Coming to the capital after the worst storm in 30 years, Trupa Trupa appeared to take the challenges of being on tour in the midst of such meteorological mayhem in their stride. “So good to be in London after two years of hell,” said Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, the singer of the band, from Gdansk in Poland, which took elements of progressive rock, punk and the avant-garde and infused them with a sense of humour.
Posts
16 March 2022
B FLAT A review – Pitchfork
In his life and art, Grzegorz Kwiatkowski has devoted himself to anti-fascism, which, in his native Poland, has become something of a full-time job. As a descendent of a concentration-camp survivor, he’s channeled themes of intergenerational trauma and the banality of evil into celebrated works of poetry that have led to guest-lecturer gigs at universities around the world.
16 March 2022
Haifa Interdisciplinary Unit for Polish Studies
Haifa Interdisciplinary Unit for Polish Studies and the Sir Isaac Wolfson Chair of Jewish Thought invite you to a Zoom meeting with the Polish poet and musician: Grzegorz Kwiatkowski.
15 February 2022
B FLAT A review – KEXP
This Polish band’s sixth album is a well-crafted set of ominous rock ranging from driving, tension-filled post-punk to atmospheric psych-rock, with often-dark lyrics for these troubled times.
3 February 2022
B FLAT A review – The Quietus
Imagine the Beatles and Velvet Underground reading Hannah Arendt while in the studio with film director Michael Haneke. That’s Trupa Trupa in a nutshell, a Gdańsk-based band who spent the last decade perfecting their balancing act between lyrical songs and crushing psychedelia.
3 February 2022
Henry Rollins / B FLAT A
“The new Trupa Trupa album B Flat A is really good.” – Henry Rollins
21 January 2022
Review of “Crops” – Paul Levinson
I don’t often review poetry on this blog. The last — and, in fact, the only — time I did was Andrew McLuhan’s Written Matter last February. But, once again, words without music, or with music entirely in the head, call.
19 January 2022
Twice Upon A Rhyme
What strange music: joyful, optimistic, happy, rich. It sounds like Nick Drake not on a dark side, but on a bright side of the moon. ‘Gentle Blue Cherry Bell’, from this great LP, blooms from the same garden as the one tended by Syd Barrett. And what magnificent orchestration is on this mighty ‘Twice Upon A Rhyme’ album! This joyfully psychedelic LP reminds me of the atmosphere of ‘The Wizard of Oz’, the spirituality of The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’, and the works of Cat Stevens and Jethro Tull. But this is not an imitation but a very original thing. This is a brilliant musical lost world, a world that should definitely be rediscovered.
19 January 2022
Brooklyn Vegan
Gdańsk, Poland’s Trupa Trupa just released their new album B FLAT A, that, according to frontman Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, explores “the wasteland of human nature where hatred and genocide are not just distant reverberations of Central European history but still resonate in contemporary reality,” and does so via visceral komische and post-punk inspired rock. You can listen to the whole album below.
17 January 2022
Western University / City Lights Bookshop
Western University and City Lights Bookshop invite you to the event:
Confronting Hate: Artistic responses to history, genocide and rising right wing nationalism. A conversation with – Grzegorz Kwiatkowski – a Gdańsk-based poet, musician, and the lead singer of the internationally acclaimed art-rock band, Trupa Trupa.
Meeting led by Dr. Amanda Grzyb will take place on Wednesday January 26, 2022 11:am – 12.00pm EST [UTC/GMT-5).
The event will live stream here:
https://www.facebook.com/CityLightsBookshop/
https://www.instagram.com/citylightsbookshop/