The sad news of Irena Havlovi's recent passing, following the death of her husband Vojtech the year before, does at least afford another opportunity to celebrate the wonderful music they made together over a 40 year period. As a part of the deceptively dense Czech underground, they had mostly operated in relative obscurity until being given a leg up by filmmaker Vincent Moon and then a little later by Jonny Nash via his Melody As Truth label. Geography and circumstance can only explain why it took so long for them to get their flowers - theirs is the kind of wordless composition that seems to hold multitudinous ineffable truths and belongs almost entirely out of time: was it made today or countless cycles ago? It's a divine kind of song, comparable, say, to Les Disques du Crepuscule's seminal Fruit of the Original Sin compilation, right at home between the instrumental rhapsodies of Wim Mertens and Arthur Russell. Saving One Who Was Dead / Little Crusader, released in 2022 and of which this appears to be the last remaining stock, were soundtrack pieces made with Nash that suggests a great sensitivity to their writing, stunningly composed suites that work in tradition alongside their own inspired transition, building a world that although sophisticated in its construction appears to answer to beauty before reason. Heartbreaking stuff anyway, but especially so now they've both set off for a different plane. In truth, they were always on one. 'Liberation in eternal time', as Nash phrases it.
FFO: Arthur Russell, Wim Mertens, Sarah Davachi, Delphine Dora
