WARIATKA (i.e. Crazy Girl) evolved out of stage performance. The musicians involved were inspired by the poet’s words about emotions and people’s constant need for love. Do people lost in their everyday routines and worries need anything else, she asks, and what more do artists and those in love need, aside from acceptance?

Everyday life, especially for an immigrant, is not rooted in a place or in a culture, but in the need for love and reaching your aspirations. Similarly to music and verse, love (as we all know) knows no boundaries, stereotypes or divisions. We long for love, call out for it, curse it and forgive it. We dream of love, get lost in it, stray away away from it and return to it. “It is like a voyage, sometimes delicate and playful like a wonderful song, sometimes a dirty and stormy slog, at other times it’s like a bad dream or an unfulfilled destiny”.

As both the lyrics and music attest, the songs on WARIATKA (i.e. Crazy Girl) are characterised by an impulsiveness which mirrors artistic creativity and vulnerability. At once fawning and shouting, the words race around and then stop suddenly. Sometimes the music cuts them off abruptly or abandons them completely, sounding out strongly on its own. At other times it complements them romantically, releasing wisps of melody and colourful moods. As such, the songs on WARIATKA (i.e. Crazy Girl) are similar to love itself: “stormy, fiery, effervescent like snow. Like you and me and the eternal sun. Without it, there is no life!”

Initially performed live at concerts and poetry recitals, all of the songs on the album are the fruit of the artists’ openness and playfulness. Thanks to Kamil Abt’s arrangements and the imaginations of the performers, they have taken on a completely new character, unconstrained by oft-trodden canons and styles.

With WARIATKA (i.e. Crazy Girl), Kamil Abt (guitarist; present in both Australia and Poland) has built a bridge between nations. Walking along it on the Australian side are Teresa Podemska-Abt (lyricist/poet), Ewa Paradowska (composer) and Jerzy Syrek (composer). On the Polish side, there is Piotr Szwec (saxophone), Katarzyna Mirowska (vocals), Andrzej Michalak (bass) and Przemek Michalak (drums). All of them are connected by a desire for artistic interaction, subtle dynamic sensibilities, temperamental characters and a longing for romantic dreams and melancholy moods. The bonds between them will undoubtedly open up listeners’ hearts and senses, making it possible to transcend boundaries and recall what it means to love and be loved.