I was riding an elevator in my Berlin block of flats, when I looked at the manufacturer’s label and saw the production year: 1977. We are the same age, this retro-futurist, wave-shaped building and I. And I was born in a block just like this one, but in Warsaw – it also looked like a Star Wars spaceship.

When the Jelonki neighbourhood was built, our 12th floor flat overlooked cabbage fields stretching all the way to the horizon on one side, and the tapering silhouette of the Palace of Culture, Warsaw’s iconic example of socialist realism. Since early childhood, my sonic sensibilities were shaped by the drawn-out howls of the Nowotka Factory sirens – 6am sharp every day – and the rattle of passing trains. Later, the symphony of sounds was expanded by a mysterious gurgling in the pipes and the growling of lawnmowers outside. No wonder my heart was so easily won by the synth melodies I heard on the radio. The late 70s and early 80s marked the dawn of electro-pop and new romantic genres in music; space-like sounds were also permeating radio and television jingles. Urban landscapes, blocks of flats and early electronics became the genetic code of a generation.