Vladimír Merta: Concert to Mark his 70th Birthday and New Album Podkrovní pásky

Guests at the birthday concert of Vladimír Merta in the Mersey Club in Brno will include violinist Jan Hrubý and pianist and guitarist Ondřej Fencl.

On the occasion of his big life anniversary, Vladimír Merta released a four-record album Podkrovní pásky (Attic Tapes), a limited edition of his famous homemade recordings from 1976. Some of the songs in this collection, as well as other iconic songs from the 1970s and 1980s such as Astrolog (Astrologist), Omamná květina (Intoxicating Flower), Chtít chytit vítr (Trying to Catch Wind), Vzdálené výstřely (Shots in the Distance), Praha magická (Magical Prague), Staré dopisy (Old Letters), K pětadvaceti (For the 25), Začouzené sklíčko (Smoky Glass), Harmonie (Harmony), Sjezd upírů (Vampire Convention) will also be played at the concert in Brno. During the concert, the singer will be accompanied by his long-time colleague Jan Hrubý and Ondřej Fencl, with whom Merta has mainly been collaborating recently. The concert will take place on 11 April at 8:00 p.m. in the Mersey Club in Brno.

Vladimír Merta is one of the most important songwriters of the normalization period. He was born on 20 January 1946, graduated from an architecture programme at the Czech Technical University and then from a screenwriting and directing programme at FAMU. He began composing songs during his studies in France in the late 1960s where he also released his first LP Ballades de Prague with the French company Vogue. His first solo album released at home P.S. was released in 1978. Then, Merta was prohibited from releasing music, he also had problems with holding concerts, therefore it was not possible to release the next record (EP Vybraná slova / Selected Words) until ten years later. It was followed by two live concert albums Vladimír Merta 1 and Vladimír Merta 2 (1989), then LPs and CDs with older recordings as well as new pieces. Merta frequently collaborated with musicians from other genres. For example, he recorded the CD Ponorná řeka / Lost River (2011) with ETC. Songs from recent years are recorded on albums Domilováno (2013) and Imagena (2014). During the time of the prohibitions, Vladimír Merta worked for television and film. He came back to film work in the 1990s and filmed the occasional programme Dírou v kytaře (Through a Hole in the Guitar) and a three-part series Šedá zóna (Grey Zone) for Česká televize (Czech Television).