Polish Gems - Part III 💎🇵🇱⚡️ Electronic edition
Let's listen to music straight from Poland: Rysy, Da Vosk Docta, La Giang, Sarapata | MC #55
Cześć,
I hope you've been well this September and ready for October. For me, this past month was partly busy, and partly relaxing. I’ve spent some time in our family’s summer cottage that is hidden in the woods, squeezing out the last bits of Summer, doodling in the sun, taking bike trips, and simply enjoying nature 🌲🦌☀️.
Also, this month a couple of friends from London paid us a visit. For quite some time we brainstormed with Tomasz Skupiński what to show them, as it was their first time in Poland. Getting a tour around Warsaw with our friends and seeing our city from a different perspective, through their eyes, was a cool experience. Barszcz (borscht), and pierogi conquered their hearts, and they even enjoyed our ubiquitous architectural brutalism and its contrast with modern buildings 🥟🏙️.
There’s one thing that stuck in my memory particularly strongly. When you ask a non-Polish person the question: “What kind of music is Poland famous for?”, the answer usually is: “classical”. Then you hear the name of our world-famous Frédéric Chopin and most often that’s it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of Chopin, and we even went with our London guests to hear Chopin’s music during open-air concerts.
But there’s so much more worth exploring here. In Poland, we have many fantastic modern musicians, who create top-notch music, and who deserve global attention, like Hania Rani or Daniel Spaleniak, to whom I dedicated Part I and Part II of the Polish Gems issue series here on Midweek Crisis.
What I want to focus on today is Polish electronic music and my favorite representatives of the genre. It’s quite a long issue, so if you don’t have much time, you can jump straight into the Polish Gems 💎🇵🇱 playlist (it includes music from two previous Polish Gems issues: Part I, Part II)
⚡️ Rysy
Nearly 10 years ago, when visiting Gdańsk for work, I accidentally stuck upon their music at a music festival at the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre. I fell in love with their vibes from the very first moment I heard "The Fib", a truly hypnotizing song from Rysy’s debut album called "Traveler" (2015).
Rysy is a band of two - Wojtek Urbański (composer, music producer, and sound engineer) and Sonar Soul (Łukasz Stachurko, DJ and music producer). Together they weave electronic magic that's impossible to resist. Each of Rysy’s albums showcases the band's versatility, as they navigate between different genres while maintaining a strong sense of identity. Their music is a fusion of different genres including nu-beat, electro-pop, IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), and more.
Wojtek: In general, with Rysy, from the beginning, it was like we never tried to be at the top, to follow trends. Firstly, we would have to change our style practically with every track, with every album or EP. With the first album, they said, "kind of like Moderat." Now they say, "like Bicep." In reality, because of what they say about us, we start to listen more to the music they compare us to.
What sets Rysy apart is their knack for crafting infectious melodies that tug at your heartstrings. It’s hard to explain, but for me, it feels like their tracks effortlessly transport you to dreamy landscapes where you can't help but dance and daydream simultaneously.
⚡️ Da Vosk Docta
Kamil Szczepanik is a man behind Da Vosk Docta (DVD). He’s 32 years old (born in 1991 - same as me), comes from Wrocław (like my Dad), and is a self-taught artist, whose main mission is to evoke emotions in listeners. You can learn a lot from his Instagram profile, for example, that it usually takes him about 10-20 hours to produce a track like an “ANCIENT FLUTE”.
With a penchant for blending genres like rap, future garage, house, or wave, DVD crafts tracks that defy categorization. Da Vosk Docta is musically very prolific - he releases lots of great tracks each year, works with many different rappers and other creators, and constantly experiments with sounds.
Da Vosk Docta doesn’t like stiff rules and limiting himself to specific genres, but still, his albums are consistent in terms of sound. This dedication to innovation results in a sonic experience that's as mesmerizing as it is unconventional. I listen to his music quite a lot, and I suppose you can count me as DVD’s fan. From the moment in 2017, when I heard “Win At Life” for the first time, each new release from him has gotten me excited, and craving for more 🔥🥵.
If you’re interested in widening your musical horizons even more, listen to Da Vosk Docta’s SELECT playlist on Spotify - it’s full of songs that inspire him.
⚡️ La Giang
The man hidden behind La Giang's pseudonym is Radek Krzyżanowski, a well-known producer, DJ, and mix engineer, well recognized for his famous bands - Kamp! and We Draw A. The explanation of his alias is really simple. Radek’s mom is Vietnamese, and La Giang is his second name. He focuses mainly on melodic techno and finds the deepest inspiration in the music of the genre’s bests - Joris Voorn, Kölsch, or Stephan Bodzin.
La Giang’s music is spectacular, and I admire his extraordinary knack for seamlessly fusing different lush melodies, pulsating beats, and ethereal harmonies. Check out La Giang’s “Closer” EP (2023) - it’s a top-notch release with a true techno festival vibe to it.
I can’t wait for more releases from that guy! He’s constantly improving, each time creating something better and better, which is really admirable.
My Bose headphones aren’t enough. I really need to hear La Giang's performance live!
⚡️ Sarapata
Sarapata is a collective of two skilled musicians, and brothers from Kraków - Michał and Mateusz Sarapata, who craft a unique type of electronic music - romantic techno.
"RedBull: Romantic techno - is that the right term for what you guys do?
Mateusz: It's a catchy shorthand that right off the bat allows us to place our music in a more emotional category for the listener. And we even like that category. On one hand, we take great care to make sure these tracks sound really powerful; we have a lot of energy needs. On the other hand, there's a lot of melancholy and a tendency for emotional moments within us, which strongly influences the compositions and the way we lead the narrative."
Sarapata’s sound is both authentic and intricate. I find their pulsating beats, and organic sounds truly amazing. It’s a fresh project, that debuted in 2021 with "EP1" filled with incredibly resonant vibes. The fact that it was made by brotherly tandem, in tribute to their parents and family ties adds more flavor to the whole thing. The EP’s cover story is also hearth-warming. Sarapata’s brothers simply picked a photo that their Dad took with his Zenith camera back in 1986.
My personal favorites from the "EP1" are tracks called "Fikus", "3AM" ( a magic hour for every DJ - it’s this time of the night when they show the most interesting things they’ve got up in their sleeves), and "Nika".
And that’s all for today. Let me know what you think. Maybe you have some electronic recommendations yourself?
Until the next time!
Yours,
So much to explore here! Nice!
Hejka.
Great.
From the series, you praise other people's works and you don't know your own 😉🇺🇦