Polish Gems - Part II
MC #34 | Daniel Spaleniak, JIMEK
Hello,
As I promised, today we explore some more Polish sounds. As last time I did my best to select artists who create internationally renowned music. I’ve updated Polish Gems 💎🇵🇱 playlist and prepended it with songs created by musicians from this issue.
Without further ado, let me introduce you to my picks:
💎 Daniel Spaleniak
Daniel Spaleniak is a music artist, producer, and singer-songwriter. His dark, atmospheric compositions made their way to such famous shows as "Ozark", "Elementary", "Six", “The Path”, "Shut Eye", "The Royals”, "Shooter", “Good Behaviour”, "UnREAL", "Youth & Consequences" etc.
Daniel was born in 1993 in Kalisz, a city in west-central Poland, in the Prosna river valley. He learned how to sing and play guitar from his dad. Daniel’s father had a huge impact on him, pushing him to train at least 30 minutes a day, and introducing him to classics like the Beatles and Bob Dylan’s music.
As it turned out, Daniel wasn’t a fan of playing someone else’s songs, so he began writing music on his own. But he hadn’t got everything figured out back then. Spaleniak struggled a bit before he turned fully into music. He studied journalism, computer science, music, and film production until he finally found himself in sound production. At the beginning of his music career, Daniel created mainly instrumentals, and it took him a while to expose his voice more.
"Dreamers" is Spaleniak’s debut album from 2014 (before it, he released two EPs1). It contains 12 songs picked from thousands of his compositions. Daniel worked on this album for about two years and recorded it with his friends. It was kind of raw, atmospheric, placed between folk, blues, and alternative music, and very different from music recorded back then in Poland. The vocal was dimmed, and mysterious, but listeners fell in love with it.
The global recognition came after releasing the "Back Home" album in 2016. It was dark, enchanting, and powerful. People finally could hear his magical deep voice much more clearly. After the premiere, Daniel started to receive offers from people responsible for picking the music for TV shows. For example "Night", the last song of the album, was featured both in season 2 of the show "Six", and in season 3 of the show "The Path".
With "Life Is Somewhere Else" Daniel presented another melancholic, blues-driven set of songs. His signature deep voice in combination with gentle acoustic guitar and with expressive drums evokes a sombre and eclectic effect. With his music, Spaleniak embraces the beauty of sadness, nostalgia, and lonesomeness.
"Burning Sea" album from 2018 is a mashup of Daniel’s compositions from series, short films, etudes, and different projects. It’s not a classic album. It’s a 30-minute compilation of songs that Spaleniak has a great sentiment for and wanted them rather go public than set aside. Check out the hypnotic video to one of the album’s most occult songs.
This year Daniel came back with his 5th album, titled "Tape V". It’s soaked in a 60’s vibe, and resembles Neil Young, Lou Reed, and Leonard Cohen's music. The whole album is mesmerizing. Daniel’s great, deep, and powerfully resonant voice in the accompaniment of dark, atmospheric beats makes for the perfect soundtrack for a night drive.
So long baby
I'm running out of time
I have to drive away
Leave behind the grime
But i lost the way
The road is getting dark
I don't need to stray
I just need a spark
There's no place to go
Loving you the only way I know
Summer days are gone
I'm heading home driving all alone
I feel that each one of Daniel’s albums differs from the previous one, is well-thought and every song coherently follows one another. His music gets me every time and resonates with me deeply.
💎 JIMEK
JIMEK is the stage name of Radzimir Dębski, award-winning composer, producer, musician, and multi-instrumentalist.
JIMEK was born in 1987 in Szczecin, a Polish city located near the Baltic Sea and a German border. As a son of an orchestra conductor dad and singer mum, he was raised in a house full of music.
Radzimir is musically educated - he went to musical school and studied classical music in Warsaw, and symphonic music in Los Angeles. It was a bumpy road. At the age of 12, he left school for some time, tired of the pressure to play violin and drums all the time. But after a while, JIMEK returned to playing piano and making his own beats. He started his music career by composing music for movies and TV shows.
JIMEK gained worldwide recognition in 2012. That year he won Beyoncé's competition for the best remix of songs from her "End of Time" album (2011). His composition was chosen from about 3,000 other entries from all around the world. Beyoncé herself surprised him with a Skype call to tell him he won the competition.
In 2015 Radzimir played some concerts at the new Szczecin Philharmonic. The videos down below are meant to explain JIMEK’s orchestral roots.
But what is JIMEK most admired for, is his freakin’ mindblowing "Hip-Hop History Orchestrated" project 🤯 It’s a set of most recognizable hip-hop hits rearranged by him and played by the orchestra conducted by him. It went viral on the Internet and amazed people from all over the globe. The authors of original songs that were remade for this project, like M.O.P., or Nicki Minaj, shared their love for it via Facebook and Twitter. JIMEK was called a "genius" both by regular Internet users, and huge celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher.
To understand why he did it, read this piece of the interview for Vogue:
"This is what my hip-hop compositions are about – they involve a completely different way of thinking than classical compositions and are peculiar in a way, but that's exactly what I wanted to show them – music which was my rebellion when I was as old as they are now. At that time my aversion to classical music – and not seeing why I should actually practice – made me give up music school for a while. It was hip-hop that made me become a musician – it was something that I was excited and enthusiastic about.”
Recently, JIMEK made another great orchestrated project, but this time it was a history of Polish hip-hop. And again he was able to connect generations and left people breathless.
Can’t wait for his next creation. I’m really curious what he will come up with.
Feel free to let me know who you liked more - Daniel Spaleniak or Jimek? Or maybe someone from the previous issue?
Have a great day!
Yours,
Stygi
Dziękuję za odkrycie dla mnie Dawida Spaleniaka! Świetne teksty, muzyka, wykonanie, oprawa.
Stygiń, jak Ty mnie muzycznie rozwijasz❣️
What a treasure trove of new music to dive into! Looking forward to giving both of these artists a listen this week. 💛