Music Profile | All stories

The north-eastern city of Ostrava, with its mining, iron and steel industry, was once known as the steel heart of the Czech Republic. But it has also long been home to a lively arts scene. The band Buty is one of the most original as well as most popular groups from the region.

The Czech folk singer Karel Kryl is the subject of this edition of Music Profile. His well-known debut album “Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka” was published six months after the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia which crushed the Prague Spring in 1968. A year later, he emigrated to Germany. He worked for Radio Free Europe in Munich, where he died in 1994. Kryl is considered one of the most important figures of the anti-communist movement.

The Czech singer and songwriter Karel Plíhal is the subject of this edition of Music Profile. Plíhal, who comes from the Moravian town of Přerov, released his eponymous debut in 1985 and has become one of the country’s leading folk artists.

The young Czech electronic band MIDI LIDI, currently on tour promoting their second album, “Hastrmans, Tatrmans & Bubáks”, have been around since 2006. They first made their mark a year later with their debut album “Čekání na robota”. Combining intelligent beats with different samples and minimalist lyrics, MIDI LIDI’s music radiates a certain warmth, joy and, dare I say, love. The whole experience is enhanced by original video art accompanying their performances which are drawing larger and larger crowds. Besides their albums, MIDI LIDI also gained

In 1977, a mailman, a math analyst and an actor got together to make some rather strange and wonderful music. Jablkoň, as they called the band, started off playing gigs in places around Prague that didn’t insist on specific genres. For as you’ll hear in today’s Music Profile, Jablkoň’s music rather defies easy explanation; a brand of distinctive folk blended with jazz, rock and more that’s often called world music. Except when it isn’t…

This month’s Music Profile features the Czech rock band Žlutý Pes— which translates as Yellow Dog. They have been one of the most successful and longest lasting features of the Czech musical scene.

This month's Music Profile will prove a treat for polyglots in particular. In this edition, we're taking a look at the back-catalogue of singer-songwriter, translator par excellence, and head of the Czech PEN club, Jiří Dědeček. For songs about postmodern romance, moneychangers, military secretaries, and the Czech town of Žatec, tune in to Music Profile.

Moravian folk music has long and rich traditions, and many artists work with its motifs in creating their own musical style. One of them is the “Walachian Bard” Vlasta Redl. He started his career in the mid 1980s in a band that was very well received, but eventually looked ever closer to the traditional Moravian music for inspiration.

Iva Bittová is a phenomenon in contemporary Czech music – the avant-garde violinist, singer and composer has developed a music style all her own, blending the music of many cultures into what she terms her "personal folk music“ and drawing deeply on her emotions and the sounds of nature. Her vocal utterances range from traditional singing to chirping, moaning, yelps and deep throat noises that keep audiences mesmerized. Her style is not easily defined but perhaps one of the most accurate comments made about her is that she brings the human voice

Few hard rock bands in the Czech Republic have enjoyed the commercial success of Kabát (The Coat), originally formed in 1983, a hard and heavy band that takes no prisoners.