Mordyjé

Musician, singer-songwriter and long-time leading Czech cartoonist Mirek Kemel releases a new album called Mordyjé. The author, for whom music is an intimate escape from the everyday creation of jokes about today's world and politics, has recorded his fifth studio album with his permanent band. The thirteen songs feature a number of guests - Marie Puttnerová and the actor Vladimír Javorský, who has accompanied Mirek Kemel since the very beginning, sing here, along with Oskar Török, Josef Štěpánek, Miloš Dvořáček, Martin Novák, Ondřej Konrád and Michal Nejtek. The thematically very varied album offers more fast songs compared to older albums, but there is no lack of typically lyrical and thoughtful songs. Listeners will find here both new songs that react to the current state of the world, as well as older and more lyrical ones that the musicians have dusted off and brought back to the stage in a new form. But what they all have in common are the poetic, gentle and introverted lyrics of Mirek Kemel. The recording was produced by guitarist and band member Vlastimil Konopiský in the SONO Records studio in CR. The launch with the participation of several guests will take place on 27 November at the Akropolis Palace in Prague, CR. Besides Prague, Mirek Kemel and his band will play across the whole Czechia in Pilsen, Ostrava, Hradec Králové, Náchod, Brno and at Blues Alive in Šumperk already from the end of October. The album Mordyjé is available for download and listening from 25th October here. It features three singles and music videos - Rusalka, Včelař Milan (i.e. Milan the Beekeeper) and Oči pod ledem (i.e. Eyes Under Ice).

The new album is named after the title track. "The song Mordyjé reflects the current times, the feelings of fear, concerns, loss of security and the resulting desire to escape from all this, from the world, from oneself. But it's not elementary, it's hidden in the song, it can be perceived in a different way and I enjoy that. The song is not about sadness and longing, it's more about defiance," says Mirek Kemel at the beginning and adds: "The word Mordyjé has an interesting origin. It is said that Voltaire first used it as a paraphrase of the word Mondieu. It is said to have remained in our (i.e. Czech) countries after the Napoleonic Wars."

Compared to the previous album Vlčí stopy (i.e. Wolf Tracks), which was recorded by Petr Ostrouchov with his own band Blue Shadows, Mordyjé is a band project and a follow-up to Ryby, raci (i.e. Fish, Crayfish), released in 2018. "In these six years we have moved as a band both sonically and instrumentally. We added keyboards to the electric guitar and drums," describes the change Mirek Kemel.

"Thematically, the album is very varied. There are new songs that react to the current state of the world, but also older, more lyrical songs that we have dusted off and brought back to the stage in a new form. Compared to the older albums, there are more fast-paced and up-tempo songs. Slower and more pensive songs are not missing," says Mirek Kemel, who worked most intensively on the album at the turn of last year and this year. "The lyrics are all mine. The music is mostly too, but we worked on some of the songs together with Vlasta Konopiský and Tomáš Görtler. The music for the song Kočička (i.e. Kitten) was composed by Tomáš," says Kemel about the creation of the songs.

"I need peace, solitude and a mood that cannot be commanded," explains Mirek Kemel, for whom composing music is a break from his main profession as a cartoonist. "As a cartoonist, I follow the news from home and the world, and I worry daily about drawing something as current and timeless as possible, which does not always work. Music helps me to survive the stress of the daily obligation to submit a drawing on time. And it allows me to delve deeper into myself, into my stories, without having to be funny and topical," adds the artist, whose lyrics and melodies are beautifully poetic, gentle and introverted, unlike his cartoons.

And when asked whether he sometimes combines his two sides of authorship, i.e. whether he also does caricatures of musicians somewhere, he replies: "Absolutely rarely. I once drew members of my band, and some of them weren't very happy with their caricature. I should probably try it again. But last year we published a songbook of our songs and I illustrated it with my musician jokes, which I often tell at concerts."