Nasiono: Planting a seed in Gdansk
Published August, 2010
by Easterndaze
Gdansk is a city imbued with a strange vibe for an Eastern European city. It doesn’t possess any of the typical “Ostblok” architecture in the centre, rather it’s a typical “Hansa stadt” in the vein of German or Dutch city ports. Gdansk is also the birthplace of Poland’s anti-communist movement Solidarity, who had their opulent 30th anniversary celebrations while we stayed here (interestingly, these days Solidarity is cut away from the alternative scene, investing huge amounts of money in mainstream culture, as I’m later told). In terms of music, it has a fertile ground in the form of the yass movement – a mixture of punk and jazz coupled by eerie industrial milieu.
Nasiono, a record label composed of acts who all know each other and collaborate on a friendly basis whose objective is to promote alternative sounds of Poland’s Tricity area (Gdansk, Sopot, Gdynia). Its predecesor was the Salut Records (2005-2008), while its roots date back to 1998. Its roster is sonically varied – from postrock of KarolSchwarz, to Datadisk’s more straightforward electronics,
Datadisk – Aceton Girl by easterndaze
to Asia i Koty’s singer/songwriter stuff, to Prawatt’s analogue escapades,
to the noise courtesy of Szelest Spadajacych Papierkow who rocked this year’s Off Festival.
While talking to Nasiono’s core-member and artist Borys Kossakowski on a windy day in Gdansk’s tourist-infested old-town center, I’m easily infected with Nasiono’s ethos.
Borys Kossakowski – Waking Up by easterndaze
The artists who release here even pay for all the manufacturing costs of their record and even though they could easily do it without a label, they remain faithful to Nasiono.