Hrubý Jan: Stories in Time - CD

This album by violinist and composer Jan Hrubý is, and is not, a compilation of previously released material. The artist returned to some of his older albums, selected their strong and enduring melodies, and placed them in a new context. In doing so, he focused mainly on the album Mezidobí (Interim) (2002), on which his instrumental compositions originally served only as interludes between songs performed by Michal Prokop, Josef Klíma, Jana Lewitová, and Vladimír Mišík. By including them in a purely instrumental suite, these melodies gain a new charm and new significance. Jan Hrubý “borrowed” other tracks from his other albums, both solo (Cesty – Journeys) and with his group Kukulín (Středozem – Middle-earth, Silmarillion). He returns to the roots of his work in, among other pieces, the Irish folk melody 'Kitchen Piper', first released in his rendition on the underrated album Balady 2 (Ballads 2) (1996).

Jan Hrubý has assembled his older melodies into a new, meaningful whole to create a new musical story. However, it is not only the context and dramaturgy that are new on this album. All compositions have undergone new sound engineering, with current remixes handled by Hrubý's long-time collaborator Jan Kolář. The track 'Jak Irové přežili hladomor' (How the Irish Survived the Famine), which was split into two parts on the Mezidobí album, appears here for the first time in an extended, almost ten-minute version. In addition, the artist plays with his listeners by changing or tweaking the titles of some tracks. And so, the very short instrumental 'Capriccio piccolino' from the Mezidobí album has become 'Violino picolino', 'Batyskaf' (Bathyscaphe) is now 'Aqualung', and the Tolkien-esque 'Tom Bombadil' from the Středozem album has had his wife Goldberry added to the track's title.

As a bonus, Jan Hrubý has added a song to the otherwise instrumental album: 'A Nation Once Again', composed in the 1840s by Thomas Osborne Davis, founder of the nationalist Young Ireland movement. Jan Hrubý places his version, sung by Jiří Hannasmann and Hanka Horká, in a new context with his note on the album cover: He was “led to the track by the thought of commemorating the eightieth birthday of President Václav Havel, had he lived. Those who understand the lyrics will surely understand why I included it here.”

Tracklist

Pod dubem za dubem / Cikánský blues / Aqualung / Jak Irové přežili hladomor / Půlnoční slunce v Arktidě / Modrý Portugal / Šedé přístavy / Dno pytle (nora Bilbo Baginse) / Poslední parník na Mississippi / Tom Bombadil a Zlatěnka / Kitchen Piper / Violino picolino / Zima / Variace na irské téma / A Nation Once Again (bonus)