Bohemian Blue

The nineties were full of changes and new energy. Concerts were organized in galleries, people listened with interest to new bands, new directions. At this time there was a growing interest in alternative art. The Richter band, one of the leading alternative bands on the border between meditation, ambient and new age, is at its peak. After years of modest gigging, the interest in playing live is now multiplying and the band is not only touring the Czech regions, but also venturing abroad. At that time, however, Jaroslav Kořán, a fiddlerophone and percussion player, leaves Pavel Richter and Štepán Pečírka and begins to experiment with his own music. He brings with him experience from both the alternative Vyšší Populár and the ambient Richter band. And it is this experience of playing an instrument of his own making – the fidleronon – which, alongside the guitar, formed the subtle, characteristic sound of the Richter band, that leads Jaroslav Kořán down the path of finding and creating his own remarkable instruments. Although he already owns a sampler and plays the piano, as a drummer he is looking for other percussive instruments and sounds.

In the summer of 1990, he experimented with nails hammered into wood in Šumava and the first “Šumava (or village) kalimbas” were created. It is actually the prehistoric beginning of the road to the Orloj snivců. Together with his brother Michal, they refine the kalimbas and try out repetitive melodies on them, which they record at home and supplement with loops from a sampler and slowed-down tapes. The new material, full of rhythmics, pre-recorded loops and Michal Kořán’s synthesizer, is created, which the Kořán brothers will present for the first time in public on 20 April 1990 in the Klarisky concert hall in Bratislava at an event called Night Minimal, organized by the dramaturge Miloš Karásek. The next concert will take place again in Bratislava at the theatre and music show ObKaSS Bratislava III in the Vajnorská club, where the Prague group Die Archa (are Filip Homola, Michal Kořán and Marek Hanzlík) will also perform in the second half. On this evening Jaroslav Kořán meets Die Archa guitarist Mark Hanzlík and they agree on future cooperation.

Kořán’s passion for searching leads to a constant expansion of percussive instruments and objects, and so the instruments include water glasses, pots, porcelain plates and salad bowls. The arrival of guitarist Marek Hanzlík is a fundamental shift and the foundation of the trio MODRÁ (Blue). This seasoned bard on prepared guitar brings subtle harmonies and an unusual sound to the rhythmic structures. This is complemented by Jaroslav Kořán’s slowed-down pre-recorded tapes, voices and sampled loops to create the characteristic sound of the MODRÁ Trio.

Their first concert in the new line-up, still under the working name Sdružení M, took place in December 1990 at the opening of twenty artists performing under the acronym SGM at the Young Gallery. The next two concerts take place during February and March 1991 in Jaroslav Kořán’s apartment. This is followed by a performance at the Festival of Other Music “Acoustic New Age” on 2 June 1991 at the Municipal Library. The last public performance of the group Modrá took place on 31 August 1991 at the opening of VASARELY PRAHA in the Ječná Gallery.

Jaroslav Kořán himself speaks about the group as follows:
“A small musical group started to meet in an apartment in Pankrác in the period after the Velvet Changes. It met for a relatively short time, less than a year. They named themselves MODRÁ after their favourite blue colour and played their blue music period. The music was quiet, very quiet, it was areas of music that took shape by improvising together. The musicians played small and quiet instruments in a comfortable home-like setting. The Šumava xylophone, an instrument that later acquired the name Orloj snivců and after which the eponymous band was formed after MODRÁ in 1992, was played on the zither, various percussion instruments, small drums made from pots, plates, Michal played a Casio SK-1 sampler, Marek masterfully played a prepared electric guitar. He was able to make absolutely non-guitar sounds out of it. Their favourite song, which they played most often, was the pleasant and gently melodic and dreamy “Ta naše jediná a nejlepší” (“Our One and Only and Best”), during which they always reliably put the house cat to sleep.”

In the period from 15 November 1990 to 20 June 1991 a number of recordings were made in Jaroslav Kořán’s home studio. Jaroslav Kořán selected the most interesting pieces for the album and supplemented them with two compositions recorded at a live home concert on 25 February 1991. Although the group ceased its activity in the second half of 1991, it was an important period that marked the dawn of the nascent Orloj Snivců, with whom Jaroslav Kořán still performs today.