Dunaj -

Dunaj was a Czech art-rock band from Brno that was active for 13 years, starting in 1983. Drummer Pavel Fajt cut two albums circa 1987/88 with Bruntál violinist Iva Bittová. The band’s debut album, Impuls, was recorded in collaboration with the violinist and released in 1989 on Panton. The popular followup, Rosol, appeared in 1991 on Pavián. Three further albums, sans Fajt, were issued between 1993 and 1996 on the Bonton and Rachot Behémót labels.

Members: Iva Bittová (vocals, violin), Pavel Fajt (drums, vocals), Vladimír Václavek (guitar, vocals), Pavel Richter (guitar), Josef Ostransky (guitar, vocals, percussion), Jiri Kolsovsky (vocals, percussion), Zdenek Plachy (keyboards), Pavel Koudelka (drums)

Background

Dunaj formed in October 1987 in Brno when singer Iva Bittová and drummer Pavel Fajt turned the earlier Kolektiv circle into a one-year recording project with singer–guitarist Jiří Kolšovský, bassist–guitarist Vladimír Václavek, guitarist Josef Ostřanský, and guest guitarist Pavel Richter.

The group came out of the Brno Maňana/Kolektiv circle, a shifting early-eighties unit that had used the names Maňana, “bigbít,” and Kolektiv before a pause around the turn of 1984/85. Kolektiv returned at the first Rockfest in 1986 with Bittová, Kolšovský, Ostřanský, Richter, Václavek, and Fajt, then played occasional concerts while its members worked in separate Brno projects.

Bittová was born in Bruntál in 1958 and came from a musical family headed by multi-instrumentalist Koloman Bitto. She studied drama and music at the Brno Conservatory, then worked in Brno theater, radio, television, and film. Bittová resumed formal violin study with Rudolf Šťastný in 1982.

Fajt was born in Brno on December 26, 1957, and studied at the Brno University of Technology. He played in Nucleus and Ještě jsme se nedohodli before he formed the Bittová–Fajt duo with Bittová.

Václavek was born in Brno on December 16, 1959, and had worked with Bittová, Fajt, and Ostřanský in Kolektiv by the middle of the decade. Ostřanský had played guitar in Nucleus, a Brno group formed in 1981 with original material and a shifting lineup. After Kolektiv paused, Václavek and Ostřanský formed E with singer-artist Vladimír Kokolia. Kolšovský had joined the Maňana/Kolektiv circle before the 1986 Rockfest lineup. Richter entered Dunaj as a guest guitarist from the Pavel Richter Band.

Bittová and Fajt recorded the 1987 Panton LP Bittová + Fajt before Panton offered an immediate follow-up album. The duo lacked enough new songs for a second LP and took Kolektiv material to the label. The musicians agreed to use the Dunaj name for a one-year project. Their plan covered several concerts and one Panton album.

Impuls

Iva Bittová & Dunaj released their collaborative debut album, Impuls, in 1989 on Panton. The album pairs singer and percussionist Iva Bittová with singer-guitarist Jiří Kolšovský, guitarist Josef Ostřanský, guitarist Pavel Richter, bassist-guitarist Vladimír Václavek, and drummer Pavel Fajt.

The album blends post-punk guitar figures with angular meter shifts. Bittová clips syllables in a speech-like register, while group chants answer with abrupt figures. Fajt compresses the percussion under short meter pivots, and the guitars cross coarse accents beneath the vocal line.

Impuls contains twelve titles with lyrics mostly by Dunaj-associated lyricist Karel David, who wrote eight texts. Visual artist Vladimír Kokolia wrote “Sen,” while Pavel Fajt wrote “Kobylky” and “Roztočená.” Iva Bittová, Jiří Kolšovský, Fajt, Vladimír Václavek, and Josef Ostřanský supplied the main music credits, with Dušan Svíba joining Bittová, Fajt, and Václavek on “Zrcadlový Sál.”

“Ouvertura” clips its opening figure into a five-beat pattern. “Kaše” pivots between six- and seven-beat figures while Bittová cuts the refrain with quick shifts in tone. “Dunaj” locks Václavek and Bittová into a strange vocal dialogue over five-beat loops. “V Bílém” drops the lead voice against a spare bass motif before the rhythm track enters with an oblique accent pattern. “Bumerang” coils around a marked low-end part, seven-beat motion, and an icy Bittová lead.

“Sen” breaks into separate interior spaces, with sparse chord work under the dream-within-a-dream lyric. “Kobylky” darkens through tense guitar color and repeated insect imagery. “Rukama” slows to arpeggiated acoustic motion and quiet Václavek humming before Bittová enters the refrain. “Roztočená” lurches on a jumping figure while Bittová clips the release command into hard phrase endings. “V Černém” closes in a restrained register, with minimal guitar detail around the lyric image.

A1. “Ouvertura” (1:30)
A2. “Kaše” [Porridge / Mash] (2:29)
A3. “Dunaj” [Danube] (3:02)
A4. “V Bílém” [In White] (4:34)
A5. “Bumerang” [Boomerang] (2:54)
A6. “Sen” [Dream] (2:33)
A7. “Divoká Svině” [Wild Swine] (2:25)

B1. “Zrcadlový Sál” [Mirror Hall] (2:46)
B2. “Kobylky” [Grasshoppers / Locusts] (5:44)
B3. “Rukama” [With Hands] (3:22)
B4. “Roztočená” [Spinning / Set Spinning] (3:45)
B5. “V Černém” [In Black] (3:34)

Lenka Zogatová produced Impuls with recording supervisor František Francl and engineer Luboš Nováček. Vladimír Kokolia illustrated the album, and Růžena Hedrichová oversaw the cover package with typography by Lubomír Červinka.

Rosol

Dunaj released their second album, Rosol, in 1991 on Pavian Records. The quintet performs the album with drummer Pavel Fajt, singer-guitarist Jiří Kolšovský, guitarist Josef Ostřanský, bassist-guitarist Vladimír Václavek, and keyboardist Zdeněk Plachý.

Rosol features tight, low-voiced songs with upfront bass, active percussion, and repeating guitar cells. Dunaj wrote eight of the ten LP-sequenced titles as group compositions. Visual artist Vladimír Kokolia wrote six lyrics, while Václavek wrote “Tichounce.” Brno performance and video artist Tomáš Ruller wrote “Holé hlavy,” and Dunaj-associated lyricist Karel David wrote “Cassiniho dělení.”

“Ouvertura” grinds through percussive accents, a low-end Phrygian figure, and an indistinct vocal shape. “Rosol” locks three-beat and four-beat figures against a six-beat guitar response, with the title language pressed into unsettled polymeter. “Blecha” lurches through a six-beat figure and hides the downbeat inside clipped accents. “Na jih” straps five-beat phrasing to a four-count underlay and turns the cage image into a shifting metric grid.

“Bobřík strachu” hardens around bell-like riffing, rolling interludes, and a third-beat stress in the verse. “Tichounce” sways through a six-beat figure while Kolšovský turns the quiet-sleep text into a shouted upper-register refrain. “Živly” veers between eight-beat and seven-beat phrases, so the rhythm seems to skip under the paranoia text. “Cassiniho dělení” hushes the album into acoustic waltz cadence, with Václavek placed close to the closing vocal line.

A1. “Ouvertura” (3:49)
A2. “Rosol – Jelly” (2:46)
A3. “Blecha – The Flea” (3:30)
A4. “Na jih – Southwards” (3:37)
A5. “Tichounce – Stilly” (6:03)

B1. “Bobřík strachu – Beaver of Fear” (3:53) – Václavek; arr. Dunaj
B2. “Holé hlavy – Bald Heads” (3:29)
B3. “Kejvá – Swings” (4:10)
B4. “Živly – Elements” (3:47)
B5. “Cassiniho dělení – Cassini Division” (3:47) – Kolšovský; arr. Dunaj

Dunaj recorded Rosol in July 1990 at Audio Line in Brno. Engineer Vladimír Holek mixed the album there between December 1990 and January 1991 with assistant Martin Frola. Petr Ferebauer designed the album art.

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