@Artsfols:
Nope, none Polish background at all. Living in Slovakia though, these two countries share border and I can understand Polish language very well. Also folklore and many traditions in Slovakia and Poland are very similar.
Very interesting. One of the songs sounded very Russian, and it is familiar because we quite a bit of Russian folk influence through composers such as Shostakovich and Khatchaturian. For Polish presence, Chopin is all consuming, and I'm not well acquainted with the folk influence of this area.
I'm wondering now if Lutoslawski had some Polish folk influence in his music, which I quite enjoy.
I do listen to quite a bit of European music, but more in the Dutch and German area which I can understand somewhat. Then further south from you, getting into Hungary and Romania, there's also a strong folk presence which influenced Brahms and more recently Enescu.
Roby Lakotos, does the prototypical "Roma" style quite well. He gets that extra touch of melancholy into the music - not sure how that works. Lots of great youtube videos with his own group, or like this one. (It's more delightful the further it goes, stay with it ...)