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
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 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
