Vladimír Merta duo: 80

Description

The cornerstone of Czech songwriting, Vladimír Merta, celebrated his eightieth birthday this January and is returning to Divadlo 29! He has released around forty music albums and a dozen books of various genres. Music journalist Pavel Klusák wrote about him: “Merta has pushed the possibilities of Czech song to the limits of the essay. He knows how to balance depth with playfulness and a firmly structured composition of improvisations, where he risks everything.” The foundation of his current concert playlist consists mainly of cult songs from the 70s and 80s. Among others, Astrolog, Omamná květina, Chtít chytit vítr, and Harmonie will be performed, accompanied alternately by piano and the second guitar of Ondřej Fencl. Vladimír Merta's first album, Ballades de Prague, was released in 1969 by the French company Vogue. However, further publishing opportunities were severely limited by the regime's repression. In the 70s and 80s, he became a key icon of Czech songwriting. Practically everything he touched was enthusiastically received by local critics. His strong poetic lyrics and unique guitar playing earned Merta the status of a distinctive musician who cannot be tied down by anyone. However, he had to wait until 1978 for his first official domestic album, and ten years later, a raw live double album recorded at Malostranská beseda was released. Only after 1989 could Merta fully dedicate himself to publishing, film directing, and concerting. Among the many activities of Vladimír Merta, we mention his collaboration with the Jewish song ensemble Mišpacha, baroque and renaissance music played with Jana Lewitová, and cooperation with Mišík's Etc…, which resulted in the unusually melodic CD Ponorná řeka and the albums Domilováno (2013) and Imagena (2014) with David Landštof, Josef Štěpánek, Jan Štolba, and other elite musicians in the accompanying studio band. Currently, he is working on a solo album series titled Nejisté jistoty (to be released gradually from 2024 to 2027). At the concert, Vladimír Merta will be accompanied by pianist, guitarist, and singer Ondřej Fencl. He has been the frontman of the folk-rock band Hromosvod for thirty years and collaborates with Luboš Pospíšil, Václav Koubek, and the band Schodiště. The duo Merta / Fencl has been performing together for nearly fifteen years and has completed a good three hundred joint concerts.