from Istebna

Traditional Beskid band from Istebna, one of the most important in the circle of traditional folk music. The band was founded in 1985 Zbigniew Wałach on the initiative. The name Wałasi was given by Józef Pojda from Wisła. For years, the composition has undergone changes, it was created by the aforementioned Zbigniew Wałach and Józef Kawulok, Rafał Wałach, Jan Kaczmarzyk, Zbigniew Michałej, Jarosław Zowada, Andrzej Malyjurek, Piotr Kohut, Czesław Kobielu, and Krzysztof Puszyński. The musicians searched for archaic melodies and contact with old masters. And so, they played songs by musicians from the Silesian Beskids: Jan Kawulok, Michał Sikora and his son Jan, Władysław Zogata, Jan Skotnior-Krężelok, Marek Fica and Jan Wolny – authentic melodies, passed down from generation to generation ("polki", "owięzioki", pastoral songs).

The band has performed in almost all of Europe, as well as in India, Nepal, Ceylon and Morocco, both with groups from traditional music and professional musicians. Every year the band participated in the World Retreat of Podhale in Rome (a retreat hymn was the original work of Zbigniew Wałach entitled "Worship"). The musicians also recorded songs for Polish Radio and performed in Witold Lutosławski a concert studio. They were present at every local event, several of which – together with a group of friends – they initiated, for example, Istebniańskie Zaduszki.

Apart from playing together, Wałasi devoted a lot of time to traditional music with children and learning to be attached to the Silesian Beskids, his small homeland (work at the Out-of-School Labor Center in Koniaków, Istebna Center for Cultivating the Tradition of the Region, running a regional youth band Golden Groń). They were aware that preservation of heritage and passing on their skills to the young generation is their duty.

Wałasi won – both as a band and instrumentalists – the highest prizes in competitions (e.g. the Polish National Bagpipers Confrontations in Poznań, the International Competition of Folk Bands and Singers in Zakopane) and during festivals (including the National Festival of Folk Bands and Singers in Kazimierz Dolny, Folklore Festival of Polish Highlanders in Żywiec and the International Festival of Mountain Lands in Zakopane). We should also mention the awards for the Koniaków band, with which the band has been cooperating for over twenty years. In 2004, Wałasi represented by Zbigniew Wałach (violin, vocal) and Jan Kaczmarzyk (gajdy, vocal) were honored with the Oskar Kolberg Award.

Today, Wałasi is a group of unusual highlanders. Musicians are experimenting, but the basis for the processing or creation of their own compositions is still traditional music. We are constantly looking for beautiful forms of expressing ourselves through proud and dignified music. Above all, we have the awareness of our origin of the region in which large-format people lived and spoke in a full voice. This obligates, emphasizes Zbigniew Wałach.