EARTH MUSIC FROM POLAND /

ATMAN

(and MAGIC CARPATHIANS).

(pictures from gallery "Stary Dom Galeria"; info :  nachers@ns.medianet.pl )

From the booklet of Prakownia :

"ATMAN is an extremely original music group.  It uses rich folk instruments from Asia and Europe to create this music.  The group's performance is a kind of ceremony, the intention of which is to create conditions for turning down tension and gentle, harmonious relaxation.  The group's deeper goal is to transmit to others its belief. the sanctity of all forms of life.  The group's spectacles are reformed to as "The Council of All Beings Ritual".  From the beginning of its existence the group has been faithful to acoustic folk instruments only (which it treats as its own way).  The choice of instruments, sounds and rhythms used by the group is the result of specific ethnographic studies.  These studies are conducted by the members of the group at home, in libraries, and also during expeditions to Central Asia, India, Nepal, the Balkans, and exploration traditions of our own country.  The members of group and their friends, by means of their original style of life, ritual, music and active movement in the protection of the Earth, are involved in their own ongoing effort to harmonize their personal lives with Nature.  In spite of the fact that for a long time the group acts professionals, its members have never dropped their own exciting jobs - an ecologists, a forester and a schoolteacher.  The group's spectacles are often joined with ecological education workshops and direct actions of different NGOS.  The members of the group interact with the Polish deep ecology movement.  The group is interested in different mediums and uses video techniques, slides, happenings and other methods.  The group gives performances in small and large halls, during folk, jazz and theatre festivals and is also invited to rock concerts, which proves the group's universality."

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         Atman's musical style can be described as "Earth-Music" :   

   Carpathia is one of the last unremained pieces of provided nature :    

  (From an Article about Atman in The Wire, issue 187, September 99 :) 

  "We are the mountaineers from the Carpathians", asserts Styczynski,

   the group's nominal spokesman. "It's a place where you can still meat   

   the wolf, the bear, the eagle, valleys full of mystery". The group of 

   Atman was always involved in the ecology movement and association  

   "Pracownia". So much more than any New Age group they have their   

   roots and inspiration and energy in nature itself.