Izrael was formed in march 1983 in Warsaw. The driving force behind the band were two people, already well known in polish music underground: Robert Brylewski (Kryzys, Brygada Kryzys) and Paweł 'Kelner' Rozwadowski (Deuter).
"Izrael was the consequence of slow burn out of Brygada Kryzys," - remembers Robert. "Last rehearsals of Brygada took place with just three people: Kelner, Tomek Lipiński and me. No one else stayed so long (laugh). It was about the end of '82, hard times. All this mutated into Aurora. In the place of vocals we had this recordings of police conversations from radiocars and we played music to it. Once Tomek put down his guitar and said, that he had enough, that he wanted to resign, and that was it. At that period I spent a lot of time with Vivian,Kelner,Milo Curtis, Tomek Switalski & Jarek Gruszka and I think that was more or less the beginning of Izrael."
Soon Izrael played their first gig in one of Warsaw clubs - 'Hybrydy' and for a long time they were connected with this place.
As Tomek recalls - "It was simply our fluke, that we found this place. 'Hybrydy' was managed by Sławek 'Gąsior' Rogowski, and around him formed then in 'Hybrydy' some kind of music scene, what quickly evolved into 'Róbrege Festival'".
The first song 'Idą ludzie Babilonu' was recorded the same year and get some attention from public. The band career took off, and soon they played Jarocin and some other shows under the banner of 'God's music in Babylon'. Around the same time their long awaited material for the first lp was recorded ("Biada, biada"), but haven't seen the daylight for the next several months.
In 1986 they toured across Poland, supporting legend of reggae - 'Misty in Roots', and shortly afterwards Kelner decided to leave the band, but very soon he was replaced by Darek 'Maleo' Majelonek (of Kultura fame), and with Maleo on board band recorded second album 'Nabij faję'.
"There's too much bass on this record," - says Robert. "But we hadn't got any recording experience. Vocals on it lacking of our concert spontaneity and rapture, but all in all it was the sign of our new direction. Stopa started to show his talent, and slowly we begun to introduce our new rule: who's talented and feels like he can do it - can join us."
Maleo, "A month or so before we spent playing kongas for living. It was our primary rhytmic school. And the other people, who played guitar or keyboards, started to transmigrate their streetplaying experiences into their band playing."
"Then we started to obtain some instrument specializations. When someone from outside came to us he was surprised," - Robers recalls. "It was like para-jazz. That's where our co-operation with Wojtek Konikieiwicz, Alek Korecki or Włodek Kiniorski come from. Jazz people accepted us, but it was a bit strange when for example I saw the interview with Tomasz Stańko, who were praising us, and journalists stay mute in our topic."
And Izrael members couldn't settle. As Tomek remembers, "It was the period of strong people rotation in Izrael. Almost 100 people came and go during this period. This is quite a lot. It got more or less stabilised in the 1989, before our tour across Czechoslovakia."
Robert, Maleo i Vivian made the core of the formation called "Izrael-Kultura", which played music of both bands. This core were joined by drummer Piotr 'Stopa' Żyżelewicz (Kultura, Moskwa) and bassist Alik Dziki ( kultura, armia, wild ad ). In 1986 they contributed the song "Wolność" to the legendary compilation 'Fala" and the same year album "Nabij faję" was released, with appearances of Sławek 'dżu dżu' Wróblewski and Piotr 'Sam O'hutt' Subotkiewicz, who stayed with the band till the end of that year.
In 1987 the first part of 'Duchowa Rewolucja' was released, with contribution from Krzysztof 'Banan' Banasik (Armia, Kult), Paweł Szanajca (Kult) and Tomasz Budzyński (Armia). In 1989 during the foray into Czechoslovakia Izrael finally stabilised: Robert, Maleo, Vivian, Stopa i Dżu Dżu (who replaced bassist Alek Dziki).
"We came to the Czechoslovakia with quite a revolutionary program: 'equal rights', 'fee nation', 'no one's born with no reason' and so on," - Robert recalls. "Our lyrics were well received by Czech people. It was 1989, the big political changes were around the corner. We witnessed extraordinary scenes, like soldiers treading their own hats. I think this were first professional shows by Izrael. We had a full control on what we were doing onstage. Our band clicked into place where was supposed to be. Really unbelieveable... and it seems to me as a specific preludium to our British Tour. New face of Izrael."
Shortly after this tour band was joined by muli-instumentalist Włodek Kiniorski. As Maleo recalls: "He got into Izrael just like some kind of a meteor, and from the beginning devastated us. Some time were supposed to pass before he got the idea of our riff-kind of playing music. He's individual and music he's done before reflected his character, his solo parts. In Izrael he must have became the part of bigger organism. At the beginning there were problems with it. He tried to play his every instrument at once - and he had a lot of it: ocarinas, saxophones, flutes... He had a problem with coming back to the phrase which he started with. Sometimes it was quite funny.... But all in all he's an excellent musician and swiftly reconciled his improvisations with the character of our music. He put a freshen up our music, put into it a lot of energy, and so called 'joy of playing'. And his - as he called it - 'propositions' were always incredible."
In 1990 band left for England to give there some gigs, which were organised by their long time friend Marcin Miller. But most of all they travelled to England to record new material in famous Mad Proffesor's 'Ariwa Studios'. Among the many places they played in Marquee, Kingshead and Lamelight. As the effect of this foray came album called '1991'. One of the most indescribable polish records.
Robert: "Material was prepared especially for our english gigs. Band have started without me, but I join them to play keyboards in 'Monopol'. And this gave this album such sound, such third dimension, such background. Our next discovery, our little treasure (laugh). Of course the help of Derrick Fevriere come here into account. He took care of our studio in London, although we had only three days for recordings. It's only because of his skills and quality of studio's equipment that we finished there almost everything, and in Warsaw we just add some relish to this recordings. The sound of this record is the contribution of Derrick, who as our sound engineer excellently controlled our work in the studio. He sucked from the songs what was only possible. This music appealed to everyone, but people like it because of the sound, and that's Derrick's credit. At first he realised demo versions in the garage of the place we lived in, and then we entered the studio and finished everything in only three 12-hours sessions."
After return to Poland Izrael played quite a lot (Krakow, Bialystok, Warsaw, Oswiecim, Jarocin'93, Odjazdy'94). In 1994 they released as well concert album "Live'93" recorded during shows in Kraków and Białystok, and this album showed the atmosphere of Izrael gigs. Group were very warm received by fans and started work on new material when suddenly in 1995 announced their break.
Robert: "We just finished activity. It all came from my feelings. I had no reasons to continue this story, which already was told. Izrael wasn't mean to take the market, to sell records. Izreael had its role in that specific times, and that specific country. Continuation of this story could've only harm band's reputation."
The last farewell showcase were supposed to take place in "Remont" (Warsaw, 15.05.95), but unfortunately was cancelled because of security services aggression. In 1997 Robert Brylewski's "Gold Rock Studio" released the album "Izrael in dub" with dubbed versions of Izrael songs made by Robert.
Right now the whole discography of Izrael is reissued by label "W Moich Oczach", and some of the Izrael songs you can hear live at the gigs of "Swiat Czarownic", the group which is one of the new projects of Robert.

translation > konrad kozlowski (kentra747@hotmail.com)