Thirty years of the Indies label clan

Thirty years of the Indies label clan

On Friday 14 February, the Sono Centre in Brno hosted a genre-diversified festival, which was also a celebration of three decades of activity of three publishing branches, which we associate with the original simple name Indies Records. Over the years, Indies Records has divided itself into three separate labels with three distinct edition catalogues – Indies MG, Indies Scope and Indies Happy Trails, which are operated by the personalities of Miloš Gruber, Milan Páleš and Jaromír Kratochvíl.

The initiator of the gala evening was obviously Milan Páleš (Indies Scope), supported by his long-time right hand Přemysl Štěpánek. Thanks to these two propellers and the speaker, a music editor and publicist Milan Tesař from Radio Proglas, we could enjoy for several hours a pleasant atmosphere and unpretentious friendly spirit in a varied genre mix.

indies_30_let_v_Sonu_01_foto_Indies

Since its beginnings, which focused mainly on non-mainstream such as alternative rock and folk scene (wider known names included Psí vojáci and Jáchym, Oldřich Janota, Vladimír Václavek or Iva Bittová), Indies has developed into a wide genre breadth  in which it stands on one side stands  raw, earthy rock alternative, but on the other side nowadays a majority of music with overlaps into classics, jazz, world music or quite popular artists such as Zuzana Navarová, Tata bojs, Traband, Radůza, Hradišťan, Druhá tráva or Petr and Hana Ulrych.

What actually all the titles published by Indies have in common? I think it was nicely expressed at this concert by the vocalist of the band -123 min Zdeněk Bína, whose expression I am paraphrasing here: "Indies release music mainly because they love it and we thank them for it." So this is probably what all those who cooperate with this label feel: The basis of editorial philosophy is not a superficial business and the corresponding marketing, but an effort to spread a good musical message.

indies_30_let_v_Sonu_02_foto_Indies

Several editions have been developed over the years, which can be said to be representative catalogues of Czech music in various genres. The first folklore title V Brně na Špilberku [In Brno at Špilberk] (featuring Hradišťan, Gajdoši Brno and Martin Hrbáč Dulcimer Band) was released in 1996, in the following years two unique titles from Horňácko were released and today we can say that Indies Scope through the eight-part Anthology of Moravian Folk Music provides a unique picture of folk music culture in Moravia. If we add individual titles of individual ensembles (dulcimer bands) to this enumeration, especially from the rich production of Indies Happy Trails by Jaromír Kratochvíl, we have a representative overview that no other Czech or Moravian publisher can match.

Indies Scope is also the most productive publisher of titles in the field of modern folk and world music. It is no coincidence that it is an annual participant in the largest international world music expo WOMEX. It even released the titles of two renowned foreign bands of the genre on the Czech market - the Hungarian Ghymes and the Finnish Värttina.

indies_30_let_v_Sonu_03_foto_Indies

In recent years, Indies Happy Trails has released a unique edition of archive recordings of Czech jazz. Who wants to take a picture of the roots of modern jazz in Czechoslovakia and further refresh the memory of the CD of key Czech jazz albums (with extended cover information), cannot let the Indies Happy Trails catalogue go amiss.

Friday evening at Sono offered symbolically a bit of everything you can find at Indies – Bombarďák for children and adults, representatives of the world music scene BraAgas, folk music Martina Trchová and Adam Kubát, folk band Kubíci from Horňácko, folk-rock Květy, bluesrock Band of Heysek, rap-rock Nuck Chorris Gang, jazz-rock-blues trio -123 min, mostly female alternative Zuby nehty and other artists.

At the concert there was also available a thematic issue of the culture magazine UNI 02/20, which, in addition to comprehensive summarising articles and interviews with the publishing trio, also featured the results of an opinion poll in which editor-in-chief Ondřej Bezr addressed forty music journalists and critics asking to choose ten, in their opinion the best, titles released by Indies. I will not reveal everything, but at least these: The first place has been taken  by the CD Bittová & Václavek: Bílé inferno, the second by Zuzana Navarová & Koa for her CD Barvy všecky and the third by Hradišťan with their album O slunovratu. In the top ten we can also find Psí vojáci, Radůza, Traband, the duo Tara Fuki, but also an Anthology of Moravian Music.

Good job, dear colleagues from Indies! And a lot of zest in the years to come!

Photo by Indies

Comments

Reply

No comment added yet..

The Brno Philharmonic's New Year's concert on 1 January at the Janáček Theatre is already a well-established tradition. This year was no exception, and the orchestra, led by conductor Michel Tabachnik, gave a performance consisting mainly of works by Johann Strauss the Younger. This was the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra's show opening the 'Strauss Year'. After all, 2025 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the composer, dubbed the king of waltzes. Strauss's compositions were accompanied by works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Richard Strauss and Dimitri Shostakovich.  more

"Culture is a Bridge" was the theme of the second Czech-Austrian Partnership Concert, held on Friday, 20 December at Schloss Thalheim. It was the final evening of the 5th year of the pan-European project Czech Dreams 2024, and also part of the celebrations of the Year of Czech Music and the Concentus Moraviae international music festival. Culture is a bridge that connects not only different generations and social classes, but also entire nations. And the Czech Dreams project, which in 2024 alone presented music by Czech composers in 25 European cities in 17 different countries, is an eloquent example of this. In December alone, besides the final concert in Austria, six more concerts were performed in southern Europe, from Amarante in Portugal to Varaždin in Croatia. The concert was dedicated to the Lower Austrian Governor Erwin Pröll, who has long been committed to building and deepening relations between the Czech Republic and Austria.  more

Christmas in Brno also means the traditional pre-Christmas concert of the Brno Contemporary Orchestra (BCO), this time entitled From America to Tuřany. It took place on 18th December and after a one-year break it returned to the Sokol Hall in Tuřany. The BCO, conducted by Pavel Šnajdr, performed works by Mauricio Kagel, Steve Reich, Trevor Grahl and, as always, Miloslav Kabeláč. Appearing together with the orchestra were four singers, Aneta Podracká BendováKornél MikeczMichal Kuča and Martin Kotulan. At the end of the first half, Pavel Šnajdr set aside his baton and clapped the beat, joined by Petr Hladíkmore

The now world-famous Swedish band Dirty Loops finished their autumn European tour on Saturday, 30 November at Brno's Metro Music Bar. The band featured on the programme of the seventeenth annual Groove Brno funk, soul and jazz festival. The virtuoso trio, consisting of Jonah Nilsson - vocals and keyboards, Henrik Linder - bass guitar and Aron Mellergård - drums, are famous for their flawless technical proficiency, sophisticated original compositions and cover versions of well-known numbers, especially pop songs. However, these songs are often reharmonised in their arrangements and the style is more a combination of disco, pop and jazz fusion. To avoid having to resort to using pre-recorded backing tracks, the trio was joined on tour by keyboardist and vocalist Kristian Kraftlingmore

Ensemble Opera Diversa put a distinctive "spin" on its last orchestral concert of the year. It took place on 26 November at the Alterna music club, which is more a rock, electronica and indie pop hangout than an artistic music venue. The pair of selected pieces consisting of Vojtěch Dlask's premièred work Querell Songs for soprano saxophone and strings and Miloslav Ištvan's Hard Blues for pop-baritone, soprano, reciter and chamber ensemble also reflected this. Naturally, it was Ištvan's Hard Blues that gave the evening its name - the clash of the artistic, composed and purposefully "artistic" world (not meant pejoratively) with authentic African-American musical expressions springing from the depths of the soul of a man tested by life formed as the centre of the evening. This was not merely a stylistic inspiration, but more thematic, which was also evident in the opening piece of the evening. This was the composition Querelle Songs, inspired by Jean Genet's novel, previously dedicated to Ensemble Opera Diversa, but this time in a new instrumentation.  more

Leoš Janáček's (1854-1928) Moravian national opera Jenůfa was brought to Brno for the Janáček Brno 2024 festival by the Moravian Theatre Olomouc in a co-production with the Janáček Opera NdB. Rather than using the Czech title Její pastorkyňa, the production team, headed by director Veronika Kos Loulová, decided to stage the work as Jenůfa, the name under which it is performed abroad. On Wednesday, 20 November, five days after its première in Olomouc, the audience at the Mahen Theatre could also see the latest domestic take on Janáček's most widely performed opera. The musical staging of the significantly modified original version from 1904 was the work of conductor Anna Novotná Pešková, and the main roles were played by Barbora Perná (Jenůfa), Eliška Gattringerová (Kostelnička), Josef Moravec (Laca Klemeň) and Roman Hasymau (Števa Buryja).  more

The office of Brno - UNESCO City of Music, with the financial support of the South Moravian Region, presents a line-up of active folklore groups (ensembles, chasers, musics) in the Brno region as part of the Year of Folklore Ensembles.  more

Trumpeter Jiří Kotača founded the big band Cotatcha Orchestra ten years ago. Nowadays, he performs a variety of programmes ranging from the most traditional jazz to a visionary fusion of jazz and electronica. We chatted with Jiří Kotača about how the orchestra has gradually developed, how the original repertoire is blurring the boundaries between jazz and electronica, and also about what fans can expect from the November concert to celebrate the orchestra's 10th anniversary. We also talk about Kotača's International Quartet, as well as how the trumpet and flugelhorn can be enriched with effects.  more

On Saturday, 24 August, the Korean radio orchestra KBS Symphony Orchestra with its musical director - Finnish conductor and violinist Pietari Inkinen - came to Brno's Špilberk Festival with an exclusively romantic repertoire. The invitation was also accepted by South Korean violinist Bomsori Kim, a graduate of the prestigious Julliard School.  more

For a quarter of a century now, the Brno Philharmonic has been organising the Špilberk Festival at the end of August in the courtyard of the castle of the same name. Four open-air musical evenings offer the audience a selection of concerts featuring classical, film and computer music, as well as often jazz and other genres. This makes it a diverse mix of performers and repertoires with an often pleasant, summery, laid-back ambience. This year's big and rapdily sold-out attraction was the Wednesday evening of 21 August, full of melodies from the James Bond films, performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, headed by world-renowned conductor, composer and arranger Steven Mercurio. During the concert, the audience also got to enjoy singers Sara MilfajtováVendula Příhodová and David Krausmore

As part of its European tour, the Taiwanese Taipei Philharmonic Chamber Choir (TPCC), under the direction of artistic director and choirmaster Dr. YuChung Johnny Ku, took the city up on its invitation and visited Brno. The concert was held on Monday, 13th August in the hall of the newly renovated Passage Hotel.  more

The final concert of this year's season of the Brno Philharmonic was devoted to works by Antonín Dvořák and Jean Sibelius at the Janáček Theatre. On Thursday, 20 June, Danish conductor Michael Schønwandt, who had not appeared before a Brno audience since January last year, took the lead of the Philharmonic. In the first half of the programme, the orchestra was accompanied by violinist Alexander Sitkovetskymore

In the spirit of the idea that Brno and folklore belong together, the Folklore Ensemble Happening of the Year took place on Thursday 6 June. The event was organised by the Brno UNESCO City of Music Office in cooperation with the Brno Dances and Sings association. The event thus became part of a long-term project that set out to map the amateur music scene in Brno, and not only folk music. Last year Brno City of Music reached out to choirs in a similar way, and in the future will host garage bands and more. This just goes to prove the diversity of Brno's music scene, not only as regards professional ensembles, but also enthusiastic amateurs for whom music is an inseparable part of their lives.  more

The Brno Dances and Sings Association and TIC Brno organised the 49th annual Brno Dances and Sings show on 6 June. The programme, concentrated into a single day, was busier than in previous years. The subtitle Year of Folklore Ensembles was borrowed from the project of the same name organised by the Brno UNESCO City of Music Office.  more

A year ago we would have found an Asian market in the New Synagogue in Velké Meziříčí. However, the town decided to buy the building and has started to make more fitting and dignified use of it. On Wednesday 5 June, during the ongoing Concentus Moraviae festival, audiences could visit this heritage site and enjoy a chamber concert by singer and violinist Iva Bittová and her women's choir Babačka, featuring musicians Jakub Jedlinský (accordion) and Pavel Fischer (violin).  more

Editorial

The Brno Philharmonic has announced that due to the illness of Robert Kružík, Leoš Svárovský will take up the baton for Thursday's Concert with Laureates.  more

The production team and soloists will appear in a pre-première preview of the new production of Puccini's opera Manon Lescaut. The preview will take place at the Janáček Theatre and can also be watched online.  more

Iggy Mayerov kicks off 2025 with a new single, Feels Like Yesterday, offering an intimate look at life's losses and changes, and the path to come to terms with what we can't control. The single is currently available on YouTube as a recording of a live concert from the Brno Alterna club, and is a precursor to his upcoming album.  more

Brno's Pop Messe music festival, which showcases the contemporary foreign and domestic electronic, rap, pop and indie scene, has come up with the first confirmed names for next year's event. For the first time ever, Brno will be hosting dance club legend Orbital, one of the most influential producers of our time Danny L Harle, who has produced albums by Caroline Polachek and written hits for Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Tommy Cash and Rina Sawayama, as well as Leon Vynehall and Batu, top names on the British DJ scene, and American hyperpop duo Frost Children, Toccororo, the queen of the Spanish club scene, Polish electronic duo Wczasy, the five-member Parisian collective 15 15 aka Quinze Quinze, who mix global underground culture with Tahitian roots, French dance duo Atoem, and Mikuláš Příhoda aka Kewu, whose set will feature the Czech-Slovak ballroom dancers Viktor Velvet and the Kiki Dancers collective.  more

Planes from all over the world have been landing in Brno Tuřany for seventy years now, but there hasn't been a single direct flight from America. The Brno Contemporary Orchestra decided to make up for this symbolic deficit with a concert entitled From America to Tuřany. And it's in just the right Christmas spirit. The ensemble will transform the Tuřany Sokol hall into the heart of the Euro-American world. It will be filled with Argentine rhythms, minimalism, a postmodern waltz and unorthodox carols.  more

The Leoš Janáček Foundation, the Society of Friends of the NdB and the JAMU Faculty of Music invite you to a discussion with singer and teacher Natalia Romanová. The event will take place in the Mozart Hall of the Reduta Theatre.  more

The management of the Brno Philharmonic is holding an audition for a player in the 2nd violin group (tutti). The expected starting date is 1 September 2025.  more

This evening from the Eyes of Brno series will be dedicated to Jana Kosíková, a long-time soloist of the NdB Ballet. Visitors can get a glimpse into the world of this successful prima ballerina and her career.  more

The Janáček Opera of the National Theatre Brno is holding an audition for a second bass for its opera chorus. Full-time position.  more

Dušan Holý has passed away

3 January 2025, 10:00

Dušan Holý, professor at the Institute of European Ethnology, Faculty of Arts, MU, singer, ethnologist and musicologist, has died at the age of 91.  more