Heterogeneous harmonies

While not all members of Prague's Allstar Refúdží Band (ASRB) count the limbo of asylum as part of their credentials, as a group they have intentionally made the refugee experience a part of their musical and theatrical statement.

With members from Kurdistan, China, Georgia, Switzerland, the United States and the Czech Republic, the band's raucous mix of Czech brass, Klezmer and Balkan sounds also has surrealistic Asian lilt.

While the band's visa paperwork and musical influences may stretch across the globe, ASRB's co-manager and saxophonist Jindřich Krippner says "our band's birthplace is definitely Prague's Archa Theatre."

According to Krippner, ASRB's members first met in 2008 while collaborating on the dramatic work "Dance Through the Fence." Directed by Jana Svobodová, the play portrayed the plight of refugees combined with music by arranger/composer Michael Romanyshyn.

"Michael, our main arranger, was for a long time a member of [the notorious New England-based] Bread and Puppets Theater," Krippner said. "He is influenced by Dixieland and Klezmer and is very open to all kinds of experiments, including taking traditional polka and adding rap being done by a Chinese singer." 

Georgian-born Armenian band-member Gugar Manukjan gives ASRB another unique thread as Krippner says, "Manukjan has an academy background and is well versed in Moldovan and Armenian tunes. But sometimes it's hard for Manukjan when Romanyshyn takes the melody and alters it by putting in a sharp brass section...The point is to make it funny and bizarre. But it's also serious, because the issue of the refugees is still often very sad."

ASRB's 2009 debut Spas! starts with the unlikely harmonies of "Kurdish Dixieland" and moves through 14 tracks sung in Czech, German and Kurdish before closing with a reggae version of the Czech national anthem. The album includes the band's own original songs as well as interpretations of Chinese folk songs and musical versions of poems by 20th-century Czechs Jaroslav Seifert and Karl Václav Rais.

Performances of the poems are often delivered in a loose and loud setting that Krippner confesses is a way the writers never "expected their words to be presented in."

Despite what may seem like an odd mix, the demand for ASRB's oud (Arabic lute), washboard and accordion spiced brass sound has made them an increasingly popular addition at regional festivals. In the past year, ASRB's concert dates have outnumbered their appearances on the theatrical stage. 

This weekend, ASRB will appear at what is arguably the Czech Republic's most scenic music festival in the south Moravian town of Mikoluv. The Eurotrialog Mikulov festival was founded in 1999 with the intent of presenting the best progressive and alternative music acts from Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic. In years since, the festival's reach has extended, embracing acts from the Benelux countries, Poland, Serbia and Switzerland.

This year's Eurotrialog program includes a core of Czech acts including underground legends Plastic People of the Universe (Aug. 13 at midnight) and 1980s post-punk avant-rock champions Už jsme doma (Aug. 14 at 10 p.m.). Midi Lidi (Aug. 13 at 9 p.m.) and Kazety (Aug. 14 at 8:45 p.m.) update the festival's lineup with delicious robotic electronic rock. These potentially edgier musical moments will be softened by the urban acoustic sound of Switzerland's Songs from Utopia (Aug. 13 at 7:20 p.m.), Czech buccaneer folk-rockers Traband (Aug. 13 at 10 p.m.) and the meditative percussion of Poland's Navigatorgong (Aug. 14 at 4:05 p.m.).

As much as the eclectic acts on the bill, the Eurotrialog festival's beautiful locale and relaxed atmosphere provide insights into Central European musical culture that are hard to find elsewhere. Adding to the ambience are independent Moravian wine vendors who augment the usual rock festival fare with well-stocked booths inside the festival grounds.

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at
features@praguepost.com