Karel Kryl: Plze 90 – CD

This CD presents a carefully edited radio recording of Karel Kryls return to Czechoslovakia in January 1990, capturing the unique atmosphere of his concerts in Plze after twenty years of enforced absence from the stage. As the country begins recovering from more than four decades of communist rule, Kryls thought-provoking songs take on the perspective of a man who is direct, essentially impossible to categorize and clearly connected to Catholicism. During his demanding domestic tour, he gives two concerts in Plze on 10 and 11 January, alongside a press conference and a late-night jam session with violinist Milan Benedikt Karpek at Hotel Plze. The recording includes songs from Bratku, zavrej vrtka as well as pieces from the albums Rakoviny, Makar and Karavany mrak, spanning the years 1969 to 1979. Kryl also recites his inventive, humour-filled poems and comments on the difficulty of writing cheerful new material. The recording recalls the artistic and social legacy of a singer whose songs had reached receptive hearts since the mid-1960s.