Music Border between the Czech and Slovak Republics Broken Through by Audioport Again

The Audioport project’s goal is to connect the Czech and Slovak progressive music scenes regularly. It is a result of long-term cooperation between Czech Radio and Slovak Radio and TV. Part of the project is the interconnected broadcast of Radio Wave and Rádio_FM, in which the presenters provide a behind-the-scenes view of both stations and focus on both Czech and Slovak culture.

During the whole day of broadcasting in the Prague studio pairs of hosts of both stations presented the programmes: Tereza Havlínková and Dominika Jašková, Jonáš Zbořil and Ego_FM, Veronika Ruppert and Mizzi. In the morning hours the listeners got to know, among other things, the talent-seeking programmes of both stations: Startér and Demovnica. In a duel of music novelties Radio Wave’s music dramaturge. Aleš Stuchlý, battled his Rádio_FM counterpart, Daniel Baláž. Among the notable guests of the Czechoslovak broadcast were, for example, documentary film-makers Zuzana Piussi and Vít Klusák, as well as Petr Čtvrtníček, Táňa Pauhofová and, of course, the bands Deaths and Fallgrapp, whose joint performance in the Bio OKO cinema was the culmination of the Audioport project.

The concert was broadcast live from 8 p.m. on both youth stations of Czech Radio and of Slovak Radio and TV. Almost two hundred audience members came to hear the bands in the cinema and many others could listen to the live show in the Czech and Slovak Republics on Radio Wave and on Rádio_FM. The concert was begun at 8 p.m. by the Slovak band Fallgrapp, who released their critically acclaimed debut album Rieka in March and within Audioport they presented it to the Czech audience for the fist time. After that the representatives of the Czech music scene, the band Deaths, took up their instruments. This four-piece band, led by Igor Bruso from Kamchatka, has more of a global character. They are currently residing in Berlin and during their short but powerful performance they confirmed their ambition to succeed internationally. Czech Radio made an audio as well as video recording of the concert, which will be available on Czech Radio’s YouTube channel and offered to the European Broadcasting Union member stations.

The Audioport that took place on April 16 was the fifth one. The two radio stations first broadcast together in May 2012 and since then nine bands have played on Czech and Slovak stages: Diego, Fiordmoss, Jelly Belly, Kittchen, Katarzia, Bratři Orffové, Tomáš Sloboda and Sounds Like This, and now Deaths and Fallgrapp. Another edition of Audioport will be taking place in Bratislava in the autumn. The music dramaturgy of the concerts is managed by Radio Wave and Rádio_FM.

Deaths (CZ)

The Czech band called Deaths was set up two years ago in Brooklyn, where its singer and composer Igor Bruso had a stint at the New York branch of the Vice magazine. The band, whose original name was Girls On Drugs, reacts in its music to the current wave of synthesizer pop music even though Igor Bruso has rich experience in playing with punk bands. This fact proves that Deaths are not limited by any genre boundaries, which is something that was noted by the music blog The Line Of Best Fit, which ranked Deaths among the bands that are worth following. This January, Deaths played at the Dutch Eurosonic festival, where they were sent as the representatives of the current Czech music scene by Radio Wave.

Fallgrapp (SK)

The electropop band Fallgrapp originated spontaneously in 2012 as a one-man show of Jureš Líška, who first composed all the music and wrote lyrics by himself. In the same year the band won a talent-seeking competition, FattKools. Their song Ľadový útes (Ice Cliff), whose vocal parts were sung by Agáta Siemaszko, was included in Rádio_FM’s broadcast and its score was used in the Czechoslovak UNICEF campaign. In 2013 a new line-up was formed, which played at the Pohoda festival. This March the band released their debut album called Rieka.

Mgr. Tereza M. Krásenská
Spokesperson of Czech Radio
Phone: +420 221 551 221
E-mail: tereza.krasenska@rozhlas.cz