Gabriela Kulka
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Gabriela Kulka (Gaba Kulka, born 1979 in Warsaw, Poland) is an independent artist, a songwriter and performer. Gabriela Kulka was born to a family of musicians, her father Konstanty Kulka is well known Polish violinist and a professor at Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw.
Over seven years of writing and recording, Gabriela Kulka developed the singular style of dark musical theatre mixed with a jazzy attitude, and a focus on poetic and quirky lyrics - influenced by Danny Elfman and Kate Bush on equal part. Drawing from classical music, jazz and pop, accompanying herself on the piano, she has been performing in the oddest of places (including luxury liner ships along the coasts of Latin America and South Africa, the National Philharmonic House in Warsaw and beer gardens around the shady side of town... not necessarily in that exact order). Following in her father's, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka's footsteps, she endured 8 years of classical schooling in violin, but still ended up embracing the piano as a weapon of choice in her songwriting and performing activities.
Gabriela has recorded two full-length albums: Gabriela Kulka - Between Miss Scylla and a Hard Place (2003), available in CD-R format, and her most recent: Gabriela Kulka - Out (2006) a full-colour, professionally pressed affair. (Aside from these, there were private compilations of earlier demos called "Demo(n)/aka/King of Rats" and a compilation of covers called "Songs for Wolf", containing pieces by the likes of Björk, Ozzy Osbourne, Neil Diamond, Stevie Nicks and The Church). With these, she has gathered a modest but very devoted following, both at home and abroad.
Artists she names as her closest inspirations are, firstly and undeniably - Kate Bush and Tori Amos, but also Peter Gabriel, Kurt Weill, Danny Elfman, the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, Queen, ABBA, Bruce Dickinson & Iron Maiden, whose songs she performs live.
