Kalemegdan Disk - ROCK FROM EASTERN EUROPE

Box containing the albums SBB; 2 – Nowy horyzont; 3 – Pamięć; Ze słowem biegnę do ciebie; Memento z banalnym tryptykiem

Warner Music Poland Release Information

A limited collection of five albums by SBB.

The exclusive box set contains all the band’s albums released in the Polskie Nagrania catalogue selections SACD/Hybrid collection. This is the first edition of these albums in Poland released in SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) format The SACD albums are a tribute to audiophiles.

CD 1 SBB – ℗ 1974

In 1974, the band SBB was a real sensation. The Silesian trio, led by Józef Skrzek, won the first place in all kinds of polls and filled every concert hall in Poland without any problems. On 18 and 19 April 1974, they played in Warsaw’s Stodoła twice, and fragments of these performances, recorded and edited by Ryszard Poznakowski, appeared on the band’s debut LP “SBB”, which promptly disappeared from the shops, achieving much higher prices on the black market.

The music on the album, mainly blues-jazz-rock, refers in sound to Jimi Hendrix or The Cream with a strong keyboard and bass guitar sound. The band’s debut was a huge commercial success and today is considered one of the group’s greatest achievements. The extended forms, full of Apostolis Antymos’ psychedelic guitars, Jerzy Piotrowski’s edgy drum pulse and the leader Józef Skrzek’s distorted bass (and sometimes lyrical keyboards), are still incredibly impressive today.

This SBB live album contains two suites that turned Polish rock music upside down. One of the most spectacular debuts in the history of Polish phonography. A classic. Undisputed.

CD 2 2 – Nowy horyzont – ℗ 1975

The album “Nowy horyzont” (New Horizon) by SBB, is one of the most progressive albums in the history of Polish rock. Pulsating bass guitar, rushing drums and scratchy guitar. Synthesisers, noises, murmurs.

In 1974, it began talks with the German CBS affiliate. The collaboration did not happen, but the recordings prepared for this western album became the basis for the group’s first studio release in Poland.

The material collected on “Nowy horyzont” already shows a slightly different face of SBB than the one known from the concert debut. SBB, previously known for their highly energetic concerts, combining the group’s blues roots with a fascination with the achievements of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, encapsulated their ideas in more compact, well-thought-out arrangements (“Na pierwsze ogień” (On the First Fire), “Błysk” (Flash)), complementing the album’s programme with psychedelic melodeclamation (“Ballada o pięciu głodnych” (Ballad of the Five Hungry)) and an extended suite with frenetic solo displays and a Chopin quote at the end (“Wolność z nami” (Freedom with Us)).

CD 3 3 – Pamięć – ℗ 1976

The album “Pamięć” (SACD Hybrid) by SBB in a limited edition, in the series “Polskie Nagrania Catalogue Selections”. This is the first edition of this album in the SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) format. The choice of this format is a nod to audiophiles.

In the autumn of 1975, SBB created in the Polskie Nagrania studio one of the most beautiful pastel paintings in the history of Polish rock. Forty-five years later, the inbred “Pamięć” (Memory) returns in a new, definitive version.

The third album in the legendary trio’s output heralded a departure from crazy improvisations and distorted guitars to thoughtful music, rich in interesting harmonic and sound solutions. SBB transformed from a concert sensation into a mature, progressive band, offering extended songs, full of interesting changes of mood and tempo.

All three tracks from “Pamięć” are sound paintings prepared with the help of an interesting palette of colours. Among them is “Z których krwi krew moja” (From whose Blood My Blood), one of the most important tracks in SBB’s output.

CD 4 Ze słowem biegnę do ciebie – ℗ 1977

A progressive feast that was originally intended to be recorded with an orchestra. Funding was lacking, but the result was a cosmic journey between green and blue planets, full of unexpected twists and timeless Moog synths.

Recorded in the spring of 1977, SBB’s fourth album in Poland was filled with just two tracks, each lasting almost twenty minutes. It’s the multi-threaded, progressive suites that SBB felt most comfortable with at the time. Józef Skrzek, Apostolis Antymos and Jerzy Piotrowski included here the essence of their explorations of the time. This is universal music, in which elements of rock and fusion collide with highland folk, funk and a fascination with the sound possibilities of synthesisers.

CD 5 Memento z banalnym tryptykiem – Recorded 1980, ℗ 1981

The last album by the original SBB before the long break. A summary of a decade full of events and achievements, as well as a kind of bracket – completed years later with the beginning of the story, i.e. the first version of the title track, still from the Silesian Blues Band days!

When “Memento z banalnym tryptykiem” (Memento with a banal triptych) was released in 1981, SBB was already history. The album, recorded a year earlier, thus became a kind of summary of the decade in which the band sought, demolished, built and conquered all of Europe with its view of progressive rock.

The band’s fifth album in Polskie Nagrania’s catalogue was a kind of buckle: on the one hand, it showed the musicians’ new fascinations (elements of fusion in “Strategia pulsu” (Pulse Strategy), Slawomir Piwowar’s guitar show-offs in “Trójkąt radości ” (Triangle of Joy), on the other hand, it summed up the leader’s progressive explorations in the title suite: there is room here for a monumental introduction, dreamy Pink Floyd-style themes, and Apostolis Antymos’ bravura guitar solo!

Tracklist

CD 1 SBB – ℗ 1974

1. I Need You Baby 4:38
2. Odlot including “Odlecieć z wami” 14:37
3. Wizje including “Erotyk” 19:13
Bonus:
4. Zostało we mnie 5:47
5. Wicher w polu dmie 13:58
6. Figo-fago 12:15
7. Rock for Mack 3:08

CD 2 2 – Nowy horyzont – ℗ 1975

1. Na pierwszy ogień 4:18
2. Błysk 3:26
3. Nowy horyzont 8:24
4. Ballada o pięciu głodnych 3:50
5. Wolność z nami 19:48

CD 3 3 – Pamięć – ℗ 1976

1. W kołysce dłoni twych (Ojcu) 9:08
2. Z których krwi krew moja 10:12
3. Pamięć w kamień wrasta 19:50

CD 4 Ze słowem biegnę do ciebie – ℗ 1977

1. Ze słowem biegnę do ciebie 19:10
2. Przed premierą 19:24

CD 5 Memento z banalnym tryptykiem – Recorded 1980, ℗ 1981

1. Moja ziemio wyśniona 8:30
2. Trójkąt radości 7:42
3. Strategia pulsu 3:26
4. Memento z banalnym tryptykiem 20:41