About

Čechomor

Czechomor

Czechomor, cult World Music band from the Czech Republic, explode on stage with raw vitality. Rooted in Moravian village music, their repertoire reflects the passion and anguish of a region moulded by Ottoman raids and Napoleonic battles.

Czechomor also provides an excellent opportunity for fans to trace back Celtic echoes that lie deeply rooted in the cultures of Bohemia and Moravia but which are related to the music of Brittany and Ireland in particular. The band’s unique mélange of traditional folk mixed with Ottoman dissonance, Gypsy csárdás, Napoleonic mustering dances and Celtic rhythms have succeeded in winning over young and old alike.

Karel Holas, graduate on the classical violin at the Brno Musical Conservatory, acts as band leader. With Franta Černý they spend much of their time resuscitating long-forgotten poems and folk ballads.

Established in 1988 as the Czech Moravian Music Society the band soon developed into far more than a reservoir of traditional music.

As ex-president Václav Havel's favourite ensemble, Czechomor entertained celebrity audiences at charity concerts.

In 1999 they performed at the Rudolstadt Festival in Germany and at the EBU Folk Festival in Dranouter in Belgium. That same year Czechomor was invited to front Czech Republic’s most popular rock band: Lucie. While playing for rock audiences, Czechomor proved themselves as the ultimate live band. Their music vibrates with raw energy, but also maintains integrity and honesty - virtues very rare in today's showbiz. During the tour, thousands of new fans converted to Czechomor's music.

By the end of 2000, their new album Czechomor was a platinum success and sold over 500.000 copies (in Czech and Slovak republics)

Reaching a mainstream audience was a challenge. After "updating" traditional songs, Czechomor embarked on an ambitious project. The musicians met up with Jaz Coleman from the British punk band Killing Joke, who had turned to classical music. Coleman helped them produce their next album, Transformations, recorded with the Czech Philharmonic Collegium. The album was a tremendous success with over 220 000 copies sold.

In 2002 Czechomor starred in a fiction-documentary called The Year of the Devil which went on to win a total of 7 awards at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Czechomor´s soundtrack to the film won the Czech Lion (Oscar) as well as the Czech Music Academy Awards for BEST ALBUM, BEST GROUP, BEST SONG.

The band spent much of 2003 touring with the Czech Philharmonic Collegium. Their Prague concert was recorded for TV and the resulting DVD Transformations Tour was a bestseller.

With 4 platinum releases to their credit, Czechomor are the Czech Republic’s most popular band and have performed all over the Czech and Slovak republics, in Germany, Belgium, England, USA, France, Russia, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain.

Their next CD What happened next (2005) spent 6 weeks at No. 1 on the Czech hit parade and features WOMAD artists Iarla Ó Lionáird (Ireland) and Joji Hirota (Japan).

In 2005 Karel Holas and some of his colleagues worked with the Israeli diva Chava Alberstein on her Lemele CD, and the next year, What happened next was released in UK. The Czech release of What happened next CD was celebrated by four magnificient shows in the Czech and Slovak republics, with the singer Lenka Dusilová, uillean piper Dan Vališ and cimbalom player Jana Mikušek as special guests, and also two world class musicians: the Irish singer Iarla O'Lionaird and Japanese shakuhachi player Joji Hirota. This memorable meeting was recorded on the DVD Stalo sa živě (What happened Live) and a live CD of the same name. The influential UK magazine fRoots published a full-page story on Czechomor by the renowned music writer Ken Hunt.

The band took off for the Rail tour, along with Joji Hirota, travelling by a special equipped train and performing for their fans at stations. In autumn the band performed in the UK and made an extensive US tour, along with Lenka Dusilová.

The Holiday Album

During the summer of 2007, the band made a couple of remarkable performances in the scenic setting of some of the most beautiful Czech castles, along with Joji Hirota with three other taiko drummers. Besides that Czechomor performed with the renowned primas Martin Hrbáč in a remote village at the Czech-Slovakian border, known for it's rich musical heritage. And the musicians started to explore the folkore songbooks again, this time to search for Christmas carols and hymns for their new album Sváteční Čechomor (Czechomor's Holiday Album).

The album features a wide range of instruments, including cimbalom, didjeridoo, basstrombone, and two guest female singers, and went platinum few days after the release. In 2008, the band enters the Eurosong contest, and plans to celebrate its 20 years anniversary.

Awards

Besides platinum double and triple platinum albums for their record sales, Czechmor also won prestigious awards for their film work. Their feature film Year of the Devil received the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2002, and also won main prizes at festivals in Russia and Italy. On top of that, the band's violin player Karel Holas received national and international awards for his soundtrack scores.