Poland under communism experienced censorship and state control of the music industry, but never as fully as in the USSR. Protests and worker uprisings, sometimes at great cost to demonstrators, kept authorities wary and forced them to permit more cultural expression than elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc. Officials, for their part, justified their relative leniency […]

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 […]

Lao Che is a Polish rock band that plays a crossover of alternative rock, punk, ska, ambient, and folk. Lao Che was formed in 1999 by former members of the seminal Polish band Koli. The band’s popularity grew quickly after the release of their album Warsaw Uprising (Powstanie Warszkawskie), a concept album that was nominated for a […]

Maciej Maleńczuk is a Polish singer and songwriter who has been active in a wide variety of bands in many different styles—rock, jazz, dance pop—since the 1980s. Maleńczuk grew up in Wojcieszów, Poland, where he attended a sports school and was apparently a far from stellar student. He spent more time listening to American rock […]

Bad Dogs (Złe Psy) is a Polish rock band that’s been around since 1999. The name apparently refers to American pit bulls, for which Andrzej Nowak, its founder, has a certain fondness. Nowak also sings vocals and plays guitar in the band TSA. TSA, Nowak’s first major project, is a hard rock/heavy metal band that […]

Kazik (Kazimierz) Staszewski is a Polish singer, songwriter, and occasional saxophonist best known for his participation in the long-running rock band Kult. He has performed and recorded with other bands as well, and also has a successful solo career. Kazik hails from Warsaw. He has been a staple of the Polish music scene since the […]