Eagle-eyed Twitter followers may have spotted some recent mentions of ‘Czech folktronica’ round these parts.
It’s potentially the sub-genre to end all sub-genres, but hopefully not too hard a sell to readers of the Tidal Wave of Indifference.
Surely not, when a band like Fiordmoss is its finest exponent. Well by ‘finest’ we mean ‘only one that we know of’, but what a splendid act they are.
The Brno based duo of Petra Hermanová (guitar/vocals) and Roman Přikryl (synths/programming) have just made their debut EP Gliese available for free download, and don’t worry if you’re the kind of person who prefers dubbed films to subtitled, all vocals are in English.
It’s is six tracks of wonderful folky guitar rounded out by Petra’s soothing voice and some light beats and snyths. Think Meursault fronted by Hope Sandoval or a more exotic Tunng and you’re probably getting there. Track seven (Symmetric Sea) is more than 20 minutes of waves gently lapping on a beach and is a nice mellow way to finish off the record.
There’s also a cheeky wee cover in there – Your Face by the Frames. Now if you’ve been paying attention and have seen the Oscar-winning Irish film Once, surely one of the great modern love stories, you’ll surely be thinking “Frames? Czechs? Once!”
Bizarrely though while the film stars chief Frame Glen Hansard alongside Czech songstress Markéta Irglová, the connection with Fiordmoss is a complete coincidence, but songs like Cold Night match that film’s gong-snaffling signature tune Falling Slowly for beauty and melody every step of the way.
Petra takes us through the band’s history below.
So who the hell are you?
We are two art students that met in 2008 and after seeing our room burn in a midnight fire, we decided to make music together – because all of our music gear from previous bands and projects was burnt that night. Currently we are three, as we are touring with a guitarist – a friend – who replaced me when I started having troubles with my hand preventing me from playing (Petra has since been diagnosed with tendonitis).
Describe your sound in ten words or less!
Cold-blooded electrofolk with strong stories being told!
What are your key influences?
This is a part of the band’s concept – our influences are very different and we use this contrast to define our sound. Roman comes from an electronic music background and used to be a jungle and electro DJ back in the days. Some of the things he likes are Aoki Takamasa or Matthew Herbert. And I’m from the classic rock star world and listened to things like PJ Harvey, Mad Season or Pink Floyd.
How did you find yourselves covering a Frames song?
We wanted to include a cover on the album and The Frames were a natural choice. I met Glen Hansard in 2001 and we’ve been friends since. It was under his influence when I started to write my first songs at the age of 14, and he was one of the few people that received a tape of them. So this was a way to say thank you for everything. And that song is beautiful.
Tell me about the last song on Gliese… I’ve found myself falling asleep to it more than once!
Well that’s nice to hear actually… we are often told that people appreciate it for cleaning their minds after all that music! We just wanted to include this soothing sound in there. We could listen to this anytime. The album dives in it because if you notice the first song begins with something very similar.
What made you give away the EP for free?
We didn’t want to make money from it in the first place. We wanted people to listen to it anywhere in the world and the easiest way to do this is to give it for free and put it online. And by the way, we have a limited series of 500 real CDs hand packed in a folded poster that we sell at the concerts or send them after mail inquiries… And that way people express their support to us. They are telling us they downloaded it, loved it and now want to have a souvenir. Or that they loved the concert and want to take us home with them. This way it works today. People have to hear it first, fall in love and then they buy it. It is not in the reverse order anymore, especially if you’re a band that hasn’t been around for a very long time.
Was there ever any doubts over the band’s future with your tendonitis?
We never thought it might end completely. At the beginning we just waited to see if it went away, and when nothing happened we invited a friend to record the album for us. I hoped to be fit for the tour and when this didn’t happen either we invited another friend, Jan Boroš, who is still with us. And the hand is still not okay, so we know we have to deal with it somehow. We agreed to change the way we work, which might be a good thing after all. Bringing other people into the band for a while seems a good thing, too, it brought some freshness in thinking. So we try to take it as a lesson, an opportunity to make things differently.
Are you planning a full length follow-up any time soon?
Sure thing, when we come up with a new way for me to write songs, we will start working again. In fact we’ve already started to play new things, but we are still touring so it is not a concentrated album work at this time.
Any plans to bring your music to the UK?
We wish to come and if someone wants us to play, there’s nothing easier than contacting us through http://www.bumbumsatori.org which is our booking agency. We are currently touring Czech Republic but there are some plans for abroad.
If the Tidal Wave of Indifference could afford it we’d fly Fiordmoss over to play our front ro… uhhh, office, office. But for now we’ll have to content ourselves with listening to Gliese on a loop. We strongly suggest you take the time to listen to their music too. Here’s a wee taster – the video for Tigermy
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