Shot throughout recording sessions at the Radio Łódź studio, the films are a unique account of the artists' work process. Leszek Biolik, the founder of Otwarta Scena (The Open Scene) foundation, explains:
"There is nothing more true than contact with music at the time when it's made. Music is not only sound, it's also the emotion you see emerge on the musicians' faces, it's also the energy of their bodies. Our goal is to make a wide range of music available to a variety of audiences."
The videos are available through the website of "Don't Panic! We're from Poland", one of the most important projects devoted to promoting contemporary music from Poland abroad: dontpanic.culture.pl.
The array of artists invited to take part in the project are those who have been invited to some of Europe's biggest festivals, such as The Great Escape, Primavera Sound and the Reeperbahn Festival, where they performed in 2013 under the "Don’t Panic! We’re From Poland" banner.
For starters, we invite you to enjoy videos of Paula & Karol, Coldair, Iza Lach, and Anthony Chorale. More recordings from different artists are coming soon. Krzysztof Halicz, the project's coordinator, comments:
"By bringing together the experience and professional skills of the Otwarta Scena and the high quality of the material, we managed to create a unique tool for the promotion of contemporary Polish music across the globe. For five years now, that's what the "Don't Panic! We're From Poland" platform has been devoted to.
Initiated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in 2008, Don't Panic! We're from Poland is a complex programme devoted to promoting new music from Poland across the world. It comprises concerts, showcases, panel talks and conferences, as well as a record which was released in April, 2014, by Warner Music Poland and Culture.pl. Throughout the five years of the project's dynamic development, Polish musicians have enjoyed a growingly stable presence at some of the world's biggest musical events – the SXSW and CMJ festivals in the US, The Great Escape in the UK, the Reeperbahn and C/O Pop festivals in Germany, Eurosonic Noorderslag in the Netherlands, and Spain's Primavera Sound. The Warsaw showcase is now a regular part of the Co Jest Grane European musical fair. The project has also expanded and is now divided into events revolving around jazz, world music, and the alternative scene, as well as heavier sounds. 40 events have taken place in 14 different countries under the "Don't Panic! We're from Poland" label. The tagline itself and the mascot – a wacky blue-pink rabbit – has become a synonym for young, interesting, top-quality Polish music.
OtwARTa Scena is an initiative by Polish music legend Leszek Biolik (the music producer and bass player for the band Republika) and Robert Tyska. Its main goal is to acquaint audiences with performances by artists conducted in places usually unavailable to the public, such as rehearsal rooms and recording studios. All of the pieces are performed live from beginning to end. The power of these recordings resides in their lack of stage design and visual effects.
Source: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, translated by Paulina Schlosser 8/09/2014