Over the last couple of years the Quietus have been spending an ever-increasing amount of time listening to new Polish music. The country’s independent experimental music community is currently giving rise to a great deal of exciting and adventurous new music; we highlighted a series of our favourites in a special edition of our Rum Music column last year, Stara Rzeka’s debut album reached our albums of 2013 list, and already in 2014 we’ve been spending a great deal of time with new records from Hati, T’ien Lai and Innercity Ensemble, among others.
This weekend, following the political turmoil and street violence in Ukraine, the PL2UA compilation was released via Bandcamp, "an expression of solidarity and support of Polish musicians for people who suffer as a result of clashes in the Ukraine".
It’s a huge prospect – 93 tracks, many exclusive for the compilation, predominantly from Polish musicians but also featuring several artists from other Eastern European countries and some from Ukraine – across a broad range of styles and genres, including Quietus favourites like RSS B0YS, Lutto Lento and Mik! Musik head Kucharczyk. It’s a great (albeit sprawling) introduction to some of the new music emerging from Poland at the moment.
The entire compilation is priced on a pay-what-you-like basis, with a minimum donation of 10 PLN (equivalent to £2, a bargain for nearly 100 tracks), and proceeds will be donated to the Open Dialogue Foundation. You can listen to the compilation below and buy via the PL2UA Bandcamp page.
