Hradišťan

of modern folk songs. Hradistan perform all of these with skill and infectious enthusiasm transporting you on a roller-coaster ride through the bittersweet history of this enchanting corner of Eastern Europe.
Biography by Andy Morgan, June 2001

The HRADISTAN Folk Music and Dance Ensemble was founded in the ancient Moravian town of Uherské Hradiste in 1950 with the goal of preserving the traditional folk music of the South Moravian region. In 1975 Jirí Pavlica, aged 21, became the artistic director of this cimbalom band and began to approach folk music in an innovative and challenging way. Pavlica has reached back into Moravia´s distant past, and the CDs which continue to appear at a remarkable rate span many centuries of human expression: from pagan chants to early Christian choirs, from mustering dances during the Napoleonic wars to modern folk songs such as Slaughtering the Ram. "Each of us comes from a certain place and each of us carries a piece of his home along throughout his life."