Zdeněk Kluka

Zdeněk Kluka (born 1947 in Brno) is one of the most prominent figures in the Czechoslovak music scene. He began learning music in childhood, studying the accordion and later the piano and singing, although he is a self-taught drummer. In the late 1960s, he played with the band Vulkán before founding and leading Atlantis. In 1968, he co-founded The Progress Organization with Pavel Váně, one of the first major bands in Czech art rock. After a break of several years, the group returned as Progres 2, and Kluka has remained with the band throughout its subsequent history to this day. As a drummer, singer, composer and longtime bandleader, he contributed to projects including Dialog s vesmírem, Třetí kniha džunglí, Mozek and Změna!, as well as the 2018 album Tulák po hvězdách. For Kluka, Progres 2 has never been just a band, but one of the fundamental creative environments in which his approach to music took shape.

From the late 1970s onwards, he became increasingly involved in composing music for theatre. He worked closely with Divadlo Husa na provázku for many years, while also writing music for other theatre companies and television. This work gave him experience in creating music that does not exist in isolation, but in relation to a story, words, a situation or an image. This experience later became an important part of his approach to composition.

In 1999, he ventured into the world music scene with the band Čankišou. Here, too, he found himself in an environment markedly different from Progres 2. What mattered to him was not only the change in musical language, but also the opportunity to work with younger musicians and experience their energy. Kluka has often said that he can learn from younger bandmates and that their different ways of thinking about music enrich him. Čankišou also gave him the opportunity to play instruments other than drums and broaden his musical expression.

Kluka's openness to different musical experiences has endured with age. In 2026, for example, he made a one-off appearance in the project Kluka, Kluka, Heřman, which brought him together with his son Jan Kluka and singer Karel Heřman at the Maraton hudby festival in Brno. The trio combined rock with world music, building their performance primarily around an energetic rhythmic foundation. It was neither a new phase in Kluka's career nor the beginning of another permanent band. Rather, it was a small but telling example of someone who, after decades on the scene, continues to explore what can emerge from a new musical encounter.

Over almost six decades, Zdeněk Kluka has moved through several very different musical worlds. He has remained a drummer, singer and composer, adapting his experience to each new environment. Kyvadlo is the first album on which he brings this long journey together under his own name.