Ewa Demarczyk - Ewa Demarczyk

Ewa Demarczyk
Ewa Demarczyk

Label: Music Net ( 2008) 
Catalogue No: CD004
Format: CD

Originally released in USSR by Melodia label, catalog no. 33 C 60-05139-40.

1. Grande Valse Brilliante *
2. Tomaszów *
3. Imie Twoje 
4. Groszki I Róze *
5. Sur Le Pont L'Avignon 
6. Biedna Dziewczyna 
7. Taki Smieszny *
8. Cyganka 
9. Skrzypek Hercowicz

* Includes four previously unreleased songs sung in Russian. 

Line-up:

Ewa Demarczyk - vocal

Recorded:

1975

About:

Ewa Demarczyk is known as a Black Lady of Polish song. Her singing style oscillates between the Gypsy and Jewish ones with added quick, sharp, and brief upward and downward glissandos. It tends to reminisce about the Hungarian Gypsies and their violin-playing style, most expressively, captures the audience with her Gypsy like dark, large and piercing eyes framed in contrasting white light complexion, oval face, and long straight hair. Her black simple dress adds to the mystery of the performance. Occasionally she sounds a bit like Juliette Greco and Edith Piaf. 

Ewa Demarczyk, born in Cracow (Kraków) in the southern part of Poland, is a singer and actress. She is nicknamed the ‘Black Angel’ and was one of the biggest stars in Warsaw and Moscow during the sixties and seventies. Her debut took place in 1961 in "Cyrulik" cabaret, but in 1962 she started her co-operation with "Piwnica pod Baranami", where she found a core group of composers setting poetry to music (Zygmunt Konieczny, Andrzej Zarycki, Stanisław Radwan). A year later she took part in Polish song festival in Opole, where she excited the audience by the performance of first compositions of Zygmunt Konieczny ("The Marry-go-round with Madonnas" - poem by M. Białoszewski, "Black Angels" - poem by W. Dymny and "Such a Landscape" - poem by A. Szmidt).  In 1964, she triumphs at the international festival in Sopot with the song ‘Grande valse brillante’ International performances follow in Paris (L’Olympia), New York (Carnegie Hall), London (Queen Elizabeth Hall’ and Tokyo (Theater Cocoon). She graduated from the National Theatre School in Kraków in 1966 (drama and piano). In the early sixties, she collaborated in many theatre and cabaret performances. Between 1962 and 1966 she worked with Polish composer Zygmunt Konieczny which resulted in her debut single release in 1963. Later on, she worked with Polish composer Andrew Zaryckim, a collaboration that would last for many years until mid eighties. 

Her songs convey strong emotions, partly associated with the counter-culture movement in Poland during the 1970s and 1980's, when the country was under communist rule. Because of censorship, her songs are not ostentatiously anti-communist or political. Apparently, through subtle means of imagery, symbolism and metaphors that implicitly refer to concepts of freedom, in some of the songs she expressed the general discontent with the authoritarian rule of the period. Demarczyk is especially known for her interpretations of (mostly Polish) poets, like Julian Tuwim, Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski and Miron Białoszewski. Her songs often deal with existential themes and are sometimes referred to as ´sung poetry´. She took part in many international music and theatre festivals, some of her performances were recorded by TV- and radio stations. She gave concerts in Olympia (Paris), in Salle Pleyel and Cornegie Hall (USA), in Canada, Cuba, Brazil, and many other countries. Getting numerous awards, she was nominated to half more. She is a performer with theatrical power and a voice that ranges from an intimate whisper to a fortissimo roar of passionate intensity. No matter if the audience doesn't understand her songs in Polish - the performance is always gripping - stunning and subtle, portraying pain and rage as well as love, tenderness and pray. Nevertheless she sings also in German, French, Spanish, Russian and English.

She is a forceful performer with theatrical power and a voice that ranges from an intimate whisper to a fortissimo roar of passionate intensity. It does not matter if you do not understand the Polish or Russian lyrics – with her dramatic theatrical expression and vocal art she will get to you any way. Every song she performs is in fact a short musical drama of enormous intensity. Perhaps because her performances are so demanding, Demarczyk has produced relatively few songs, but every one of them is considered a masterpiece. 

Her album output is extremely limited – only one regular album ‘Ewa Demarczyk spiewa piosenki Zygmunta Koniecznego’ - in 1969, followed by a Russion album release in 1975 and a live double album in 1979. Since the eighties, Ewa Demarczyk rarely occurs, does not record new songs, and remains in the shadows. However, she keeps performing her old songs live and the concerts always end with standing ovations. Her performances are precisely designed spectacles, with great lighting effects and a high quality band.

In 1985, she established ‘Eve Demarczyk Theater’ in Cracow, a ‘National Theater of music and poetry’. After the fall of the iron curtain, the institute, which was paid for by the city of Cracow, was cause for a lot of debate. Some considered the funding of this institution as an expression of public patronage and support of an artist of the former era, that was not acceptable in modern days with free market. Latest information that we could found on this subject, was that the theatre had huge financial problems and had a legal issue regarding the unpaid rent for the past four years. It is difficult to compare her with anybody whom we have known in the realm of song.

Demarczyk has influenced many artists, including Faun Fables who has recorded covers of her songs "Carousel With Madonnas" and "Taki Pejzaż". She was frequently rewarded: Gold Cross of Merit (1971), Officer's Cross of the Legion of French (1977), Knight's Cross of the Polish Order (1979), Merit for National Culture (1987) and Commander’s Cross of the Polish Order (2000).