The second album of the collection "Zdenek Liska Archives" brings music from Frantisek Vlacil's films Fire on Potato Fields (1976) and The Legend of the Silver Fir (1973). Both recordings come from Liska's private audio-tape archive. These are the only two examples of the extensive collaboration of Zdenek Liska with Frantisek Vlacil that have been found in his archive. However, they mark a new trajectory in Vlacil's filmmaking, echoed in the Liska's approach to the film score. Film critic Petr Gajdosik, author of the album's liner notes, says: "If, up until then, Vlacil had mostly been focusing on historical material and stories from a distant past, he now worked with motifs and emotions gleaned from the present moment, and asks as pay close attention to his characters' inner experience. This development has it's parallel in Liska's scores. Compared to their previous collaborations, these are more limited in scale and free of any ambition to create meaning, while at the same time they correspond with the dramatic and visual conception of the films and induce contemplation."

Petr Ostrouchov's music from the film zelary (2003) is being released for the first time as a purely musical soundtrack without dialogues, in a newly mixed and arranged version. The film, directed by Ondrej Trojan, won two Czech Lions (Czech and Television Academy Award) and a number of nominations, including the most prestigious one - an Oscar nomination for the best foreign language film. Although almost 22 years have passed since it's release and the composer had been considering the idea of ?releasing the score on vinyl for some time, the final impetus for the album's release was this year's departure of the legendary film conductor Mario Klemens, who had participated in number of film soundtracks and who also conducted the orchestra during the recording of the music for the film zelary; the album is dedicated to his memory. Petr Ostrouchov received his first (out of eight) nomination for the Czech Lion award and the award for best music from the festival in Karachi, Pakistan. "zelary was only the second feature film with my music and a very important one for me. As a beginner and amateur, I composed and arranged music for the orchestra and had the opportunity to work with conductor Mario Klemens. Moreover, the film resonated very well, it received an Oscar nomination, I received my first nomination for the Czech Lion Award and Viera Langerova brought me the award for best music from the festival in Karachi, Pakistan, where I "beat" Alexandre Desplat and John Williams in my category, both these facts seemed absurd to me. The soundtrack was released on CD 22 years ago, the music was interwoven with dialogues from the film, as was usual back then, and the CD has long since been unavailable. The idea of ?releasing the music from zelary in newly mixed versions and in a different way has matured for many years, the film has certainly not been forgotten, on the contrary, it still has it's audiences and the "music from zelary" has opened many doors for me. I compiled the recordings into a more or less fluid flow of music, without dialogues, with only a few folk songs of great female ensemble from the Beskid Mountains called Grunik," says Petr Ostrouchov about the album's release.

In 2025, PMP is proud to release Trillium X, a sixth opera by Anthony Braxton, on the occasion of his 80th Birthday. A limited deluxe 8-CD box set including both, a live recording of the world premiere in Prague, a studio recording realized at the famous Darmstadt Summer Course, a 6-hour of exclusive audio-visual materials documented a complete world premiere, documentary film In the Garden of Trillium X, and in-depth conversation between Anthony Braxton, Swiss conductor Roland Dahinden and German writer and Braxton's scholar Timo Hoyer. Braxton spent five years working on his opus magnum. He has been significantly involved in all Trillium performances, including this one. He has accompanied the rehearsals from the very beginning. However, the leading man in charge was Roland Dahinden, his long-time fellow from Wesleyan University. Dahinden and incredible PMP Orchestra represent the ongoing generational change in creative music. "X is a dream-logical world unto itself, a place to get lost in for a handful of hours, like Wagner, but strictly according to Braxton-ian rules of order and exploration." - Josef Woodard, DownBeat, 5-stars

String Serenades by Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) and Josef Suk (1874-1935) have become a stable part of the repertoire of Czech chamber string orchestras, providing them with an opportunity to prove their performing mastery, and are very popular with the listeners. This album is a re-edition of the recordings by the Czech Chamber Orchestra from 1994 (Dvorak) and 2000 (Suk) that were released in 2001 by WALDMANN label. Along with it's re-release on CD by Animal Music it is now being released also on streaming platforms for the first time. "In their pieces, Dvorak and Suk both drew on the older form of classical serenade, a kind of musical diversion in the best sense of the word, a form that reached the peak of it's popularity a century earlier as it was performed for the entertainment of the musicians and their music-loving audiences alike," says the musicologist Vaclav Holecek in the album's liner notes. This recording was made at a time when the Czech Chamber Orchestra performed under the leadership of the conductor, violinist and composer Ondrej Kukal (b. 1964). During his tenure, the orchestra was experiencing it's heyday. Interpretatively and dramaturgically, he followed the principles of the orchestra's founder, Vaclav Talich, who founded the orchestra in 1945 with some of his best students from the Prague Conservatory. Thanks to it's rigorous rehearsal routine and precise as well as enthusiastic approach to performance, the orchestra soon won a renown on the Czechoslovak stages and abroad, and collaborated, under Talich's baton, with foremost international soloists, including Pierre Fournier, Germaine Leroux, and others. The initial phase of the orchestra's promising career came to an end in 1948, when the Czechoslovak Communist regime banned Vaclav Talich from performing in public. In 1958, Josef Vlach (1923-1988), the first violin of the original Czech Chamber Orchestra and Talich's student and collaborator decided to revive his teacher's initiative. Under Vlach's leadership, the ensemble appeared on stages in Czechoslovakia, across Europe, Asia and America, and was a regular guest at prestigious festivals, including the Prague Spring Festival and the Salzburg Festival. Collaborations with soloists included Henry Szeryng, Yehudi Menuhin, Leonid Kogan, Ivan Moravec, and Josef Suk, to name just a few. After Josef Vlach's demise, the Czech Chamber Orchestra performed on irregular basis for some time. Nevertheless, the new first violin, Vlach's daughter, violinist Jana Vlachova took over the artistic leadership of the orchestra and also followed in the steps of her father and Vaclav Talich before him. Vlachova invited artists of her own generation into collaboration, among them the conductor, violinist and composer Ondrej Kukal (b. 1964) who became the orchestra's next leader. Under his leadership between 1993 and 2003, the Czech Chamber Orchestra maintained a regular concert calendar once again. After Ondrej Kukal gradually curtailed his conducting career due to a serious illness (he currently dedicates himself fully to composition), the conductor Andreas Sebastian Weiser collaborated with the orchestra. Today, the Czech Chamber Orchestra performs on special occasions only.

Vladimir Misik is back with a new album, Vteriny, mesice a roky (Moments, Months and Years). The album is Misik's third collaboration with the producer Petr Ostrouchov and follows the prize-winning projects, Jednou te potkam (Once, I Will Meet You; 2019) and Nocni obraz (Night Image; 2021). The album is comprised of fifteen new songs, with lyrics by Vladimir Misik and Michael zantovsk�, songs based on poems by Jan Skacel, Jiri Dedecek and Frantisek Gellner, and one text tailored directly for Misik by Tomas Belko, a one-time fellow band-member of Ostrouchov in Sto zvirat. In the studio, Misik surrounded himself by ten musicians, with the Blue Shadows quartet at the core, which also performed on the previous recordings, featuring Josef stepanek and Petr Ostrouchov on the guitar, Matej Belko on the bass guitar and Martin Novak on the drums. The other players include pianist Jan Steinsdorfer and Hammond organist Ondrej Pivec (now living in the USA), who both were involved on the album Nocni obraz as well, guitarist Lukas Martinek, double bassist Tomas Liska and two special international guests - the Cuban-American percussionist Michito Sanchez and the British performer on the pedal steel guitar B.J. Cole - who both have featured in projects of illustrious colleagues such as Sting, Rolling Stones, Elton John, Depeche Mode, Crosby, Stills and Nash, James Taylor, David Gilmour, R.E.M., Bjork, Stevie Wonder, and others. The album is released on CD and as a 2LP and includes a comprehensive booklet with studio session photos and the lyrics.

Trobairitz (female troubadours) is a cycle of songs for women's choir and ensemble, written by the contemporary Czech composer and pianist Michal Nejtek for the Tiburtina Ensemble based on the texts of medieval troubadours who lived and composed at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries in Occitania. Barbora Kabatkova, the artistic director of the Tiburtina Ensemble, encountered the troubadours' poetry years ago while working on another project. The hitherto unknown world of female poets fascinated her and inspired her to study further, and after receiving an offer from the director of the Prague Spring festival to premiere a new full-length work with her ensemble, she did not hesitate to revive the forgotten world of female troubadours. In the short historical period of the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, women in the area of ?today's southern France enjoyed an unprecedented freedom and rights, and it is from the period of 1180 and 1230 that most of the poems of medieval troubadours survive. Although they were most likely originally set to music, as was the custom at the time, troubadour poems survive without music, with one exception. On this recording, they therefore appear in a new, contemporary musical form and offer the listener the opportunity to look into the world of medieval female poets, into the feelings, wishes and desires that they express in their texts, albeit tender and warm, often more directly and concretely than men. Four poems are sung on the recording in Occitan and four in Czech translation. The Tiburtina Ensemble is accompanied by leading period instrument players of international renown - Marco Ambrosini (nyckelharp), Margit ubellacker (dulcimer) and Catalina Vicens (organetto), and one of the most sought-after Czech drummers, Martin Novak. The 50-minute long work premiered in 2022 at the Prague Spring Festival and is being released in it's world premiere on this recording.

Vladimir Misik is back with a new album, Vteriny, mesice a roky (Moments, Months and Years). The album is Misik's third collaboration with the producer Petr Ostrouchov and follows the prize-winning projects, Jednou te potkam (Once, I Will Meet You; 2019) and Nocni obraz (Night Image; 2021). The album is comprised of fifteen new songs, with lyrics by Vladimir Misik and Michael zantovsk�, songs based on poems by Jan Skacel, Jiri Dedecek and Frantisek Gellner, and one text tailored directly for Misik by Tomas Belko, a one-time fellow band-member of Ostrouchov in Sto zvirat. In the studio, Misik surrounded himself by ten musicians, with the Blue Shadows quartet at the core, which also performed on the previous recordings, featuring Josef stepanek and Petr Ostrouchov on the guitar, Matej Belko on the bass guitar and Martin Novak on the drums. The other players include pianist Jan Steinsdorfer and Hammond organist Ondrej Pivec (now living in the USA), who both were involved on the album Nocni obraz as well, guitarist Lukas Martinek, double bassist Tomas Liska and two special international guests - the Cuban-American percussionist Michito Sanchez and the British performer on the pedal steel guitar B.J. Cole - who both have featured in projects of illustrious colleagues such as Sting, Rolling Stones, Elton John, Depeche Mode, Crosby, Stills and Nash, James Taylor, David Gilmour, R.E.M., Bjork, Stevie Wonder, and others. The album is released on CD and as a 2LP and includes a comprehensive booklet with studio session photos and the lyrics.

The jazz quartet 2in2out was founded by saxophonist Nela Dusova and guitarist Jan Lacina, who are also the authors of the band's modern jazz repertoire. The duo invited drummer Adam Sikora and now also Slovak double bassist Peter Korman. In recent years, 2in2out has managed to develop from an originally student project into one of the most interesting Czech jazz acts. In 2024, the quartet will release it's debut album, Living Stories. The album was created in collaboration with long-time bandmates, double bassist Klara Pudlakova and drummer Adam Sikora. Living Stories presents a view of the world through the eyes of two jazz artists and authors with different aesthetic approaches, yet united in their musical narrative. "What I appreciate most about 2in2out's compositions are the original ideas, interesting formal solutions and also the overlapping of content, which is far from always commonplace in modern jazz today, and I would dare to say that it is often lacking." David Doruzka, leading Czech guitarist and pedagogue

Czech trumpeter Jiri Kotaca and Swedish pianist Alf Carlsson release a new album with their band, featuring nine of their own original compositions. Besides being firmly rooted in the tradition of modern jazz, the album, entitled Our Stories, draws on various other styles by which the individual players swear, including jazz rock, modern mainstream, pop, and Scandinavian lyricism. Alf Carlsson and Jiri Kotaca, both respected musical personalities, first met in Rotterdam and then during Alf's visit to the Czech Republic, which eventually turned into a short common tour and later into a proper band as the two leaders were joined by two of the most sought-after jazz Slovak musicians of the youngest generation - double bassist and bass guitarist Peter Korman and drummer Kristian Kuruc. The band has been performing in this line up ever since. The new album, which is published five years after their critically acclaimed debut Journeys, will be introduced on a tour including Czechia, Slovakia and other countries. Eager listeners can get a tasting of the album and listen in advance to Alf �s piece Alf �s Groove, which is now being released on all digital platforms, and to Relief by Jiri Kotaca, which will be available as of 10 May.

The new album of double bassist and composer Jaromir Honzak is a live recording of an eight-part suite for jazz quintet and orchestra performed by the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra and Honzak's all-stars Czech jazz quintet, composed of David Doruzka (guitar), Lubos Soukup (saxophone, clarinet), Vit Kristan (piano, rhodes), Martin Novak (drums, percussion). The suite was performed within the concert series of the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra "New Horizons" which combines jazz and symphonic music. The suite entitled "Blues of a String Hanging in the Wind" was written by Jaromir Honzak and based on the composition of the same name, which he created back in 2008 for a string and jazz quartet on the occasion of a special Jazz concert at the Rudolfinum. A year later, it appeared on Honzak's studio album "Little Things" (Animal Music, 2009). Tomas S�kora, pianist, composer, arranger and curator of the New Horizons programme, was in charge of the arrangements for the orchestra. Jaromir Honzak says about the piece: "I have never been drawn to a large cast in music before, I have always been a type of chamber musician. So here I said to myself that I will try to think as "chamberly" as possible when working for a symphony orchestra. As usual, I first decided to learn from listening to similar works, or even to study some scores, but in the end my usual routine prevailed, based rather on my intuition. Our subsequent cooperation with Tomas was very efficient and pleasant. Tomas was great not only as an unusually skilled and fast orchestrator, but also as an empathetic and helpful assistant." Jaromir Honzak gave the individual parts suitable names that are meant to help the listeners grasp the music. The atmosphere and storytelling of the album, which arises when listening to the music, is also evoked by the artwork of the Japanese artist Kotone Utsunomiya, which she created specifically for this album. The author of the graphic design is Andrea Vacovska from Studio Najbrt.

In September 2023, PMP is proud to release Anthony Braxton's "Four Compositions (Wesleyan) 2013", a limited deluxe 4-CD box set documenting the one-time meeting of an all-star trio featuring the legendary saxophonist and composer alongside Roland Dahinden (trombone), and Hildegard Kleeb (piano). This is the first album of the new Czech label PMP. Art Lange describes the impetus for the session in the liner notes: The 4 CD set box Four Compositions (Wesleyan) 2013 is built on the latest evolutional stage of Anthony Braxton's lifelong conceptualization and personalization of notation called Falling River Music. Braxton's systematic approach balances methodology and mythology, utilizing a variety of graphic designs as symbolic and representational characterizations of his sound vision. The scores incorporate numerical and alphabetical equations, abstract diagrams, and sections of conventional notation, along with spontaneously conceived, painted gestures connected to a web-like pattern of shorthand. In this album, Braxton explores the concept of "aesthetic networking "by having three musicians play from different scores simultaneously, creating a unique blend of impressions. The collaborative efforts of Roland Dahinden (trombone) and Hildegard Kleeb (piano) bring an intimate awareness of Braxton's language types and transformational procedures, resulting in rotating voicings, morphing tonalities, and labyrinthine counterpoint. Braxton's characteristic reed colors and personal lyricism are also showcased, along with occasional electronic elements, to enhance the overall sonic experience.

Zdenek Liska Archives is a project aimed at releasing a sequence of vinyl records featuring a selection of original recordings of film music by this important Czech composer, from his personal audio-tape archive. The first album of the collection contains music from three short films by Jan svankmajer from 1966 to 1977 - Don sajn (Don Juan), Leonarduv denik (Leonardo's Diary) and zvahlav aneb saticky Slameneho Huberta (Jabberwocky). Out of a total of ten short films by svankmajer, which Zdenek Liska provided music for, the recordings of these three films have been preserved in his home archive. In the album's booklet, Jan svankmajer highlights Liska's brilliant film-composing skills: "What was amazing about Liska's music was that, unlike most other composers, he didn't attempt to go with the mood of the film and milk the emotions but listened to the rhythm of the movie itself. Especially in an animated film, this helped to greatly enhance the sense of the picture's pace and drama. He was able to discover rhythms in films that even their authors weren't aware of." The album is released in the year of Jan svankmajer's 90th birthday. The work of this exceptional surrealist artist is represented by a retrospective exhibition presenting works by Jan and Eva svankmajer in the Central Bohemian Region Gallery or a program section dedicated to his film work in the Dafilms online cinema.

The legendary husband-and-wife duo-Irena and Vojtech Havlovistarted to work togetherin the mid-80s andsince the very beginning have hada very unorthodox approach to bothhistorical and modern compositional techniques and interpretative procedures. Graduallythey created their typically unclassifiable, multi-layered sound and stylethat is howevereasily discernableand appreciated by audienceseven far beyond the bordersofthe CzechRepublic. Their music is poetic, meditativeand inspired by non-Europeanculturesas well asminimalism. They recorded and released several very original CDs which earned themacclaim both at home and abroad. They have been appearing in concert across the CzechRepublic, Europe, Canada, the USA as well as Africa and Japan, thanksto the collaborationwith avant-garde artists Petr Nikl and Jana Svobodova. Irena dna Vojtech Havlovi are alsowriting music forshort and featurefilms, documentariesand theatre (film Little Crusader byVaclav Kadrnka was awarded by the Czech Film and TVAcademy for the best film score). Intheir music, they are using various musical instruments-cello, piano, viola da gamba, bells, tibetian bowls and others. On their newalbumFour Handsthey bringnew compositions for4 hand piano and organ. The album �s release will be accompanied by several videos andtouring in the Czech Republic and abroad.

The unique musical formation Hlaskontrabas Oktet, consisting of four female singers and fourdouble bassists, releases a new "Nordic" album called Kaleidoscapes. The album, which wasrecorded last summer in Iceland and then in the fall at Sono Records studios in the Czech Republic, takes the listener on a musical journey through landscapes that are mysterious, fragile, wild and beautifully melancholic. The nine compositions have been written directlyfor Hlaskontrabas by leading contemporary composers from Norway (Mats Eilertsen, Nilsokland), Iceland (Ragnheidur Grondal and Gudmundur Petursson, Petur Thor Benediktsson), Israel (Adam Ben Ezra) and the Czech Republic (Petr Wajsar, Beata Hlavenkova). Ridina Ahmedova and Petr Tichy, the founders of the band, also contributed each by one piece to thealbum. Ridina says about the recording: "Often you record one instrument at a time, but wechose the path of playing together, live. This way the record gives the listener the right 'live' feeling." Hlaskontrabas Oktet was formed in 2019 as an extension of the original duo project foundedby Czech vocalist, composer and performer Ridina Ahmedova and double bassist and composer Petr Tichy. At the very beginning of the idea to expand the duo to four voices and four double basses was the idea to use live musicians instead of a looper, which Ridina and Petr used to layer tracks over each other in concerts, and to bring their own musical soul to the songs. But it turned out that writing pieces directly for the octet offered the opportunity to arrange and think musically in a completely different way. And the octet soon started to live on it's own. A vibrant, unique and inspiring life. The song Funkle, which was released as the first single, was also accompanied by a documentary video from the octet �s journey to Iceland. The second single, which will be released on April 12, is the track Mysterious Ride by Israeli double bassist Adam Ben Ezra.

On her new album; trumpetist and composer Štepánka Balcarová; the recipient of the Andel Award for the best jazz album of 2022; delves deep into human emotions. She quotes her recent experience of becoming a mother as her main source of inspiration: “Certain emotions receive a totally new dimension with motherhood. I used to think I knew what it meant to be angry or indignant; for example; and was able to rationalize such emotions; draw relevant consequences and thus come to term with them. With children; however; one often finds oneself in situations that don’t allow for such distancing. This immediacy affects both negative and positive emotions. I’ve come to see them in an entirely new light.” In the eight compositions comprised in her new album; Štepánka represents eight basic human emotions; as they have been defined by American psychologist Robert Plutchik: joy; trust; fear; surprise; sadness; disgust; anger and anticipation. A concert programme based on the concept of Emotions was premiered in 2022. Štepánka Balcarová recorded the album with a Czech-Polish quartet featuring Nikola Kolodziejczyk (piano); Jaromír Honzák (double bass) and Grzegorz Maslowski (drums). The same line-up also collaborated with her on the album Life and Hapiness of Julian Tuwim (Animal Music 2017) and the live album Štestí (Happiness; Radioservis 2022) which includes orchestral versions of the repertoire for which Štepánka Balcarová received the Andel Award.