Mehehe is an ethno ambient duo created by two artists, Helena and Basia, who are descendants of wise women called Szeptuchy (Whisperers).
HELENA MATUSZEWSKA
złóbcoki, kashgar, spindles, looper, whispers, spells, singing
A multiinstrumentalist, composer. She specializes in playing the knee fiddles and the fingernail technique of playing. She is adept at various music genres – from classical to popular or ethno. On a permanent basis she plays with bands: Naneli Lale, Same Suki, InFidelis duo, Zarysy. She is a holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage grant.
She is fascinated with mixing and crossing different music cultures from all over the world. Besides that, she writes poems and song lyrics, creates costumes for theatre pieces and jewellery, paints, dances, read a lot and is a vegetarian.
She comes from Polish region Spisz.
Basia Songin
wolf bass, kankles, drumla, spindles, whispers, spells, singing
A singer, musician, storyteller and choreographer. She is a member of music groups: Sutari and UMAI; also co-creater of many music and theater projects. As a FURU collective and Sutari, she creates her own physical, dance theater and music performances. She used to work as a performer with OPT Gardzienice and neTTheatre company.
She's leading original workshops of physical theater and natural singing based on traditional tune and songs.
She comes from Poland but her family has polish, lithuanian and ukrainian roots what makes her soul rich and full of music.
And yes, she's vegetarian too :)
OUR INSPIRATIONS
We explore the roots of Polish village music and folk magic tradition, trying to raise the spirit of the tradition of rural rituals and spells that survive in rhymes, tales and folk songs. All that stories we collect from old ethnographic books or during ethnographic research and meetings with old people living in the countryside who still remember these traditions. The same mysterious force of nature, incomprehensible, terrifying and enormous, which once motivated people to create cults, spells and protective behaviors, becomes an inspiration for our musical searches, creating sounds, creating an atmosphere.
In our compositions, we try to recall this fleeting moment, when the approaching storm causes fear and tells us to hide somewhere safe, when the morning fog awakens a delight that cannot be described in words. It is the language of things hidden in gray, which are not talked about in the light of day, and which can be embarrassing or disturbing even at night. This is a huge part of traditions almost each society. What we believe, what we fear, what we dream about is recorded in everyday life rituals, in art we create, in stories we tell, in songs we sing, like mother’s spells hidden in lullabies, like the hope hidden in lovers' love songs or in health rituals. We work with archetypes, myths and tales. Name of our band „mehehe” is connected with one of the oldest spells - laughing. People used to laugh to take fear away, to make thing less terrible.
HOW DO WE WORK
Using looper, acoustic folk instruments, spindles, leaves, whispers, screams and singing, we create music that takes listeners to a mysterious and dying world of folk magic. We do not trying create rituals on stage. We are music storytellers and our concerts are more like a musical show that takes viewers on a journey to the old, hidden, sometimes forgotten world.
In our composition we based on trance character of polish folk dance music, rythm of speaking words, meandering structure of folk melodies and interpretations of nature sounds through our instruments and voices.
THE STORY OF OUR BAND
Mehehe was debuted in the spring of 2018 as the one of the winners the most important ethno music festival in Poland where we received the third prize for "thoughtful stage creation, intimacy and fairy tale". They original compositions found its way onto the debut album CIEMNIENIE / DARKENING (AAUU Records, March 2019). Our album got 3rd prize in The Best Polish World Music Album of 2019 competition. In 2020 we were invited to participate in the Keychange project - a pioneering international initiative supporting women music.
Our band perform both in Poland and internationally, on the big stages during the most important music festivals like Ethno Port Poznań, World Music Festival in Bratislava, Globaltica, on small stages in clubs like ALICE cph in Copenhagen, but also in unusual venue like old cemetery during the Hide&Seek Festival in Brussels in 2020, old synagog during Wertep Festival 2020 in small town in Poland and sometimes we also play in the forest or by the river.
We also create music for audiobooks, theater, movies and leading wild voice workshops.