Raphael Roginski and Milkweed in session

Verity Sharp shares the sounds of our latest exclusive collaboration session, in which folk duo Milkweed met the guitarist Raphael Roginski.

Drawing on the historical landscape and roots music of Eastern Europe, as well as on blues, jazz and primitive guitar from America, the Polish guitarist, composer and musicologist Raphael Roginski is known for the intimacy and mysticism of his sound. Reinterpreting the works of John Coltrane and Bach on solo guitar, Roginski has gathered a reputation for his capacity to imaginatively travel through established musical forms to arrive at something totally new. His work has deep roots in Poland’s Jewish culture, a heritage he explores through the work of two of his bands, Shofar and Cukunft, while his recent album, Žaltys, explores Lithuanian folklore and nature.

Raphael is joined in session by the UK-based duo Milkweed. Moulded by a fascination with myth, legend and folklore, they arrive with freshly-made field recordings, tape players, a one hundred-year old banjo and pockets full of found instruments (including an elderly conker and a single bell). Their recent album Folklore 1979, recorded with a healthy dose of cassette fuzz, sets words from an old ‘70s edition of The Folklore Society's journal to the sounds of glitchy banjo and gentle drum-skin hits. These anonymous artists are musicians committed to invention and originality.

Elsewhere in the show, swarms of cello and violin from Berlin-based Max Andrzejewski, working with the 18-strong European Ensemble Resonanz; plus new music inspired by living in “a country that feels like a living ruin” from British jazz artist Elliot Galvin, with Ruth Goller on bass and Sebastian Rochford on drums; and there’s low frequency, vibrational noise courtesy of two Italian collaborators, Domiziano Maselli and Tommaso Rolando.

Produced by Cat Gough
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3

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