Richter Band - Smetana LP

$32.98

Release Date: January 17th, 2025

Richter Band's Smetana, a landmark album in the Czech ambient/experimental scene, pressed on vinyl for the first time by Infinite Expanse for one of the year's most hotly anticipated archival releases. As featured in September's issue of The Wire, do go check for deep dive on the release and an extensive interview with the group's founder.

Pavel Richter gained a considerable reputation as a guitarist, playing in a number of Czech avant-garde rock groups, including Švehlík, Marno Union and Elektrobus, and became one of foremost figures of the Prague scene which opposed the socialist regime of the 70’s and 80’s. Towards the mid 80’s, he began to focus on calm music and subtle sound structures, playing a number of gigs channelling this energy wtih Oldřich Janota and Luboš Fidler, and eventually forming a new group alongside Štěpán Pečírka and Jaroslav Kořán.

The best pieces from this initial period would form the basis for Smetana, which was recorded mostly during the Spring of 1990, first in Štěpán Pečírka‘s apartment and later in Pavel Richter’s. The album title translates literally as “cream” and takes on a number of different meanings: the diary product, the British rock band and the intendedly ironic “crème de la crème”. The recordings were captured using a 4-track Tascam Porta II, before then being mixed and edited on an Akai reel-to-reel stereo tape deck. In addition to the group’s commonly played instruments, the clarinet, marimba and sampler also featured across the album. The album, characterised by the fusion of Richter’s gentle electric guitar with the fidlerophone, would later become a milestone in the evolution of Czech alternative music.