If poetry is a lost art, Lenka Lichtenberg’s latest album is a welcome reminder that what is lost can also be found. In 2016, the Czech-Canadian Jewish singer-songwriter was in her native Prague, sorting through the belongings of her mother, who had just passed away; opening a drawer she discovered two worn notebooks filled with poems her grandmother, Anna Hana Friesová (1901-1987) … More Lenka Lichtenberg: Thieves of Dreams
Like a grand journey to distant lands, Barbora Xu’s debut album Olin Ennen (I Was) is an exploration of affinities and contrasts: In her delicate-resonant voice, the Czech-born artist sings ancient Finnish and Chinese poems, for which she composes original music and accompanies herself on zithers—Finnish kantele, Chinese guzheng and guqin. Though the album’s cross-cultural view is modern, the juxtaposed elements give her songs a timeless … More Barbora Xu: Olin Ennen
Virtually all Western music comes from the same 12-note scale, so maybe it shouldn’t be remarkable that Tara Fuki— Dorota Barová and Andrea Konstankiewicz—accomplishes so much with two voices and two cellos. Across 20 years and six albums, however, fans and critics alike have expressed amazement and delight at their versatility. On Motyle (Butterflies) they are as agile as ever, blending classical, jazz and Central European folk-pop strains, and … More Tara Fuki: Motyle
In the enchanting voices of the Czech quartet BraAgas, the sovereigns of sky and water serve as messengers, bearing wise counsel, ill tidings, memory and witness to lovers young and old. On O ptácích a rybách (About Birds and Fishes), the four women—Kateřina Göttlichová, Michala Hrbková, Karla Braunová and Michaela Krbcová—mine traditional Bohemian and Moravian sources for their sixth album, which soars on their stirring harmonies and … More BraAgas: O ptácích a rybách
They are local and global, gifted artists who sing and play traditional Moravian songs together but with individual experience in diverse worlds—violinist Šuranská in the classical and folk realms; mandolinist Martin Krajíček in klezmer and Mexican music; and multi-instrumentalist Marian Friedl in jazz and theater. Divé Husy (Wild Geese) is a grand collection of proverbial wisdom that puts songs about humanity’s essentials—love, loss, freedom … More Jitka Šuranská Trio: Divé Husy
In the 1980’s, before he had released a single record, Jaromír Nohavica was named one of the top 10 Czech artists in a national poll, but the Communist regime panned his lyrics and prevented him from performing at a festival. He ultimately became one of his country’s most celebrated musicians, a folksinger-lyricist-composer who, aside from his own songs, translated works by Russian and Polish artists, plus two Mozart operas, into Czech. His … More Jaromír Nohavica: Kometa – The Best of Nohavica
There’s mystery and tension between the title of Aneta Langerová’s fourth album Na Radosti (On Joy) and its brooding, nostalgic tone. Mixing a pop sensibility with folkloric tropes and narratives, Langerová—one of the leading Czech singer-songwriters—uses her hypnotic and ravishing voice to evoke timeless Bohemian forests and meadows and tell elemental stories, reflected in titles like Bride, Virgin, Wild Flocks, Ease and Words from the Mountains. Tráva (Grass) is a dreamlike … More Aneta Langerová: Na Radosti
