From One Thousand and One Christmas Eves

"From the Arabian Nights of Christmas" is a musical tale combining diverse musical styles such as jazz, funk, pop, rock, and ethnic, as well as musical quotations from medieval chorales and late Romantic works by Ravel and Mahler. The resulting musical kaleidoscope allows the listener—like its literary prototype, "The Arabian Nights"—to journey into a world of imagined landscapes, personal interpretations, and emotions."

"One Thousand and One Christmas Eves" is not, however, a romantic excursion into the fairy-tale world of Aladdin, Sinbad, or Scheherazade. We live in a time of extreme contrasts, in which poverty, hunger, and slave labor, religious and racial persecution, and wars in some regions of the world coexist with prosperity and consumerism, highly developed technologies, and the legally protected benefits of democracy in others. In a world of such disproportions and injustice, the face of "Christmas Eves" and the possibilities of experiencing them joyfully depend on whether we find ourselves in the Republic of Congo, Aleppo, Lampedusa, the refugee camps in Calais, or Warsaw. This paradox of humanity, which has not lost its tragic relevance since the times of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, was also my starting point for redefining traditional carols for today's reality. Hence the two titles of each song and short original lyrics (in songs no. 1 and 5).

Among the performers are wonderful musicians: Marta Król – vocals, Joachim Sevenitz – double bass, arrangements and artistic concept of the album, Paweł Tomaszewski – piano, keyboards, Paweł Dobrowolski – drums, percussion, Zuzanna Janczak – violin, Magda Warmińska – violin, Malwina Tkaczyk – viola, Zuzanna Makles – cello

Guest appearances: Przemek Hanaj – guitar, Tomasz Kańtoch – bass guitar, Wojciech Myrczek – vocals, Marek Podkowa – saxophones, Agnieszka Sevenitz – flutes, Marcin Wyrostek – accordion, Julian Warmiński – child’s voice.

Album producer: Paweł Tomaszewski, Joachim Sevenitz.


Tracklist:

1. In the Silence of the Night - Children of the Congo
2. Lullaby Jesus – Lullaby for Aleppo
3. The Angel Spoke to the Shepherds – Nativity Scene in a Shopping Cart
4. Baby Jesus – Calais and Lampedusa
5. Midnight Has Already Come – Family Home
6. God is born – a tribute to Doctors Without Borders
7. The Quiet One – Exodus
8. Let us all go to the stable – The joy of celebration
9. When a beautiful lady – Mom, Dad and me
10. Silent Night – Faith, Hope and Love