专辑简介

This is the debut album by Polish singer / songwriter / poet Marek Grechuta, one of the most iconic figures on the Polish popular music scene and the most important representative of the Music & Poetry movement in Poland. This is also his first of the two albums with the group Anawa, which he founded during his student years in Krakow together with fellow architecture student, pianist / composer Jan Kanty Pawluskiewicz. The version of Anawa playing on this album was sextet, which included also cellist Anna Wojtowicz, viola player Tadeusz Kozuch, bassist Jacek Ostaszewski and guitarist Tadeusz Dziedzic. Several guest musicians also played on the album, including drummer Janusz Stefanski, guitarist Marek Jackowski, violinist Zbigniew Paleta and others. The album includes ten tracks, seven composed by Pawluskiewicz and three composed by Grechuta. Grechuta wrote lyrics to three of the songs and the remaining seven are by some of the Polish poets Grechuta admired: Adam Mickiewicz, Julian Tuwim, Leszek Aleksander Moczulski (closely associated with the legendary Polish group Skaldowie) and others. Musically the album is light-years ahead of its time and completely different from anything else that was happening on the Pop / Rock scene at the time in Poland or anywhere else for that matter. It amalgamates seemingly conflicting elements like contemporary Classical music, Psychedelia, chanson and cabaret, Jazz and very strong Folklore and World Music influences. In addition there is also the omnipresent Polish melancholy, emphasized by the poignant lyrics and sensitive delivery. Although the Music & Poetry movement existed in Poland earlier, mostly in the intimate cabaret environment, Grechuta took it forward making a milestone step towards perfecting the genre and no less importantly popularizing it by bringing it to huge crowds rather than to the limited avant-garde / intellectual audiences of small clubs and student hangouts. Grechuta is a master of his trade and his vocal delivery is simply sublime. Always somewhere in between singing and reciting, his interpretation of the lyrics is exquisitely intelligent and insightful. The entire band performs simply divinely, displaying obvious talents and sensitivity. Such combination of beautiful music performed as perfectly as here is indeed extraordinary. Therefore in retrospect this is simply one of the best Pop / Rock albums ever recorded in Poland and absolutely nothing recorded since comes even close to its perfection, except of course for the next album he recorded with the same group called "Korowod", which is considered even stronger than this one. It is completely untouched by time and constantly gets better in contrast to most music created today. It is an absolute must have for every lover of Polish music and no collection of Polish music will be complete without it. This expanded and remastered edition includes twelve bonus tracks recorded by the Polish Radio or in concert, all of excellent quality, both sonically and musically. Perfection incarnate!