Pipers

A four-clarinet ensemble with a history spanning over a quarter of a century, since the very beginnings Clarinet Factory have transcended genres and explored the potentialities of the clarinet and its sound, all the deep-rooted conventions notwithstanding. Speaking volumes are their joint projects with Bobby McFerrin, Alan Vitouš, Lenka Dusilová and Iva Bittová, leading Czech rock bands, including Tata Bojs and Blue Effect, as well as world-renowned orchestras, among them the Prague Philharmonia and the Brno Philharmonic, and the VerTeDance theatre company. Attesting even further to Clarinet Factory's singularity is their own creation, which may be defined as a fascinating adventure-filled journey through music's remote nooks and broad avenues, bringing to bear bold imagination and exceptional invention. In the wake of the most recent, internationally acclaimed albums Worx and Reworx (Supraphon, 2014) and Meadows (HOMERECORDS.BE, 2017), the ensemble have come up with a new CD, titled Pipers, recorded almost live at the prestigious SONO Studio. Representing another chapter in their exciting musical odyssey, it highlights Clarinet Factory's intimacy and compactness. Featuring the authenticity and ruggedness characteristic of their live performances in combination with making use of innovative electronic and acoustic instruments, ranging from loopers, through effect devices to the electronic clarinet, the ensemble have succeeded in attaining a truly unique sound! A sound blending elements of classical, jazz and world music with audacious sonic experiment and the traditional song form, overarched by cosmopolitan lyrics in English, Czech and Spanish. Luděk Boura, Vojtěch Nýdl, Jindřich Pavliš and Petr Valášek, who have presented their work to great acclaim at Mundial Montréal, Classical: NEXT, WOMEX and other international festivals, have conceived an astonishing album, by means of which they have shifted the perception of the term "crossover" and the sound of the clarinet itself into previously unthought-of levels.

A fascinating musical odyssey bound by neither genre nor convention!