Shovel Dance Collective // Radical Polish Ansambl

Standard £25 // Solidarity £32.50 // Kirklees £23 // Under 30 £8
Our Solidarity ticket price is an opportunity for audiences to support our work by purchasing a ticket at a slightly higher price (the cost of a Standard ticket plus 30%). Read more about Solidarity prices here. 

Advance booking required 

Doors & bar open: 7.30m 

Estimated end time: 10.15pm 

Please note: this performance includes an interval 

Radical Polish Ansambl:
Zaranny (2024) 8’ UK Premiere
Prostaki (2024) 6’ UK Premiere
Rydz (2024) 4’ UK Premiere
Rzewliwy (2024) 6’ UK Premiere
Kumaki (2024) 7’ UK Premiere
Ciele (2024) 6’ UK Premiere
Derletta (2024) 7’ UK Premiere
Geranoi IV (2024) 5’ UK Premiere 

Maciej Filipczuk violin
Maria Stępień violin
Łucja Siedlik violin
Emilia Bolibrzuch violin
Mateusz Kowalski violin  

Marcin Lorenc violin
Piotr Gwadera dżaz (traditional drum kit) / percussion 

—————– 

Shovel Dance Collective:
Alex Mckenzie bass clarinet / whistles / flute
Daniel S Evans guitars / cello / percussion
Fidelma Hanrahan harp
Jacken Elswyth banjos / shruti box
Joshua Barfoot drum kit / bodhrán / percussion / hammered dulcimer
Mataio Austin Dean vocals / guitar / clarinet
Nick Granata vocals / pump organ
Oliver Hamilton fiddle
Tom Hardwick-Allan trombone / harmonicas 

Two ensembles united in their passion for traditional music as communal activity rather than historical artifact come together in a double-bill that explores the living edges of tradition, experimentation and collective music-making.

Radical Polish Ansambl offer an encounter between the old ethos of village musicians and the most avant-garde ideas of contemporary music, making space for improvisation, exploration and experimentation alongside a solid foundation of village performance techniques passed down through oral tradition. Performing traditional music from central Poland in their own arrangements, they also invite contemporary Polish composers to listen closely to village music and compose pieces specifically for their unusual line-up of six violins and dżaz, favouring ‘live transmission’ and direct exchange over the use of musical notation. 

“The most important Polish musical project of recent years…Radical Polish Ansambl reaches into the very depths of Polish music” — Michał Wieczorek, Na obrzeżach

“It is an understatement to say that for several years the Polish Radical Ansambl has been flawlessly verifying new contexts for traditional music. This is not only a bold and innovative treatment of source music, but a thoughtful and interesting construction of—however cliché it may sound—bridges between the past and the future” — Ula Nowak, Dwójka, Program 2 Polskiego Radia

Following their acclaimed performance at hcmf// 2024, Shovel Dance Collective return to Huddersfield with a new piece weaving together their arrangements of traditional material unaccompanied song and improvisation. Known for their expansive, emotionally charged live performances, the collective has become one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary folk and experimental music in the UK. Always crafted with attention to their woven technique of using sonic fragments, layers and bridges between different discrete layers of traditional material, their latest offering will be a natural response to the piece they crafted for hcmf// and their Café OTO residency in 2024.

“Some of the most scintillating folk music being made in the modern United Kingdom” — Rob Young, Uncut

“The Shovel Dance delights in juxtapositions of place, time and texture that reveal the new in the old, and vice versa” — Lucy Thraves, The Wire

Together, these two ensembles create a shared space of listening and transformation: where tradition is neither fixed nor nostalgic, but a living, evolving practise shaped in real time.

Produced by hcmf// as part of Music Traditions in a Contemporary Context; supported by Culture Ireland and Hinrichsen Foundation  

Radical Polish Ansambl are presented at hcmf// as part of Across the North Sea in collaboration with Sacrum Profanum festival; supported by the Polish Cultural Institute 

Photo: Shovel Dance Collective © Brad Gilbert