TOŁHAJE
Founded by Damian Kurasz and Janusz Demkowicz in 2000, TOŁHAJE was soon after joined by other musicians who come from the Subcarpathian region.
The band is inspired by, inter alia, the customs of the Boykos and Lemkos – ethnic groups living in Bieszczady before 1947, musical culture of South-Eastern Poland (Lubelszczyzna – Polish historical region that encompasses Lublin) and the ethnic groups of modern Ukraine.
TOŁHAJE have performed on stages in the entire country endearing themselves to the audience as well as competition juries. They reached the final of the 4th edition of the Folk Music Festival of the Polish Radio (second place). They were the winners of the 19th International Youth Folk Song and Music Festival “Eurofolk Na Pograniczach” in Sanok in 2001. In June 2002, the band represented Poland at the 23rd European Broadcasting Union Festival in Mölln, Germany.
Moreover, most of the members from TOŁHAJE collaborated with famous artists, like Gordon Haskle, John Lord (Deep Purple), Nigel Kennedy, Michael Bolton as well as with well-known Polish artists (Katarzyna Nosowska, Kayah, Hey, Maria Peszek, Smolik, Pink Freud, Kora, Ewa Bem, Stanisław Soyka, Gaba Kulka, Justyna Steczkowska, Zakopower, Piotr Rubik, Michał Bajor and many others).
In April 2003, TOŁHAJE won the Folk Phonogram of the Year Award 2002 for the album “A w Niedziela Rano” – founded by the Radio Centre for Folk Culture in the Polish Radio. The album was also nominated for the Fryderyk Music Award 2003 in the ETNO/FOLK category.
In September 2011, ‘Stereokarpaty’ – the long-awaited second studio album of the band, was released. This album includes songs inspired by folk music from the Polish and Ukrainian borderland that are sung by Marysia Kulik in Ukrainian and Eastcarpathian dialects. “Στέρεος” (read: stereos) in Greek, apart from its reference to sound quality, means ‘solid’, ‘powerful’, ‘well-built’ and ‘well-constructed’. These qualities are pertinent to TOŁHAJE’s new release – more mature, perfected, and wrapped with Carpathian stereophonic inspirations.
In the autumn of 2013 TOŁHAJE received a proposal to cooperate music for a new TV series “Wataha”, HBO Poland. During this project the band has created a new songs and after that an idea arose to release an album “Czereda” and „Mama Warhola”.
Current members:
• Marysia Kulik – vocal
• Tomasz Duda – saxophones, clarinets
• Maciej Cierliński – hurdy gurdy
• Paweł Płoskoń – hurdy gurdy
• Damian Kurasz – guitar
• Piotr Rychlec – accordion, keyboards, whistling, overtone singing
• Janusz Demkowicz – bass guitar
• Kuba Madejowski – drums