Documentalist, sociologist, academic teacher.
Anew
Makeshift
DC
Zersetzung
A Mountain
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Documentalist, sociologist, academic teacher.
Anew
Makeshift
DC
Zersetzung
A Mountain
Home
Commissioned & Commercial
Sound
Bio/CV
Blog
Together with Michał Turowski we form a band called Mazut, and then a trio called Mazutti with Macio Moretti. I record and play solo, currently as Optimal, and earlier as Industry Standard or Centralia. I do other projects and sound instalations.
Mazut is an industrial duo.
bandcamp
Mazut is a musical project of Michał Turowski and Paweł Starzec, originating from the punk/industrial scene. The band gradually moved from experiments and second-hand toy instruments towards noise-based danceable music. Collectors of strange samples and tapes from flea markets, proponents of acid basslines. They have released several albums on various labels and played over a hundred concerts, some of them far from home. Dirty, simple and primitive music.
Discography:
Dirt Collector (Rope Worm, 2025)
Sarajevo (Positive Regression, 2021)
Promień (Positive Regression, 2019)
Atlas (BDTA, 2018)
#1.5 (Remastered / Self Released, 2017)
La Belle (BDTA, 2017)
Split with Emma Zunz (BDTA, 2016)
Eichwald (BDTA, 2016)
#1 (BDTA, 2015)
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Mazutti is an effect of collaboration between Mazut, an electronic noise/industrial/techno duo of Paweł Starzec and Michał Turowski, and Macio Moretti – one of the most renowned musicians of polish alternative and avantgarde.
An album, “Kształt Jazzu Który Ma Dojść” was recorded and released in joint collaboration of Lado ABC and Japan’s Sei No Kaiki Records, together with lathe cut 7” singles released by Don’t Sit On My Vinyl records – Dżungla Kwitu 7” with handmade artwork by Bolesław Chromry, and Lucky Me / Lucky You 7”, with otherwise unreleased tracks. A live tape was released in 2019 by Dreamland Syndicate. We also did a mini concert / live in studio video with Sad Sessions.
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I record and play live as a solo artist, mostly as Optimal, Industry Standard or Centralia.
soundcloud
Optimal
(2023-ongoing)
bandcamp
Optimal is a solo project, drawing on the aesthetics of jungle, breakcore and dark ambient textures.
Discography:
Stolen Rap Samples (digital mixtape, 2024)
Rolling Stock (CD, Rope Worm, 2024)
Optimal / 3 (digital EP, 2024)
Optimal / 2 (digital EP, 2023)
Optimal / 1 (digital EP, 2023)
Industry Standard
(2019-2021)
bandcamp
Industry Standard was an industrial techno project, focused on heavy and abrassive danceable sounds.
Discography:
Operator (digital release, Z.W.F., 2021)
Television (digital release, Z.W.F., 2021)
Mutual Aid (digital single, 2020)
Dominant Hand (digital release, Z.W.F., 2020)
Ideogram (digital single, 2020)
Industry Standard / Mirt (split tape, Positive Regression, 2019)
Centralia
(2015-2019)
Centralia was my first solo music output used to release music and play live. Utilising cheap analog sound generators, guitar pedals, toy synths, prepared guitar, tape machines and samplers, everything done under this alias connects under the same denominator of various forms of violence.
Discography:
Ghost Report (Positive Regression, 2019)
Lumbago (Positive Regression, 2018)
Schwarze Kanal (BDTA, 2017)
Prijedor (BDTA, 2016)
Discipline (BDTA, 2015)
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FUTURE FAKING, 2022
Future Faking is an digital EP by Canine Callgirls, a band/project of Łukasz Ciszak and Maciek Stankiewicz, who collaborate with different musicians on each release.
Recorded as an improvisation, mixed and mastered by Łukasz Ciszak. Cover utilises my photograph.
Łukasz Ciszak - bass
Maciek Stankiewicz - guitar, synths
Paweł Starzec - drums programming, synths
HUMANS ARE DEAD, WE ARE THE HUMANS NOW, 2021
A set of compositions created for an experimental theatre piece done by Michał Kmiecik in Komuna/Warszawa. Carried out as part of the KW Kultura residency program, the theme of which this season is "Hello Darkness My Old Friend". Swedish director Markus Öhrn was the curator of the year.
Created as an open-end set of compositions due to the focus on unscripted, performative aspect of the play. Selection from few hours of compositons created:
concept, direction, light direction: Michał Kmiecik
performance: Małgorzata Biela, Sebastian Grygo, Bartosz Ostrowski,
dramaturgical cooperation: Alina Sobotta
music: Paweł Starzec
dramaturgical consultation: Ida Ślęzak
scenography consultation: Szymon Szewczyk
sound production: Adam Jankowski
realization of lights: Piotr Szczygielski
BOSNIAN PIECE, 2020
A 45 minute piece designed for both seamless looping and possible random starting point, composed mainly of various secondary audio materials taken from recordings of Bosnian War – news coverage, amateur films, documentaries. Created as a part of Makeshift interactive piece done in cooperation with vnLab.
KIEŁPINY/WAWROWICE, 2020
A 21 minute piece designed for seamless looping, composed of various field recordings made in high season of 2020 in two small summer villages/resorts near Nowe Miasto Lubawskie. A part of group exhibition Nowe Ciepło: Gospodarstwa bez ziemi, organised by Fundacja Wybudowania and curated by Tytus Szabelski and Marcin Zalewski. Presented together with photographs taken in those two villages.
PING PONG AMPLIFIED, 2017
A soundart instalation/performance, curated by Konrad Smoleński and Ewa Borysiewicz as a part of Warsaw Gallery Weekend 2017, recorded live in Instytut Adama Mickiewicza in Warsaw on 22/09/2017. Together with Michał Turowski, we performed for few hours straight, taking the source signal from the amplified ping-pong table set in the middle of the room, free for the guests to play. We processed the sounds and used them as framework for improvised compositions. A digital album contains five excerpts.
STAAT / THEATRE MUSIC, 2017
Composition of ambient and drone music mixed with field recordings, microsamples and prepared electrical guitar, written and recorded especially for the performative reading of "Śmierć człowieka wiewiórki", a drama on RAF and Ulrike Meinhof, directed by Agata Koszulińska in The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw.
Excerpt:
THE FUNNY THING WITH DEAD PEOPLE IS THAT WHILE YOU’RE GETTING OLDER, THEY’RE ALWAYS THE SAME AGE, 2017
Documentation of a sound installation presented during Unigeo Festival 2017, mixed with source track. Field recordings, ambient layers and prepared guitar used in source piece were recorded in late summer of 2016, while I was coping with a sudden death of my close relative.
The room is narrow and completely dark, and there are two guitar amps set back to back in the middle. Ambient track, composed of cut-up field recordings and instrumental parts is being played on a loop from a cassette dictaphone through a guitar amp, then picked up by a microphone, processed through fx beyond recognition, and played through the second one, facing the entrance. One has to pass the wall of loud noise at the enterance to discover the true nature of the sound.
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