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The sun setting on 2018, photographed from a plane en route from London to Kraków 31.12.18
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Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!
(Happy new year!)
from Poland
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Last summer, I relocated to the beautiful city of Kraków. My great-great-grandfather Herschel Roth came to the UK around 1890 from Kalisz, an ancient town now in central Poland but then under Russian rule. Fleeing the pogroms against Jews that were sweeping across the region, Herschel ended up in London's East End, adopting the Anglicised name Harris. Over a century later, I’m retracing a migratory path that he and many other Jewish families took; the difference (other than the direction of travel) is that they made the journey out of desperation and fear, whereas I came to Poland filled with curiosity and hope.
Read about the projects I'm undertaking here below.
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Roth / Zimpel / Zemler
19 Jan: Żydowskie Muzeum Galicja, Kraków
26 Jan: Jazz Café POSK, London
Migration, identity and connection are the central themes in a project I’m carrying out in partnership with the Galicia Jewish Museum, supported by Arts Council England's Artists' International Development Fund. Through this residency I've been exploring historical and contemporary Polish-Jewish life and its resonances with my own experience as a descendent of Polish Jews returning to my ancestral homeland.
The culmination of this project is a pair of concerts in Kraków and London - the first performances by my new trio featuring two musicians at the forefront of Poland's contemporary experimental scene: clarinettist Wacław Zimpel (LAM, Zimpel/Ziołek) and percussionist Hubert Zemler (Slalom, Mitch & Mitch).
Ticket info:
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I’m very grateful to the Galicia Jewish Museum, Arts Council England and British Council for enabling this collaboration, and hugely excited to make music with Wacław and Hubert. When I started checking out Poland's contemporary music scene, these two musicians seemed to be associated with most of the records I really resonated with, like their respective solo releases and those with groups like LAM and To Tu Orchestra. I'll be posting videos and playlists of each musician's projects to the facebook events for these gigs; follow here:
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SŁUCHAM -
field recordings from Poland
Throughout my time in Kraków, I've been making short recordings of sounds that have caught my ear as I explore this historic city. So far these include liturgical chanting outside a 13th century gothic church, cacophonous birdsong in the city's old town, wisps of choralsong floating out of a Capuchin monastery during Sunday mass, and perhaps Poland's most iconic sound - the Hejnał Mariacki. I'm calling this series "SŁUCHAM" (Polish for "I listen") and you can check out the first few tracks on my SoundCloud here:
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Playlist: 2018 favourites
Finally, here's a Spotify playlist of my favourite music released over the last year:
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Most of these releases can be bought here.
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I wish you all peace and adventure in 2019.
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