Psio Crew was founded in Bielsko-Biała in 2004, the brainchild of Maciej ‘Kamer’ Szymonowicz and Mateusz ‘Gooral’ Górny. From the very beginning, merging Highlander music with various other genres was their main interest, inspired by a few predecessors. To give an example, it’s been over a decade now since the release of the three first albums on which the traditional band Trebunie-Tutki collaborated with Jamaican group The Twinkle Brothers. Highlander rhythms, violins, and chants blend well with deep bass lines and the ska and reggae feeling of the music from Bob Marley’s homeland. Psio Crew builds upon that, adding contemporary electronic genres to the mix, such as Jamaican dub, Bristol trip-hop, and British drum’n’bass, and to top it all off, the cheapest sound of all – beatboxing.
Their first LP, Szumi Jawor Soundsystem was released in January 2007. It was described by the band as ‘created from the urge to create and the joy that stems from exploring the open realm of music that brings together the old and the new.’ The record was nominated for two Fryderyk awards – the most important Polish music industry awards.
In 2009 the band took part in the Strefa Artystyczna project in Tibilisi, which resulted in the Polish-Georgian-African single Sissa released a year later. Their second albums was supposed to be released the same year, but only one single, Baciar, got out of the studio and in 2010 the band decided to go on a temporary hiatus.
Maciej and Katarzyna Szymonowiczowie created a project called Gajdosze, devoted to documenting Highlander music from the Beskid region. They found manufacturers of gajdy, an archaic instrument, together with some copies dating back to around 1798. The whole project resulted in a photobook, Gajdosze, which is available on their webpage as a PDF, together with two CDs of contemporary and archival Highlander music from 1950 to 1998.
They also devoted their time to the Etnograff project, which focused on creating ethnic graffiti. They also began working with a producer by the name of Szymon Padoł in 2016, when they started the Continuum project.
Meanwhile Mateusz Górny, now under the pseudonym Gooral, released a few solo albums. While promoting his latest, Khabaya from 2016, he mentioned his intentions to go further into techno music.
The year 2015 was surely a happy one for all Psio Crew fans, as the group announced their reunion during the Skrzyżowanie Kultur festival in Warsaw, where they gave their first concert in 5 years. Nowadays the band consists of Anna Dobija on violin; Katarzyna Dyga-Szymonowicz as vocalist and on didgeridoo and percussion; Mateusz ‘Gooral’ Górny on keyboards and synthesisers; Maciej ‘Kamerski’ Szymonowicz on double bass; Mikołaj Stachura on drums, and Piotr ‘Yoyo’ Jakimów responsible for sound engineering. The crew is a little smaller than their previous line-up before the hiatus, as Karolina Żur, Krzysztof Pyter, and Ryszard Cieślar have left.
In the spring of 2016 Polana was released, the first single after their reunion. Its dub feeling, the primary role of Szymonowicz’s double bass, and Gooral’s electronic sounds and slow tempo was quite a surprise for the old fans. Their next single, Idemy Grajency was released at the beginning of 2017, marking return to their old, well-known sound. The song was inspired by the dziady ritual from Żywiec, where a colourfully dressed masquerade visits households, bringing joy and good fortune. So far, the new Psio Crew relies on Katarzyna Szymonowicz’s voice, without any rapping or beatboxing.
Psio Crew has appeared at many festivals all around the world, such as Sziget in Budapest, Rudolstadt and Fusion in Germany, Eurocultured Street Art in Manchester, Jerusalem Art & Craft Fair, Open’er and Globaltica in Gdynia, Woodstock in Kostrzyn, Colours of Ostrava and, last but not least, Zadymka Jazzowa in Bielsko-Biała.
The band has won several awards, such as first prize at Wielka Majowka Tatrzańska in Zakopane in 2006; third prize in Nowa Tradycja (2006), a festival organised by Polskie Radio; and the Machinera award for the best musical debut of the year in 2007 from Machina magazine.
Their songs can be found on a few compilations, the most important probably being Polska Rootz from 2009, an album that is supposed to advertise and promote Polish performers on the German market.
Written by Jacek Świąder, January 2017. Translated by AS, February 2017.
Discography:
- 2007 – Szumi Jawor Soundsystem
- 2009 – Baciar (single)
- 2010 – Sissa (single recorded with Senegali musician Mamadou Diouf and Georgian group Chveneburebi)
Gooral:
- 2011 – Ethno Elektro
- 2013 – Gooral & Mazowsze
- 2014 – Better Place
- 2016 – Khabaya
