Cudowne Lata

Cudowne Lata is the band of a pair of girls in love, Ani and Amina, who have two albums to their credit: “Kółko i krzyżyk” (2019, released on Thin Man Records and Three Sixes) and “Zabrałaś dziewczynę chłopakom” (2022, digital release, their own). They have performed in independent clubs all over Poland, played on the Triple Stage at the Off Festival 2019 in Katowice, and at the Pohoda festival in the Slovakian town of Trenczyn in the summer of 2021. They create music that can be lumped into the indie pop drawer. They themselves do not like to pigeonhole themselves into any field. They have numerous musical inspirations: from guitar alternative, through Polish jazz-pop from the 1970s and 1980s, to music from the Arab world (due to Amina’s Lebanese roots). They hosted a programme on Radio Capital called Ya Habibte, presenting music from the Arab world. After three years of performing as a duo with guitars and a sampler, they decided to expand the line-up to include bass (Nela Gzowska) and drums (Ola Gajkowska).

Mateusz Witkowski of Czas Kultury writes about the band’s latest release (no. 22/2022 of Odsłuchy Październikanika):

(…) You must know that we are dealing with one of the most interesting Polish bands. You may have known, but if the ladies’ work has escaped you so far, you don’t have to feel guilty: it’s not the first time in history that the most interesting thing is what’s not exposed much (…) On their debut “Kółku i krzyżyku”, Cudowne Lata showed how to sound fresh and retromanic at the same time. “Zabrałaś dziewczyna chłopakom” is a creative development of this formula: we can still find here echoes of Polishjazzed pop from the late 80s and early 90s, as well as a lot of three-revolutionary and yurksztovian (Anna Włodarczyk’s vocals are excellent as always! as evidenced by the excellent “Forgetting” with its break-beat percussion). This time, Amina Dargham’s legacy comes through more strongly – on the new longplay, the Middle Eastern theme is literally reflected both in the instrumental ‘Amar’ and in Dargham’s sung ‘Bise’, a lo-fi bossanova. And then there’s the twisted synth melody from ‘Dinosaurs and Aliens’, a quirky storytelling that reveals its true meaning to us over time (…)