Interwar Polish Hits, Electrified!

RETRO ELECTRIC is a concert at Stary Klasztor, where hits from interwar Poland will be heard in lightly modernized arrangements. On stage: Michał Bober and the band members listed below.

The repertoire comes from revues, records, cinemas and radio of the 1920s and 1930s. “Tango Milonga” by Jerzy Petersburski was first performed in 1929 in one of Warsaw's revue theatres, and in Poland it was associated for decades with the voice of Mieczysław Fogg. “Gramofonomanka” tells the story of Panna Janka, who buys new records and plays them from morning till morning. Hanka Ordonówna sang “Miłość ci wszystko wybaczy” in cinemas, to lyrics by Julian Tuwim. Eugeniusz Bodo performed “Sex appeal” in the film “Piętrze wyżej” and, as a radio announcer, hummed “Umówiłem się z nią na dziewiątą”. The slowfox “Bo to się zwykle tak zaczyna” comes from a revue by the Stara Banda theatre, and Bodo sang the lullaby “Ach, śpij kochanie” with Adolf Dymsza in the film “Paweł i Gaweł”.

The project draws on hits of the Polish variety stage written by, among others, Henryk Wars, Jerzy Petersburski and Emanuel Schlechter. The arrangements combine fragments of original recordings from the era with contemporary quotes, electronics, samples and modern beats. The initiator is singer Michał Bober. Everything began in 2007 with a single vinyl record and a first attempt to combine an old recording with modern instruments and samples. Nearly two decades later, that home experiment has become a full live concert. Bober says: “I wanted these songs to sound again the way they did for people hearing them for the first time – fresh and surprisingly so.”

In the repertoire will be songs made famous by, among others, Eugeniusz Bodo, Mieczysław Fogg and Hanka Ordonówna, including:

• “Bo to się zwykle tak zaczyna”
• “Gramofonomanka”
• “Sex appeal”
• “Tango Milonga”
• “Miłość Ci wszystko wybaczy”
• “Umówiłem się z nią na dziewiątą”
• “Ach śpij kochanie”