Sunday Music Show | All stories

It’s a double-feature in the latest edition of the Sunday Music Show, featuring two of the most dynamic newer bands on the Czech music scene: Gipsy.cz and Toxique. Tune in for interviews and plenty of music.

In today’s edition of our Sunday Music Show, we listen to music by the legendary Czechoslovak folk singer Karel Kryl. He became one of the country’s most important protest singers with his famous 1968 song “Bratříčku zavírej vrátka,” and his tunes continue to be played in the Czech Republic to this day.

In today’s edition of our Sunday Music Show we listen to more than 20 years of “avant-punk” band Už Jsme Doma. Though the band has gone through countless transformations in that time, it still remains one of the most innovative sounds on the Czech music scene and a heavy influence for new generations of Czech artists.

The Brno-based duo Čokovoko is one of the most unusual occurrences on the Czech music scene. The combination of amusing lyrics, unexpected sampling as well as rather crude singing earned them a following in clubs around the country. Čokovoko brings a new voice to Czech pop; a female one for once, and one that ridicules the usual pop – and hip hop – clichés. Čokovoko has now put out a new album of what they call spoken word, entitled Hudba, or Music.

In this week’s Sunday Music Show we introduce the avant-garde violinist, singer and composer Iva Bittová. Her style is not easily defined but perhaps one of the most accurate comments made about her is that she brings the human voice back to the natural world in a way that transcends barriers and touches audiences the world over.

In this edition of our Sunday Music Show we talk to singer, songwriter and guitarist James Harries, a Manchester native who has lived and worked in the Czech Republic for the last 13 years. His sixth and latest album, Growing Pains, is only one of the many interesting projects he is involved in.

In our Sunday Music Show this week, you’ll have a chance to sample some of the hits from the communist era. In those times, popular music was under a tight control of the authorities who made sure nothing ideologically subversive reached the audiences. At the same time, the cultural supervisors pushed authors to produce songs that would match the propagandistic needs of the regime, and the songs we’ll hear today are fine examples of just that.

Don’t miss this week’s edition of the Sunday Music Show with our guest Jan Žampa, the frontman for the talented and popular alternative pop band Eddie Stoilow. He joins us for the full 30 minutes to talk about everything from his career to life in Malta, kickboxing, and a unique upcoming event with none other than former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.

This week’s Sunday Music Show is dedicated to Eva Olmerová, whom many consider to be the greatest Czech jazz singer of all time. Olmerová, whom critics have compared to Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, lived life on a rollercoaster of musical acclaim, political persecution, drink, drugs and broken marriages. Let down by all but her talent Eva was happy to sing any genre - jazz, blues, gospel or country – until her ailing health left its mark on her voice as well.

This week’s Sunday music broadcast we present the work of František Ignác Tůma, a Czech composer of the late Baroque era who wrote some of the most inventive music of the period.