Zvíře jménem Podzim

Dark Night Songs of Hope and Light.

Zvíře jménem Podzim (i.e. The Animal Called Autumn) has been gathering its strength the whole year. Now it’s climbing out of the darkness and in the gloom of November, sings songs of hope, swallows the sun and blows out a dense fog. Mentor of the Autumn animals and author of the music and lyrics, Jakub König (Kittchen), presents the unexpected musical connection of melancholy and joy. Other members of this project help him fill in the strong emotions and quiet reflections in his songs: Marie Kieslowski, Aid Kid, Tomáš Neuwerth, Tomáš Havlen, Ondřej Mataj, Veru Linhartová and many others. The new record of Zvíře jménem Podzim, as well as a forthcoming eponymous book, are about the beauty and dangers of the dark days.

The songwriter, Jakub König, has added another music project to his portfolio. He’s been working on it since 2016. The band, or rather the orchestra, due to the growing number of members, is called Zvíře jménem Podzim (i.e. The Animal Called Autumn). “Last September, we met in the studio and started to record the album,” says Jakub. “We wanted to create a soundtrack to our favorite time of the year. We wanted to go for adventures in the fog to gather some magic songs. We wanted to hold each other and sing about light.”

The project, Zvíře jménem Podzim, was swelling, growing and interweaving under Jakub’s hands. In the beginning, there were original songs which were connected poetically. “I knew that I had ten songs in my pocket, which were connected thematically. At the same time, a story was unfolding in my head while we were recording. The lyrics and the dark flow of the story were interweaving in a special way.” The recording session developed in a similar way. Since the first big recording of the first prepared tracks in the 3bees studio, the situation has gradually turned into wild raids into the recording space. “But we didn’t leave the principle of the joint production. It was still a bit like in a children’s camp. There were many of us in the studio and we kept on spinning and recording fresh new ideas. It was terribly uneconomic but at the same time much better than I would have dared to hope for.”

More than a year of recording has changed the songs. The originally proclaimed “light melancholy” moved from time to time towards dark tones and some of the songs even give you shivers. “I brought some new songs to each recording session and we chose from them. Some ideas didn’t move anywhere, other songs went with us till the end and came out during the last mixing session. And when we did the order, it turned out to be pretty dark. But it belongs to Autumn. While we are used to behaving and looking as if there is no darkness, it jumps at you in a dark park, suddenly, and our pregnant mind becomes useless. So I think that one melancholic and dark Autumn record could become useful, when it comes to you.”

The long recording had one more effect. The producers, Tomáš Havlen and Aid Kid, had time to polish the whole record like a gemstone. They took off on quite a courageous path, which resulted in a very unconventional sound in the current recording trends. The final version offers a multi-layered record, which, for listeners, presents a new version of Zvířete jménem Podzim.