Ivan Martin Jirous (1944)
In 1967 Jirous established cooperation with the music group The Primitives Group. After its break-up he joins a young rock group The Plastic People of the Universe (together with Josef Janíček, the guitar player). Jirous becomes an artistic manager of the PPU and in relation to the group activity also the leading personality of the Czech underground. In 1970 the group was officially forbidden and thus the PPU performed sporadically (mainly at private parties of their friends). In 1976 the members of the Plastic People are arrested and judged for a "seditious activity". This fact raised a great storm between Czech intellectuals and had a direct influence on the origin of the Charter 77.
The 1970s and 1980s is a period when Jirous is constantly judged for all possible delinquencies - altogether he was five times condemned (mostly according to the paragraph 202 - disorderliness) and he spent altogether eight and a half year in prison. During imprisonment in Litoměřice, Ostrov nad Ohří and Valdice the most important poetry book of Jirous arouse - Magor's Swan Songs. It was smuggled out from the prison even before his release and in 1985 the book was awarded the Tom Stoppard Award.
At the beginning of his literary activity (in the mid 1960s) Jirous devoted himself to art and music studies. As a poet he debuted in 1975 when his first poetry book Magor's morning singing, was released by samizdat. It resembles Bondy's so-called absurd poetry. In contrast to Bondy Jirous includes elements of the Christian submission. The mentioned and breakthrough book Magor's Swan Songs includes except some fragments of his prison diary also memories of his family and friends and prayers and psalms.
Most of Jirous's poems are dedicated to his friends from the underground (Egon Bondy, Andrej Stankovič, Dana Němcová, Vlastimil Třešňák and others). His erotic texts are dedicated to his first wife Věra, the poetess and art-historian, and above all to his second wife, the paintress Juliana.
A poetry book for children Magor to children from 1986 is a unique piece.
In 1998 it was the Magor's Summa which was selected by Lidové noviny for the most interesting book of the year. It is a chronologically compound collection of practically all Jirous's texts released in any form between 1975 and 1997.
Agon Orchestra
The ensemble was founded in 1983 by composers Petr Kofroň, Miroslav Pudlák and Martin Smolka. During the whole period of functioning The Agon Orchestra focuses on the contemporary classic and the Czech avant-garde music. For many years the ensemble functioned as a semi-official however a never forbidden formation. In addition to contemporary authors Agon also played a Czech avant-garde of 1960s and interpreted graphic scores. After the revolution in November 1989 Agon took charge of propagation of the American minimalism and realized several phenomenal performances, such as The Fall of the House of Usher by Philip Glass or Beauty and the Beast directed by Forman brothers. Their focus at the New York underground resulted in performance of compositions by John Zorn, Frank Zappa and Elliot Sharp. Another turning point in their overlapping work was the connection between Agon and Blixa Bargeld, the leader of Einstürzende Neubauten. In addition to the mentioned activities it is necessary to highlight the orchestral arrangement of the Easter passion plays (The Plastic People of the Universe), the Brutal lyrics (Filip Topol and Psí vojáci) and a number of other genreless projects.
Dg.307
The group originated in 1973 by connection of two outstanding personalities of the underground scene - the founder and the leader of the group The Plastic People of the Universe Milan Hlavsa and the poet Pavel Zajíček. At the outset the Dg.307 experimented with both musical and non-musical influences - thus concerts of Dg.307 looked like an unrepeatable happening. Industrial instruments were combined with classic music instruments, musicians changed for non-musicians. Together with The Plastic People of the Universe the group soon became a thorn in side of then political establishment and some group members ended up in prison. The group performed decreasingly, Milan Hlavsa devoted himself exclusively to the PPU at the end of 1970s. The definitive end of the first phase of the group was caused by the emigration of Pavel Zajíček in 1980.
Dg.307 was revived in 1992, when Pavel Zajíček together with Milan Hlavsa recorded Artificially Flavoured (Uměle ochuceno).
Since the time the group Dg.307 performs with greater or smaller breaks until today. The core of their work remains to be the musical poetry of Pavel Zajíček, nowadays included to significantly more melodious and harmonious structures then in its origins.
Petr Kofroň
A composer, conductor and co-founder of the ensemble Agon Orchestra. After graduation on grammar school in Prague Kofroň continued studying composition at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts JAMU in Brno. In years 1980-1988 he taught theoretical subjects at the Faculty of Education of the Charles University in Prague, in 1989 he shortly worked as a music editor of Panton publishing. From 1989 till 1996 he lived as a freelancer, from 1996 till June 2004 he was a head of the Pilsner opera. Nowadays he is again an independent composer, conductor and writer.
Jana Vébrová
A songstress and a singer - on concert stages recently more and more shining "petite fairy from a wind-mill", a young girl with an accordion. Her charismatic performance, strong and poetic songs, a compelling accordion play and an excellent singing are her qualities, which make her an original and more and more desirable songstress. Her songs are connecting strange text poetics with an obvious influence of Sudeten. In the middle of June 2007 Vébrová released her solo album called Kykyrý.
Pavel Zajíček
A poet, text writer, artist and one of the front personalities of the Czech underground. He did not finished his studies at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University and worked in various places as a blue-collar worker. In 1973 he was at the birth of Dg.307. In 1976 he was sentenced to one year in prison for disorderliness in an artificial process. In 1980 he emigrated to Sweden, then he lived in the US (where he turned mainly to the fine arts). After November 1989 he returned back to the republic, nowadays he lives in turns between New York and Prague.
