The saxophonist Lubos Soukup who has been living in Copengahen for over 10 years now, has founded Machina Mundi with his friends from Rhythmic Music Conservatory. The Canadian double bassist Craig Earle, Swedish drummer Daniel Johansson and keyboardist William Larsson joined Lubos Soukup in order to create a new musical universe. Their eponymous debut album brings a collection of compositions by Luboš Soukup that have been very well received by audiences in concerts mostly in Denmark. Thanks to the rich variety of analogue synthesizers used the music evokes 70s ´ jazz-rock and draws inspiration from the legendary Weather Report. Based on solid rhythmic grooves, the universe of Machina Mundi features, elegant melodies, exciting solos as well as improvised musical landscapes inviting listeners to experience imaginary film-like sceneries. The present album introduces Lubos Soukup ´s extraordinary creative talent in a new band set up and sound.

Double bassist Jaromír Honzák, one of the key figures on the Czech jazz scene and the recipient of five Andel Awards for the best jazz album of the year, many of whose projects have been the pride of the Animal Music catalogue, releases a new studio album, “Twenties”. The recording features regular members of Honzák’s band, all eminent Czech jazzmen: David Doružka (guitar), Vít Krištan (keyboards), Luboš Soukup (saxophone, clarinet, flute), and Martin Novák (drums and percussions). “Twenties is the third album recorded with the same line-up; with musicians who have known me for quite some time and who can understand me. The intention (perhaps I should say intuition) here has been to give vent to the various influences and impulses I’ve encountered on my musical journey, including the more recent ones, such as my fascination with medieval music and early polyphony, and earlier ones based on my relationship with electric jazz, fusion, and pop music. At the same time I felt the urge to somewhat lighten and quieten my music, so instead of intricate metre you get simple melodic lines, instead of carefully composed passages there is free improvisation. Yet, this is no revolution; merely another step in a life-long quest for my music. None of this would be possible without my band and colleagues who turned my often rather vague ideas into beautiful sounds. The overall sound of the album owes a lot to Vít Krištan’s incredibly refined sense of the keyboards and electronic effects,” says Jaromír Honzák of the new album.

Dunaj, the legendary band of the alternative Brno scene of the 1990s release their first album in 26 years, titled “Za vodou” (Beyond Water). The busy career of the band, studded with six albums throughout the final decade of the last century, came to a halt after the passing of the singer Jirí Kolšovský. And although the other three members of the band never disappeared from the scene and were active in other projects and formations, they only came back together as “Dunaj” in 2019. Having met on the set of a documentary about the band, “Dunaj of the Mind”, they decided it was time to start playing together again. The role of the lead vocalist has been filled by guitarist and bass guitarist Vladimír Václavek who has in the meantime released a number of solo albums and become member of Iva Bittová’s band Cikori. The trio of musicians – Vladimír Václavek, Josef Ostranský, and Pavel Koudelka – invited electronic producer Aid Kid to collaborate with them on this new recording, together with producer Petr Ostrouchov. Representatives of the next musical generation, Kid and Ostrouchov have collaborated on the highly acclaimed album “Reka” (River) by Lenka Dusilová. The new album brings ten new songs by Dunaj. Two of these had been recorded by Kolšovský, though they were never published in his lifetime, and he could thus join his colleagues on this new release. A distinguished guest on the album is Iva Bittová whose voice features in five of the songs. Bittová collaborated with the band on two previous legendary albums (“Dunaj a Iva Bittová”, 1989; “Pustit musíš”, 1995) and appeared at many joint performances.

Just as have The Survivors survived a falling light ramp at their concert, so do they strive to survive situations that current life puts in their way. Inspired by music that has already passed the test of time in domestic waters as well as in countries such as Brazil or Ghana, The Survivors create their own musical mix through their use of grooving rhythms and transformed children's melodies and tunes. Their debut album Children and Parents is marked by fresh parenting of two members of the band as well as the recent covid era, when it was not possible to spend time otherwise than in a family circle. The record was created over three days in the autumn 2020 at the legendary Sono Records studio. The content of the album is influenced by the aesthetics of czech song writers like Radek Pastrnák, Ivan Mládek or Jan Werich, so that both children and parents can enjoy listening to it in the car or at home. The band plays in the following line up: Jirí Slavík (vocals, guitar, tenor saxophone, piano, keyboards), Jirí Levícek (keyboards, clarinet, vocals), Jakub Tengler (drums, vocals).

Earthy blues and soul jazz. The bandleader, saxophonist Radek Zapadlo (Vilém Spilka Quartet, Cotatcha Orchestra, Ondrej Ruml, Matej Benko, etc.) founded the quartet in 2017, inspired by the legendary recordings "Back at the Chicken Shack" and "Midnight Special" by the great "Hammond" player Jimmy Smith. Since then, the quartet has moved towards its own original music in the aesthetics of those recordings and styles. All members of the band, even the traditionalist Radek Zapadlo, a well-known jazz conservative, forced themselves to write compositions for this band. Therefore we will have a unique opportunity to hear Zapadlo´s future hits Dog´s Blues, Fried Egg or Blues for Magda. Surprisingly early, the band has made it to their debut eponymous album, which was born in pain in the infamous studio Jalovec in Babice nad Svitavou. Radek Zapadlo, playing tenor and alto saxophone in Four in Blue, surrounded himself with equally experienced players so that the band's line up can pay respect to Smith's original recordings - Petr Turecek (a rising jazz star from the Department of Jazz at the JAMU Brno) on drums, Vladan Ronner (Mulligang, Milan Kašuba Trio etc.) on Hammond organ and Vilém Spilka (Vilém Spilka Quartet etc.) on guitar. The band's current repertoire is dominated by originals penned by all band members. You can check out the core of it on this release.

To celebrate their twenty years together, the cult multi-genre band Vertigo come with their new studio album – their sixth release with Animal Music. Vertigo is the recipient of three Andel Awards for the best jazz album of the year and three nominations for the same prize. On the Czech music scene, Vertigo have established themselves as those who never cease to surprise and who keep coming up with new forms, contents, and sound with each new recording. The band’s individual members are all renowned musicians whose solo projects have met with high acclaim (Dorota Barová, Vojtech Procházka) and who are members of many other excellent formations (Muff, Tara Fuki, Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet, Freetown Quartet, Martin Brunner Band, Cikori, and others). The new album, titled NOTHING, brings complex and extensive, but also minimalist compositions in which different styles and moods interlace with one another in a compact whole, marked by Vertigo’s typical poetics, grace, and intensity. An attentive listener will be rewarded with many unexpected and witty moments and turns, but also the certainty that this is Vertigo in their best. Most of the pieces are by saxophonist Marcel Bárta, two were composed by pianist Vojtech Procházka, and one is from bass guitarist Rastislav Uhrík. The album was recorded on July 2022 at the Sono Records’ studio ‘Doupe’ and in collaboration with sound master Milan Cimfe. In November 2022, Vertigo will perform the program in London’s illustrious Pizza Express jazz club where they were invited on the basis of their triumph in the Central European Jazz Showcase in 2021.

Saxophonist Luboš Soukup together with his long-term musical partner, German pianist Christian Pabst, have recorded a new album released on the Czech label Animal Music. The duo mostly play their own repertoire and their artistic goal is to maintain a meaningful musical dialogue. By way of improvisation and their free approach to the compositions, they achieve a uniquely powerful style of interpretation. Levitas draws on jazz, but also dips into folklore and classical music for inspiration. The two musicians met in Denmark almost 10 years ago when they both lived in Copenhagen, studying at the Danish National Academy of Music. Already their first collaboration showed how well they got along, as musicians and personalities. Since then, they have given a number of concerts in Demark, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and Slovakia. Levitas is their third joint album, preceded by Through the Mirror from 2013 and Zeme (Earth) from 2017, which was recorded together with the renowned guitarist Lionel Loueke as guest.

The new album of the world-renowned horn player Radek Baborák, released on Animal Music, brings compositions by three romantic authors in arrangements for the French horn and string quartet. These include Radek Baborák and Alexei Aslamas’s arrangement of Brahms’s legendary Quintet in G major, Op. 111, two shorter pieces by Alexander Glazunov (Idylle and Serenade No. 2), and a Quintet in G minor, “Käyrätorvi” (French horn in Finnish), which was created by Baborák by extending the original score of Jean Sibelius’s famous String Trio. This album by Baborák Ensemble – Radek Baborák (French horn), Milan Al-Ashhab and Martina Bacová (violin), Karel Untermüller (viola), and Hana Baboráková (cello) – features the world premiere recording of the works by Brahms and Sibelius.

The new album of singer Markéta Foukalová and pianist Martin Brunner (Svou chvíli - "A While of One's Own") features a live recording of a performance that took place on 10 February 2022 in the DOX+ in Prague. The project, entitled “Jazz Poetry”, included a world premiere of Brunner’s cycle based on poems by Vera Koubová, commissioned by the Prague Symphony Orchestra that also accompanied the performance under the baton of Marko Ivanovic. Alongside the two protagonists, the performance featured Vít Krištan on Fender Rhodes. The present recording is the second live recording of a performance within the concert cycle New Horizons, which combines jazz and symphonic music, released from Animal Music in collaboration with the Czech Radio.

If Svou chvíli is Brunner’s first composition for a large symphonic orchestra, he has been composing music for classical chamber ensembles (Duo Teres, Trio Clavio) and recorded an album featuring jazz trio and the Epoque Quartet (Morning Walks, 2013). Alongside these activities, he has been dedicating himself to his own jazz-rock formation, Martin Brunner Band (Levels of Life, 2019), and has been one of the core authors associated with the jazz big band, Concept Art Orchestra.

Three years after her solo, award-winning debut “Iluzja” (Andel Award), Dorota Barová releases her second album, also on Animal Music. Alongside her solo career, the singer and cellist has been known as member of the Tara Fuki duo, jazz band Vertigo, diverse projects authored by members of Korben Dallas and Tugriki, and has been a core member of Aneta Langerová’s band. DOTYK (Touch) brings a collection of new songs and lyrics authored by Barová, which she recorded in trio with guitarist Miroslav Chyška (member of Illustratosphere, J.A.R. and Sexy Dancers) and bass guitarist Miloš Klápšte (known for his collaboration with Aneta Langerová, MarZ, Janoušek-Wroblewski Quartet, Beata Hlavenková). The entire album is sung in Polish, the singer’s chosen language. Besides her own lyrics, she has also included musicalizations of a poem by Polish poet Krzystof Kamil Baczynski and one text has been provided by Polish author and journalist Teresa Drozda. The intimate atmosphere and ingenious simpleness of the new album are remindful of some of the core qualities of the preceding “Iluzja”.

Najponk is a jazz pianist who has focused his whole career on careful performance of the classics in jazz repertoire. For this album, Najpon has invited bassist George Mraz and drummer Matt Fishwick. This grouping of fantastic performances of pieces from Najponk's favorite standards also contains pieces by Thelonious Monk, Ron Carter, and original compositions by Najponk.

In the year of the centenary of Ástor Piazzolla’s birth, an album comprising some of the renowned composer’s best-known compositions in the style of the Argentine tango is released by the conductor and phenomenal horn player Radek Baborák. The album’s release on 11 March 2021 marks what would have been Piazzolla’s one hundredth birthday. Coincidentally, Radek Baborák, who has completed his pioneering journey as an arranger of Piazzolla’s work with this album, celebrates his birthday on the same day. The album has been recorded in collaboration with Radek Baborák Orquestrina, an ensemble composed of foremost soloists and chamber players. Its variable line-up is adjusted according to the needs of individual projects which mostly consist of tailor-made arrangements of music originally composed for other instruments. Baborák’s wish to extend the repertoire for the French horn through such arrangements eventually brought him to Ástor Piazzolla. In collaboration with the arranger Tomáš Ille and having received consultations from the famous violinist Fernando Suárez Paz who had been member of Piazzolla’s acclaimed Quinteto for ten years, Baborák introduced his first, original arrangements of Piazzolla’s music in 2014, on the debut album of his ensemble. In 2019 he dedicated an entire eponymous album to Piazzolla, also recorded by Orquestrina. The characteristic sound of tango, provided by the bandoneon, is produced in Baborák’s arrangements by the French horn, bass clarinet, violin and piano. Together with his colleagues, Baborák has expanded the catalogue of sounds and sound effects available for the performance of Piazzolla’s music, including rapping on the French horn, slaps performed on bass clarinet, prepared piano, glissandos, imitation of the sound of cicadas, sirens and others. Performing Piazzola’s music, the members of Orquestrina often incorporate improvised cadenzas, fixed improvisations and make free with Piazzolla’s typical ornamentation.

Just one year after the release of her last album Unravel (2020), preceded by her debut, Inner Place, nominated for an Andel Award in 2019, the pianist and composer Nikol Bóková comes with her third album. The line-up in this recording is like the author’s dream come true. Her colleagues are the world-renowned French-horn player Radek Baborák, guitarist David Doružka, double-bass player Jaromír Honzák and drummer Michal Wierzgon, who are all important representatives of two musical worlds – jazz and classical music – which Nikol has been originally and sensitively combining in her work. The material of the album draws on personal experience. The title alludes to Greek mythology but the individual compositions evoke moments shared with a loved person whose passing immediately preceded the project. Music is used to paint scenes and images, conjure up emotions and provide glimpses of memories. It contains strong melodic material and its dynamism issues from alternating tempos which are typical features of the author’s work. The musical worlds and the sound of the individual instruments on this album mingle naturally, even intuitively in this album which was recorded over the space of just two days, without any preliminary rehearsals.

Just one year after the release of her last album Unravel (2020), preceded by her debut, Inner Place, nominated for an Andel Award in 2019, the pianist and composer Nikol Bóková comes with her third album. The line-up in this recording is like the author’s dream come true. Her colleagues are the world-renowned French-horn player Radek Baborák, guitarist David Doružka, double-bass player Jaromír Honzák and drummer Michal Wierzgon, who are all important representatives of two musical worlds – jazz and classical music – which Nikol has been originally and sensitively combining in her work. The material of the album draws on personal experience. The title alludes to Greek mythology but the individual compositions evoke moments shared with a loved person whose passing immediately preceded the project. Music is used to paint scenes and images, conjure up emotions and provide glimpses of memories. It contains strong melodic material and its dynamism issues from alternating tempos which are typical features of the author’s work. The musical worlds and the sound of the individual instruments on this album mingle naturally, even intuitively in this album which was recorded over the space of just two days, without any preliminary rehearsals.

On the jazz scene, pianist and composer Nikol Bóková is last year’s major discovery. Her first album, “Inner Places”, with which the artist ventured out of her familiar milieu of classical music interpretation, brought her a nomination for the Andel Award for the best jazz album of 2019. This year, Bóková comes with a new project in which she innovatively combines masterful interpretation of demanding classical piano repertoire (Rachmaninov, Ravel, Novák, Korngold and others) with her own pieces inspired by various classical composers, such as, for example, “Unravel”, dedicated to Maurice Ravel. Bóková is accompanied by her trio partners, Michal Wierzgon on the double bass and Martin Kocián on the drums. Bóková, whose masterful performance and classical training are crowned with her compositional genius, is one of the greatest Czech musical talents of recent years.