The Heineken Open'er Festival has swiftly caught on as one of Europe's most exciting music events, inviting the biggest acts from all over the world - and now welcoming a growing number of home-grown artists. Topping the Polish roster this year is certainly Julia Marcell, whose ethereal songs gained her fame on the Internet and soon brought her to the forefront of the independent pop scene. Her second long play June was a sensation: it received seven nominations for the Fryderyki awards winning Best Alternative Album. Marcell was also awarded the Passport prize granted by the popular Polish weekly Polityka - a distinction perhaps all the more significant. She recently brought her dynamic vocals to the SXSW, Haldern and C/O Pop festivals. C/O Pop organisers have called her a "quintessential keeper" for her "beautiful voice and captivating arrangements and melodies". She has been compared to the likes of Björk (who incidentally is also performing on the main stage at the Open’er), Kate Bush, Regina Spektor, Lykke Li and Joanna Newsom. She is backed by a live German rhythm section composed of the bass player Thomsen Slowey Markel and the percussionists Jakob Kiersch and Christian Vienne.
The next songstress of note at the festival is Iza Lach, a vocalist who gained a huge dose of fame after she won Snoop Dogg's competition for a collaboration on the song Set it Off. The single was so successful that Snoop invited Lach to contribute to two more albums. After debuting as a teen, she has gone on to record two albums by the age of 23, with a sound that is soulful and fresh - some have even compared her to Julia Marcell herself.
Kari Amirian is relatively new on the scene, but her melancholic and gentle songs reminiscent of the tunes of such Scandinavian singers as Lykke Li or Stina Nordenstam are quickly bringing her into the public eye. Her debut album Daddy Says I’m Special is filled with compositions that set a definitely dreamy mood, but they carry a strength as well. The instruments used in such songs as A Poem or Jump into My Heart and Stay feature cello, double bass, piano and bells.
Maja Kleszcz & IncarNations feature members of the Warsaw Village Band (who are also performing their stylish neo-folk on the main stage this year). Maja Kleszcz and Wojtek Krzak presently experiment with blues, swing and jazz. Their latest album has afforded comparisons with the likes of Amy Winehouse or Adele, with just as much charisma. Très.b, one of the most active independent collectives on the Polish scene, presents Misia Furtak, Olivier Heim and Tom Pettit belting out their French-inspired, B-side melodies.
The folk genre is represented by Paula & Karol, a band that has been traveling to some of Europe's top festivals over the past year and even making it to SXSW this past spring. Their latest albumWhole Again has been called a summer soundtrack, bringing an exciting, energetic sound and a charismatic ambiance. Frozen Bird takes its cue from pop, klezmer and chamber music, with a smattering of additional inspirations from the theatre, dance and opera. The band is highly regarded by the alternative community for its melodic, narrative style that is easily engaging.
Even classical music has its spot on this year's programme, with the critically-acclaimed collaboration between seasoned Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. The experimental album joined together classical masterworks of the last century with the most innovative music of the present proved a fruitful gamble, with London’s Independent calling Penderecki "Poland’s godfather of the musical avant-garde" and Greenwood "the doyen of English art-pop", ultimately describing their concert as "rapturously received". In Gdynia the unlikely duo performs two works from the 1960s, including the highly emotional Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima and Polymorphia (for 48 strings) from their albumreleased earlier this year.
The Open'er takes it back to the old school with classic Polish rock band Brygada Kryzys. Representatives of the oldest generation of Polish punk-rockers, this msucial legend recorded their Black Album during the draconian times of martial law in a studio in the Wawrzyszew, which later came to be considered the greatest achievement in Polish alternative music of the eighties. With only a few punk rock tracks, the album chiefly consists of long, trance-like compositions based on beats, looped bass lines, and on long phrases of the saxophone. Brylewski’s slow, anarchistic guitar floats above all of this. The lyrics are simple and compelling, expressing a longing for community and for freedom, which was restricted in Poland for so long.
The festival takes a harder turn with the likes of UL/KR, their music filled with the dark sounds of keyboard instruments, references to German romanticism. The tracks are marked by an economy of expression and Błażej Król is careful in choosing the right words for his songs. Sharp rhythms and melodies are a rarity on this album. There’s a lot of dense sounds generated by computers and samplers. Król’s captivating singing blends avant-garde with pop, creating a real melange of styles. kIRk released one of the craziest albums in recent months, proving it absolutely refuses to be pigeonholed. Msza święta w Brąswałdzie (Holy Mass in Brąswałd) is a radical trip, with references to improvised jazz spiced up with guitars, synthesizers and samplers. The electronic, sampled jams are accompanied by Olgierd Dokalski’s brilliant trumpet (he also plays in the bands Daktari and Gaamera), who faces off with new-fangled electronic sounds.
The members of L.Stadt are probably less controversial and rowdy than other hard rock bands on the scene, but they are young and evolving quickly. Two years ago their second album El.P sounded very fresh. They might be the most skilled ambassadors of the American surf rock revival in Poland. They have a clear vision of the band and are inspired by the best influences. L.Stadt’s live performances are excellent. One might get the impression that this isn’t a band from Poland. Their arrangements are close to being perfect as evidenced by Ciggies, Jeff or the newest single U.F.O. (cover of a song by Jim Sullivan, not Coldplay), which is the first taste of the upcoming EP.
Psychocukier is rock and roll in its pure (and dirty) form. This music is devoid of any superfluous extravagancies or pretentious modernizations. It’s gritty, fierce and extremely funny. Last year the third album by Psychocukier was released. On the record entitled Królestwo (Kingdom) the front man Sasza Tomaszewski sings in Polish, bringing forward rougher compositions such as Gwiazda (Star) and Psychonauta (Psychonaut ) which have already become classics, while the older hits also remain as popular as ever. The band brings the dank, intimate vibe of a dark pub cellar into the wide festival spaces.
The Heineken Open'er Festival takes place between the 4th-7th of July 2012 at the Babie Doły air field in Gdynia. Many of the concerts this year will be transmitted online at www.youtube.com/opener.
For more information, see: opener.pl/en
Based on the original Polish textx by Jacek Świąder, with editing by Marek Kepa and Agnieszka Le Nart, July 2012.