MAREK GRECHUTA

MAREK GRECHUTA enjoyed a fruitful career as one of Poland's best known and favorite artists both before the fall of the communist regime and for many years after. Born in the far eastern city of Zamość, spent many years in the university studying music but in 1966 he formed the folk group ANAWA and set out to tackle the art of poezja śpiewana, a Polish art form used to describe a poem being used as the centerpiece of a song with only sparse instrumental accompaniment. Spending a few years honing their skills, ANAWA debuted in 1970 with a unique mix of poezja śpiewana. Baroque pop, chamber folk and slight progressive elements. The album was mostly poetic songs by Polish poets which featured a prominent violin and cello but a fairly sparse sounding album in relation to the band's second album KOROWÓD which simply means 'Pageant' in English.

Although GRRECHUTA formed ANAWA, the first two albums featured an equal billing as MAREK GRECHUTA & ANAWA and while GRECHUTA would go on to produce a great number of solo albums and hits, ANAWA on the other hand would only experience one single album after this with its sole moniker hogging the album cover. A much more adventurous release than the debut KOROWÓD immediately sets itself apart and embarks on a very expansive journey that continued the art of poezia śpiewana with progressive folk but with more emphasis on the progressive elements including a larger orchestral and symphonic approach. Arriving on the scene in 1971, GRECHUTA & ANAWA offered the Polish scene some of the very first glimpses into the more sophisticated universe of progressive music with more abstract philosophical subject matter and more emphasis on more complex composiitons.

Although lyrics play a vital role in this release, they are all in the Polish language so immediately anyone who doesn't speak the language will be alienated in that front however the music itself is just as captivating with impressive folk based constructs that offer classical musical accompaniments and a touch of jazz and chamber folk. The original album featured nine tracks but the later remastered versions added an additional eight bonus tracks. The music is a rich tapestry of funky bass grooves, softly strummed guitars, poetic lyrical prose including lush backing choirs and somewhat of a 60s beat vibe especially in the percussion department. The title track is one of the most ambitious as it incorporates a rock beat accompanied fluttering flute lines that pretty much dominate and gain increasing strength. The track takes its sweet time to unfold and features an extended running time of nearly ten minutes. The track ends in a psychedelic haze of flute fluttering and trippy bass grooves sounding as if they've joined Germany's Krautrock scene.

GRECHUTA would part ways with ANAWA after this release and go for a more mainstream approach after which he would become a Polish superstar in the 1970s. The next ANAWA release without GRECHUTA would continue on in the same progressive rock / folk manner sprinkled with jazzy accouterments but the band would fold soon thereafter. Given that folk lovers including those who crave the more progressive varieties tend to be focused on lyrical content it's no surprise that this album has not been as appreciated outside of the world of Eastern Europe due to the language barrier however the music alone on this one is more than worth the price of admission with some very sophisticated musical developments throughout this set of nine tracks. In many ways this sounds like some of the early progressive folk bands from the Italian scene. Imagine Le Orme singing in Polish then you're not too overly far off!

This one is one of my favourites on polisch prog scene. There are two songs, that made that record huge. First one is Dni Których Nie Znamy. A great song, which has a simple beat, but it's very catchy, and the melodic line is heavy arranged. The song track is just... Wel I don't have any good words to describe it. It's called Korowód and it is one of the first true prog compositions in Poland. Almost 10 minutes long, with very fine vocal part, then the choir mode. Man, it's almost like early King Crimson or Pink Floyd. You must understand my enthusiasm for this record. It was the year 1971. Here in Poland it wasn't too funny in that time. Rock music basicly didn't exist. But, once in a while someone had the guts to record a lp like this one. Grechuta, SBB, Breakout, Klan. So, if you will ever listen to this lp, please remember, in what country it was recorded. For my it's a masterpiece.

Through a prog friend from Poland whom I met through this site, finally I got this rare album (especially for me in "rest of the world" country) by Marek Grechuta. A bunch of albums actually that I received from him, including Collage that I just reviewed couple of weeks ago. I envy on you from Poland which in fact has many prog talents in the country. I believe Grechuta is a genius musician and composer as I can hear clearly through his creation in this "Magia obłoków". Most of his compositions in this album are explorative in nature or I might say it avant-garde with heavy influences from jazz music. His music also contains many surprises where he brings the listeners with varied styles from opera to something like jazz improvisation.

"W pochodzie dni i nocy" (4'07) opens with a repetitive music featuring vocal and choir and it suddenly changes to jazz music with dynamic bass lines and violin work. It's a good exploration of jazz music with surprises in styles. At first listen it sounds to me too monotonous, but with some more spins it brings me to another experience. The fact that it is sung in Polish has made the sound better even though I don't understand what it means. Well, I read through the band's brief at this site I know that the lyrics must be poetic.

"Igła" (2:08) is truly a song-orientated composition featuring vocal as main component accompanied with guitar fills. It sounds similar with next track "Świat w obłokach" (4:06). Though this song sounds like a pop song with relatively simple structure and repetitive vocal but when I observe the guitar work, it's quite interesting to enjoy.

The album really lift-offs when it reaches the epic "Suita "Spotkania w czasie"" (14:36)* which comprises track 6 "Walc na trawie" (4:24) a melodic instrumental in a bit of symphonic nuance with jazz influence. It moves into another beautiful track 7 "Ulica cieni" (5:52) followed with short track "Zmierzch" (1:49). The epic concludes with a melodic song "Ptak śpiewa o poranku" (2:25) where the music is enriched with nice orchestration. The song has a catchy melody. It's quite unique to my ears.

The album concludes with "Na szarość naszych nocy" (2:52), a simple structure song with good guitar fills. The CD version includes 9 bonus tracks.

Overall, it's a good album from Poland and it will satisfy those of you who love jazz fusion and avant-garde kind of music. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW