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APPLE VALLEY, MINN. – The music album “Rest Assured” is new, fresh and original, but its soul is timeless and based on the enduring work of others.
It was recorded by Julida and Sean Alter, a husband-and-wife duo who perform a dreamy, jazzy, folksy brand of pop/rock under the name JulyDa. The work is, in a way, a concept album. Most of the songs, written and sung by Julida, are based on poetry that is decades old and in the public domain. Julida and Sean will perform an album release concert at 8 p.m. Friday at the Hook & Ladder Theater and Lounge in Minneapolis.
The couple live in Minnesota, but the work has roots in central Wisconsin. Julida, 28, a 2009 graduate of Stevens Point Area Senior High, is the daughter of Anna and Boleslaw Kochanowski, a renowned blacksmith/artist who was selected to design and build sculptures at Stevens Point’s northside entry roundabout. Julida grew up the youngest of six children, raised on a farm just north of Junction City.
Their upbringing cultivated an appreciation not only for old-world Polish artisan traditions — blacksmithing and metal working, drawing and painting, music and cooking — but also nurtured independent and original artistic thinking. And it all plays a role in “Rest Assured.”
“I grew up observing the atypical to be successful: My father’s blacksmithing as a profitable and fulfilling career,” Julida said in an email detailing the release of the album. “Another family pull is the old tied with the new. Just like my father, I’m very intrigued with how old traditions can be used in our modern day.”
It was, in many ways, a traditional upbringing. The boys were taught the skills of a blacksmith. The girls were steeped in cooking, pisanki (a traditional Polish form of egg painting) and music. All those skills, and more, became part of their lives. Julida’s older brother, August Kochanowski, became a fashion model while he was a high school student and appeared on runways across the world. He’s now a fine-art metal sculptor. Julida’s sister, Annella Platta, creates beautiful and intricate pisanki eggs.
Julida and Annella and their spouses also formed a folk singing group called The Blacksmith’s Daughters, a Minneapolis-based group formed in 2015. They still perform, but have scaled back as their time has crunched.
Which is why Julida, an English language teacher, and Sean, a financial adviser, formed JulyDa. They can work together on their music at their own pace. They produce the albums in a home recording studio. And JulyDa has its own distinct sound, less folk, more rock.
Julida has been interested in poetry, both reading it and writing it, since she was a little kid. She was encouraged to delve into the art form by teachers and her parents. “I’m one of those people who actually read poetry for fun,” she said in a phone interview.
Through the years, she found when she was reading old poetry, some 100 and 200 years old, she was astounded at how modern it all could be, how relevant. “When it’s about emotions, or nature, it seems even more true,” Julida said.
She found herself wondering if she could take these poems and “keep the poet’s intent, but make it my own.”
Julida found inspiration in the lesser-known works of poems by writers such as William Blake, Ezra Pound and Henrietta Cordelia Ray.
The title track from “Rest Assured” is spun directly off a poem by Native American poet Alexander Posey called “Assured.”
The poem’s message is one of hope, despite the chaos and uncertainty of life. That takes on special meaning, Julida said, as she and Sean prepare for their first child, a son due in late October.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday; doors open at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: The Hook & Ladder Theater and Lounge, 3010 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis
TICKETS: $10 in advance and $15 at the door; purchase at https://rest-assured.eventbrite.com
ALSO PERFORMING: Jonathan Tauschek, impressionist composer, pianist and McPhail Center for Music faculty member; singer/songwriter Lacey Guck; and poet Shawn Pavey.
MORE INFO:https://www.facebook.com/events/307551386703521
RELATED:How a family of blacksmiths is changing Wisconsin’s landscape
RELATED:Junction City natives bring their music home as Blacksmith’s Daughters
Contact Keith Uhlig at 715-845-0651 or kuhlig@gannett.com. Follow him at @UhligK on Twitter and Instagram or on Facebook.
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