Martin Kratochvil
THE ELECTRONIC MUSIC
IN EASTER EUROPE
Chapter 5
By: Jorge Munnshe
It is impossible to attempt to compress the musical universe
enclosed behind the iron curtain by decades in a single mini-series. A basic approach to
the reality of the musical avantgardein each one of the multiple, rich cultures of this
great unknown which is Eastern Europe, nowadays in full development, would need the making
of a book. Therefore, this mini-series will only be a brief vision, perforce incomplete,
of these innovative styles sustained on cultures maybe as ancient or even more so than
those in the rest of Europe.
CZEH REPUBLIC / SLOVAKIAN REPUBLIC (FORMERLY CZECHOSLOVAKIA)
The first name that easily comes to mind is that of the well known musician Jan Hammer, who
nevertheless had to develop his career in the United States, and who is above all known thanks to
his Pop side.
Martin Kratochvil
With the political changes that ended up with the division of Czechoslovakia into the Czeh and the
Slovakian Republics, a very important culture of new musics emerged. Although before that
happened, something was known about it, basically through the Festival of New Music in Prague,
and the scene of progressive Rock that transcended abroad, the great variety and wealth of their
new musics has surprised the Western countries quite a lot. Some of these artists enjoy international
recognition.
Coming from the scholarly spheres, Rudolf Ruzicka, is a composer who has combined the teaching
of music with composition. He is one of the many electronic pioneers unknown in the Western
countries. Already in 1965, he made music using a computer. He has written numerous pieces for
orchestra and synthesizers, and was awarded several international prizes in 1970 and 1984. He has
published a book on the use of computers in artistic tasks. He told me that at the time of its
publication it was the only existing book written in the Czeh language describing computer
composition in full detail.
Synthesist Otakar Olsanik could be considered as a completely different case from Rudolf Ruzicka,
as he comes from Rock, is self-taught, and nevertheless he enjoys the same prestige as an artist and
pioneer. Furthermore, his life has been quite exciting indeed. Meaningfully enough, he told me
that he had no idea where to start narrating me his life experiences. His education in electronics
served him to become one of the members of the first Czeh band that used electric guitars
(Electrofonic), which he recorded several albums with, besides engaging in a variety of tours in
Czechoslovakia. Later, he left for the Scandinavian countries as a guitarist for a Rock band, and he
began his solo career after building a studio with Norwegian technology. He achieved a great
success, as his music could be heard on an almost daily basis. Nowadays he spends five months a
year in Norway, works with computers and samplers, and makes movie soundtracks, even though
from time to time he also composes a Pop song for his wife Kamila, who is a singer. He has
participated in the Austrian festival of computer music and the interactive arts, Ars Electronica. It
was there where I knew about him for the first time.
Born in 1955, Jan Jirasek studied piano and composition. Later he also studied electroacoustic
music, under Rudolf Ruzicka. He explained me that after graduating, he suffered from a sort of
boycott on the part of the government, due to his political opinions. As a consequence of this fact, the artistic recognition of his music had to come to him exclusively
from abroad, until he could succeed in being taken out of this black list. His activities range from
the composition of movie soundtracks to the research of new forms of music. The Institute of
Technoculture in Paris has released some of his studios. The Radio of Munich has played concerts
of music written by him. Since 1990 he has been the director of the Experimental Studio of the
Czeh-Slovakian Radio, in Prague.
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