Pavel Klusák: "My Country" remixed
It took me over a year to turn the initial "idea" for this project into reality. I was constantly buying old vinyl LP recordings of Smetana's "My Country" in second-hand stores. At a certain discount bookseller, I encountered suspicious-looking, somewhat shabby CD versions from the Netherlands, UK and Slovakia. When they refused to buy my old pop music records at a second-hand store, I suggested trading them for a recording of "My Country", and they accepted. My father gave me some sheet music for Christmas.
All recordings offer endless possibilities for sound manipulation. I hoped that, by modifying Smetana's recordings, I would learn something original about "My Country" and about the changes that have taken place between today and the time in which it was composed. The only source of sound for the "remix" (like many other disciplines, remixing needs to be seen with an open mind) were my LPs and CDs containing "My Country". In the end, I did not use a third medium (cassette tapes) within the short recording time of twenty minutes. At several moments, the original material can be clearly identified. At other points, this is more difficult, and in the end Smetana's music dissolves into the universal sound of clear waves and noises which all the music of the world have in common. Did the combination of Smetana and computer software lead me to some kind of metaphor? "Vyšehrad" streams unevenly in all directions because there is no uniform view of history, music, Smetana... Then there is the scrap metal music of "today's" Tábor, for which there is no fixed tune or heroic aggrandizement... Are we waiting for some myth to act as a key to both past and present? Is not the pause between two movements a form of music in its own right, an intoxicating solo of free sound?
This experiment, which I consider unfinished, would not have happened without the musical encouragement provided to me in recent years by John Oswald, Matthew Herbert, Matmos and many others. I worked mostly using Super Collider software. The vinyl passages were recorded by Birds Build Nests Underground, probably the very first avant-garde turntablist ensemble in the Czech Republic. I would like to thank sound master Václav Flegl, Jr. from Soundsquare studio for his cooperation and a few ideas. My thanks also go to Michal Rataj for his adventurous interest in music created by a "music writer".