33a + Volosi (PL/ GRUZIE)
33a
The band was founded by the guitarist, pianist and singer Niaz Diasamidze in Tbilisi in 1996. The name is inspired by the number of the house where the founder and the other members lived at the time. They released the debut record, Tbilisi, one year later, the second release Ichqare nela appeared in 1998. The band was influenced by Georgian folk music as well as by film soundtracks, which was the type of work they would produce for various directors over time.
After a series of films and other records, 33a earned high status in the Georgian music scene. The band’s reputation would spread in abroad, the proof of which are several concerts in Paris. Niaz Diasamidze, the founder of the band, received a medal for exceptional patriotism in 2010. 33a have prepared a new record for this year.
VOLOSI
An interesting discovery in European world music comes from Poland, namely from Poland’s side of the Beskyds. The band’s string sound builds on the mountaineer folk music and entwines two radically different attitudes. Two artists with traditional musical schooling, the brothers Kaczmarzyk and Stanislaw Lason, are “opposed” by autodidacts and true mountaineers, Zbigniew Michalek, Jan Kaczmarzyk and Robert Waszut.
The music of Volosi contains lots of improvisation and their sound has often been found to contain similar potential as the birth of jazz in New Orleans a hundred years back. Spontaneity and technical prowess walk hand in hand in a clear attack and drive that enchants wherever the music sounds.
