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Czeslaw Niemen: an East European Prog star
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David_D View Drop Down
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    Posted: June 29 2023 at 05:40

Czesław Niemen was in the 1970s not only the greatest Polish music star but also very popular in some other East 
European countries as well. That is very admireable considering the fact most of his music was certainly experimenting.
Today, he's one of the internationally most appreciated classic Prog artists of the region (even not that much on PA Embarrassed), 
and not least by me with my favourite albums being

Enigmatic (1970)
Niemen Aerolit (1975)
Katharsis (1976)


Edited by David_D - December 18 2023 at 17:46
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Hrychu View Drop Down
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Points: 5355 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hrychu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 29 2023 at 13:31
As a Pole, I've been constantly exposed to C. Niemen's music throughout my entire life via radio, TV, pop-cultural osmosis, my relatives, family, friends, Polish YT, and Polish music-related discussion groups. Niemen's music is burned into Poland's musical heritage and he's a musical national treasure. IMHO that's cool as hell.

But to me, what matters the most is that
Czesław Niemen was the only Mellotron user in Poland in the 70s.


Edited by Hrychu - June 29 2023 at 13:32
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David_D View Drop Down
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Points: 15104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 02 2023 at 04:47

Niemen experimented with different styles in the '70s, not least Jazz-Rock, and here's a sample from the album Niemen Aerolit (1975):



Edited by David_D - July 07 2023 at 13:33
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David_D View Drop Down
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Points: 15104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 03 2023 at 05:36

The album Katharsis, released in 1976, was a quite interesting effort with Electronic Prog. The third track on it is "The Planet Earth":



Edited by David_D - July 03 2023 at 10:35
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David_D View Drop Down
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Points: 15104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2023 at 06:06

Niemen's internationally most popular and appreciated album seems to be Enigmatic (1970) with its stunning, side-long and
 liturgical-like "Threnody in the Memory of Bem":



Edited by David_D - July 05 2023 at 06:29
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David_D View Drop Down
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Points: 15104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 12 2023 at 06:05

Czeslaw Niemen had in the '70s also some very good Western contacts and played together with the early SBB, as it's told by Wikipedia:

"In the early 1970s, Niemen recorded three English language albums under the CBS label, two of them (and three more in Poland) with the Silesian band SBB. With SBB Niemen performed at the Rock & Jazz Now! opening show for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich sharing the stage with Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin and Charles Mingus and subsequently toured with Jack Bruce's band.[9] In 1972 he also performed a song he wrote in Andrzej Wajda's film Wesele (The Wedding).[10] In 1974 he recorded Mourner's Rhapsody with Jan Hammer and Rick Laird from Mahavishnu Orchestra. "
 
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czeslaw_Niemen )


Edited by David_D - July 13 2023 at 03:23
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Hrychu View Drop Down
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Jan Hammer, quite surprisingly, actually didn't play any keyborads on the Mourner's Rhapsody record, but instead he provided the session drum work. :O
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Points: 15104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2023 at 13:29

Do you like any of Niemen's albums, Hrychu?
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Hrychu View Drop Down
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Originally posted by David_D David_D wrote:


Do you like any of Niemen's albums, Hrychu?


I love Aerolit. I think it's one of the finest albums from my home country in history.
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All that I read back was very interesting and totally new to me , Thank You Guys !
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Points: 15104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2023 at 15:38
Originally posted by mellotronwave mellotronwave wrote:

All that I read back was very interesting and totally new to me , Thank You Guys !

and my thanks as well Smile
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Points: 549 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote enigmatic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 17 2023 at 11:11
David - interesting thread, thanks. I agree with Hrychu. Aerolit is his best work. Katharsis is next, then Vol 2, IMO. I believe Vol. 2 is the last album recorded with 3 musicians who later formed S.B.B. Challenging mixture of avant-rock, jazz and progressive rock. It requires a few listens. Enigmatic would be number 4 on my list of favorite
Niemen's albums.

Hrychu, David - pozdrownienia z gorącego i dusznego Nowego Jorku.
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Points: 15104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2023 at 04:33

Thanks, Enigmatic, i tez pozdrawiam. Smile
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Points: 13536 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tuzvihar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 19 2023 at 13:31
Oh, yes! I love Niemen! All his albums from Enigmatic to Idee Fixe are great to me! Try his live albums like "41 potencjometrów Pana Jana" or "Kattorna/Pamflet na ludzkość " too!
BTW, he recorded Katharsis after a sudden death od his young friend, drummer Piotr Dziemski. The track "Epitafium pamięci Piotra" (Epitaph in the memory od Piotr) is dedicated to him.

And I'm Polish too! Pozdrowienia z Warszawy!

Edited by Tuzvihar - July 19 2023 at 13:36
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David_D View Drop Down
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Points: 15104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 19 2023 at 14:37
Originally posted by Tuzvihar Tuzvihar wrote:

BTW, he recorded Katharsis after a sudden death od his young friend, drummer Piotr Dziemski. The track "Epitafium pamięci Piotra" (Epitaph in the memory od Piotr) is dedicated to him.

And I'm Polish too! Pozdrowienia z Warszawy!

Very interesting with this information about Katharsis because the lyrics can seem not so little strange to me, as they lament about the fact that human beings are mortal - that's at least how I interpret them.

Also very nice to get greetings from Warsaw where I was born and lived until 15 years old. Smile


Edited by David_D - July 19 2023 at 14:46
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David_D View Drop Down
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Points: 15104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 19 2023 at 16:31

^ But I like the lyrics very much from the poetic point of view. 
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Points: 15104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 19 2023 at 17:30

And now after having read in the Polish Wikipedia that Piotr Dziemski died due to some faults in the medical treatment of him,
I think the lyrics of "Epitafium (Pamięci Piotra)" may rather lament about this fact than the usual mortality of human beings.
Anyway, it's about some lack in the human civilization.
Edit:
According to the Polish Wikipedia, Katharsis in its entirety is a concept album about traps inherent in the development of 
the human civilization and about the ekspansion of the mankind into the cosmic space.
( https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharsis_(album_Niemena) )


Edited by David_D - July 20 2023 at 17:10
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Points: 15104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 24 2023 at 06:27
Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

I love Aerolit. I think it's one of the finest albums from my home country in history.
Originally posted by enigmatic enigmatic wrote:

I agree with Hrychu. Aerolit is his best work. 

Another Polish album, I find to be as good and innovative as Aerolit, is Korowód (1971) by Marek Grechuta / Anawa. Both albums are btw examples of Poezja Spiewana (aka: Polish Sung Poetry) which I guess is one of the specific national characteristics of Polish Progressive Rock.
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Points: 549 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote enigmatic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 24 2023 at 13:58
Absolutely! There is only few other Polish albums from 70s that are (IMO) on the same level as "Aerolit". Korowód by Grechuta + Anawa is one of them.

Edited by enigmatic - July 24 2023 at 13:59
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