March 15-22 – trio Chlopcy Kontra Basia (Poland, Krakow)

March 15 – Kyiv.
March 16 – Dnipropetrovsk.
March 17 – Simferopol.
March 19 – Odessa.
March 20 – Vinnitsa.
March 22 – Lviv.
March 23 – Ivano-Frankivsk.

Trio Chłopcy Kontra Basia - Barbara Derlak (vocal, clarinet, vietnamese  harp, beat-box), Marcin Nenko – (double bass) and Tomas Valdovski (percussion).

Basia without chlopcy (boys) would sing folk, chlopcy without Basia would play jazz. And together they create neofolk in a literal sense of this word. Inspired by Polish folk culture Basia’s texts and melodies are well complemented by jazz sound. Fortunately, we talk about not opinionated unknown-what-jazz but great rhythmic sound, jazz groove easily and freshly combined with ethno and funk. All this - as with screwed eyes - sometimes trance, but sometimes dance. In this sophisticated cocktail Basia dominates sensually - tender girl with an extraordinary voice, who is very often compared with Iva Bitova.
Bands such as Chlopcy Kontra Basia, gather around themselves public, capable to really appreciate the idea, mastership and sound. Those, who visited the concerts of trio, say that surprisingly mix ‘percussion + double bass + vocal with clarinet’ sounds better then chapel with a dozen people. In such chamber, even village atmosphere musicians are playing songs generously sharing their well-being with the audience. Songs, which are variations on the national themes, tell very different stories - how Kasia saves Yas from Kyrponosa Death, about fleas or the prayer to angel-keeper, which goes to the complaint, because he sleeps drunk, instead to keep.

Chlopcy Kontra Basia debuted in April 2010 on one of the major ethnic  festivals in Poland – “Nova Tradytsia” , where they immediately took the II place, and now are one of the most interesting Polish bands of that direction. This is the first visit of the trio to Ukraine, and Polish music critics advice not to miss - Chlopcy Kontra Basia sounds exceptionally good.

Photo from Kiev concert (special thanks to Ivan Goncharuk):