The Fryderyk is the most important annual Polish music award for the modern Polish popular music industry. It’s presented in April, and is comparable to the American Grammy award. The Fryderyk was officially created in 1994 by the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry (Związek Producentów Audio-Video, ZPAV). Presented for the first time in 1995, […]

Aya RL is a Polish electronica/psychedelic rock group founded in 1983 in Jarocin, at a music festival. The already-established Polish-Russian soloist Igor Czerniawski (drums, keyboard, vocals) met the members of the band Hook, composed of Paweł Kukiz (percussion, vocals) and Jarek (Jarosław) Lach (guitar), and they formed a trio, originally under the name Aya Red […]

Bajm is a classic Polish rock band that was founded in 1978. The original members were Beata Kozidrak (the founder and vocalist, and the only member who has stayed throughout the band’s history), Andrzej Pietras, Jarosław Kozidrak, and Marek Winiarski, with Andrzej Koziara and Andrew Gradkiewicz joining soon after. The band’s name comes from the […]

Jacek Kaczmarski is a legendary Polish singer-songwriter, poet, and writer. He is famous for both his art and his political activities, a combination that has made him a celebrated Polish figure among academics—his work and life has been much studied—readers, music fans, and many others. Kaczmarski was born in Warsaw in 1957 to a Polish-Jewish […]

Mieczysław Szcześniak is a highly prolific Polish singer and songwriter. A trained jazz musician, he has explored a large variety of popular music styles throughout his almost 30-year career on the Polish music scene. From singing standard pop ballads to mixing Caribbean rhythms with Slavic folk harmonies, Szcześniak has garnered wide critical acclaim in his native Poland […]

Janek Samołyk is a singer-songwriter from Wrocław, Poland. He’s worked as a solo artist since 2008, singing in both English and his native Polish. His compositions tend to be heavily influenced by ’60s-era British folk and pop and modern indie rock. Although a relatively young artist, Samołyk has recorded three full-length albums to date, achieved critical […]

Republika was an influential Polish rock back originally from Torun. Founded in 1978 by Jann Castor vel Wieslaw Rucsinski as Res Publica (Rzecz Pospolita), the band faced censorship from the start from the Polish communist government and changed their name to Republika. Kris Caputa, currently residing in Vancouver, British Columbia, came up with the band’s name […]

Armia is a popular Polish punk band that also incorporates elements of hard-core, gothic rock, reggae metal, symphonic rock, and jazz into their style. It’s been an important band for the Polish scene since the 1980s, and vocalist Thomas Budzyński has been the main consistent member since that time. Always holding a controversial place in the Polish alternative […]

KSU is a seminal Polish punk rock band, originally formed in 1978 in the city of Ustrzyki Dolne. (The name KSU comes from the city code on license plates from the Ustrzyki Dolne area.) The group has been going strong for more than thirty years, with eleven official albums and a slew of pirated and bootlegged […]