Review Avant-garde music

Irena & Vojtěch Havlovi

Melodies In The Sand

Melody As Truth • 2021

This music seems to be windblown from far away, and in the same way it seems to disappear again – fleeting, like melodies in the sand. Its composition always remains a little mysterious. Early music, but also folk, minimal music and meditative sounds, possibly inspired by their extensive travels in India, are fused by Irena and Vojtěch Havlovi into a unique music that always seems to emerge anew from the moment. Very often with only piano and the rapturous voice of Irena Havlovi, sometimes played on two viols, their compositions here and there may remind one of the neo-classical music that has been popular for a few years, as made famous by Nils Frahm, Douglas Dare, Max Richter and others. The Havlovis sound similarly enraptured at times. But they always move within their own aesthetic. The Czech musician couple has been working together since the mid-1980s, as a duo since 1990, always in dialogue with artists from different disciplines to find their very own expression. »Melodies In The Sand« brings together pieces from the three decades of collaboration between the two musicians and invites you to take a look around their enchanted world, the features of which are already suggested by the titles of pieces such as »Velvet Wings Of Serenity«, »She Is Dissolving« or »In The Garden«.