Monday 17th January was the beginning of the Winter Holiday and gave me an oppurtunity to travel and catch up with friends. I went to the northern city of Toruń, so called the gingerbread town. I was expecting everything to be made of gingerbread, but was sadly disappointed. Though I didn't get to see a great deal of the city as Toruń seems to attract those wanting to chat about philosophy, art, religion and mythology deep into the small hours of the morning. But I did manage to pay a visit to an art gallery with an exhibtion by the video artist Wojciech Bruszewski. An experimental video artist who was one of the main forces in Polish experimental film and animation providing inspiration across the world of video art. Not to forget he was from Łódź! (See the post below for the video 'Yyaa')
Poznań
Back to Łódź on Wednesday 19th. On the Friday 21st I met with Łódź noisy types Trauma Unit and recorded a harsh noise jam. A final mix has been made, but I won't be uploading it until we've recorded the second track in time for the release. A few days to relax and hen off to Poznań to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor on Saturday 22nd. Though I was quite sceptical about seeing Godspeed as their music can be quite a personal, uplifting moment and not something I wanted to risk seeing in a live environment. But they were satisfying, the only problem being that there were far too many people there. Hot, cramped and the smelly atmosphere gave it a dark cloud. But as with home listening, I got the thrills and reflective low points that their music creates so well. Unluckly, there was no Couchsurfing that weekend, but me and my fellow traveller were saved by a hostel. We meet a Portuguese guy who had been living in Warsaw for two years and it was great insight into another foreigner's view on living in Poland. Another chance to wander around another pretty Polish city, though the biting cold made it less fun. I saw most of what I'd seen on previous visits but had the chance to chat about multi-culturalism, xenophobia and cultural and national stereotypes with fellow Łódź Comenius Assistant. Stereotypes and lies seem to wear the same masks in different countries. Monday 24th brought an arrival of friends from Manchester. Sadly no major cultural events to report back on, other than our chronic addiction to dubstep and rekindling our inner child and immaturity, all good. We did visit a benefit gig for Women's Day at the CDQ squat in Warsaw but was quite a confusing and strange night. I have a few photos, but I've attached photos from Callum's snaps as they look rather splendid.
by Callum Cox (Łódź)
The following week on Wednesday 2nd February I started practicing with Samba drumming group, Rhythms of Resistance. Rhythms of Resistance is a relativley new movement in the world of activism, originating in London in 2000. There are now groups in Berlin, Paris, Sofia, Manchester, Tel Aviv, Cordoba, Milan and many more. Here's the website from the Berlin group with more info, videos,links and ideas and help on how to start your own group.The group size can vary between 6 - 10 people and the positions and line up can change from week to week. It's a refreshing change to be playing something so different and the collective aspect is really rewarding. In my next post I'll report back on the recent demonstrations we've been on. I am also conducting an interview with the group in the next few days.
Endnote
by Callum Cox
As mentioned, the Samba group has kept me busy and I've attached a video with a small of example of what we play.
I've also started playing in a grind/crust/powerviolence band with two guys from Łódź. We currently have no name yet and are still in our infant stage. I predict, or hope, that by the end of April we'll be ready to play.
On a recent treasure find in our flat, my flatmate discovered a box of old tapes from years gone by. I now have a huge stack of old tapes, including some crucial Polish music. Highlights being Dezerter and Kaliber 44. Dezerter are one of Poland's most long standing hardcore punk bands, their early recordings (late 70s - eary 80s) having a profound effect on the Polish scene. Kaliber 44 were one of Poland's first hip hop groups and like Dezerter have been a wealthy source of inspiration.
I've been trading a lot recently and recieved some experimental and noise cassettes and CDs from a label owner and artist in Warsaw. Works by - Maaaa, XVP, Annna, Bartek Kalinka, Innovative Noodle Culture and Miotła. A review to follow shortly.
Last wednesday (23rd February) I played a solo set as Left Hand Cuts off the Right at Warsaw's 'Noise Waste' show at Eufemia. The line-up also included Facial Index, Heathertoes, Hannolainen, Michelada and XV Paworek. You can find the other videos from this gig at this YouTube channel.
This is not the full video as the set was around 20 minutes in total. The second half included samples from the Balinese monkey chanting ritual, singing and feedback drones.
Monday 3rd January was the return to school after the Christmas and New Year's holiday. Slowly picking up the pace on that day and having to wake the children up too. Though this was the first week back, it was also a short one due to Epiphany falling on 6th Jan and giving an extra day off school. God bless Poland and it's love of bank holidays and long weekends. I've also been feeling a greater confidence in my teaching now. I've especially enjoyed the creative writing activities, exploring their imaginations and creativity has been so fun and rewarding! Tales of psychedelic pineapples, talking donkeys, Ponglish ('I knowem') and paper cut out pupils have all kept me and the pupils entertained.
The pieces are coming together with my noise and music making in Łódź now, and on Friday 7th I met up with two Łódź noise musicians and created friendships and also plans for collaborations during the coming months. See more details below.
Cat's approval
Me and Tim
Monday 10th was the penultimate week before the Winter break, 'ferie zimowe'. Now I understand people will be confused here, let me explain! The Polish winter holidays for schools change every year as not to create chaos and accidents on the roads and in the mountains. So this year, my school had our holiday in the middle of January, next year it will be at the start of February and the year after in the middle of February. Anyway, the children had a special treat on Thursday 13th in the form of Tim Holehouse. As previous readers will remember, Tim was in Poland a few months ago and returned in January to play more concerts and be among the friendly people he's so fond of. Tim played 5 or 6 songs for a group of 15 pupils and 4 teachers. While also explaining where he has travelled to, the experiences he's had, his philosophy and enganged with the pupils and their views on music. Though I have never known them so quiet before! One phrase stuck with me about Tim's philosophy and it was that he's 'not rich in pocket, but rich in heart'. Later that evening, myself, performing as Left Hand Cuts off the Right and Tim collaborated a new improvised piece under the title of 'The Storms Never Halt Here', as part of the Ice Crushing Noise night at Jazzga. Although we were one man down the show went on and my friends in Łódź got to experience the terrible noise that I like to make. Also on the bill was Ironlung, which is one half of Łódź noise machine, Trauma Unit.
CD-R cover. Artwork by Wil Judkins
Tim then played again at our flat on Friday 14th to a larger crowd of lovely folk and played two sets to those who were hungry for more. I prepared 3 curries, rice and pitta bread for those eager to eat and I gather went down rather well. Tim left the following day, Saturday 15th to complete the end of his 8 month European tour in Lille, France. A gig partly organised by a fellow Comenius Assistant in Łódź. That evening was time for more giggage, with some old school hardcore from Regress, Throwdown and Thug Life. Though I'm not really a huge fan of the chugga-chugga-tough-guy-basketball-shorts hardcore, it was pleasing to see such a high turnout for a DIY hardcore gig in Łódź, with 140 people you can't grumble.
End note
Noise Waster flyer
To coincide with the performance at Jazzga I released a new CD-R entitled 'The Chatter of Beggar's Teeth'. The name comes from Antoin Artaud's quote, 'All true language is incomprehensible like the chatter of beggar's teeth'. The artwork was provided by my younger brother, Wil. See the photo attached. My new work can be heard here.
I am slowly but surely making my way through Stanisław Lem's 'Solaris' and I'm loving it. I have the Tarkovsky film version ready to watch as soon as I've finished with the great book.
On the 23rd February I will be playing a solo concert as Left Hand Cuts off the Right as part of the Noise Waste 10 show in Warsaw. This will be alongside Trauma Unit also.
So since the last past (which was far too long ago), I've been working a lot more and due to the chilly winter settling in I've had less outdoor adventures. A lot has happened, it's just piecing it all together which is the tricky part...
From the start of November, the weather got a lot colder. Getting down to -12C at times, but I hear we had similar temperatures in Poland and the UK. Early November also brought the first onset of snow. When it came, I was really excited about the snow's arrival, it's still quite a treat for an English person, but I was met with groans from the Poles about the snow, I think it even bores some people. There is a rumour that when the snow arrives ever year it still manages to suprise the authorities. Hence on the first day, many people were left freezing in bus shelters, trams were cancelled and many people were late for work. But, since then the weather has been slightly warmer. No beard freeze yet.
At the start of December, myself and my co-ordinator made plans to organise a presentation with one class about English and British Christmas traditions. We decided to look at four areas, being; Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol', crackers, Christmas pudding and the carol 'I saw three Ships come sailing in'. Those first two weeks in December were spent making crackers, preparing ingredients, singing and reading practice. But more on that further down.
Friday 3rd December brought another exciting gig to the Bycze Oko. This time with a fine selection of some of the best Polish Punk and Hardcore bands at the moment, Wilczy Szaniec, Alert! Alert! and Miraż. Though the turnout was unusually low and the bands were delayed heavily, the gig was still great. Extatic to see Wilczy Szaniec after so long and was also great to meet Jasiek after our postal trades earlier in November. You can find more info about all these bands in my earlier posts, recommended! I am also getting together a Polish Punk and Hardcore scene report to be finished in June. The list of bands, contacts, venues and zines is growing all the time.
For a couple of lessons I was asked to prepare materials on countries and nationalities. I was able to make these lessons include the music of; Bob Marley, Run DMC, Manu Chao, Davy Graham and Shirley Collins (who the pupils thought were Chinese), Konono No.1 and Japanese Gagaku music. My regular English lessons with the teachers included an exercise on Gil Scott-Heron and 'The Revolution will not be Televised'. Lucky people!
The following week, on Friday 10th December, I made my way to Warsaw to catch Swans and James Blackshaw. I travelled alone, and annoyingly got quite lost on the way to the venue and missed Mr.Blackshaw. But, I saw the Swans and the journey was made all worthwhile. Easily one of the concerts of the year for me. I won't go into great detail, but their recent album 'My Father will guide me up a rope to the sky' is well worth a listen. Earlier in that day I made Christmas pudding with the pupils at school. Albeit not a traditional one, as it was made with a microwave. The recipe we used can be seen here. I couldn't try the pudding unfortunatley, as it was made with butter and eggs, but I was assured by the pupils that it was great, they especially loved Golden Syrup.
The following week, Monday 13th December, we had our Christmas presentation. Crackers were all hand made, including the jokes and paper hats, the song was learnt and sung well, many Puddings were baked and the readings went well. See the photos attached! Later that week, Thursday 16th December, I went to Berlin then onto Istanbul for a long weekend. I won't mention too much, as I can't include it as a venture in Polska. But, I had more transport problems, due to the snow I once loved.
After the return from the long and insane weekend, we had our last week of school before the Christmas holiday. Tuesday 21st December, I prepared materials for classes on New Year's traditions and resolutions from the UK, Spain and Japan. With one energetic and enthusiastic class, we made paper snowflakes, see photos. Wednesday 22nd December was the last day of school. With no real lessons, there was a dramatised modern nativity in the morning, unfortunatley I only understood half of the story, but it was well acted and funny. After this each class returns to their form room and piles of traditional food is laid out for everyone. Pupils, parents and teachers all prepare small dishes and are shared among everyone. There are also Christmas waffers given to everyone and you take a piece of their waffer and they take a piece of yours and make a wish, and wish them 'Wesołych Świąt'!
My return home to Lancashire came on the 23rd December. A week back home to see family, friends, pets and loved ones. It was a strange, yet welcoming feeling to come back to England. But it did feel like I was looking at all I know so well through different eyes. My first encounter was with two scouse shop assistants, which took me a moment to realise I could still understand.
On returning to Poland, on Wednesday 29th December, it was also a welcoming and warm feeling to be back in Łódź, maybe I have two homes now. Friday 31st December, I made a solo journey to the northern city of Iława for a New Year's party with some lovely Łódź friends and some new friends too. As mentioned in earlier posts, you have to be extra alert when travelling on trains in Poland. There were no delays, I just felt there really wasn't enough information about the journey. The board on the platform (peron) tells you one thing, then when you're on the train you realise it's slightly different. I did make it to Iława with no problems, but I just had to make sure at every stop that I checked where we were as there was no information! The theme of the party was Black Metal or Emo, so of course, me and two others decided to go for the Black Metal dress code. With a skillfull make up artist, we wore the mandatory corpse paint, along with garments of black and remembering to pull silly faces every 5 minutes. Upon the coming of midnight, people gathered in the street to watch and set off fireworks and wish them all a happy new year.
End note
An eagle eyed vegan friend in Łódź introduced me to Krówka Sojowa, a vegan version of the traditional and popular toffee-like sweets. They made me a very happy boy, sadly they're usually all gone in one day.
I have been preparing material for upcoming noise and experimental shows. I played at Jazzga in Łódź this week with fellow noise dude, Tim Holehouse. More info on that in the next post. I am also playing a solo Left Hand Cuts off the Right set at Warsaw's Eufemia Squat on Wednesday 23rd February, along with Łódź noise group, Trauma Unit. I have also released new material and new releases are on their way.
As you can tell, the blog has been left a bit dormant recently in terms of updates, over a month now, so I'll start many weeks ago to Thursday 28th October...
Pizza in Warsaw
My dad, mum and younger brother arrived into Łódź on 28th October. A first for my brother and dad, though my mum had been to Poland nearly 18 years ago, in search of a friend's relative's grave, albeit her visit this time probably contained more tea and cake. Other than visiting the musts in Łódź, this time around being; Manufaktura, Cinematography Museum, the Katedra and Orthodox churches on Piotrkowska, the Textile Museum and enjoying the many bars on Piotrkowska we also made a day visit to Warsaw. Initially, getting lost on our way to the Warsaw Uprising Museum, the tired legs were a small price to pay for this great museum. Unfortunatley, I don't have the time, space and extensive knowledge to explain the full extent of the Warsaw Uprising, Wikipedia gives a good run down and I gather Norman Davies' 'Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw' is one of the best accounts on this significant piece of contemporary Polish history. The museum employs a great wealth of; knowledge, first hand accounts, reports, videos, photos, interviews and reconstructions to document the heroic, yet bitter event.
Warsaw Uprising
We made a quick visit to Warsaw's old town (stare miasto) and marvelled in the great feat of reconstruction work and beauty of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Finding the Warsaw Uprising monument and statue, we found it had placed on it candles and wreathes in anticipation of the upcoming All Saints' Day on November 1st.
All Saints' Day
All Saints' Day is a national holiday in Poland and celebrated in similar ways in many Eastern European countries. A Catholic tradition in which there is an encouragement on remeberance for those that have died. Be it family, friends, heroes or historic figures. Graves and cemeteries are littered and overflowing with candles, wreathes and flowers. Yet with my lack of religious faith, I understood the day's significance and would be happy to do something similar, wherever I am next year on this day.
Wednesday 10th November was the national Comenius Assistants meeting in Warsaw, for all those European Assistants working in Poland. This was a chance to; learn more about the Polish Education system, meet other assistants, share experiences, thoughts and feelings, learn some Polish and create links for further communication. And the day was just that! I was lucky enough to meet people from; Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, Turkey and Romania. And to many people's puzzlement, I am the only British Assistant working in Poland.
Comenius Assistants
The following day, 11th November, was another national holiday for Poland, this time being Independence Day. Arguably, Poland's most signifcant day in the calender, it is also a time to reflect on Poland's turbulant history. On Tuesday 9th, different groups of pupils from the school did a short history of Poland presentation, which was a delight. They provided a short history lesson with; singing, drama and speeches, including the school anthem, something I've never known of in British schools. For one of the classes I did a small presentation on Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom; remebering the war dead, the two minutes silence and poppy wearing. I also made sure to mention that many people wear white poppies in a hope to end all wars in the future.
Homework from the pupils
I also did a small lesson in different ways of saying yes and no in English. From; of course, certaintly, help yourself, without a doubt and no problem to; I doubt it, maybe later, unlikely, I don't think so and on your bike. Safe to say they were amused and the following week they gave me the same lesson in Polish. See the photo attached. Jest spoko i jasne!No baa!
One rule to remember when visiting Poland is that no means yes. You will often people hear people saying 'No, tak,' in agreement, and it still confuses me.
Poznań
Poznań
It is also key to note that during a national holiday of grand importance, it is often not the best time to travel long distances on public transport. With a great travel companion, we started our epic journey to the western city of Poznań. Our aim was to see Icelandic musician, a friend, Olafur Arlands and sight see some of the city. First downfall came with the buses from Łódź running at different times to the ones stated on the timetable. Secondly, we got on a train which we thought was going to Kutno, for our connection to Poznań, ending up west, but south west, and on the wrong train. After my friend had a feverent discussion in Polish with the conductor, he let us pay the difference and suggested an alternative route to Poznań. On our arrival to city, with the name I forget, we discovered that our connection to Poznań was going to be at a later time. Due to the national holiday. In a vain attempt to get there quicker, we tried a spot of hitchiking. My friend had acquired a Polish flag and we wrote 'POZNAŃ' in bright green pen on white section.Though this didn't help us either, the only attention we got was from passers by telling us to move to better spots. Back to the train station, we eventually made it to Poznań, slightly later than expected. We still manged to see Oli and the majority of his set, the several encores and to meet him after the gig to talk about; music, touring and mutual friends. Further crystalizing the feeling that the world is getting smaller and smaller. We also had a few problems with accomodation, but luckily we were saved by a very lovely and hospitable Couchsurfer, who cooked the most incredible food. Very impressive for a self proclaimed vegan cooking virgin.
CAKE
The following day, November 12th, we saw some of the old town, the famous goats and another spectacular chruch. One of the highlights was a bite to eat at the Eco Cafe (Eko Wiarnia), a cosy, homely, lovely little place selling a delicious range of vegetarian and vegan food. Including some incredible oat, chocolate and raspberry cake, see photo attached. And, yes, it's vegan.
End note:
Olafur Arlands (Iceland) and his lovely group of musicians (one of them from Chorley, very nice!) play touching and haunting modern minimalism, with emphasis on simplistic harmonic lines and phrases. With the live show including sampling, syncopated glitched beats and animations. His recent album, '...And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness' is rather nice indeed. Check out 'Haust', from one his earlier albums, 'Variations of Static'.
So in my quest to find more music from Poland, and especially in the noisier region of sound making, I would like to share with you, Wilczy Szaniec, which translates as something like 'Wolf's Lair', and was often reffered to as a place of salvation for soldiers during the war.
A 2-piece hailing from Krakow, they are arguably my favourite Polish Punk discovery since being here. Difficult to pin down in genre and style, but the best I can do is that it sounds like a more warped and raw version of Born Against, with some feelings of early Icarus Line and Fugazi. With heavily delayed and reverbed vocals.
I've attached the EP (with the artist's permission) - 'Grytwiken' (2009)
