"Poleskie Improvisations" is an attempt to create a multi-layered story based on the archaic songs of West Polesie. The starting point is spring, wedding and love songs from the village of Kurczyca near Nowograd Wołyński, stories and fairy tales overheard and recorded in the region by Oskar Kolberg.
The technique of singing, the emotional charge contained in the music itself, and also the memory of the situation, people, nature and the stories accompanying the songs, are a pretext for common music-making. The story is told together by a voice and a double bass – as equal narrators. Double bassist Ksawery Wójciński not only accompanies, but also narrates himself, he interacts with songs and tales. Voice and double bass become equal participants of the musical tale, their roles interpenetrate, balance, and exchange. In the course of research, it turns out that folk music and improvisation are close languages, or even local varieties of one language. The binding factor of the whole are visualizations – abstract and concrete, inherent element of the story. Maniucha Bikont is the originator of the project. During her travels to the Polesie region, she spent time researching archaic white singing techniques with local singers, practiced these techniques and recorded them. As she says, the double bass in combination with her voice connotes for her with the ubiquitous mosquito buzzing, an indispensable element of singing in summer Poleskie evenings.
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Mikołaj Rykowski PhD
Musicologist and clarinetist, doctorate, and associate at the Department Music Theory at the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań. Author of a book and numerous articles devoted to the phenomenon of Harmoniemusik – the 18th-century practice of brass bands. Co-author of the scripts "Speaking concerts" and author of the spoken introductions to philharmonic concerts in Szczecin, Poznań, Bydgoszcz and Łódź.
