Czeslaw Niemen: an East European Prog star
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
Forum Description: Discuss specific prog bands and their members or a specific sub-genre
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=131177
Printed Date: February 17 2025 at 18:12
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Topic: Czeslaw Niemen: an East European Prog star
Posted By: David_D
Subject: Czeslaw Niemen: an East European Prog star
Date Posted: June 29 2023 at 05:40
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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  ), and not least by me with my favourite albums being Enigmatic (1970) Niemen Aerolit (1975) Katharsis (1976)
------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Replies:
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: June 29 2023 at 13:31
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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.
------------- “On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.” — Ernest Vong |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 02 2023 at 04:47
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Niemen experimented with different styles in the '70s, not least Jazz-Rock, and here's a sample from the album Niemen Aerolit (1975): ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 03 2023 at 05:36
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The album Katharsis, released in 1976, was a quite interesting effort with Electronic Prog. The third track on it is "The Planet Earth": ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 05 2023 at 06:06
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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": ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 12 2023 at 06:05
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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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS" rel="nofollow - CBS label, two of them (and three more in Poland) with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Silesia" rel="nofollow - Silesian band https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBB_%28band%29" rel="nofollow - SBB . With https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBB_%28band%29" rel="nofollow - SBB Niemen performed at the Rock & Jazz Now! opening show for the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Summer_Olympics" rel="nofollow - 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich sharing the stage with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavishnu_Orchestra" rel="nofollow - Mahavishnu Orchestra , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McLaughlin_%28musician%29" rel="nofollow - John McLaughlin and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mingus" rel="nofollow - Charles Mingus and subsequently toured with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Bruce" rel="nofollow - Jack Bruce 's band. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82aw_Niemen#cite_note-9" rel="nofollow - [9] In 1972 he also performed a song he wrote in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrzej_Wajda" rel="nofollow - Andrzej Wajda 's film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedding_%281972_film%29" rel="nofollow - Wesele (The Wedding) . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82aw_Niemen#cite_note-10" rel="nofollow - [10] In 1974 he recorded Mourner's Rhapsody with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hammer" rel="nofollow - Jan Hammer and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Laird" rel="nofollow - Rick Laird from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavishnu_Orchestra" rel="nofollow - Mahavishnu Orchestra . " ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czeslaw_Niemen )
------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: July 14 2023 at 12:26
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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 ------------- “On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.” — Ernest Vong |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 14 2023 at 13:29
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Do you like any of Niemen's albums, Hrychu? ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: July 14 2023 at 13:43
I love Aerolit. I think it's one of the finest albums from my home country in history. ------------- “On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.” — Ernest Vong |
David_D wrote:Posted By: mellotronwave
Date Posted: July 14 2023 at 14:15
All that I read back was very interesting and totally new to me , Thank You Guys !  |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 14 2023 at 15:38
and my thanks as well  ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: enigmatic
Date Posted: July 17 2023 at 11:11
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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. |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 18 2023 at 04:33
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Thanks, Enigmatic, i tez pozdrawiam. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: Tuzvihar
Date Posted: July 19 2023 at 13:31
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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! ------------- "Music is much like f**king, but some composers can't climax and others climax too often, leaving themselves and the listener jaded and spent." Charles Bukowski |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 19 2023 at 14:37
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.
------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 19 2023 at 16:31
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^ But I like the lyrics very much from the poetic point of view. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 19 2023 at 17:30
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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) )
------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: July 24 2023 at 06:27
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. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: enigmatic
Date 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. |