Sunday Music Show | All stories

On our Easter Sunday Music show we profile Tomáš Kočko a truly versatile musician who combines folk, rock, ethno and jazz. Tomáš Kočko and Orchestra have 9 CDs to their name, including Hodovnice which draws on the way of life, traditions and legends of the inhabitants of the Beskydy Mountains.

This week’s Sunday Music Show is dedicated to a Czech composer and band member Jaromír Vejvoda whose work is probably a lot better known than he was in spite of his prolific output.

Never Sol is essentially the solo project of Sára Vondrášková, a songwriter and keyboardist whose rich, smoky voice belies her tender years. Her Jan P. Muchow-produced debut LP Under Quiet – which occasionally brings to mind the likes of Portishead or Muchow’s The Ecstasy of St. Theresa – has been nominated for Best New Act and Best Female Act in the Czech music industry’s Anděl music awards.

The Brno band Poletíme? describes itself as an original banjo-punk-future-jazz-band. Established in 2007 by artist and musician Rudolf Brancovsky it soon became a regular at clubs and festivals around the country. Its songs are a colourful mix of genres and are based on witty and often shocking texts –what the band calls “simple songs about a complicated life”.

This week we take a look at an established Czech band November 2nd, whose red-headed front-woman and song writer Saša Langošová combines rock, country and pop in her melodic and often fiery songs. Although it has not really found a place in the Czech mainstream music world, November 2nd has been steadily making music for over 10 years, exploring different genres and working with international big names like Suzanne Vega, Tchad Blake, Doug Yowell or Steve Walsh.

Pianist and composer Beata Hlavenková is one of the bright lights on the Czech jazz and alternative music scene. In this edition of our Sunday music program we’ll be playing excerpts from the musician’s highly acclaimed latest album called Theodoros - Gift of God.

The rock and blues singer and song writer Michal Prokop has been part of the Czech music scene for over 50 years. With their clever lyrics, his songs have always appealed to sophisticated audiences but he has also scored a series of major hits. While strictly apolitical during the communist era, Michal Prokop went into politics in the 1990s but quit, and recorded his latest album which came out in 2012.

Karel Kryl was one of the most significant Czech anti-communist protest singers. His sparse and poetic songs such as Bratříčku zavírej vrátka (Close the Gate, Little Brother), written in direct response to the Soviet invasion, reflected the frustrations of many Czechoslovaks in the 1970s and ‘80s. This year sees two important anniversaries relating to the singer-songwriter: Monday is the 20th anniversary of his death, while the 70th anniversary of his birth falls in April.

In this week’s Sunday Music Show we listen to music by the soulful a capella group Yellow Sisters and speak with one of its four members Bára Vaculíková (and her young daughter). Antonia, Bára, Hawa and Leňa have been singing together since 2005, using their versatile voices to create full, rhythmical and often playful music.

The album Šero by the band Orff Brothers has won the won the Apollo Award by Czech music critics for the best recording of 2013. The Orff Brothers, whose sound has been described as electro-folk, evolved from a fictional ensemble to a real band. Šero is only their second album in eight years.