Szela

Szela is a band that sprang up from Smugglers (a maritime folk-rock band settled in and around the Tricity), who attempted to incorporate Slavic music in their repertoire. First issue of the cassette "Nagroda Publiczności" included a Kashubian medley called "Wiązanka melodii kaszubskich" better known as "Kaszuba". When Smugglers entered the recording studio an idea appeared to alter their name and replace maritime folk-rock with Polish folk music retaining the same rock sound.

This was winter 1992/93 – they came out of the studio as Szela, which bore a clear association with Polish folk nature, however a bit controversial to some people. The repertoire included a number of well-known songs (such as “Idzie dysc”), but the majority were melodies, songs and ballads that an average listener was not familiar with. Józef Kaniecki (the violin player) even ventured on composing new songs inspired by a Polish author’s scapegrace poetry. Apart from him the band’s line-up consisted of: Krzysztof Jurkiewicz, Andrzej Kadłubicki, Krzysztof Janiszewski and Adam Skrzyński. Their previous flirtation with Celtic and British folk-rock resulted in Szela’s unique sound.

They quickly gained popularity, but the beginning of the nineties was not a good time for such music. Media were tenacious to ignore the band, although sometimes one could come across their recordings on the Third Programme of the Polish Radio in Wojtek Ossowski’s broadcasts. There was also an attempt to make a videoclip of the ballad “Niezaślubiona siostra umiera”, but the producers did not take things seriously and this rather uninteresting video ended up in the archives.

Because of its ‘premature birth’ Szela missed the opportunity to join the folk boom that arose several years later and has been growing ever since. The band issued only one cassette – “Pani pana zabiła..." in 1993 and recorded a few new songs for the radio in 1995 what might promise a new cassette/CD. However, after a few years of playing and trying to find its own place on the hermetic folk scene, not to mention significant changes in the line-up, their ways eventually split up. In 1995 some of them rejoined Smugglers while the other part established a new folk-jazz-rock band Ajagore.

Szela was reactivated in 2004 to take part in the festiwal „Nowa Tradycja”, but it was an unsuccessful attempt. Yet, they did not give up and play on (also as Smugglers).
In 2016, as part of "Fspieram24"  action organized by Fundacja Folk24 a double CD material appeared – it includes the reissue of "Pani pana zabiła" plus a new CD entitled "Szelawi".

Band:

Beata Bartelik - vocal, whistles
Łukasz Zięba - violin, vocal
Mariusz "Mario" Wilke – electric/acoustic guitars
Krzysztof Paul - electric/acoustic guitars
Krzychu "Jachu" Janiszewski - bass
Adam Golicki - drums

Discography:

2016 - "Szelawi" (CD)
2016 - "Pani pana zabiła" (CD)
1993 - "Pani pana zabiła" (MC)

Video:

"Pani pana zabiła"

"Siadaj Maryś"

"Niezaślubiona siostra umiera"

"Szela - geneza" - reportaż