Moře / Sea

Singer and violinist Helena Vedralová has been working on arrangements of folk songs for a long time. Together with the band Muziga, she interprets songs mainly from her native Wallachia, where world music, jazz and folk are mixed in a unique way. However, her new record Moře (i.e. Sea) is a departure into other waters. It is an original project, this time with purely personal lyrics, which we could characterize as meditative music.

On the new release, which Helena is currently releasing under her own name, elements of world music again prevail, complemented by a casual jazz feel of elliptic instrumentation, which leaves generous space for the atmospheric soundscape of violin, viola, bass clarinet and percussion. Compared to the previous record Zežali, zvázali from 2019, the new album seems calmer, as if it wants to limit itself to the wild character of folk songs in places, but it is still an urgent statement. A sensitive approach to the arrangements, allowing the calm mood of the album to stand out, reveals the strong intention of the author, supported by the collaboration with Ivo Viktorin and especially with the bass clarinetist Gareth Davis, whose wide range covers contemporary classical music, jazz and electronica.

"The joint creation with Gareth came out of our random live performance, where it musically sparked up. It was then when I realized that his playing on the bass clarinet evokes the breath of the earth for me and is exactly what will sonically connect with the upcoming composition, Moře. Inspired by his playing, also the song Perlorodka (i.e. Pearl Oyster) and then Vlny (i.e. Waves), which is a poem by Hana Voříšková set to music," says Helena about the duo of cooperating authors. The overall sound of the album is also supported by the unmistakable percussion and vocals of Markéta Mužátková, Helena's bandmate from Muziga, and bass clarinetist Jiří Porubiak also helped out in three songs.

The music of Moře takes place in a kind of hypnotic rhythm and time that invites you to listen intently. Also, the tracklist of all six songs suggests that haste has no place here, and the short-cut, accelerated modern age suddenly loses its power here for almost forty minutes. The main focus is on the full sound of acoustic instruments , which, together with the soothing voices, give the listener the opportunity to move away from the noise and rush of today's world, into a joyful relaxation and peace.