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Music for the 21st century

Hector Zazou headlines seven nights of excursions in the avant-garde
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By Darrell Jónsson
For The Prague Post
November 21st, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Zazou is bringing visuals to augment his soundscapes.
Alternativa

When: Nov. 23–30
Where: Divadlo Archa, Delta, Kaštan, Vagon
Tickets: 120–430 Kč, available through Ticketpro and at the venues
For complete schedule information, check
www.unijazz.cz

Sprawling multiday festivals featuring a mix of mainstream media, venues and genres are practically de rigueur in Prague these days. So it’s refreshing to see Alternativa, now in its 15th year, continuing its focus on presenting musical alternatives, even over seven tram-hopping nights.
This year’s international headliner is Hector Zazou. A veteran of the European ’70s and ’80s avant-garde rock and experimental scenes, Zazou picked up considerable momentum and appeal in the early ’90s with his mastery of the concept album. His 1992 homage to Arthur Rimbaud, Sahara Blue (on the Relativity label), is often cited as a turning point in Zazou’s evolving knack for taking the CD album format and shaping it into a beatific talisman. By the time of his major label debut, 1994’s Songs from the Cold Seas (on Sony/Columbia), he had attracted the collaboration of such artists as John Cale, Björk, Siouxsie Sioux, Suzanne Vega and David Sylvian.
An Algerian-born Frenchman, Zazou has been taking music into visual realms, echoing the mid-20th century Central and East European obsession with mixing abstract animation and music. Following in the path of Alexander Scriabin, Wassily Kandinsky, Oscar Fischinger and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Zazou’s live Prague premiere of “Quadri+Chromies” (Archa, Nov. 25) will feature the Mondrian-esque projections of the late motion-graphic artist Bernard Caillaud, accompanied by live strings, clarinet and electronics.
For those who prefer to keep their Gothic shades on, Prague’s classic rock venue Vagon will host a gathering that same night of a notorious communal crew of unrepentant worshipers of the Czech ’60s underground. Included in the floating crew known as BBP are members barely old enough to have been born when bands like the Plastic People and DG-307 first stalked the Bohemian earth. Such considerations have not slowed BBU one beat, who will christen Tolik …Štěstí, their sixth CD of earth-bound, spine-chilling rock.
If the European avant-edge is sounding a bit too esoteric, you can get an easier start on the festival this Friday (Nov. 23) at Delta, where Brno’s Ještě jsme se nedohodli will take the stage. Known for their neatly pressed suits, Dadaist antics and Beefheart-esque anthems, JJSN will be propelled in this appearance by the legendary Czech ambient-composer/percussionist Pavel Fajt sitting in on drums. Opening the night, Mikoláš Chadima and Pavel Richter will continue their decades-long, free-flowing avant-guitar improv dialogues.
Starting Monday (Nov. 26), Archa will host three nights of imaginative music from Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, France, Japan and the Czech Republic. The lineup spans everything from Germany’s Dienztag’s zither-rock to the Czech Republic’s Why (Not) Patterns, a purveyor of “pseudo-minimalist psychedelic-ecstatic fusion.”
On Thursday (Nov. 29), the festival will return to the intimate yet comfortable Unijazz annex Kaštan in Prague 6 for a night featuring artists from the Italian DIY label Wallace Records. The following night, Kaštan will appropriately close the festival with a contrasting evening of the elegiac folk-rock of Vladimír Václavek juxtaposed with a contemporary-music-meets-jazz set featuring Polish trombonist Bronisław Dužy accompanying German vocalist/composer Jorgos Skolias.
There are many other artists and venues to choose from. Anyone seeking solid alternatives in 21st-century music is advised to check the Unijazz Web site for Alternativa’s full program of sonic adventures.

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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