RESPECT PLUS - world music series in the Akropolis Palace in Prague.
An all year round extension of the RESPECT FESTIVAL.

Programming and production: Rachot Production
Supported by the Municipality of Prague 3, Prague City and Respekt.
Musiciens Sans Frontieres And The Nomad Players

Good music is often born under painful conditions. History tells us how oppressed people and stateless nations contributed to the world culture. The best known examples are blues and gypsy music.
The brotherhood of musicians who innocently became outlaws and refugees is extensive and colourful. The autumn part of the Respect Plus series will expose some of its best masters. The Kurdish singer Sivan Perwer was forced to move to Sweden from his native Turkey, his voice has edge and expressiveness rare on our continent. From the nomad tribes of Sahara come Tinariwen, blending haunting desert rhythms with electric guitars. The gypsy brass band Kočani Orkestar comes from Macedonia; their last show in Prague in 2001 was completely sold out. Musically related Fanfare Ciocarlia play updated Balkan dances like Kalashnikoff with punk rock attitude. The fifth horseman of this musical caravan heads for an imaginary passage: Swiss band The Young Gods will take you to the Amazonia ambiance to meet indigenous healers and shamans.

Ticket office: Ticketpro, Ticketstream, Palác Akropolis

Booking price (standing/gallery):

until 31. 1.

after 1. 2.

 
Tinariwen:
300,-/330,- Kč
350,-/370,- Kč
400,-/430,- Kč

 
Tinariwen /Mali/ Legendary soul rebels from Sahara Desert
22. 4. - 19.30

"When I first heard them, I felt like this was the music I've been looking for all my life," says Robert Plant about these electric nomads from Sahara. Last summer they played at Glastonbury. Their Amassakoul CD was No 1 in the annual European World Music charts for 2004. This January, "poet-guitarists and soul rebels" have won the BBC World Music Award in the Africa Category. "Nurtured in exile, raised in conflict, and driven underground, where they achieved legendary status, Tinariwen are the kind of band that generations of western rebel rockers could only dream of being." - The Guardian (UK) <more>

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
Fanfare Ciocarlia /Romania/ Band of speed Demons
6. 3. - 19.00

A brass band? While the Central European ones preach musical idiocy, their peers on the Eastern side of the continent spark with energy, brisk rhythms, and fire. Their breathtaking music is powered by home-made slivovitz and Gypsy feeling - and there is still more to discover. When the enslavement of Romania's Gypsies ended in 1864, several thousand moved the United States, often settling in the black ghettoes. "Who's to say our cousins who went to the US didn't help invent jazz?" says Ioan, Fanfare Ciocarlia's oldest member. Fanfare's mysteries are unveiled on their new album GILI GARABDI - ANCIENT SECRETS OF GYPSY BRASS, launched at their Prague concert. <more>

 
Majid Bekkas /Maroko/ African Gnawa Blues
26. 2. - 19.30

After Tinariwen from the Sahara, please welcome another master of the Desert blues, Majid Bekkas from Morocco. Centuries ago, his ancestors were brought there as black slaves. Nowadays, Bekkas's soft-voiced "trance music" enchanted audiences at Womex in Sevilla and Grenoble jazz festival. <more>

 

 

2004:
Tinariwen
29. 11. - 19.30

"When I first heard them, I felt like this was the music I've been looking for all my life." says Robert Plant about these electric nomads from Sahara. FRoots magazine comments on Tinariwen: "This is rebel music and it sounds it." This summer they played at Glastonbury and became the most closely watched band from North Africa. Music experts consider them to be the hot candidates for the 2005 BBC World Music Awards. <more>

 
Fanfare Ciocarlia
10. 11. - 19.00

The fastest brass band in the world Fanfare Ciocarlia (130 to 200 bpm) from the village Zece Prejani situated on the Rumanian-Moldavian border is one of the Balkan gypsy brass bands. Their music reflects gypsy, Turkish, Rumanian and klezmer influences. <more>


Amazonia Ambient Project
-The Young Gods & Jeremy Narby
8. 11. - 19.30

The electro-noise terrorists from Geneva moved to ambient. For their new album they collected sounds in Upper Amazonia. In concert the trio is joined by Jeremy Narby, American anthropologist-writer in the rank of Carlos Castaneda and Timothy Leary. The surround sound, seats only performance carries you directly to the heart of shaman culture. <more>

 
Sivan Perwer
13. 10. - 19.30

The master of piercing and outspoken middle-eastern songs Sivan Perwer is arguably the best known Kurd. In past, possession of his recordings was one way ticket to Turkish jail. His land is a forbidden land and he is a forbidden man. Danielle Mitterand says: "Sivan Perwer is a wild flower in an world art garden." <more>

 
Kočani Orkestar
10. 9. - 19.00

The brass band that initiated the current Balkan Brass fever is called Kocani Orkestar. The Underground director Emir Kusturica introduced them in his Balkan epic Time of the Gypsies. They also influenced the soundtrack composer Goran BregoviĆ and played on the anniversary album of their Romanian fellow virtuosi Taraf de Haidouks. <more>

 

 
B'net Marrakech
4. 5. - 19.30

"A 4000 year old rock'n'roll band..." That's how the American beat writer William Boroughs described music of the Morocco Berbers. B'net Marrakech consists of 5 powerful women from the High Atlas hinterland singing, screaming and banging a vast collection of percussion. <more>