It was a revelation for violinist Janusz Prusinowski when he discovered that the intensity and energy he sought all over the world could be found just around the corner, among the musicians of Mazovia, the region surrounding Warsaw. The music was so powerful and wild iIn these villages that dancers and musicians alike went into a trance. Together with recorder player Michal Zak and drummer Piotr Piszczatowksi, Prusinowski sought out some surviving Mazovian folk musicians to learn the tricks of the trade. Since then, the trio has specialised in traditional country-style mazurkas, obereks, kujawiaks and wiwaks and offers a fierce and exciting music, with the frayed edges deliberately left intact. Despite their raw playing style, Prusinowski and his comrades are not out to revive the past.

Without nostalgia or museum-like ambition, they simply pick up the tradition where it left off and give it new life, partly shaped from their experience with contemporary genres such as rock and jazz. They give new meaning to the concept of ‘authentic’ because no matter how much they owe to the village musicians of the past, the way they play mazurkas has never been heard this way before!

• Janusz Prusinowski: violin, tympanum, accordion, vocals.
• Piotr Piszczatowski: baraban drum, frame drum
• Michał Żak: recorders, shawm, clarinet