Best Culture.pl Podcasts (2024)

1
Rogiński x Širom 20:03

7M ago20:03

20:03

In the tapestry of our lives, there are moments when the hand of Fate gently guides us towards unexpected encounters, and such is the enchanting tale of the Slovenian trio, Širom, and the Polish virtuoso guitarist, Raphael Roginski. It's a narrative they eloquently weave, with the resonating echo of Roginski's recording, 'Raphael Rogiński - Plays J…

1
Rybacka x Pasborg 20:31

7M ago20:31

20:31

Within the Rebel Spirits series, a resounding truth emerges: music born from improvisation demands both formidable technical prowess and a receptive, open-hearted approach. Enter 'Voice 'n' Drums,' a collaborative venture between Polish vocalist Ania Rybacka and Danish drummer Stefan Pasborg, representing a bold exploration of one of humanity's mos…

1
Holland Baroque x Bastarda 17:22

7M ago17:22

17:22

The Bastarda’s and Holland Baroque’s joint project marks the inception of one of two captivating collaborations born from a shared reverence for music of eras long past. To pinpoint an exact period would be unwise, but this exceptional fusion of the Bastarda Trio and the Dutch ensemble, Holland Baroque, converges on the concepts, gestures, and dyna…

1
Dąbrowski x Finsrud 22:57

8M ago22:57

22:57

Tomasz Dąbrowski received a prestigious commission to craft a composition for the grand finale of the Lodz Summer Jazz Festival, a tribute concert honoring the legendary trumpeter, Tomasz Stanko. Stanko, an internationally renowned figure in the jazz world, served as an extraordinary muse for Dąbrowski, who eloquently captures the enchanting elemen…

1
Aga Derlak 26:57

11M ago26:57

26:57

Aga Derlak remembers her fascination with music as a young child. And once she began learning piano, she would lose hours in flowing through improvised journeys at the keyboard. This passion led her to gaining a place on the year-long Berklee Global Jazz Institute program. And in this interview, she discusses the impact that has had on many levels …

1
Marek Pędziwiatr 30:11

1+ y ago30:11

30:11

In Marek Pędziwiatr there is a connection between the past and the present. The history of jazz and the African American musicians, who created it, and Polish innovators from Chopin through Krzysztof Komeda and Niemen. Marek is a hub, a central force pulling his golden threads of jazz, hip-hop, classical music, avant-garde, and Slavic folk. But his…

1
Joanna Duda 25:16

1+ y ago25:16

25:16

To describe Joanna Duda as simply a pianist doesn't capture the extraordinary dimensions of the music she produces. Whether touching a broken keyboard, using the sound of a rewinding tape machine, or mixing in field recordings, her innate playfulness allows any instrument to blossom - you get a sense that one of her greatest strengths is to listen …

1
Wacław Zimpel 31:22

1+ y ago31:22

31:22

At the heart of a 'Rebel Spirit' is an open mind, and it’s this openness that puts an artist like Wacław Zimpel in a vulnerable place that encourages the development of a musical intelligence that is not only intellectual but also spiritual. Wacław Zimpel has really dived into 'music of the world' as he puts it, to deepen his experience of sound an…

1
Kuba Więcek 19:28

1+ y ago19:28

19:28

In the history of jazz, there haven't been many musicians that give credit to their playing video games. But as a nine-year-old hardcore player, Kuba Więcek developed an affinity with repetitive practice and now feels the need for strategic thinking and fast decision-making has stood him in good stead as a bandleader today. After a pivotal moment a…

1
Piotr Orzechowski aka Pianohooligan 22:17

1+ y ago22:17

22:17

Like the other artists portrayed in Rebel Spirits II, Piotr Orzechowski aka Pianohooligan showed talent and a fiercely original mind at an early age. By his twenties, he'd won competitions and awards and had a clarity about his intention for music-making. There is one comment he made that particularly stood out to me. He said, “I want to revive the…

1
Aga Derlak 26:58

1+ y ago26:58

26:58

Aga Derlak remembers her fascination with music as a young child. And once she began learning piano, she would lose hours in flowing through improvised journeys at the keyboard. This passion led her to gaining a place on the year-long Berklee Global Jazz Institute program. And in this interview, she discusses the impact that has had on many levels …

1
Marek Pędziwiatr 30:12

1+ y ago30:12

30:12

In Marek Pędziwiatr there is a connection between the past and the present. The history of jazz and the African American musicians, who created it, and Polish innovators from Chopin through Krzysztof Komeda and Niemen. Marek is a hub, a central force pulling his golden threads of jazz, hip-hop, classical music, avant-garde, and Slavic folk. But his…

1
Joanna Duda 25:17

1+ y ago25:17

25:17

To describe Joanna Duda as simply a pianist doesn't capture the extraordinary dimensions of the music she produces. Whether touching a broken keyboard, using the sound of a rewinding tape machine, or mixing in field recordings, her innate playfulness allows any instrument to blossom - you get a sense that one of her greatest strengths is to listen …

1
Kuba Więcek 19:29

1+ y ago19:29

19:29

In the history of jazz, there haven't been many musicians that give credit to their playing video games. But as a nine-year-old hardcore player, Kuba Więcek developed an affinity with repetitive practice and now feels the need for strategic thinking and fast decision-making has stood him in good stead as a bandleader today. After a pivotal moment a…

1
Marcin Masecki 27:39

1+ y ago27:39

27:39

Marcin Masecki considers that he has two parents, jazz and classical music. As a pianist, he is steeped in the tradition of learning piano as a young child with all the purity and precision that comes with that. In this interview, you get the sense of how that triggered Marcin’s disruptive streak, and how that has been central to his approach to mu…

1
Marcin Masecki 27:40

1+ y ago27:40

27:40

Marcin Masecki considers that he has two parents, jazz and classical music. As a pianist, he is steeped in the tradition of learning piano as a young child with all the purity and precision that comes with that. In this interview, you get the sense of how that triggered Marcin’s disruptive streak, and how that has been central to his approach to mu…

1
CHAIN 25:43

2y ago25:43

25:43

In the very last episode of Stories of The Eastern West as you knew it, we’re taking you to Estonia, 1989. A group of people there made 2 million others hold hands and create a human chain of unprecedented size and significance. The Baltic countries had a truly turbulent 20th century. They went from regaining their independence to losing it to the …

1
PASSENGER 23:36

2+ y ago23:36

23:36

Several years after the war, a strange encounter in the heart of Paris made Zofia Posmysz, a former Auschwitz prisoner, start wondering what it would be like to meet her camp overseer. Posmysz turned her fantasy in a successful radio play in which she explored the unlikely perspective of an oppressor, a Nazi German concentration camp overseer. The …

1
EXILE 25:11

2+ y ago25:11

25:11

Get to know Piotr Szkopiak, a London-based film and TV director who’s spent a good portion of his life pondering the nature of his identity. Piotr Szkopiak was born in the United Kingdom but into a Polish family. As he grew up, he learned that his parents and neighbours were all World War II prisoners of war who had escaped the USSR but couldn't go…

1
REVOLUTION 30:05

2+ y ago30:05

30:05

Nicolaus Copernicus, born in 1473, was the orphaned son of a copper merchant in Toruń. Thanks to his bishop uncle, he obtained a first class education at the Kraków Academy and then in Italy, where he became an avid observer of the night sky – even though he was supposed to be preparing for a church career. His day job as a church canon, diplomat a…

1
DAISIES 26:37

3y ago26:37

26:37

Vera Chytilová was the most important woman director of the Czechoslovak New Wave – although she remains relatively unknown outside of Central Europe. As the first female student of the prestigious FAMU film school in Prague, she had to fight in order to do things her own way. During the creative explosion of the Czechoslovak New Wave, she made her…

1
VISIONARY 27:14

3y ago27:14

27:14

Stanisław Lem was a science-fiction writer whose works, abilities and quirky sense of humor convinced Phillip K. Dick that he was too brilliant to exist and must have actually been a committee of people! Indeed his rare gift for blending philosophy with technology and action made him an instantaneously recognisable voice in the European sci-fi worl…

1
Announcing Season IV 1:30

3y ago1:30

1:30

This year we have more great stories for you! There's going to be a bit of sci-fi, a pinch of socialist realism, a good portion of astronomy, and some old-fashioned moving testimonies from a region that never sleeps! Stay tuned: the first episode drops September 7th! Like our show? Get our newsletter!…

1
The Fusionist: Zbigniew Namysłowski 29:24

3y ago29:24

29:24

Like most Polish jazz musicians, Zbigniew Namysłowski learned the basics of jazz listening to Willis Conover’s “Jazz Hour”. Originally starting his musical career playing piano, cello and trombone, Namysłowski became infatuated with the saxophone after meeting composer Krzysztof Komeda, who happened to be carrying an alto saxophone with him, on a t…

1
The Fusionist: Zbigniew Namysłowski 29:25

3y ago29:25

29:25

Like most Polish jazz musicians, Zbigniew Namysłowski learned the basics of jazz listening to Willis Conover’s “Jazz Hour”. Originally starting his musical career playing piano, cello and trombone, Namysłowski became infatuated with the saxophone after meeting composer Krzysztof Komeda, who happened to be carrying an alto saxophone with him, on a t…

1
The Virtuoso: Adam Makowicz 24:15

3y ago24:15

24:15

Adam Makowicz grew up in a house where a piano was the centre of the home. His mother had long planned for him to become a classical virtuoso, but a meeting with a musician who introduced him to jazz changed this path completely. Adam packed his bags and left for Kraków, where he moved into a jazz nightclub and immediately became part of the city’s…

1
The Virtuoso: Adam Makowicz 24:16

3y ago24:16

24:16

Adam Makowicz grew up in a house where a piano was the centre of the home. His mother had long planned for him to become a classical virtuoso, but a meeting with a musician who introduced him to jazz changed this path completely. Adam packed his bags and left for Kraków, where he moved into a jazz nightclub and immediately became part of the city’s…

1
The New Yorker: Michał Urbaniak 29:55

3y ago29:55

29:55

“Polish jazz group - 100$ a night” Displayed on the posters in Michał Urbaniak’s band’s van while playing across Europe in the 60s, this hippy traveling player was soon to become one of the most innovative Polish jazz musicians in history. Though his European career was quickly evolving, the old continent simply didn’t feel like enough. From a very…

1
The New Yorker: Michał Urbaniak 29:56

3y ago29:56

29:56

“Polish jazz group - 100$ a night” Displayed on the posters in Michał Urbaniak’s band’s van while playing across Europe in the 60s, this hippy travelling player was soon to become one of the most innovative Polish jazz musicians in history. Though his European career was quickly evolving, the old continent simply didn’t feel like enough. From a ver…

1
The Pioneeer: Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski 31:37

3y ago31:37

31:37

It may be hard to believe, but when Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski started playing music, jazz was censored in Poland. As a result of Stalin’s cultural politics that governed what kinds of art and culture could be consumed in the country, anything that may have been associated with western imperialism was formally excluded from public life. However, these …

1
The Queen: Urszula Dudziak 31:26

3y ago31:26

31:26

Urszula’s love for unruly musical experiments got her kicked out from music school when she was a young girl. A few years later, like many young Poles, she stumbled upon The Voice of America - a radio station meant to bring American culture and censorship-free news to people locked up behind the Iron Curtain. This program is where Urszula heard jaz…

1
The Pioneeer: Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski 31:38

3y ago31:38

31:38

It may be hard to believe, but when Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski started playing music, jazz was censored in Poland. As a result of Stalin’s cultural politics that governed what kinds of art and culture could be consumed in the country, anything that may have been associated with western imperialism was formally excluded from public life. However, these …

1
The Queen: Urszula Dudziak 31:27

3y ago31:27

31:27

Urszula’s love for unruly musical experiments got her kicked out from music school when she was a young girl. A few years later, like many young Poles, she stumbled upon The Voice of America - a radio station meant to bring American culture and censorship-free news to people locked up behind the Iron Curtain. This program is where Urszula heard jaz…

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