Niemen
Ode To Venus

Czeslaw Juliusz Wydrzycki, known as Niemen. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a Gentleman singer. An artist who made his mark primarily in his homeland, Poland, but not only there. A singer who in 1967 scandalized his nation with his "Hippie" attitude & clothing along with his most famous song "Dziwny Jest Ten Swiat" ("Strange is This World"), which stirred much controversy for its rebellious and protest style lyrics but earned him even a gold record. An eclectic artist who transitioned from beat to rock-blues and then to prog and later to electronic music. Noteworthy is his appearance at the Cantagiro of 1969.

After this brief "presentation," I move on to the album I've decided to dedicate these lines to. "Ode To Venus" (1973) is the second album that Czeslaw releases in English, and it's also the second in which he ventures into prog, after "Strange is This World", which as the title suggests, is a new version of his most representative song. The album I'm discussing also features songs previously sung in Polish, rearranged and translated into English. 

Niemen is accompanied by an excellent band: the musicians' work is truly commendable. The sound is at times aggressive and sometimes really powerful, acid, virtuosic, and frenzied as in the beginnings of "What Have I Done" and "What a Beautiful Woman You Are". But of course, it's Niemen who steals the show. His voice evokes emotion, his singing is tormented, his screams seem choked. This haunting voice cradles us through dark pathways starting from "Ode To Venus", which features in the middle a sing-spoken section with an organ in the background that gives a sense of unease, then moves on to the emotional "Puppets", which also offers us rays of light; it then takes us into the crazy "From the First Major Discoveries" which at a certain point takes a purely hard-rock turn before transforming and changing "mood": I particularly like the final part where Niemen sings for about 30 seconds accompanied only by drums and percussion, and then launches into a guitar solo accompanied by the screams of Czeslaw Juliusz. He remains the protagonist in the following songs for the pathos and the energy he expresses and transmits with his singing: worthy of particular mention is "A Pilgrim": percussion and Middle Eastern singing that make you travel through deserts and unknown and mysterious lands, while the last "Rock For Mack" is an instrumental rock'roll that has nothing to do with the rest of the work.

Niemen passed away in 2004 at the age of 65, leaving us some gems like this album and "Strange is This World" which are sung in English. Personally, I've not ventured to listen to his works in Polish, but you never know...