Luboš Soukup

“We play modern jazz in which many different influences meet (classical music, folk music, African rhythms, sound spheres). Our improvisations aren’t in the strictest sense jazz improvisations, since we don’t base them on time-tested melodies by any of the greats. Instead, we attempt to create and – curiously but respectfully – explore new musical styles and territories. Our music is mostly rhythmical and based on prominent melody lines.”

Since 2010, Luboš Soukup has mostly been living in Copenhagen, where he first travelled with the hope of getting to the heart of Scandinavian music and finding some inspiration and making new contacts. Together with his local band he has recorded the albums Země (Earth; with the guitarist Lionel Loueke as guest) and Christiania, recorded in the legendary “Freetown”, with Vojtěch Procházka from Vertigo as guest. Luboš regularly performs in Denmark and the Czech Republic. Apart from his quartet, he also leads the formation Septet and is a member of the electroacoustic band Points–Rataj Quintet, the dynamic Scandinavian formation MAdHAs, the Czech-Polish quintet Inner Spaces, and Live Foyn Friis Quintet. He is also a member of “The Prague Six”, a group of composers associated with Concept Art Orchestra.

These are Luboš’s picks from the Animal Music catalogue: “Besides time-tested artists such as Vertigo, Muff, Jaromír Honzák, and others, I would recommend Vít Křišťan’s album Imprints, the vocal project Apokalypsis by Tiburtina Ensemble, recorded together with the trio of Dorůžka, Bárta, and Novák, and Petr Zelenka’s Projekt Z.”