The Flowers Of Hell's Czech mates

As a precursor to The Flowers Of Hell's fourth studio album Odes, the Trans-Atlantic space rock orchestra have just released a collaboration with Czech dissident musician Ivo Pospíšil as a free digital single (get it here) along with a video featuring vintage footage of a clandestine 1974 concert in the Czech countryside. The song Muchomůrky Bílé (Destroying Angel) – about eating poisonous mushrooms in the woods – was penned by the Czech philosopher Egon Bondy (1930-2007) and Mejla Hlavsa (1951-2001), the late musical leader of Plastic People Of The Universe, the Velvet Underground-inspired Czech group formed as Soviet tanks rolled into Prague in 1968.

Ivo Pospíšil was a key figure in the Czech avant-rock scene of the the late 60s which was heavily persecuted by the communist party due to fears of a rising underground culture of free expression. The groups were forbidden from rehearsing, performing, or even owning musical equipment, and took to staging fake weddings in the countryside as a way of trying to escape the state’s surveillance. If caught, the secret police would sometimes beat the peaceful crowds with truncheons, setting fire to the farms hosting the illegal gatherings. In a sweep in 1976 they interrogated over 100 fans and arrested and jailed 27 musicians, holding some for six months to four years. To campaign for their freedom, playwright Vaclav Havel (1936-2011) formed Charter 77, a human rights movement that eventually led to the regime being peacefully overthrown in 1989 and Havel becoming president.

Flowers Of Hell mainman Greg Jarvis has a personal connection with the recording project “I lived in Prague during the country’s transformation under Havel in the 90s," he explains "and for me the Velvet Underground influence in our music very much comes via the old Czech dissident scene. I was thrilled when Ivo agreed to sing Muchomůrky Bílé with us after a mutual Czech friend, Ivan Kral (from the Patti Smith Group) helped us reconnect. Ivo had the great idea to duet it with a young Czech singer, Tamara Kubov. The song was co-produced by Jarvis with Peter Moore (Neil Young, Joni Mitchell).

The accompanying video (below) also features the Plastic People’s ideological leader & manager Ivan ‘Magor’ Jirous (1944-2011), picking mushrooms in the final months of his life. In the sixties Magor had been inspired by discussions with beat poet Allen Ginsberg to try and form a ‘second culture’ that might grow and usurp the dominant communist culture. The Flowers Of Hell’s Odes album is due out in late May on Optical Sounds.


Muchomůrky Bílé (Destroying Angel) by The Flowers Of Hell