Manželé: Russian record / Manželé I - CD

The group Manželé was founded by Lesik Hajdovský and Miroslav Gartner with their wives Mirka and Aranka in 1982 in Prague.

After Švehlík, Marno Union and F. O. K., where Hajdovský worked. The husband and wife team returned from the bright bigbeat to folk-rock songs that listeners knew from the projects Karlínský viadukt or Sny zdravého dítěte v krizizi.

In 1982 they recorded an interesting collection of eight songs, on this CD it is included as the second one under the band name only. The very next year, 1983, the Manželé came up with a much more important recording, which is therefore the first to be included on the CD. It is a still famous Russian album - the first breath of real rock minimalism in Czechoslovakia! Hajdovsky has combined his influence on minimalism by Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and other pioneers of the style with his rich Ukrainian roots in a very original way.

He used motifs of old Ukrainian folk songs in his compositions and implanted documentary fragments of a recorded interview with the memoirist Dávná Eternal Merzlota into the lyrics. The Russian album has a truly icy atmosphere, opening up to the listener completely different dimensions of music and, indirectly, of life and its values.

The technical quality of the recording is at a professional level, even though the band was not allowed in the music studios of the time. All the more admirable is the result, which was created in the living room of an apartment building in the South City on two connected Tesla reel-to-reel tape recorders(! ). The packaging is provided with all texts and documentation. Digitally remastered. Published in the Archiv edition.

Playlist

Way below freezing / Set the tables / Set the tables / Bake there, bake back / Karavaj tuda, Caravan back / She planted cucumbers / She planted cucumbers / She planted cucumbers / Such wise ones / Such wise ones / A joyous event happened / Many a radist happened / You are dying / You are dying / Olenka / Forever and ever / Na viki vikiv / I sat in the mud / Blanka / I stand and wait / The image of war and pestilence / Black dust / Parno / On the march / We came to the vineyard