 has been a fantastic year for Polish music. I hope to worthily represent it through these four albums I picked (Fisz Emade are a longtime love for Soviet Sam, but the other three are all new entries, despite having solid careers behind them).

Błoto - "Kwasy i zasady"

DOWNLOAD (kbps: 320)

Born as a spin-off project of Polish jazz ensemble EABS, they soon developed into a full-time band. Entirely recorded live in studio in just one take, this is their third album in two years, and probably their best one.
File under: nu jazz, jazz fusion;

try it if you like: hypnotic beats and nocturnal atmospheres.

Fisz Emade Tworzywo - "Ballady i protesty" (no. 1 on the Polish album chart)

DOWNLOAD (kbps: 320)

Probably their most ambitious album (18 tracks, 97 minutes), equally divided among introspection and sociopolitical commentary (Fisz is particularly critical of the current Polish government, and I would say rightly so).

File under: hip hop, downtempo, art pop, indietronica;

try it if you like: eclectic albums which are able to encompass a huge variety of styles.

Muchy - "Szaroróżowe" (no. 22 on the Polish album chart)

DOWNLOAD (kbps: 320)

First album after a seven years hyatus for the band led by singer and guitar player Michał Wiraszko.

Their alternative pop music is as epic as ever, even thanks to an impressive set of collaborations: Emade (producer), Hey's members Paweł Krawczyk (producer) and Katarzyna Nosowska (vocals: track 2), jazzist Monika Borzykm (vocals: tracks 3, 5, 7, 9), Bela Komoszyńska from Sorry Boys (vocals: track 1), Lady Pank's Jan Borysewicz (lead guitar: track 1), Republika's Zbigniew Krzywański (lead guitar: track 11).

File under: indie rock, jangle pop;

try it if you like: powerful riffs and grooves, ethereal atmospheres.

Sokół - "Nic" (no. 1 on the Polish album chart)

DOWNLOAD (kbps: 231-280)

One of the most important Polish rappers. This album, entirely curated by expert sound engineer Rafał Smoleń, is his masterpiece.

Filder under: hip hop, wave music;

try it if you like the concept of rap music being influenced by synthwave.

VIDEO SECTION:

TAMÁS CSEH & JÁNOS MÁSIK - "LEVÉL NŐVÉREMNEK" (1977)

Singer and guitar player Tamás Cseh was a young teacher when he met the still unknown writer Géza Bereményi, in 1970. They started writing songs together, but they did not try to record them, since they feared censorship for their social contents.
After some years spent in the Budapest intellectual scene they finally started to gain some credit, and in 1975 they met multi-instrumentalist János Másik, with whom they entered the staff of renowned theather Huszonötödik Színházban.

"Levél nővéremnek" was presented there in 1975 as a contemporary folk opera, performed by Cseh and Másik. Bereményi's lyrics were structured like a letter to an imaginary elder sister, to whom the main character narrates his everyday life in Budapest, his love stories, and his concerns.
In 1977 they were finally able to record it for the state label Hungaroton, without meeting any censorship (even though they probably had toned the songs down a bit, in order to avoid it).

The album was perceived as an artistic revolution in Budapest and basically marked the birth of Hungarian alternative music.
Sadly, it wasn't met with the same enthusiasm in the rest of the nation, that lacking the cultural ferment of the capital perceived the product as too elitist.

Produced by Attila Apró
Lyrics: Géza Bereményi
Music composed by:
János Novák (tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 18, 22)
Tamás Cseh (tracks 2, 4, 6, 8, 11-14, 16-17, 19, 21, 23)
János Másik (tracks 2, 4, 10, 15, 20)

Tamás Cseh - vocals, guitar
János Másik - vocals, guitar, bass guitar, double bass, banjo, organ, piano, harpsichord, percussion

Additional musicians:
János Novák - cello
Tomsits Rudolf - trumpet
László Gőz - trombone

DOWNLOAD (kbps: 320)