Knee-Deep in Heaven

Led by fiddler Janusz Prusinowski, this trio are the leading group behind the revival of traditional music in Poland. The members have personally learned from old-master musicians in the villages and re-create the music in concert, at dances and at festivals. They’ve expanded the colours with the addition of flute, clarinet and trumpet to the basic fiddle and percussion sound, so the original trio, formed in 2007, has now become a quintet. But the raw, authentic, foot-tapping character of the music remains. There’s a real village singer, Maria Siwiec, as a guest, though that’s not to suggest Prusinowski isn’t a fine vocalist too.

There are 18 songs and dances, most of them mazurkas, and it’s a lesson in how evasive the mazurka rhythm is. It’s basically three beats, only one mazurka will have a different emphasis to the next and the accents also shift in different parts of the tune. ‘Go Across the Woods, Boys’ is a standout tune, which even modulates. ‘Kretowicz’s Rowny’, with its charming melody and simple waltz rhythm, is a moment of calm.