Paula & Karol at City Sounds: Polish indie pop, personal songs and folk roots

City Sounds is delighted to invite you to a concert promoting the latest release by Polish indie-pop pioneers.

Paula & Karol will play on 25 October in the atmospheric Stary Klasztor music club, ul. Purkyniego 1.

Paula & Karol burst onto Poland's folk-pop scene five years ago, immediately earning a reputation as an eccentric pair. They sang in English, played instruments with rather less than virtuoso skill, and gave concerts in gardens and on pavements. They quickly became pioneers of Poland's growing indie-pop scene.

Paula, a half-Polish, half-Canadian academic sociologist, and Karol, a Warsaw musician, met and were making music before they knew it, first as a duo, then with musician friends. The band now comprises Christoph Graf Von Thun Und Hohenstein on keyboards, Staszek Wróbel on drums, Krzysiek Pożarowski on bass and Szymon Najder on electric guitar. They helped Paula and Karol move from romantic folk towards pop-rock, giving their music greater depth and richness.

In recent years, Paula and Karol have performed in Poland, touring with Polish pop star Brodka; in the Netherlands at Eurosonic; in Ukraine and France; in the UK, with a tour and an appearance at The Great Escape; and in the United States and Canada at SXSW and Canadian Music Week. They also regularly perform in Germany, including at Reeperbahn Festival, where Paula now lives.

Has anything changed through all these years of playing together?

Let Paula and Karol speak: “We write music together, talk about life and try to make our songs as personal as possible. For several years, we've been playing and touring with the same group of people, who have become close friends. They have a very strong influence on what we do and how we perceive music.”

After a short break, the band is preparing to release its third studio album, “Heartwash”.

The new songs were recorded in Warsaw under the guidance of celebrated Grammy-nominated Washington producer Ryan Hadlock, with the necessary funds raised through a crowdfunding campaign on Polakpotrafi.pl. The new material is steeped in the joyful, often psychedelic energy characteristic of Paula and Karol’s live performances, while also bearing the imprint of musicians who joined the band recently. The songwriters have nevertheless remained true to their pop style, filling the album with songs about honesty, love, loss and hardship. The title word Heartwash was coined by the musicians to mean “the process of washing away negative experiences that prevent us from taking the next step, from moving forward”.