Pisen pro Mi

Singer, cellist, and songwriter Dorota Barová releases a new album entitled Píseň pro Mi (Song for Mi). Following the success of her two previous albums, Iluzja (Illusion, 2018), which received the prestigious Czech Music Academy Award for Jazz Album of the Year, and Dotyk (Touch, 2021), which was nominated for the same award, Barová brings an album featuring eight new songs, all of which have been composed by herself and recorded together with Barová’s long-term collaborators, guitarist Miroslav Chyška and bass player Miloš Klápšte, who are joined by Jan Krejca on Baroque lute as a guest. Píseň pro Mi is characterized by the same original style, sound, and intimate, tender atmosphere as the previous recordings; the major difference, however, is that here, Barová sings in Czech. Coming from a bilingual family from the Czecho-Polish borderland, Polish seemed a natural choice for her on the previous two albums, regardless of whether writing her own lyrics or setting to music poems by Polish authors. This time round, she decided to work with texts of her close friend, Czech artist, musician, and poet Michaela Vejnarová, who passed in 2023: “As soon as I got hold of her notebooks full of sketches and texts, I knew I wanted to record an album that’d include not only her poems as lyrics, but reproductions of her paintings as well. I chose seven poems which reflect her inner world of dreams, her kindness, and witty cunningness. The album’s title comes from an eponymous song, which is my tribute to Mi and the only song on the album that I sing in Polish,” says Dorota Barová. Besides her solo career, Barová has participated in many other projects. She is a regular member of Aneta Langerová’s band and the Czech-and-Slovak jazz formation Vertigo, with which she has received several Czech Music Academy Awards. With Jan Valík she forms the Polomy duo and is also a member of the Tellemarkk trio, together with Pavel Hrubý and Tomáš Reindl. With Andrea Konstankiewicz, she formed the cello duo Tara Fuki (between 2000 and 2022), and she previously performed in the rock project Tugriki, founded by members of Korben Dallas. Thanks not only to her rich experience in pop, rock, jazz, and experimental music, but also to her unmistakable velvety voice and original approach to composition and arrangement, Dorota Barová has been one of the most remarkable presences on the Czech alternative-pop scene.