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Written in fRoots issue 275, 2006
 

RADŮZA
V Hore
Indies MAM 260-2 (2005)

The first few tracks of this pigeonhole Radůza as an accordion-playing Czech songwriter in a cabaret-chanson style with a powerful, deep voice almost in a Marlene Dietrich range and a wild energy.
      But as the album progresses through twenty-one songs, each substantial and memorably different from its predecessor, evoking Brel, Weill, Italian folksong, reggae, hocketing-yodel, plainsong and more, and sung mainly in Czech, but also in French, Polish, Italian and Russian, it becomes clear why in the last couple of years she’s become quite a phenomenon in her home country. She showed up as Czech radio’s contribution at the EBU folk producers’ gathering which was part of Førde festival in 2003, and made a considerable impression, a striking accordion-wielding figure, tomboyish and suntanned in jeans and halter-top. Indeed one song here is about Førde, and includes a line in Norwegian. This album jumped even higher in the Czech charts than its 2003 predecessor, and she’s picked up a shelf of music industry awards and her first film role.
      If that success suggests glitziness or blanding-out, far from it. The production is very direct and uncluttered, the accompaniments consisting of just her accordion, with occasional touches of whistle or mbira, with for a third of the tracks three other musicians on guitar, double bass, violin or harp.
      It says a lot about musical sensibilities in the Czech Republic that an artist this boldly intelligent and multifaceted has become so well appreciated.
      V Hore (‘In A Mountain’) and earlier Radůza albums are available in the UK from Passion Music, www.passiondiscs.co.uk.


© 2006 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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