Czech Music Reinventing folk music with the Moberg Ensemble
...and I felt happy within these songs, in which sorrow is not reckless, laughter is not crooked, love is not ridiculous and hate is not apprehensive, where people love with their bodies and souls, where they draw knives or sabres in hatred, dance in joy, throw themselves into the Danube in despair, where, for that matter, love is still love and pain is still pain, where the original emotion is not yet devoid of itself and where values are still unravaged; and it seemed to me that within these songs I was at home, that I had my roots in there. That their world was my primal point of reference... Milan Kundera, The Joke. Affection for old folk songs among the Czech urban population is common even four decades after first publication of Milan Kundera's The Joke, but unfortunately village folk music is becoming more scarce. Several generations of musicians have tried to bring it new life. Some of them have updated folk songs with electric guitars, some have fused local tradition with other world cultures. But I cannot think of any Czech or Moravian band with a sound quite like that of the Moberg Ensemble. Their music was born from sheer enchantment, and matured for twenty years. Their leader, Petr Laurych, explains:
Moberg Ensemble
Back
