Live 1978-1981

More dead stock from the Czechoslovakia avant garde underground thanks to Infinite Expanse’s continued interest in the music of the old country. Released by Black Point in 1991, 1978-1981 documents live recordings of two different performances by Amalgam, a loose collective of musicians featuring Pavel Richter amongst others (long time readers will recall his involvement with – you guessed it – the Richter Band). We’re broadly in avant folk/prog territory here, but in ways that feel less connected to, say, the Canterbury Scene and more the outre sensibilities of EU artwork outliers like Faust, Amon Duul or Magma, and funnily enough, the artrock wildness of David Thomas. Given the socio-political organisation of Czechoslovakia in the late 70s, who knows from where Amalgam were taking influence. And unless it was their inspired by their own endemic musics, does it even matter? Regardless of whether they were accessing contraband or were coming to these sounds independently, there’s something uniquely compelling to hearing their proggy, artful digressions greeted with such huge cheers from the watching crowd. What was captured here was not misunderstood or lost. We may never have heard this before, but quite a few local people seemed to and loved it, too, which just goes to show how much there still is to know. Continue the education here…