Beskydská odysea

Beskydian Odyssey (the album Beskydská odysea) is a report from Marian Friedl (the author of the project Beránci a vlci and current band mate with Jitka Šuranská) about wandering after the traditional musical instruments of Beskydy and Javorník, a small area of the northwestern Carpathians on the border of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

After the successful Anthology of Moravian Folk Music, Indies Scope is releasing a new series of the Moravian folk songs called Malovaná truhla (i.e. Painted Chest). It reveals Martin Friedel’s Beskydian Odyssey (album Beskyská odysea) with songs from Wallachia, featuring unique instruments from Beskydy.

Twenty-five years ago, when Marian Friedl became interested in the traditional music instruments from the Beskydy region, he was afraid that he was entering a ghost world in which he would only find the memories of their earlier fame. But fortunately, he was wrong - he met living people playing the instruments that, in their hands, gave voice to forgotten musical traditions. “With the Beskydian Odyssey, I wanted to show the playing possibilities of the traditional instruments from this part of the Carpathians, record songs connected to important places, events and people to me, and in the booklet then to introduce the players and instrument makers, from whom I learned a lot. You will hear the sound of a variety of trumpets, horns, whistles, flutes, fujara, trombits, bagpipes, ocarina, sheep bells, small dulcimers, violins and soprano violins (ochlebky),”  says the musician (RukyNaDudy, Jitka Šuranská Trio, Divé Husy or Beránci a vlci) and ethnomusicologist, Marian Friedl.

Beskydian Odyssey was recorded in cooperation with significant singers and instrumentalists from the Beskydy region across the generations: Radomír Golas, Ludmila Vašková, Pavel Ptáček, Vlastimil Bjaček, Jan Rokyta, Jan Pustka, Klára Blažková, Sabrina Pasicnyková, Sara Kokešová, Eliška Šidlová, Kristýna Cochlarová. The album is full of beautiful songs, original Wallachian music and folk lyrics, accompanied by the poetry of Ladislav Nezdařil and Marian Friedl.