NOSPR Chamber Musicians / Bilińska / The NeverEnding Shades of Yiddish - NOSPR

‘It hypnotised me – the clarity, the freshness. I had never heard anything like it. And today, of all times? Someone singing songs in Yiddish so clearly, so unpretentiously?’ That was Mikołaj Trzaska, one of Poland’s best-known ambassadors of new Jewish music, talking about Ola Bilińska over ten years ago. Back then, the two were recording lullabies in Yiddish together. That was only the start. After the dreamlike Berjozkele, Bilińska moved to the impressionistic and intimate love songs of Libelid, and later to Nachum, a project with a post-rock edge, featuring internationally renowned hits by the pre-war poet Nachum Sternheim.

Since then, this one of the most versatile and empathetic Polish vocalists has also successfully recorded big beat, psychedelic, and avant-folk songs, before finally – at the invitation of chamber musicians from the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra – returning to the magical world of Yiddish. The new ensemble’s line-up promises once again thoroughly original arrangements that shed new light on a somewhat forgotten repertoire.

Michał Mendyk