Warsaw Village Band

“Traditional music in Poland isn’t exactly widespread,” writes Simon Broughton in World Music: The Rough Guide (1999). “The country has Westernised rapidly and the memory of Communist fakelore has tainted people’s interest in the genuine article. …the Communist regime, as throughout eastern Europe, co-opted folk culture as a part of its own ideology, as a cheerful expression of healthy peasant labour. The Communist espousal of folk music was a near killer blow for the tradition. Both folk music and traditions were sanitized almost to irrelevance, emerging mainly through presentation by professional folk troupes… the overall effect was homogenisation rather than local identity. …Nonetheless, there was just about enough slack in the system for local bands to keep some genuine tradition going.” The reemergence of the Polish folk music scene began in the 1970’s, but since then, few folk bands have endured. The success of Celtic and other world folk bands in the ’80’s was noticed in Poland, and in the early ’90’s Polish folk bands began sprouting up again. Even so, little of this music has made it beyond Poland’s borders. Now the Warsaw Village Band is shining the spotlight on the country’s traditional music by combining ethnic and modern elements. The group's unique and fresh approach has already earned them widespread international recognition. The group was presented with the "newcomer" prize at the 2004 BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards.

"Rescuing the traditional music of a region from extinction or from bland homogenization is a daunting task. The young members of the Warsaw Village Band (Kapela Ze Wsi Warszawa) are not only spearheading such a revival of village music from the lowland Mazovia region of Poland, but they are carrying on its wild spirits by injecting it with a modern vitality."
- Global Rhythm