O Ptácích a Rybách

BraAgas are a Czech female quartet (plus bassist Jan Hrbek) who featured on the bonus CD of Czech music with #131. They started out as an early music group but have gravitated to arrangements of traditional Czech repertoire with drones and ‘medieval’ harmonies, often featuring some surprising instrumental flavours from nyckelharpa, bagpipes, kaval (flute) and shawms. Their sixth album, O Ptácích a Rybách (About Birds and Fish), gathers together songs loosely linked by these airborne and waterborne creatures. Nyckelharpa player Kateřina Göttlichová is the front woman, but she is closely backed by Karla Braunová on winds, Michala Hrbková on fiddles and Michaela Krbcová on percussion.

The haunting ‘Brodil Janík Konĕ’ (Jan Waded His Horses) starts minimally with scratchy fiddle or nyckelharpa and Jew's harp. It's a tragic tale in which he drowns and his beloved laments him as ‘a fish, dear to my heart.’ As the main vocal phrase is repeated, the instrumentation builds up to a sawing fiddle, flute and nyckelharpa refrain before it dies away to nothing. The acoustic arrangements, although sometimes over-polite, are sophisticated and showcase their extensive vocal and instrumental talents. They were excellent onstage at the recent Budapest Ritmo Festival.