Interesting albums from the folk and roots music history, by Marius Roeting.
A towering figure: over two meters tall, a physical giant. Guitarist Ingo Bellmann sings, growls, and jokes with his deep, heavy voice. Beside him stands a fragile, somewhat hunched guitarist: Michal Nemec. The trio is completed by energetic percussionist Ivan Podobsky. We’re talking about the Czech trio Jablkon, who delivered a series of unforgettable concerts in the Dutch alternative music scene in the late eighties and early nineties. At that time, music from the Czech Republic was barely known in the Netherlands. Jablkon was pure experimentation: blues, jazz, folk, avant-garde. Classical and traditional themes intertwined and ran alongside each other. A true Czech melting pot. We first encountered the trio — which later expanded into a quartet and quintet — around the time of their third album, Baba Aga. However, the band, formed in 1977, released their debut album, Devátá vlna, in 1988. This album provided an excellent showcase of the group’s capabilities and was re-released in 2003 as a CD with six bonus tracks featuring recordings from before their debut. In this DiscCover, we reintroduce you to that album.
Jablkon – Devátá vlna – Supraphon SU 5365-2 311
01. Baba Aga 2:15
02. Animato 2:59
03. Machalaj 6:59
04. Kolotoč 2:52
05. Chmury 6:32
06. Devátá vlna 3:47
07. Lov na labutě 4:23
08. V bludišti 2:29
09. Smuteční tanec 4:11
10. Pulitr 6:37
11. Bugi 2:46
12. Výtoňské blues 2:58
13. Choros 2:30
14. Dešťové slunce 2:07
15. Jablkoň 1:19
16. ??? 2:06
Track 1,2,3, 10. 15: Ingo Bellmann, Ivan Podobsky, Michal Nemec
Track 4, 6, 8, 9, 12: Ingo Bellmann, Michal Nemec
Track 5: Ingo Bellmann, Ivan Podobsky, Michal Nemec, tekst Zuzana Nemcova
Track 7: Ingo Bellmann, Michal Nemec, tekst Zuzana Nemcova
Track 11: trad, arr Ingo Bellmann
Track 13: Hector Villa Lobos
Track 14: Michal Nemec
