The first track and the start of our new free download series: Daniel Holmes´ “Madonna a dítě (II)” shows off with its stumbling percussion. The vocal sample from an old czechoslovakian record darkens the sky for a second before the organic grooving bass meets synthesizers and beats to illuminate the shade and leads us to a brighter and powerful climax.

The a capella vocal line was recorded by James McNeish in South Moravia in 1966 using a portable Nagra II. "Orphan´s Lullaby" - a narrative lullaby, of a type rare in western Europe, in which the grief of a child is paramount:
"My father has died, my mother has died, who's going to cradle me, while I'm small? There's a cot in the tree and a girl wrapped in waddings, my mother is lying in her grave and she knows nothing of this, or of me."

From the original liner notes (Folk Music of Czechoslovakia - Argo LP): `... in these areas is a complex of regional expression, enriched by western and eastern cultures, sufficient to occupy a team of ethno-musicologists for a lifetime. Czech and Slovak history, never a homogeneous thing, is a curious jointing of peoples, cultures and religion. The music often reflects this, often in unexpected ways. Hybrid plants produce the strangest fruit.´