Romańczuk, Paweł
Born in 1975, musician and composer. Since 2006, he has embarked on a quest for atypical sound sources. Founder of the Wrocław-based group Small Instruments, within which he develops his own artistic ideas. He has authored music for over 20 films and theatre shows, publishing his work on 14 LPs, SPs, CDs, and DVDs in Poland, Japan, and France, playing over 300 concerts throughout Europe and Asia. To date, he has gathered a unique collection of over 600 atypical musical instruments, which he uses for his concerts, recordings, and publications.
He has cooperated notably with Rafał Augustyn, Chris Baldwin, Pierre Bastien, Sebastian Buczek, Joanna Bronisławska, Paweł Czepułkowski, Cezary Duchnowski, Paweł Hendrich, Sławomir Kupczak, Piotr Kurek, Margaret Leng Tan, Svitlana Nianio, Robert Niziński, Paul Preuser, Mateusz Rybicki, Jacek Sotomski, Ghedalia Tazartes, Mariusz Wilczyński, Andrzej Załęski, Evan Ziporyn, and Jean-Marc Zelwer. He also works with ensembles such as Cinema Teather, Transfuzja (Bauer, Duchnowski, Orzechowski), Księżyc, In-Between (Cezary Duchnowski and Kostas Georgakopulos), and Za Siódmą Górą.
He has appeared at many of the leading music and film festivals throughout Poland (including Warsaw Autumn, Musica Polonica Nova, Festival of Tradition and Avant-Garde “Codas,” World Music Days, Industriada, Animator, New Horizons) as well as international events including the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Davos Festival, and SchulzFest Brno. He coauthored the programme of Wrocław’s European Culture Capital in 2016. He builds his own instruments, sounding structures, and sound installations. As a researcher, he pursues instruments lore, their history and structure. In 2010, he authored the first history of the toy piano; in 2013, he wrote the manual Home Experimentation with Musical Instruments, published jointly with the Small Instruments ensemble album Samoróbka, dedicated to education in DYI experimentation with musical instruments. With a workshop of 20 participants, he has prepared a collection of works for the Gruppo di Costruzione record, his second project with the PozyTywka Foundation.
He runs workshops, presentations, lectures, and authors exhibitions dedicated to musical instruments and sound experimentation. He has performed over 100 workshops in Poland and abroad, including at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. He is also active as an educator with disabled people. In 2017, he was awarded the Mayor of Wrocław’s Medal for his contribution to local culture. He has received scholarships from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Mayor of Wrocław.
Selected works: Casio Concerto for three Casio SK keyboards and small instruments (2015), Cannonballs for small instruments and quotations from Polish war movies (2015), Inops Ventilex for reed organ, mouth organ and marimba (2015), Three Layers for rotary triangles and electronic conversions (2017), Voice of Balland for instruments and objects, for the Kwadrofonik ensemble (2021), Harmonie spirale, concert installation for a set of 20 mechanical reed objects, mouth organ and gramophone (2020), Duos, concert installation for six prepared mechanical string duos (2019–21), Internal Visit, concert installation for six mechanical sound objects and daxophone (2020–22).
Discography: Antonisz (2009), Małe Instrumenty grają Chopina (2010), Moich 8 słów (2011), Chemia i Fizyka (2011), Katarynka (2012),Samoróbka (2013), Kartacz (2013), Faces of Non-Existent Town (2014), Walce w Walce (2015), Awakening (2016), Carp’s Head (with Ghedalia Tazartes and Andrzej Załęski; 2016), Gruppo di Costruzzione (2017), Tango (2018), Art Impossible (2019).