LES

New Album LES from -123min. Is a Story of Friendship

The legendary group -123min. releases an album called LES (i.e. Forest). The first record in ten years is a story of friendship that the trio of musicians found again in “Minutes” , featuring a special guest, the genius trumpetist, Erik Trufazz.

   The band’s strength lies mainly in their energetic live performances, which are full of improvisations. Between 1996 and 2009, they released seven albums and won the Czech music Andel Award for the Discovery of the year 1999. After ten years, they release their eighth album, LES. The album is a musical candy box in which soul, alternative, rock, pop, ethno music, new music and funk mix together.

   New album LES consists of internal questions that we ask about the external reality. “The album is 80% full of mystical thoughts, which may at first seem like topics of relationships between a man and a woman, but an embracing space of all interpersonal relationships is felt in the details,” adds Zdeněk Bína. The band recorded LES in the Sono Records studio in Nouzov and the recording consists of nine tracks in total. It features the legendary trumpetist, Erik Trufazz. The genius jazzman was so excited after their joint show that he promised to collaborate on the record. The “Minutes” send him the recordings to France and he added his part in his studio.

   It’s been almost three years since -123min.  got back on the scene. And it was a great surprise to their fans to hear the radical change, their lyrics are now in Czech. However, their new record follows up on “Minutes” musically as we all know them. “The songs from the album LES were created mostly in the forest. Forest is a space where I can best connect with intuition, turn off my thoughts and focus only on creativity,” says the frontman, Zdeněk Bína and adds: “I haven’t found a better place for this activity so far.”

   LES is also a story of friendship that the trio of Zdeněk Bína, Fredrik Janáček and Dano Šoltis rediscovered in “Minutes”. All creative processes, which were completely natural, were born from this point. Friendship and togetherness are the main features of the trio of excellent musicians; and so they sleeplessly worked together on the record in their Prague rehearsal room, without time restrictions, until they found an optimum shape for each song.