Slovakia - Part I

 We arrive in Slovakia on our virtual musical tour of the world, the first country I am covering, which I haven't yet actually been to.  As Slovakia only sprang into existence in 1993, I really don't know that much about it, although having met quite a few Slovakians, they seem a cheerful and open lot and their women are beautiful (I had a brief fling with a Slovakian girl called Gabriela back in 1987...).

Onto their music, traditional music is still kept very much alive and they even have their own national instrument, the fujara, a large sophisticated folk shepherd's overtone fipple flute.  So we'll start this post with a song played on it by a guy called Jan Hanuska.  I don't know much about him or where exactly he came from, but this piece was recorded in 1930 and appeared on a now unavailable compilation of fujara music.  It's a beautifully hypnotic sound.

Pan-European collective Angrusori is a collaboration between traditional Slovakian Gypsy musicians from the Košice area and Norwegian experimental music outfit Kitchen Orchestra from Stavanger, brought together by Norwegian composer Henrik Asheim and Czech singer and composer Iva Bittová.  The collaboration started in 2016 as an inter-cultural exchange between 2 cultural centres and venues in their respective cities and has now resulted in a band with their first recording Live at Tou out earlier this year.  The songs are all traditional songs of the Roma community and are seldom heard outside their circle.  Here's a song from that album called Chude man vaststar:

Moving onto the city of Prešov, where folk rock band Hrdza was formed in 1999.  They have had some success mostly in Slovakia itself.  Their songs combine eastern European songs on acoustic instruments with elements of rock and pop.  Occasionally they veer more towards pop, but the more folky songs work well, such as this song called Stefan off their latest 2019 album Neskrotený:

From the urban centres of Eastern Slovakia we are heading deep into the countryside to the Horehronie region in Central Slovakia, or more specifically to the small village of Val'kovňa, where traditional Roma band Pokošovci are based.  The family ensemble (3 brothers, a cousin and a family friend) are keeping the gypsy traditions of this region alive, playing at weddings and other regional festivities.  Here's a track from their 2019 double album L'udová hudba Pokošovci 2 called Khatar me phirava:

Moving on to the city of Nitra in western Slovakia, where the members of Hungarian folk fusion band Ghymes met in 1984.  They consist of a group of Hungarians from varying musical backgrounds who blend Hungarian and Central-Eastern European folk with elements of Rock and Jazz and other global influences.  Here's a song from their 1998 album Rege (Legend) called Tánc a hóban (Dance in the snow) with a beautiful tango dance routine:

Another traditional instrument of Slovakia apparently is the Ruthenian mouth harp.  Self-proclaimed hooligan folk band Varkocs from Šamorín on Rye Island (an area between the Danube, Little Danube and Váh rivers in Western Slovakia) have made the mouth harp or jaw harp central to their music.  Band founder Erik Turtev set out in 2018 collecting ancient jaw harp songs from all the ethnic groups found in and around Slovakia and giving them a modern, pagan folk style interpretation, often interspersed with archive recordings of the originals.  Unfortunately they don't appear to have recorded any albums yet, but their live acts seem great fun and they have brought out numerous videos.  Here are a couple of them:

That's it from Slovakia for the time being, next we'll head to the capital Bratislava.  Until then you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map as usual.