Tulák po hvězdách

Czech legends of progressive rock, Progres 2, have released a new album 30 years after their last record, this time based on a Jack London book. The basis for the conceptual album was the famous novel, The Star Rover. This new album comes out on the 50th anniversary of The Progress Organization’s foundation - the direct predecessor of the current Progres 2. The band recorded with their best line up: Pavel Váně, Roman Dragoun, Zdeněk Kluka, Miloš Morávek and Pavel Pelc. The album contains 17 new songs and the 2nd LP will contain a special archive bonus.

  Speaking of anniversaries, it is necessary to point out that it’s been 40 years since the premiere of the pioneer act, the very first Czechoslovak audio-visual rock opera, Dialogue with the Universe, in 1978. The founding member and guitarist, Pavel Váně, admits, that the right moment had to come. “There wasn’t the right mood to record a new album for a while. We discussed several ideas. I had even suggested the main theme “The Star Rover” twelve years ago. We got back to it years later but somehow in a different form and the band got excited.” But one thing was certain from the beginning: that Jack London’s famous book from 1915 would be used as the thematic unit: “We feel good with the larger forms and we suppose that our fans will also be delighted.”

  We recorded in the studio of David Koller where several interesting guests helped out, such as Dorota Barová or the founding member of the band, Emmanuel Sideris and others. Nevertheless, the main line up was  Pavel Váně, Roman Dragoun, Zdeněk Kluka, Miloš Morávek and Pavel Pelc. The guys came to the studio with the processed themes. Pavel Váně describes how they approached the whole theme: “I wrote a short plot, and we all discussed the topics, which addressed us. Based on that, we all composed the music with a concrete picture of the story. Then Martin Kudlička wrote lyrics to our selected topics. We also wrote three more songs based on the lyrics of Ivan Petlan.”

  The final recording follows the band’s previous albums. The “progressive” style, which oscillates on the edge of progressive rock with many hardrock motifs, is musically cut. The band absolutely didn’t care about this when recording. “I would say that we don’t care these days what style we’re gonna play. We are simply trying to do good music, the best way we feel and the best way we can,” which is the best news for the fans of this legend.

  The album “Tulák po hvězdách” (i.e. The Star Rover) is available digitally, on CD and in a double-vinyl edition. And those fans who buy the double-vinyl will get yet unreleased live recordings as a bonus on the fourth side: the song, Klíč k poznání (i.e. Key to Knowledge) from 1969 and 3 songs from the 1970 concert in Slapanice. The cover was, as usual, created for Progres by Vaclav Houf. Progres 2 are still at their full strength, even after 50 years, and the new album, Tulák po hvězdách, only confirms it.