Songs of the Rising Sun

WSPAK is Polish duo Adrianna (Ada) Kafel-Woźniak and Aleksandra (Ola) Pura-Cidyło from Białystok in the north-east of the country. They sing Ukrainian songs as well as those of the Lemko minority in the south-east of the country – which is why they’ve called it Songs of the Rising Sun. Most of them are lightly accompanied by violin, bowed suka and płock fiddle (both archaic string instruments) as well as wspak, a contemporary cello-like instrument created by Andrzej Król (featured in #93), which they’ve taken as their name. The music is very soft and delicate, particularly the opening Ukrainian song ‘Oj Czyj to Kiń Stojit’ with mostly drone harmony. The ten songs are beautiful; the arrangements minimal and not really varied enough. Perhaps the most interesting is the closing Lemko song ‘Duje Witer, Duje’ with wspak harmonics and a haunting melody in two-part harmony.