🔎

design František Štorm
mastered by, other [digitalized by] Ondřej Ježek
photography by Michaela Zajíčková
piano [prepared], voice Pavel Zajíček
producer Ivan Bierhanzl
producer Vladimír Drápal
translated by Jiří Valja
translated by Marek Tomin
Recorded At Cold Storage
Mastered At Jámor Studio
On his pilgrimage around the world, Pavel Zajíček got lost in 1982 to the Cold Storage studio in London, which then belonged to Chris Cutler. Over the course of several nights, he recorded fragments of Elite's Desolate Land on a dissected piano, a poetic image of a miserable journey through a bleak landscape full of disillusionment, death and despair. Maybe that's how PZ himself felt when he was recording Desolate Land, pounding on the piano at night and shouting the syllables that make up his story.
The story of the recording itself is remarkable: the original studio tape brought PZ to Bohemia, but in 2002 it was destroyed by a flood. This year, it was possible to play the tapes with special technology, but only once, then they will be completely destroyed. And the recording will either be there or it's over. The indomitable Váňa Bierhanzl took this step - and the recording was saved! Then the legendary Ondřej Ježek came to master it and the no less legendary graphic artist Franta Štorm to give her a new coat. This created a holistic work of art that you may not listen to every day, but when you let it go, you will hear the poet see fear in a handful of dust outside.