From Poland to a life built around music

Karol’s path into music stretches from growing up in Poland behind the Iron Curtain to rock, software engineering, startups, and eventually a decision to give music the same commitment he had previously given technology and business.

“I was born in Poland while it was still behind the Iron Curtain, in a very different world from the one I live in now.

“My father was a chess grandmaster, so I grew up around someone who spent an extraordinary amount of time thinking in patterns, structures and possibilities. I've sometimes wondered whether some of that found its way into me musically. Sequencers, repeating structures and small variations inside larger systems feel extremely natural to me.

“Music has been in my head for as long as I can remember. Literally. I have ADHD, and there is almost always something playing or singing in my head. It might be a melody, a rhythm, a fragment of something, or sometimes almost an entire arrangement developing while I'm doing something completely unrelated.

“That's probably both the blessing and the curse of how I work. I generate ideas much faster than I could ever finish them.”

Karol came into making music largely through guitar, rock, and progressive music, while also being fascinated by electronic music.

“Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Klaus Schulze and other artists seemed able to create entire worlds from sound.”

Professionally, however, his life went in a very different direction for quite a long time.